Web3 Episodes

May 9, 2025

293: Building Bridges: Simon Brown on Ethereum’s Cultural Gravity and…

Simon Brown joins me to share how his role at Consensys has evolved since his last appearance in January 2024 and why he’s now leading the charge on the Consensys Network State. It’s all about reconnecting the sprawl of the Ethereum ecosystem, reinforcing the cultural gravity that made Ethereum mag…

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April 11, 2025

290: The Ethical Hacker Mindset with Yev Broshevan from Hacken

This week, I sat down with ethical hacker Yev Broshevan, co-founder and Chief Business Development Officer at Hacken, a leading blockchain security firm focused on making Web3 a safer, more trustworthy place for everyone. Even better? Yev’s birthday is the same day this episode drops - happy birthd…

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March 21, 2025

287: Worlds Colliding | The Great Web3 Crossover with Alejandro Gutie…

In this week’s episode, I’m joined by my good friend and returning guest co-host Alejandro Gutierrez, and we get into the thick of what I like to call “worlds colliding” — the convergence of Web3 and TradFi that’s playing out in real time as the Great Web3 Crossover.

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March 18, 2025

286: Introducing the Techstars Web3 Accelerator Class of 2025

In this episode, we’re announcing the Techstars Web3 Accelerator Class of 2025 featuring founders from the six web3 startups that Techstars are investing in and accelerating in 2025 and beyond. Get ready for insights from: S...

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Feb. 21, 2025

285: Startup Smarts & Web3 Wisdom | Highlights from the Past Year

This week, we’re taking a look back at some of my favorite moments from the past year—the conversations that stuck with me long after we hit stop on the recording. If you missed them the first time around, now’s your chance to catch the highlights, chock full of startup smarts and web3 wisdom!

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Feb. 14, 2025

284: Operation Chokepoint 2.0 | SEC’s Next Crypto Journey | Solana’s …

Alejandro Gutierrez joins me once again to dive into some of the biggest conversations in crypto right now, including: The fallout from Operation Chokepoint 2.0 and the debanking of crypto startups —what it means for the indu...

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Dec. 20, 2024

280: 2025 Predictions with Alejandro Gutierrez

In this special year-end episode, Pete Townsend is joined by returning guest co-host Alejandro Gutierrez for a wide-ranging conversation about what the future may hold with their 2025 predictions. Together, they explore transformative ideas, emerging trends, and groundbreaking technologies that cou…

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Nov. 22, 2024

276: Sponstar and the Rise of Fractional Sponsorship with Manu | Excl…

This week, we’ve got an exclusive interview with Manu, the founder and CEO of Sponstar, the fractional sponsorship marketplace that’s leveling the playing field for small and mid-sized brands to access high-profile sponsorship opportunities.

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Nov. 8, 2024

275: Web3 Fundraising Playbook | Pete Townsend | Raising Your 1st Rou…

We're diving deep into the fundamentals of fundraising for Web3 startups and early-stage ventures navigating their first capital raise. Fundraising is always challenging, but in web3, it’s a whole new frontier with unique hurdles. This session, originally presented at a Techstars Web3 Accelerator e…

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Oct. 31, 2024

274: Filmmaker to Founder | René Pinnell and Artizen | Funding Human …

René Pinnell is the founder of Artizen, a match-funding platform for human creativity, helping creators match fund new projects at the frontier of art, science, technology and culture. With over two decades of experience, René has helped creators raise more than $50 million for groundbreaking proje…

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Oct. 25, 2024

273: Mission Minded Founder | Niall Dennehy & AID:Tech | Fixing Human…

Niall Dennehy is an Irish entrepreneur and the co-founder and COO of AID:Tech, who are bringing traceability and transparency to the flow of funds for governments, NGOs and charities with their payments and digital identity infrastructure bridging web2 to web3.

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Oct. 18, 2024

272: Scaling Environmental Impact: Luca Franchi’s Journey with Ambien…

Luca Franchi is the CEO and a co-founder of Ambient, a decentralized network of air quality sensors.  Luca brings to Ambient over two decades of leading growth at several startups and large corporations in the US and Europe (O2 UK, Telefónica, Sky) across enterprise and consumer verticals.

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Oct. 6, 2024

271: Luis Ramirez and Mawari | Building the 3D Internet

Luis Ramirez is the Founder and CEO of Mawari, a pioneer in cloud rendering and streaming technology.  The Mawari team got started in Tokyo in 2017, and since then, the team has effectively built the foundation for the 3D internet.

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Sept. 20, 2024

269: Working in Web3 | Real World Asset Tokenization in Finance and B…

Alejandro Gutierrez, CEO of npayme Labs and co-founder of ETH Dublin joins me again as guest co-host this week. We recap our recent panel on working in web3 (‘Finding Web3 Talent’) at Dogpatch Labs, touching on market sentim...

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June 28, 2024

265: Keep it Simple | Pranav Kanade from VanEck on Liquid Venture Inv…

Pranav Kanade is the Portfolio Manager of VanEck's Digital Assets Alpha Strategy. VanEck is an American investment management firm headquartered in New York City with over $100bn in assets under management. Although they’re well known for their passive exchange-traded funds or ETFs, they also manag…

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June 21, 2024

264: Rita Martins | Author of Web3 in Financial Services

Rita Martins joins the show to discuss her new book, Web3 in Financial Services, which explores how blockchain, digital assets, and cryptocurrency are disrupting traditional financial services.

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June 10, 2024

263: Decentralization: Do Or Do Not | Kene Ezeji-Okoye and Stella Dye…

This week, we dive into decentralization with Kenny Ezeji-Okoye and Stella Dyer from Millicent, Ilya Orlov from FileMarket, alongside Rita Martins, author and Techstars Web3 mentor. The discussion covers the journey from centralized to decentralized models, the impact of decentralization on users a…

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May 31, 2024

262: Money Talks with Alejandro Gutierrez | ETH Dublin | ETH ETF | We…

Alejandro Gutierrez, CEO of npayme Labs and co-founder of ETH Dublin joins me again as guest co-host this week. We start with Alejandro's Token2049 Dubai ‘tsunami-in-a-yacht’ story, the upcoming ETH Dublin 2024, and the Techstars Web3 demo day on June 6th in NYC.

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May 24, 2024

261: Building the Aleph Zero Ecosystem with Antoni Zolciak and Piotr …

This week, we dive into Aleph Zero, a privacy-enhancing layer one blockchain renowned for prioritizing scalability, security and speed, with co-founder Antoni Zolciak and Head of Investments Piotr Saczuk.

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May 10, 2024

259: Blockchain Going Mainstream | Andrea Miele - The Colony | Fabien…

I’m joined by three of the founders from the Techstars Web3 class of 2024 to help me identify the mainstream adoption path for blockchain technology, including Andrea Miele, Co-Founder and CEO of The Colony, Fabien Arneodo, Co-Founder and CEO of SportSyncTech, and Nick Mason, Co-Founder and CEO of …

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April 12, 2024

256: Common Misconceptions About Web3 | Julia Kemp | Daniel Uribe | T…

I’ve brought together 4 of the founders from the Techstars Web3 class of 2024 to help me dispel some of the common misconceptions about web3 with the general public, including Julia Kemp, founder and CEO of Pawpass, Daniel Uribe, founder and CEO of  GenoBank. Tiago Ferreira, co-founder and CEO of F…

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March 15, 2024

252: Meet the Techstars Web3 Class of 2024

This episode features an introduction to the 12 founding teams that form the Techstars Web3 accelerator class of 2024, with each of their founder/CEOs giving you a quick look inside what they're building.

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March 8, 2024

251: Farcaster, Digital Identity and Decentralized Social Media with …

Laura Walsh joins the show again this week as guest co-host as we explore the potential link between digital identity and decentralized social media through the lens of the Farcaster protocol, its challenges, user growth, and the future potential of a decentralized online ecosystem.

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March 1, 2024

250: The World is Yours | Brian Zwerner, W3 Studio & Beyond the Game …

Brian Zwerner is the President and Founder of W3 Studio, and a VC and Founder of Beyond the Game Network.  As the President and Founder of W3 Studio, a 501c3 non-profit venture studio, Brian and his team help diverse founders in Atlanta build startups in web3. W3 Studio partners with corporations a…

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