MoneyNeverSleeps

Lou Kerner is the founder of the Crypto Oracle Collective, a decentralized web3 advisory firm, and also the DAO for Crypto Mondays, which is the largest crypto meetup in the world with active chapters in 54 cities.

In addition to Lou’s roles as founder of Crypto Oracle Collective and Crypto Mondays, he’s also a partner at Blockchain Coinvestors, a venture capital fund of funds focused on investing in blockchain since 2014. Lou has a great track record of recognizing emerging trends and doubling down on them, first on Wall Street, then onto media, venture capital and now in crypto and blockchain.  

In this episode, Lou and I dive into his early career in traditional finance and community building and uncover what it was that he saw with his big crypto revelation in 2017, how he ported over his community-building experiences into crypto and blockchain, and the one thing on which he would like to see web3 founders focus.

LINKS:

Follow Lou Kerner on LinkedIn and X/(Twitter) 

Learn more about Crypto Oracle Collective and Crypto Mondays

Follow Crypto Mondays on LinkedIn 

Follow Crypto Oracle Collective on Linkedin

Episode title inspired by All Around the World by Jay-Z

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Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at [email protected]

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My discussion with Somi Arian is a deep dive into the entrepreneur's dilemma of solving problems vs. fulfilling desires, customer discovery, product building and pivots, all baked into a live startup mentoring session.

Somi is the founder and CEO of InPeak, an innovative platform enabling creators and businesses to build and monetize communities.  Somi is also an award-winning filmmaker, tech philosopher, and author whose work sits at the intersection of AI, blockchain, and the future of work. Her 2018 documentary, “The Millennial Disruption” won several international awards and featured industry leaders from The Economist, Marie Claire, Bentley, JLR, and Steinway.

If you’re building in web3, the next class of the Techstars Web3 accelerator takes place in spring 2024, and applications are open now. 

As web3 is global and borderless, so is Techstars Web3.  Although most of the accelerator content is delivered virtually, the class does meet up in person for a week at a time at the beginning, middle and end of the program in different cities around the world.  Jump on over to techstars.com/accelerators/web3 to apply.

LINKS:

Follow Somi Arian on LinkedIn and X/(Twitter) 

Check out the Somi Arian Podcast and learn about InPeak

Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify 

Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at [email protected]

Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend

Follow us on LinkedIn:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend

Arry Yu is a 23+ year emerging technology industry veteran, serial founder and strategic operator with expertise in scaling business from "zero to one" with a consistent track record building high-performing teams. In this episode, Arry shares her story on her path into crypto and blockchain from the roots of her early corporate career into becoming a startup founder, investor and Executive Director and Co-Founder of the U.S. Blockchain Coalition (USBC).

Arry also sheds some light on the paradox that is the US attitude towards crypto, with the overwhelming majority of venture capital investment in crypto companies coming from the same country whose innovators have to withstand such a toxic regulatory view of crypto.  We then round things out with Arry’s views on investing in web3 founders and their startups, and some of the ups and downs that come with the territory.

In addition to her role leading the U.S. Blockchain Coalition (USBC), Arry Yu is also the founding Chair of the Cascadia Blockchain Council. Yu also works in venture capital as she serves as the Managing Director of Yellow Umbrella Ventures and Venture Partner with Startup Haven Fund. 

She also regularly serves as an educator, as Adjunct Professor and instructor for various academic institutions like the Saudi Digital Academy, Coding Dojo, Portland State University and the University of Washington Tacoma Milgard School of Business. 

An innovator, public speaker, and writer, she has been widely published in national media outlets including Forbes, CNN Money, U.S. News & World Report, Geekwire and more. Over the years, Yu has worked with both investors and developers across four continents to launch both SaaS and consumer products.

LINKS:

Follow Arry Yu on LinkedIn and X/(Twitter) 

Learn more about the US Blockchain Coalition and Yellow Umbrella Ventures 

Episode title inspired by Reset Button by XV (feat. Talib Kweli)

Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify 

Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at [email protected]

Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend

Follow us on LinkedIn:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend

Joining Pete as guest co-host this week is Pet Berisha from Sporting Crypto, the number one Web3 Sports business exploring the intersection alongside 3000+ subscribers from the biggest sports and crypto brands in the world.

In this episode, Pet and Pete dive into whether or not the Sam Bankman-Fried trial actually matters, without digging into all of the gory details, and they also look at the state of crypto fundraising through the lens of Messari’s report of the same name for Q3 2023. They also talk through the latest news on Web3 gaming with the story of how one game from the team behind the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Star Atlas drove transaction volumes on the Solana blockchain to unexpected levels.

The Sporting Crypto newsletter is read by leaders from Meta, the EPL, Candy Digital, NBA, LaLiga, MLB, Sorare and many more. Sporting Crypto is also multi-media, with a podcast interviewing 15 industry leaders at the intersection, and they also host industry-leading events on a regular basis. 

Sporting Crypto is also an advisory and consultancy service that has worked with Adidas, Infront Sport, COPA90, Universal Music, Flannels, Karate Combat, W3FC and more.

Pet Berisha is hosting two upcoming Sporting Crypto in-person events in London and NYC, check them out below:

-London, 25th October: https://www.sportingcrypto.com/events/event-three-448m9

-NYC, 16th November: https://www.sportingcrypto.com/events/event-three-448m9-srkzf

Finally, the Techstars Web3 accelerator is now open for applications for the class of 2024.  If you’re building in web3, jump over to Techstars Web3 to apply.

STORIES COVERED:

The Judge is So Fed Up with Sam Bankman-Fried’s Lawyers (Slate, 5-Oct-23)

State of Crypto Fundraising (Messari, 5-Oct-23)

Just One Game on Solana Is Doing More Daily Transactions Than All of Polygon (Decrypt, 9-Oct-23)

LINKS:

Follow Pet Berisha on LinkedIn and X/Twitter

Subscribe to the Sporting Crypto newsletter

Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify 

Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at [email protected]

Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend

Follow us on LinkedIn:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend

We’ve got a special crossover episode this week courtesy of our friends at the Irish VC podcast, with a big shout-out to Finn Hatherell for producing the initial episode on the Irish VC podcast channel over the summer.  The Irish VC podcast is produced by BVP, an Ireland-based venture capital firm founded in 2004 by Elliott Griffin.

In this episode, Elliott and Pete Townsend share a few stories on venture investing, Pete’s path into crypto, working with founders before and after investing in them, building products that people actually want, what it’s like inside a Techstars program, the power of founder market fit, founders and investors being accountable to each other, how to get the attention of VCs, why Pete is still doing MoneyNeverSleeps after all of these years and learning from our mistakes.

LINKS:

Follow Elliott Griffin on LinkedIn and learn more about BVP on their website

Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify 

Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at [email protected]

Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend

Follow us on LinkedIn:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend

Eva Lawrence is the Head of EMEA for Figment, the leading provider of blockchain infrastructure, providing staking solutions for institutions.

In this episode, we get into Eva’s evolution from a legal mind into institutional trading, and her slow-burn crypto awakening before jumping from the institutional world into the great wide open of crypto back in 2018.  We also step through her role at Figment, look at the importance of staking now and into the future, and use the Wayback Machine that is X/Twitter to figure out what makes Eva do what she does.

Eva Lawrence has a diverse career across law, trading, business development, and strategy. Eva has been in the crypto space since 2018 and was previously COO of Arcane Crypto, a Nordic-listed crypto platform. She has 8+ years of experience in finance, primarily at Morgan Stanley, where she was Head of EMEA Flow Trading for Securities Lending after working in FX Prime Brokerage. In addition, Eva is a UK-qualified lawyer, with experience in digital assets, securities, funds, and financial services.

LINKS:

Follow Eva Lawrence on LinkedIn and X/(Twitter) 

Learn more about Figment and follow Figment on LinkedIn and X/(Twitter) 

Episode title inspired by Evolution by Joyner Lucas

Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify 

Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at [email protected]

Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend

Follow us on LinkedIn:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend

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’. 

In this episode, Alejandro and Pete Townsend riff on the SEC cracking down on NFTs as a fundraising tool by looking at the Mila Kunis-backed Stoner Cats project and that of LA-based media company Impact Theory. They also step through the story of Visa integrating the Solana blockchain for USDC settlements, Mark Cuban getting hacked, Citi’s new token service, and have some fun with emerging tech hype cycles and Patagonia vests.

STORIES COVERED: 

NFT Takedowns

What Happens to Mila Kunis' Stoner Cats NFTs After SEC Settlement? (Decrypt, 13-Sep-23)

SEC settles first NFT enforcement case, fines LA media company $6M (TechCrunch, 29-Aug-23)

Visa+Solana+USDC

‘A Huge Deal’—Visa Reveals Crypto Payments Bombshell (Forbes, 7-Sep-23)

Long Take: Visa, Worldpay, and Nuvei settling transactions using stablecoin USDC on Solana (Fintech Blueprint by Lex Sokolin, 6-Sep-23)

Mark Cuban Hacked

Mark Cuban Loses Nearly $1M to Crypto Scam (CoinDesk, 18-Sep-23)

Billionaire Mark Cuban Loses $870,000 In Crypto Scam (Decrypt, 16-Sep-23)

Citi’s New Token Service

Citigroup Debuts Token Service in Latest Foray Into Digital Assets (Bloomberg, 18-Sep-23)

Citi Token Services will provide payments, liquidity to institutional customers (Cointelegraph, 18-Sep-23)

LINKS:

Follow our guest co-host Alejandro Gutierrez on X(Twitter) and LinkedIn

Learn more about Defactor Labs and follow them on X(Twitter) 

Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts  |  Spotify 

Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at [email protected]

Follow us on X(Twitter): Pete Townsend  |  MoneyNeverSleeps  

Follow us on LinkedIn: Pete Townsend  |  MoneyNeverSleeps

Asad J. Malik is an augmented reality pioneer and the founder and CEO of Jadu, a next-gen multiplayer augmented reality fighting game for your phone launching this month.  In Jadu, players can settle or start rivalries with friends or compete against strangers for fame and glory in this combat game from the future. 

Malik’s critically acclaimed and globally exhibited narrative storytelling projects Terminal 3 and A Jester’s Tale premiered at Tribeca and Sundance Film Festivals, positioning Asad as a visionary in the space before completing his undergraduate degree. Asad was named one of Variety’s 10 Innovators to Watch, Rolling Stone’s Future 25, Forbes’ 30 Under 30, Adweek’s Young Influentials, and also made The Independent’s Filmmakers to Watch list. He sits on the Board of Trustees for Bennington College as a recent graduate.

In this episode, Pete Townsend and Asad get into the formative experiences that influenced Asad’s desire to bring Jadu to life, before going deeper into the story of Jadu and the complex mechanics of augmented reality and fighting avatars.  Asad and Pete also talk about bringing together a community of gamers from all walks of life and explore a few themes at the intersection of gaming, augmented reality, and society.

LINKS:

Join the Jadu community on Discord and X/Twitter

Follow Asad J. Malik on Instagram 

Episode title inspired by Vision Clear by Lil’ Baby

Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify 

Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at [email protected]

Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend

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.

We also look at the positioning of NFTs or ‘dynamic digital assets’ as the core technology to drive more expansive yet personalized loyalty programs for big brands and sports teams, all through the lens of Pet Berisha’s Sporting Crypto newsletter.  Laura also gave us a run-down of two new web3 venture capital funds from MoonPay and Vessel Capital, and we also exercised our right to ask ‘what the heck Elon Musk is up to now?’.

With over 6 years of experience in the blockchain and web3 space, Laura Walsh is a passionate and innovative entrepreneur, mentor, and consultant. She founded, invested in, and advised multiple startups in the gaming, esports, and decentralized finance sectors, leveraging her extensive network, knowledge, and skills in the industry.

As an Entrepreneur in Residence at Techstars, Laura supports and guides 12 promising web3-based startups, helping them with their go-to-market strategies, fundraising, and scaling. She also collaborates with other web3 experts, investors, and stakeholders to foster a vibrant and inclusive ecosystem. Her mission is to bring the future of finance to today and empower the next generation of entrepreneurs with the tools and resources they need to succeed.

STORIES COVERED:

Grayscale wins SEC suit on Bitcoin ETF

The Real Reasons the Grayscale Bitcoin ETF Decision Matters (Coindesk, 29-Aug-23)

Crypto vs SEC: What Grayscale’s court victory means for bitcoin ETFs (FT, 30-Aug-23)

Web3 to Web2 Crossover

Web3 Loyalty: Buzzword or Breakthrough? (Sporting Crypto by Pet Berisha, 4-Sep-23)

Web3 VCs still launching new funds

MoonPay launches venture arm to invest in web3 infra, gaming and fintech (TechCrunch, 29-Aug-23)

Vessel Capital emerges from stealth with $55M fund focused on web3 infrastructure and apps (TechCrunch, 24-Aug-23)

What’s Elon up to? 

Elon Musk's X takes on LinkedIn, releases Beta version of job hiring platform for verified companies (Business Today, 26-Aug-23)

LINKS:

Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts  |  Spotify 

Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at [email protected]

Follow us on Twitter: Pete Townsend  |  Laura Walsh  |  MoneyNeverSleeps  

Follow us on LinkedIn: Pete Townsend  |  Laura Walsh  |  MoneyNeverSleeps

Joining Pete this week are Liang Wu and Dan Herrera from Eleven26 Capital, an early-stage VC firm investing in diverse founders on the evolving Internet across web2 and web3. In this episode, we get into how Liang and Dan originally got together and stayed close through the years, their Evolving Internet thesis across web2 and web3, building a platform for investing through content creation and community into a flywheel, and a ‘so-what’ look at the intersection of web3 and AI. 

In addition to his role as the Co-founding Managing Partner at Eleven26 Capital, Liang is also a Senior Researcher at Harvard Business School where he researches Web3 and AI, and writes Web3 and AI cases for the MBA curriculum. He also supports and leads growth and community at Harvard’s Crypto Lab. Liang writes regularly on his Evolving Internet Insights newsletter (@ https://evolvinginternetclub.beehiiv.com/), where he and Dan Herrera curate the most interesting emerging tech stories and add their analysis, insights, and so-whats on top. His professional background is a mix of startups, venture capital, and management consulting. This is Liang’s second time on the show and you can hear his full story on episode 209.

Dan Herrera is also a Co-founding Managing Partner at Eleven26 Capital. Beyond this role, Dan advises a portfolio of venture capital firms and family offices, spearheading everything from portfolio construction and strategy setting to deploying capital for and operationalizing these firms. Dan writes regularly with Liang on the Evolving Internet Insights newsletter, and his professional background is also a mix of venture capital, startups, and management consulting.

LINKS:

Read and subscribe to Liang and Dan’s Evolving Internet Insights newsletter 

Follow Liang Wu on LinkedIn and Twitter, or connect by email at [email protected]

Follow Dan Herrera on LinkedIn and Twitter or connect by email at [email protected]

Episode title inspired by The Recipe by Kendrick Lamar ft. Dr. Dre

Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify 

Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at [email protected]

Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend