MoneyNeverSleeps

Laura Walsh is the COO of Launchpool, a digital asset platform with a mantra of egalitarian investing in blockchain projects.  In this episode, we talk through how Laura’s incredibly unique foundation as a teacher of English as a second language, as an international development operative, and as someone with a deep interest in how things work, led to her entry point into the blockchain ecosystem in 2017. We also dive into the mission of Launchpool and Launchpool’s impact as a platform for investing in blockchain projects, and also where things are headed with the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator landing in Dublin in 2022.

LINKS:

Episode title inspired by ‘The Magic Number’ by De La Soul.

Get in touch with Laura Walsh and check out Launchpool and the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator to learn more.

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157: Money Talks #42:  Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator in Ireland | Chase Goes UK | AngelList Gets Stacked

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 some news of how Pete will be 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.

MAIN STORIES COVERED:

Techstars comes to Ireland with the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator

Techstars to hold blockchain-focused accelerator in Dublin (Charlie Taylor, Irish Times, 27-Sep-21)

5 Questions with Pete Townsend, Managing Director of Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator(Techstars Blog, 30-Sep-21)

Chase Launches UK Digital Bank

JPMorgan Chase Launches New Digital Bank in the UK: What do the Industry Think? (Fintech Times, 21-Sep 21)

AngelList launch AngelList Stack

AngelList returns to its founder-focused roots, with a twist (Techcrunch, 28-Sep-21)

LINKS:

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Our guest this week is Gershie Vann, Founder and CEO of Magma Capital Funds, a Chicago-based quantitative hedge fund firm. We talk through the long iterative climb involved in launching a business, finding alternative skillsets outside of finance when building his team during the first pandemic lockdown in 2020, what’s at the core of his entrepreneurial mindset, quieting the always-on mind of the founder, an innovative approach to raising capital for new hedge funds, along with a shallow dive into crypto and sovereign currencies…and being the elder statesman in a family of 7 kids!

LINKS:

Episode title inspired by ‘Bring the Noise’ by Public Enemy and Anthrax

Get in touch with Gershie Vann and check out Magma Capital Funds to learn more

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Sophie Guibaud is the Chief Growth Officer at OpenPayd and she’s spent the last 10 years designing and executing the go-to-market of banking-as-a-service (BaaS) and embedded finance propositions in Europe, building teams and operations from scratch, and integrating financial services into customers’ existing products to create new revenue streams. We talk through Sophie’s entrepreneurial journey to date, some real-world applications of embedded finance, the benefits of her extracurricular activities with podcasts and advisory boards feeding her creativity….and her past life as a competitive boxer!

LINKS:

Episode title inspired by ‘Vision’ by Travis Scott

Get in touch with Sophie Guibaud and check out OpenPayd to learn more

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Shane Monks O’Byrne, founder and CEO of Aikido Finance, joins the show this week to talk to Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend about the Aikido Finance mission of democratizing quant investing, how he went from a grad with a Computer Science degree to a fully empowered startup founder in less than two years, the similarities between a rules-based mind and the merits of quant investing, finding co-founders and building the A team, raising a $1mn seed round from angels and a US VC, and the parallels between investing and alpine climbing.

LINKS:

Episode title inspired by ‘My Parallel’ by Royce Da 5’9”

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Get in touch with Shane Monks O’Byrne and check out Aikido Finance to learn more

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Get in touch at [email protected]

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.

MAIN STORIES COVERED:

Amazon-Affirm BNPL (buy-now-pay-later)

Affirm shares soar nearly 47% after Amazon partnership that lets consumers buy expensive things in installments (CNBC, 30-Aug-21)

Is Affirm's Amazon Deal Better Than Walmart? (Fintech Business Weekly/Jason Mikuda, 29-Aug-21)

How does Affirm make money? (Finty, 21-Jun-21)

USDC and Stablecoins

Centre Consortium announces new team to create 'global network of stablecoins' (the Block (via Coindesk), 30-Aug-21)

AID:Tech utilises Circle and USD Coin to provide fraud resistant disaster relief(Finextra, 30-Aug-21)

Visa is now supporting settlement of card transactions with USDC (Techcrunch, 29-Mar-21)

Visa gets into NFT space

Visa buys a CryptoPunk as it takes first steps into 'NFT commerce' (The Block, 23-Aug-21)

Nifty Corporates (Not Boring by Packy McCormick, 30-Aug-21)

LINKS:

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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.

MAIN STORIES COVERED:

Chime’s Big Raise

Chime raises $750 million, earns big jump in valuation as another fintech moves closer to IPO (CNBC, 13-Aug-21)

Bank of America and Deposit Displacement

Bank Of America is losing its grip on millennials as fintechs reinvent the checking account (Ron Shevlin in Forbes, 16-Aug-21)

Facebook’s Wallet Relaunch

Will Facebook’s Relaunched Digital Wallet [Novi] Alter the Future of Payments? (The Financial Brand, 24-Aug-21)

Amazon’s Crypto Journey

Beyond the rumors: Amazon's likely direction in crypto (American Banker, 30-Jul-21)

Lending Club Turnaround

Buying a bank turned LendingClub around. Now the fintech industry is watching (Protocol, 16-Aug-21)

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Creating, Transacting, and Storing Value in the Financial Metaverse of NFTs, DAOs, and DeFi (Lex Sokolin, Fintech Blueprint, 23-Aug-21)

Walmart is looking for a crypto product lead (The Block (via Arca) 15-Aug-21)

LINKS:

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Recorded during the Finsight Series virtual event that Pete Townsend moderated recently 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?

GET IN TOUCH WITH SPEAKERS:

Rory Galvin, Founder and CEO of Navirum

Bryan Clagett, Chief Revenue Officer at Moven

Cory Haberkorn, Senior Manager and Industry Advisor, Wealth and Asset Management at Salesforce

Niall Twomey, CTO and Co-founder of Fenergo

LINKS:

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Brian Kenny is the CEO and Founder of MiniCorp. Brian left the Lego behind at an early age and started building through code. We go deep into how Brian thinks about leading MiniCorp and what makes MiniCorp unique, how his modus operandi has evolved during his career in tech, the critical task of truly knowing your first ten customers, analogies between startups and marathons, and the importance of balance and human kindness.

MiniCorp are based in Dublin and help companies create exceptional digital products and experiences. In short, MiniCorp are your ready-to-go product team. Through years of experience, MiniCorp have created world-class digital products together with their clients. Their digital experiences have touched millions of customers and allow MiniCorp to grow concepts into top startups.

LINKS:

Episode title inspired by Growing Up by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

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Follow Brian Kenny on Twitter and get in touch to learn more about MiniCorp

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Get in touch at [email protected]

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.

MAIN STORIES COVERED:

Starling’s Results

Breaking down Starling’s 2020 financials (Sifted, 22-Jul-21)

Monzo’s Results

Monzo reports £114m annual loss and a second “going concern” warning (Sifted, 30-Jul-21)

Square’s big move into BNPL with Afterpay

Why Square is shelling out $29B to snag BNPL player Afterpay (TechCrunch, 2-Aug-21)

When Fintech Meets Marketplaces (a16z Fintech Newsletter, July 2021)

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Revolut, Europe’s $33 billion fintech giant, launches a travel booking feature(CNBC, 20-Jul-21)

LINKS:

Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Overcast

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Get in touch at [email protected]