MoneyNeverSleeps

By Pete Townsend | GP at Norio VenturesTechnology

MoneyNeverSleeps episodes

August 14, 2020 098: Loyal to the Soil: Faye Walsh Drouillard and WakeUpCapital
Faye Walsh Drouillard from WakeUp Capital joins the show to talk about how her formative years and life experience drove her towards early stage impact investing, the two biggest challenegs we face as a global population and fuelling self confidence with humility, constant curiousity and a drive to do better.
This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here.

For insights delivered to your inbox beyond the spoken word, subscribe to our MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter right here on Substack.

Faye is the founder and principal of WakeUp Capital, an Ireland based early stage impact fund that backs European companies already shaping a better, brighter future for people and planet. Faye grew up and spent her formative years between Washington DC and the West Coast of the US, and she credits these early experiences in shaping her view of the world and her ambition to do something about the two biggest challenges we face as a global population – mass inequality and climate change,
Just a heads-up - we’ve been moving platforms over the past few episodes, and still working out the kinks, so Pete’s track is a notch below what we’d like it to be, but it was a great conversation and we know you’ll enjoy it.
Faye shared a lot of great insights on this episode, including:
On geographic parallels to personality: “The west coast feels very much home for me when I’m there because of many of the traits that people who are in entrepreneurship and startups and investing look for - open spirit, innovation and trying something new.”
On her time with the Freedom Writers Foundation: “It’s one thing to go and work with really determined entrepreneurs, it’s another thing to work with young people who have overcome things such as homelessness, drug abuse, mental issues, being brought to America as illegal immigrants and then to help them become part of this business with an aim to improve educational outcomes for students worldwide.”
On her impetus for becoming an investor: “I realized that there are so many wonderful entrepreneurs out there having epiphanies and light bulbs going off and having great ideas, but how could I take my knowledge and experience and influence the people who had the funds? I really wanted to get inside their minds and figure out how they made their investment decisions.”
On her motivation: “For me, the unwillingness to accept the status has to do with the two biggest challenges we face as a global population - mass inequality and climate change. These are not entirely new today, but more people seem to be paying attention to them, but I’ve been frustrated with both of those issues for a good part of my life."
On the impact of impact: “We want to help early stage entrepreneurs understand how to measure the impact they’re having on society and the planet, and grow the space of impact investing, so that stakeholders and co-investors know what it really means.”
Please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow, @PeteTownsendNV and @EoinFitzgerald9 for updates and more information.
48 min
August 07, 2020097: Money Talks #20: Microsoft Goes TikTok and Monzo on the Clock
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..
This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here.
For insights delivered to your inbox beyond the spoken word, subscribe to our MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter right here on Substack.
Stories covered and and things we touched on this week include:
The biggest problem with Microsoft’s fractured TikTok deal (The Verge, 4-Aug-20)

Monzo sees losses double despite revenue bump (Sifted, Isabel Woodford, 30-Jul-20)

Square’s Big Bitcoin Haul Is Good for Square but Better for Bitcoin (Barron's, 5-Aug-20)

John Collison – Growing the Internet Economy - do general accounting practices need to change to capture the true value of a company like Stripe? (Invest Like the Best, EP.178)

Artificial-noise plan is designed to get the crowd into the game at Fenway Park (Boston Globe, 23-Jul-20)
Please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow, @PeteTownsendNV and @EoinFitzgerald9 for updates and more information.
35 min
July 31, 2020096: The Trilogy: Elaine Deehan, Starling Bank and EWPN
This week, we welcome Elaine Deehan from Starling Bank back to the show with a session recorded as part of a Virtual Meetup organised by FSCom for the European Women’s Payment Network last month. Elaine was originally on episode 23 when she was the founder of Pocketwire, and we remastered that for episode 76 as it’s one of our most popular episodes.
This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here.
For insights delivered to your inbox beyond the spoken word, subscribe to our MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter right here on Substack.
Top soundbites include:
Pete's description of "the Trilogy" in the context of Elaine's career: "Your experience with the innovation lab at Citi, then onto Currency Fair, and then starting PocketWire I likened to someone going from Cadbury, then onto Butler's and then Godiva on the path to a chocolate addiction - you’re spending more of your own money but it just tastes so good."

On Elaine's past experience working in an innovation lab: "One thing we did a lot of in the innovation lab was look at startups and the startup ecosystem and the startup mentality and how you can replicate that in a large company, which is really hard to do. There’s much more to startups and being agile than just saying I’m going to put a scrum or an agile framework around how we do things."

On her move into Starling Bank: "The trilogy - everything I had built upon with Citi, CurrencyFair and Pocketwire - is what opened the door into Starling for me."

On her experience so far with Starling Bank: "It’s been an absolute baptism by fire. We’ve gone from writing policy and procedure and designing what the bank would look like in Ireland to just doing it by answering customer queries at two in the morning for the UK business. This is really helpful to us when we go live because I’m dealing with customers on the front line and getting real issues that are even more compounded by the pandemic. "

On her analogy between the London Underground and big bank technology: " The rest of the world above the ground is modernising and the tube is trying to serve passengers and run on this old network of tunnels, and while they’re upgrading it’s hard to make that complete change because it’s just so far down underground and so complex."
Random links include:
Pete's opening reference to Lloyd Dobler and a clip from Say Anything as an analogy to the circuitous startup conundrum of product, customers and funding.
Please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow, @PeteTownsendNV and @EoinFitzgerald9 for updates and more information.
32 min
July 24, 2020 095: Money Talks #19: Twitter Hacked | Ant Goes Marching | Instagram Goes Shopping | Robinhood Goes Home
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.
36 min
July 17, 2020 094: Natural Born Starter: Gene Murphy and Startup Boost
Gene Murphy, co-founder of Startup Boost joins our first video edition of the podcast to talk about his earliest entreprenurial experiences, the overnight evolution of Startup Boost to the virtual world, the art of mentorship...and his short-lived reign as Ireland's number one Male Health and Beauty reporter!
51 min
July 09, 2020093: Be Direct | Zac Liew and Curlec
Zac Liew, co-founder and CEO of Curlec joins the show to talk about the societal influences of what works well in fintech, how Curlec is enabling the subscription economy in Southeast Asia and getting comfortable being uncomfortable.
This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here.

For insights delivered to your inbox beyond the spoken word, subscribe to our MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter right here on Substack.

This week we talk to Zac Liew from Curlec, a fintech startup helping SMEs overlooked by traditional banks collect recurring payments with their automated platform, replacing manual methods like cash, checks and credit cards. Zac and Pete connected through their respective networks recently from one of those conversations that Pete had that went like “based on what you just said, you need to meet Zac Liew.” Being a trusting soul, Pete did just that, and this episode is the result of that decision.

In this conversation, Zac and Pete connected on a more universal level with their respective interests in societal influences, how people spend money, a cross-over reference to Islamic finance and the impact of family lineage on an individual's tendencies to build. Zac and Pete also got into how first time entrepreneurs need to get comfortable being uncomfortable, and the network effect of Zac being named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 for Finance and Venture Capital. See below for some of the key takeaways:
On Zac's upbringing "I’ve always had a desire to      build something and pursue a career in entrepreneurship - that stems from      my family, and growing up with parents who were both entrepreneurs."

On one of the triggers to launch Curlec: "Living      in the UK three to four years ago, I'd go back to KL (Kuala Lumpur) for      holidays, and every time I came back it felt like the country was moving      quicker in terms of fintech, and there was a big wave coming and the      timing was right."

On the view on Southeast Asia from the West:       "A lot of people loop this region into one, but when you go into the      details, not only culturally is it different from country to country but      also in terms of infrastructure."

On the big question for scaling: "Do you      wait for the banking rails to homogenize across Southeast Asia, or do you      homogenize your product to sit on top of multiple rails? To hedge      our bets, we're adding new products as well."

On the learning curve as a first time founder:       "Just keep pushing yourself, throwing yourself into uncomfortable      situations and you’ll eventually become comfortable. That was a big      learning curve for me. As a first time entrepreneur, get comfortable      being uncomfortable."
Please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes.
43 min
July 03, 2020092: Money Talks #18: Wirecard & BaaS | Circit as a Panacea | Diffuse & Overseas Startup Investors
In this week's Money Talks segment, Pete Townsend and Eoin Fitzgerald look ahead to the impact of Wirecard on Banking-as-a-Service, how the Irish tech startup Circit could have prevented the Wirecard audit mess, and Diffuse's take on startups looking overseas for venture capital investors.

This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here.

For insights delivered to your inbox beyond the spoken word, subscribe to our MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter right here on Substack.

In this episode, Eoin and Pete dig into pieces of content from this week that are relevant to the cosmic cloud of startups, tech, venture deals and enterprise in which they live.

The main stories stories covered in this week's episode include:
· BaaS Works, it's the Regulations That Don't (Chris Skinner's blog, 30th June)
· A special segment from David Heath, founder and CEO of Irish tech startup Circit, on how Circit could have prevented the Wirecard audit mess where Wirecard's purported cash balances were not being properly confirmed by auditors.
· The Problem with Raising Money Overseas(Diffuse blog, 1st July)
· Japan's SBI to Launch Crypto Fund with 50% in XRP(iHodl, 26th June)
· Unilever and Verizon are the latest companies to pull their advertising from Facebook (TechCrunch, 26th June)
· Deutsche Bank Taps Symphony & WhatsApp for Messaging Platforms (MarketsMedia, 25th June)
· ‘Flying Blind Into a Credit Storm’: Widespread Deferrals Mean Banks Can’t Tell Who’s Creditworthy (WSJ (paywall) 29th June)
Books we're reading this week:
On Pete's Kindle this week is My Trip to the Startup World: the Voice of Fintech by Rudi Falat who was on episode 74

Eoin is reading only news and blogs this week as he's been drafting the MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter!
Please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/for all of our other episodes.
44 min
June 26, 2020091: Money Talks #17: Speeding up the Enterprise Sales Cycle with David Vatchev from R3
This week we talk to David Vatchev, Venture Development Lead at R3, on what it takes to survive uncertainty, stay relevant to investors while the venture capital cycle slows down, and also understand, measure and speed up the enterprise sales cycle...a big ask for anyone!
This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. Also, watch for the first edition of the MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter that we're sending out before the end of this month!

This week we talk to David Vatchev from R3 about his role as Venture Development Lead and we did a deep dive into how startups can come to grip with the enterprise sales cycle, which is so relevant right now with how much harder enterprise sales have become with the pandemic, especially for startups embracing newer technologies. R3 is “an enterprise blockchain software firm working with a broad ecosystem of more than 300 participants across multiple industries from both the private and public sectors to develop blockchain applications on Corda, an open-source blockchain platform, and Corda Enterprise, a commercial version of Corda for enterprise usage.” At R3, David helps “CorDapps” or startups leveraging Corda at the core of their business, to build, grow and scale. Before joining R3, David spent 15 years in the capital markets, so he has first-hand experience with that industry's inefficiencies, which is one of the big problems R3 set out to solve.

Given David's role with R3 and Pete Townsend's approach with helping distributed ledger technology (DLT) enabled startups find their first customers, get funded, and get their products to market, this conversation was just waiting to happen.
Helpful resources shared by David produced by R3:
A Startup’s Guide to Speeding Up the Enterprise Sales Cycle

Enterprise Startups: Actionable Fundraising Tips From R3’s Investor Community

R3's Venture Development Program - A Gateway Into Our Ecosystem
To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow, @PeteTownsendNV and @EoinFitzgerald9 for updates and more information.
50 min
June 19, 2020 090: Money Talks #16: WhatsApp | Backstage | Revolut | Olivia
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.
This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here.

In this episode, Eoin and Pete dig into pieces of content from this week that are relevant to the cosmic cloud of startups, tech, venture deals and enterprise in which they live and work. At the end of this episode, Eoin announced the big news on the first edition of the MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter on SubStack, more news to come!

The stories covered in this week's episode include:
Visa, Facebook Link Up For P2P Payments, eCommerce On WhatsApp (PYMNTS.com, 15th June 2020)
-Beginning this week, Brazilian users will be able to pay for things through WhatsApp and can establish an account by adding their card card details to WhatsApp.
-Businesses can receive funds by opening a WhatsApp business account with a 3.99 percent fee applied on top of payments they receive. Finally, WhatsApp making money!
Arlan Hamilton from Backstage Capital on Backstage Crowd (no news available, older story on Arlan)
-“Invest alongside Arlan Hamilton and Backstage to get access to the best diverse deal flow in VC.” Backstage Capital focuses on underrepresented founders and now the deal flow is open to all accredited investors through Backstage Crowd.
-Cross-over connection with Beezer Clarkson from Sapphire Ventures on The Full Ratchet with Nick Moran - in this episode, Beezer and Nick had a short exchange on the the impact of the pandemic on how people get to know each other in the VC/founder context.
Revolut launches open banking feature in Ireland - (Silicon Republic, 17th June 2020)
-Revolut launches an open banking feature that enables your transactions and balances data from Bank of Ireland, AIB, UlsterBank and PTSB to be viewable in the Revolut app.
Olivia’s AI assistant encourages mindful spending and saving - (Silicon Republic, 15th June 2020)
-Olivia AI launches in Ireland and Bank of Ireland, AIB, UlsterBank, PTSB and Revolut are enabled to share your transactions and balances data with -Olivia.
To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow, @PeteTownsendNV and @EoinFitzgerald9 for updates and more information.

50 min
June 12, 2020089: All In a Day's Work | Garrett Cassidy and Trezeo
Garrett Cassidy, co-founder and CEO of Trezeo, joins the show to talk about making financial services accessible to independent workers, the snowball effect of impacting people's lives, mental health perspectives in the startup community....and the impact of scuba diving on his ability to communicate!
This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here.

This week we talk to Garrett Cassidy from Trezeo, a fintech on a mission to help independent workers with their financial lives by providing them with a comprehensive safety net delivered 100% digitally. As Garrett said recently on a Future of Work interview series for Aperture, “Trezeo is not a social enterprise, it is a for-profit investor-backed enterprise. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t make money from doing the right thing, and that’s where technology changes things fundamentally.” Pete Townsend met Garrett back in 2014 when he came into Pete's office talking excitedly about startups and pre-accelerators, and Pete looks back at that meeting as one of the reasons that he's doing what he does. See below for some of the soundbite highlights, and the link here for the Techstars video series on mental health in the startup community and separately for Garrett's pitch at the Barclay's Accelerator powered by Techstars.
“Just because you work a different way, why should you have such radically different access to financial services? It’s a simple idea, but a really gnarly set of problems to solve.”

“We actually started by looking at better banking and financial services for micro-businesses, but with our early customer research and some independent research at the time, we dug into the gig economy, the sharing economy and the self-employed, and we realized there was a much bigger and more important problem to solve.”

“When we dug into the problem of broken bank accounts for the people we were trying to solve it for, we realized that bank accounts weren’t as broken for them because they didn’t really care - most self-employed and independent workers don’t have a separate bank account for their business.”

“Keeping a broad mindset of trying to validate the problem actually brought us to “we’re actually looking at the wrong thing here.’"

“Startups are tough, but if they weren’t, the problems wouldn't be there, someone would have solved them already”

“One of our customers came to us and said “You know what, I just got my first mainstream credit and I’ve never been able to get it before. Although that’s just one person, it creates the drive to do this again and again and again.”

“The typical qualities of startup founders - curiosity and persistence are both a double-edged sword of becoming unfocused and pigheaded.”

“What we’ve become better on is articulating our purpose and vision - what are we trying to do, what’s our guiding light and what will help towards that, and push hard towards it."
To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow, @PeteTownsendNV and @EoinFitzgerald9 for updates and more information.
52 min

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MoneyNeverSleeps is a weekly show where smart people bring one big idea, and Pete Townsend breaks it down in under 15 minutes. Featuring founders, operators, and investors shaping crypto, fintech, AI,…

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