Pete Townsend

Welcome inside the venue for the Techstars Web3 Demo Day 2025, recorded live at Civic Hall in NYC during NY Tech Week, where we brought 5 incredible web3 startups to the stage for a standing-room-only crowd of founders, investors, and builders. These aren’t founders chasing hype - they’re building with traction, with purpose, and with an eye on the next version of the internet. Along the way, you’ll hear: A powerful fireside chat with Clarisse Hagege, founder and CEO of Dfns, on her journ...

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!

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 event, is packed with actionable insights that apply to most tech startups, especially those aiming to raise their first round.

Alejandro Gutierrez joins the show as guest co-host in this Money Talks segment. Alejandro is the CEO of Defactor Labs, providing all the required technological and financial tools for traditional companies to tap into alternative sources of financing using tokenized Real World Assets as collateral. Congratulations to Defactor Labs for taking home the gong at the inaugural National Fintech Awards in Ireland for ‘Best Crypto, Blockchain or Digital Asset Offering’.

After intersecting stories of meeting Vitalik Buterin and Bono, Pete Townsend and guest co-host Laura Walsh take a look at the recent SEC ruling in favor of Grayscale that many expect will open up the floodgates for the trillions of institutional capital currently on the sidelines of crypto.

Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend take a look at the aftermath of the American Bankpocalypse with contrasting views on bitcoin as a safe haven, and how a potential outcome of Grayscale’s lawsuit of the SEC may be opening the floodgates of crypto into institutional finance.  Eoin and Pete also dig into the $600mn raise by open-banking-meets-AI startup Abound, the crossover of these themes into African fintech, and how a new EU regulatory framework around AI may slow down not only Abound’s AI-powered consumer lending platform but also the overall commercial growth of AI applications in Europe.

Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend take a quick look at the triumvirate of bank failures in the US with Silvergate, Silicon Valley Bank, and Signature Bank before Eoin asks Pete about his lessons learned from seeing over 1,000 deals in the last 18 months, so they riff on easy-to-remember mental models, investing in lines not dots, building relationships with founders, how those relationships evolve post-investment, and the founder having the most credible voice in the room.

Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend look at the outsized gender gap in web3, then riff on the realities of venture capital ‘dry powder’ and crypto VCs, before stepping through what’s wrong with Revolut’s neo-profitability, an unfortunate slip switch for railsr and WhatsApp B2B payments in Brazil as a WeChat-like foundation.

Eoin and Pete riff on the latest US regulatory crackdown in crypto markets, how NBA Top Shot on the Apple app store is a leading indicator of our wider society’s digital asset adoption whether we realize it or not, trouble in Banking-as-a-Service land with Solaris, Nova Credit’s entry to the UK market, and Revolut’s Irish Trojan Horse.

This week, Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend riff on the latest on Sam Bankman-Fried before diving into a few of the fintech and web3 predictions for 2023 published recently, then we do an experimental walk-through of the AI bot ChatGPT. We finish up with a look at some of the January leadership changes in fintech and crypto and an update on the Techstars Web3 accelerator.

Holy Mackenzie, we just hit 200 episodes!  When Eoin Fitzgerald said to Pete Townsend in early 2018, “Hey Pete, I heard you on a couple of podcasts, wanna help me start one?” never in our wildest dreams did we think this would become such an integral part of our week for the past, well, 200 weeks.

This week, Eoin and Pete take the inevitable plunge into what to make of the FTX mess and then resurface with some of the scenarios unfolding on what Elon Musk has in mind for the 250 million daily active users of Twitter.  The guys also look at the hubbub around the control of Tech Nation in the UK, a Digital Dollar pilot in the US, and how the Big Tech layoffs in Ireland may be short-term pain but long-term gain.

This week, Pete gives some insight into the new Techstars Web3 accelerator and goes on a quick rant on FTX before he and Eoin riff on Block’s flywheel and their ambitions with Cash App, then they go through a hall-of-fame list of fintech and crypto apps from Rex Salisbury, and finally dive into NFTs and VR through an Apple lens with a dash of Reddit.

This week, Eoin and Pete riff on crypto exchange FTX’s partnership with Visa enabling users to spend crypto anywhere Visa is accepted, Google Cloud enabling customers to pay in crypto in partnership with Coinbase, the state of ‘community fintech’ through the lens of Chetwood Financial’s deal with Mumsnet and their 8 million-strong community, NovaCredit’s big $10mn investment from HSBC as a rallying cry for public fintech utilities, the latest on Meta’s metaverse world, and how it’s backs-against-the-wall time for Goldman Sachs’ Marcus and Bank North.

This week, Eoin and Pete riff on crypto asset service provider regulation through the lens of Revolut, the trifecta of crypto market failures in Voyager, Celsius and Terra, how Walmart’s metaverse play with Roblox feels like the right platform vs. Decentraland or Sandbox, credit as a service player Noble coming out of stealth mode, and Goldman Sachs’ next move into retail fintech with mobile network operator T-Mobile.

Eoin and Pete talk through the aftermath of the Ethereum Merge, some pandas and goofy songs, an early-morning Bankless livestream of the Merge, and critically, a 99% more energy-efficient blockchain. We also look at the new Revolut BNPL product live in Ireland, two new funding deals that a16z did on this side of the pond in Sequence and Sardine, opportunities for bored yacht owners, and how it feels like 2002 all over again with builders still building.

Eoin and Pete dive into the shortcomings of Metaverse graphics through the lens of Metaverse deep-thinker Matthew Ball and his new book on the Metaverse, what’s up with the Ethereum Merge, the big fundraisings of Irish unicorn Wayflyer and Techstars grad Alloy, the death of ING’s Yolt, Block’s Cash App’s small-dollar lending milestone, and old friend Bradley Tusk takes his super-charged regulatory advisory into crypto and DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations).

This week, Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend riff on Pete’s trip to the US last month with the sheer ridiculousness of the 8 different combinations of point-of-sale authorizations he experienced with a single Revolut card, Starling Bank’s re-prioritization of a presence in the Irish banking market, the hunt for crypto talent by EU regulators, Vitalik’s view on giving people what they want in the Metaverse, fintech micro-lender Umba’s deal for Daraja, and Tomo Credit’s big round to make credit scores obsolete.

This week, Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend recap Techstars’ first-ever demo day in Dublin as part of the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator, look at crypto winter with FTX, BlockFi and Voyager, Klarna’s down round, Revolut’s new card reader, Algorand bringing Napster back to life, MiCA (Markets in Crypto Assets) regulation in the EU, and open banking as a crossover from embedded finance into crypto and digital assets.

This week, Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend return from a 2-week hiatus and look at what’s driving Ramp forward so quickly with their $8bn valuation, the JP Morgan deal for western Ireland-based fintech Global Shares, and the latest with ApeCoin, Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs and Yuga Labs.

Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend riff on what started out as a student lending platform in SoFi now becoming a full-service digital finance player, Circle’s new SPAC deal in the context of stablecoins, advertising and naming rights in crypto and a long-term view on what Apple could be up to with Stripe.

Suzanna Hayek from Irish Tech News interviews Pete Townsend on Pete Townsend on financial trends, digital finance and investing in startups. This interview was originally aired on Irish Tech News in early September, and they kindly gave us permission to share the content. We also brought Rory Galvin from Navirum back onto the show to give us some quick insights on the next edition of the Finsight Series ‘Beyond WealthTech’ virtual event coming up on November 17th.

Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend dive headfirst into insights from the first AMA session on the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator, then look at Stripe’s re-entry into crypto and what they’d miss if they stayed on the sidelines, Pete shares some stories from the Token 2049 conference last week in London, and Eoin tees up some unique insights on embedded finance through the lens of NerdWallet’s IPO filing and Productfy’s $16mn Series A.

Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend dive into the big news for Ireland’s startup ecosystem as Techstars come to Ireland with the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator, along with the news on Pete leading the program, then we get into how we think Chase’s digital bank might fare in the UK, and also AngelList’s announcement of AngelList Stack and their opportunity to monetize their massive user base through fintech.

Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend walk through Amazon’s new partnership with BNPL (buy-now-pay-later) player Affirm and what this means for the Amazon flywheel, and then answer the question ‘what’s a stablecoin?’ in the context of USD Coin and the Centre Consortium, before diving into the world of NFTs through Visa’s $150,000 purchase of a CryptoPunk NFT and the big opportunity for monetizing the metaverse.

Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend unpack the shiny new $24bn valuation for Chime in the context of the American neobank landscape, Ron Shevlin’s concept of neobank-driven deposit displacement through the lens of Bank of America, Facebook’s relaunch of their crypto project, the potential impact of Amazon hiring a crypto lead, the LendingClub turnaround and a sampling of Lex Sokolin’s poetic fintech prose.

Recorded during the recent Finsight Series virtual event that Pete Townsend moderated (hosted by Navirum and Salesforce), this episode features an all-star cast with Rory Galvin from Navirum, Bryan Clagett from Moven, Cory Haberkorn from Salesforce and Niall Twomey from Fenergo. The main theme we covered is this: The demand for digital financial services goes far beyond the domain of neobanks - how do we become truly digital upstream of consumer banking, especially in institutional banking and wealth management?

Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend dive deep into the annual results from UK neobanks Starling and Monzo and what’s next for both, before getting into Square’s deal for BNPL (buy now, pay later) player Afterpay and how the integration will lead to a ‘fintech flywheel’. They then dive even deeper into their developing fintech flywheel thesis with a look into how Amazon and Shopify built their flywheels around a B2C to B2B bridge and ‘doing one thing well’, before tying it all back together with a look at Revolut’s travel plans.

Eoin and Pete mine a motherlode of fintech hotspots this week starting with insights into Revolut’s latest $33bn valuation, Square’s quest for crossover between creators, crypto and small businesses, then we dive deep into the upcoming Robinhood IPO and our developing thesis on fintech flywheels.

In this Money Talks segment, Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend start with some insights on Visa’s deal for Tink and how the European context of Tink differs quite a bit from the US context of Visa’s dead deal with Plaid, then we look at Binance’s recent troubles before rounding out with Revolut’s recent reporting of their 2020 results and the potential to roll Revolut into a Rundle - the recurring revenue bundle.

In this Money Talks segment, Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend start with their insights on what Stripe’s latest product could mean for their long-term plan, then they think through flywheels with Netflix finally getting into merch, before heading south to Miami for the outtakes from Bitcoin 2021.

In this Money Talks segment, we take a deeper look at the startup ecosystem on this island that we call home, then head south to Europe for a constructive look at the European Payments Initiative, and then head further south to Africa for the story of Chipper Cash and the fintech opportunity in Africa.

We’re back with another Money Talks segment this week, and we get into the story of Coinbase going public and the cryptofication of fintech, Starling Bank’s big investment from Goldman Sachs, the credit-building appeal and 'rundle' potential of the latest Apple Card feature, and buckets more!

SOUND QUALITY WARNING:  You know how Marc Andreessen said 'software is eating the world'? Well, software ate this episode, please excuse the underwater sound and we'll be back to normal next week! In this Money Talks segment, Pete and Eoin trade ideas on the impact of Ireland’s investment in Stripe, Revolut’s American dream, the season of the SPAC with eToro, Bakkt and Kraken and thoughts on DeFi vs. mainstream crypto.

In this Money Talks segment, Pete and Eoin trip through the wires of Starling Bank’s latest fundraise, investing in Roblox’s direct listing, Walmart’s SuperApp vs. ‘The Bank of Walmart’, the Square-Tidal / Jack Dorsey-Jay Z tie-up, and Ireland's new national startup accelerator, international startup accelerators and pre-accelerators.

In this Money Talks segment, Pete and Eoin riff on Pete’s first experience with Clubhouse, Jay Z and Jack Dorsey’s Bitcoin Trust for Africa and India, fintech valuations and SPACs, Citi’s fat finger, efficient crypto markets and grief for Revolut over raising fees.

In this Money Talks segment, Pete and Eoin riff on GameStop and WallStreetBets, the Plaid-Visa deal falling apart, spitballing ideas on who might buy Monzo, a Cambrian explosion at the intersection of money and society and RIP Hammerin’ Hank Aaron.

In this special year-end Money Talks segment, Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend wax lyrical on big valuations in the 'Fintech Year in Review', Stripe and the next stage of B2B financial services, the long-term economic impact of bitcoin, optimism for the next frontier of money...and of course, the Rundle!

Pete Townsend and Eoin Fitzgerald take a look at Dalio vs. Druckenmiller on Bitcoin, how angels invest in startups, Tinkoff Bank and the 'Rundle', and AirBnB vs. Ant Financial in the Battle of IPOs.

We’ve flipped the tables this week, with Ken Coyne from OpsTalent interviewing Pete Townsend on his own digital awakening, insights on the startups he’s working with, the origins of enterprise blockchain, the present and the future of digital assets…and who stole Pete’s car stereo in 1990!

This week, Pete and Eoin take look at what to do about the condemnation of Big Tech’s alleged monopoly powers according to US lawmakers, the catch-22 of consumer fintech, Apple One and ‘Rundles’, getting something from VCs if not a check….and godspeed, Eddie Van Halen.

This week, Pete and Eoin take another look at the TikTok deal as a bellwether for change in how entrepreneurs outside the US look at the American market, a peek inside the now-profitable fintech unicorn TransferWise, the Nikola scam, the Yandex-Tinkoff tie-up, YCombinator’s acid test….and Cobra Kai!

For the 100th episode of MoneyNeverSleeps, Eoin and Pete dive into their favorite topic – the challenges of challenger banks – and look back to the first 99 episodes to build out a list of their Top 10 episodes.

This week, Pete and Eoin dive into the curious deal brewing between Microsoft and TikTok, a crystal ball view into what's going on with the challenger bank Monzo, all topped off with the recent news on Square and piped-in crowd noise for Pete's beloved Boston Red Sox.

In this week's Money Talks segment, Pete Townsend and Eoin Fitzgerald dig into the recent Twitter Hack and how it might have been much worse, the Ant Group IPO and their status as the 'online mall for everything', Instagram's opportunity to become America's favorite shopping mall and Robinhood dropping out of the UK before launching.

On this week's episode, Pete and Eoin dive into payments on WhatsApp, the paradox between investing in underrepresented founders and the current demographics of venture capital, and getting digitally closer to your spending through Revolut and Olivia.

IIn this week's Money Talks segment, Pete Townsend and Eoin Fitzgerald dive into the difference between video and live interactions between startups and their investors, the role of Twitter and Facebook as arbiters of the truth, a look back at the demographics from the first two years of this podcast and the monumental inspiration from spaceflight.

In this week's Money Talks segment, Pete Townsend and Eoin Fitzgerald dig into a slice of "Pizza Arbitrage" from the Margins blog by Ranjan Roy and Can Duruk on the Doordash, Uber and Grubhub strategies of growth at all costs, and delve into the importance of recharging yourself, work-life and pandemic-driven cultural changes and the staying power of massive retail brands.

In this Money Talks segment, Pete and Eoin riff on the shutdown of the RBS challenger bank brand 'Bo', Revolut's M&A ambitions, what N26's latest fundraising means in the great universe of challenger banks.... and their latest reads!

"Pete Townsend goes solo" would have been a better headline in the '70's, but our Pete takes the mic in this episode to unpack the realities and economics of funding pre-seed and seed-stage startups through the lens of Finn Murphy from Frontline Ventures

In an excerpt from Flagship Marketing's webinar "How to Survive and Thrive with Your Investor", Jo van de Velde from Euroclear and our own Pete Townsend talk about how important it is to communicate with your investor to maximize the value they can add.

Pete Townsend gets into the hotseat to talk about working with startups, how being helpful is in his DNA....and his love of baseball and statistics!