MoneyNeverSleeps

In 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.

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.

‘Video is fine’: venture capitalists find the benefits in digital due diligence (FT, 3rd June 2020, paywall)

Facebook, Twitter and Trump: The terrifying war on truth (Decrypt, 2nd June 2020)

A look back at the first 2 years of the MoneyNeverSleeps podcast:

Soundbites include:

Eoin on virtual due diligence with startup investing: "You're missing a lot of those cues on personality traits and human behavior by doing your due diligence over Zoom."

Pete on how founders interact with their team: "It's always a good judge of a person to see how a founder interacts with their colleagues when they pass them in the hallway on the walk to the meeting room with a VC.  Does the founder stop and say hello, or do they glare at the team like, 'Look, I'm having a very important discussion with an investor and I can't talk to anybody!'".

Multiple viewpoints on the massive achievement of SpaceX and Elon Musk this week with the advent of commercial spaceflight and the 'mission of a mission' to deliver Earthlings to Mars.

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.

Conor McGinn from Akara joins the show to talk about the human side of robotics, drawing motivation from skeptics, having all of the ingredients to scale a robotics and artificial intelligence business in Ireland....and how Akara are like a prize fighter in the best shape of their life just waiting to take on the world!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Doordash and Pizza Arbitrage - a story from the Margins blog by Ranjan Roy and Can Duruk on just how far Doordash is going to grab market share, and how one pizza shop owner literally flipped the dough to turn a risk-free profit on his pizzas.

Uber and GrubHub tie-up  - Uber's deal to acquire GrubHub for an undisclosed amount and the impact that has on the Doordash strategy.

Arianna Huffington from Thrive Global on the Business Casual podcast by Morning Brew - on the importance of recharging and being at your best when leading teams through a crisis.

Facebook Shops taking on Shopify - Facebook are extending into every corner of the commercial globe, so why not online shopfronts?

Chris Skinner on "What's the Point of an Office?" - how work-life and pandemic-driven cultural changes are challenging the corporate real estate status-quo, with a specific reference to Barclays' CEO Jess Staley's thoughts on the topic.

Joe Rogan's podcast deal with Spotify - how the Joe Rogan Experience and his 190 million downloads per month will become exclusive to Spotify.

Being at the tip of the iceberg with podcasting as a medium, with a specific reference to a16z's 2019 research piece on the podcasting market.

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.

Finn Murphy from Frontline Ventures joins the show to talk about a people-centric view to investing in early stage startups, what it takes to scale Irish startups to nine-figure revenue levels, what typically lures Irish startups to the UK, US or Continental Europe, and how his own competitive drive works well in venture capital.

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.

Ireland definitely has a larger startup ecosystem than you’d expect for a country of five million people, and like any startup ecosystem, it needs seed funding.  Finn has been quite transparent about what he looks for in pre-seed-stage companies, specifically in his specialty of B2B SaaS, and we covered his framework for founders on what to expect from VCs investing at the pre-seed level in episode 68.  We go quite a bit deeper in this episode, and cover:

To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow.

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!

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.

Revolut on the hunt for acquisitions (FT, 06-May-20) - Revolut is looking to use some of the proceeds of its recent $500m fundraising to buy rival technology companies that have been hit by the coronavirus pandemic, with an unexpected focus on travel aggregators.

N26 raises another $100mn at $3.5bn valuation (Finextra, 06-May-20) - N26 recently ditched their UK strategy but expanded to the US with some initial success - but what's next for them in competing with Revolut, Monzo, Starling and Chime? Besides the obvious benefit of Revolut and FX, why would you chose one over the other?

Also, deeper insight on other topics we referred to include the below that were conveniently published in the two days between recording and publishing this episode:

Wirecard's troubles - as covered by Chris Skinner on 08-May-20.

Build, buy or transform a bank - also from Chris Skinner on 07-May-20

Finally, see below for Pete's and Eoin's latest reads referred to on this episode:

Dollars and Sense: How We Misthink Money and How to Spend Smarter - Dan Ariely

Talking to My Daughter About the Economy - Yannis Varoufakis

Moth Smoke and The Reluctant Fundamentalist - both by Mohsin Hamid

To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow for updates and more information.

Ash Quinn from VideoRankMe joins the show to talk about her journey from a law degree to digital startups, the benefits of over-communication when you have distributed teams around the world....and being a Gaeilgeoir! (go ahead, google it!)

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.

Ash has a really interesting background with her soul-searching pivot away from her law degree in 2018 and her re-entry into the professional world driving digital businesses forward. She also operates in a similar role with MoShoppa, a turnkey e-commerce platform and recently spun up Sweat25 connecting individuals with certified fitness professionals running live online classes.

In this episode, we cover:

An ability to get things done quicker without the time-eating necessity of business travel to New York and London, and also have a better work-life balance at the same time.

The need to fine-tune your product for the right audience after initial success with the low-hanging fruit.

The "fire in the belly" moment Ash gets every time she gets that "wow" from the customer where they see their brand on the top page of Google.

Having the right work ethic and being willing to do the job that no one else wants to do, and listening intently to make sure that she's soaking up whatever she can from the team.

Having resilience, as startups are like rollercoasters, but you can get addicted to the emotions as they help you to push through and keep driving things forward.

Having people on the ground in New York, a tech team in India and Romania, a CTO is in Tipperary, a CEO in Cork, and a senior consultant in Sydney means that digital-only interaction with the team is business-as-usual.

The necessity of over-communication for distributed teams and how that approach can stop things from slipping through the cracks.

Ash's education and her status as a Gaeilgeoir!

To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow for updates and more information.

In another edition of our Money Talks segment, Pete Townsend and Eoin Fitzgerald air their thoughts on the startup support plan announced in the UK, Marc Andreessen's 'Build' essay, and NFX's recent post on how startups can survive a downturn.

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.

UK Government launches £1.25bn plan to help struggling UK start-ups - How high (or low) does the investment committee making these decisions set the bar?

Andreessen Horowitz's (a16z) Marc Andreessen and his "It's Time to Build" essay - There is a widespread inability to build and the problem runs deeper than your favorite political opponent or your home nation - so take that off the table!

NFX's 28 Moves in a Downturn - Blog post in March by Pete Flint, a Managing Partner at NFX, a seed-stage venture firm based in San Francisco, focusing on managing losses, gaining ground and managing psychology.

The Last Dance - Eoin Fitzgerald's personal recommendation for what to watch on Netflix.

NFX's 16 Non-Obvious Fundraising Lessons - Although we didn't dig into this one, we referred to it - an oldie but a goodie!

To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow for updates and more information.

In a special replay episode from Season 1 that we just couldn't resist bringing back with everyone around the world working from home of late, we talk to Vanessa Tierney, co-founder and CEO of Abodoo, the fastest growing SaaS platform for people and companies embracing 'Smart Working'.

This episode of Money Never Sleeps is kindly sponsored by Possible.ie, an Executive and Personal Coaching practice who partner with their clients to realize their full potential. The team at Possible.ie work with entrepreneurs, emerging talent and senior leadership in a collaborative way to improve business performance, retain and develop key staff and improve leadership effectiveness.  Check them out online on Possible.ie, and tell 'em we sent you!

It's not likely that we'll ever be going back to the old way, but trading desk time with your spouse, while the kids bounce around the house, isn't normal or certainly all that effective either. What we expect is that Vanessa and Abodoo will be the bridge from the old way to the true new normal that emerges after this "world on fire" period we're in subsides. Abodoo's tagline of "Life is a journey, not a commute" has never been more relevant, and check out their most recent video here.

In another crossover episode, this time with Your Pursuit of Happiness, Paul Smyth and Pete Townsend talk through how to keep things running in your work life and your home life, two things that have become one since the world caught fire.  They dig into VC funding, hiring, startup decisions, transformational projects and more....with a guest appearance in the intro from Pete's kids!

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 episode is also featured on Top Tier Recruitment's podcast, Your Pursuit of Happiness, so check that out on your favourite podcast platform as well, loads of great insights from that crew.

In this episode, we get into:

As a startup, focusing your efforts on what people are willing to pay for - what's your niche - what can you do in the short term to generate revenue that businesses and consumers need right now?

The impact of downtime, and being in a position to help - if you look back in ten years and knew you were in a position to help but decided not to for some reason, how would you feel?

How Possible.ie are offering that help with free 90-minute coaching sessions: Â https://www.possible.ie/covid

Corporate & Social Responsibility as a draw for prospective employees - what's been your community response during all of this and how the actions you take now can define how you're perceived as a business for the long run?

Managing remote teams when you've never done that before and the impact on your own management style. What can you do now with the tools you have available to react and stay afloat?

How do you cope as a leader with that pressure coming down on you now? Take it and channel it and run with it and do what you can with it, or do you pass it on in a negative way to your teams?

Focusing on a 100% virtual sales process - witnessing a startup shifting from enterprise sales to a true SaaS online-only sales model in 2 weeks

The importance of human contact and making connections and turning the Zoom camera on (tastefully!)

How what we're all going through right now will encourage more of the mindset of "bringing your whole self to work", being yourself and being authentic.

Approaches by VCs to reassess their funding position, and how the money behind the money impacts how VCs are considering or re-considering their investments in startups.

The different ways that corporates are handling hiring right now, and the thought of your first day of work with a new company being from home.

What to read (from Pete): What You Do is Who You Are by Ben Horowitz

What to read (from Paul): The Choice by Edith Eger

To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow for updates and more information.

Colin Platt joins the show to talk to Pete Townsend about leaving behind his early career in the capital markets, the crossover of solving entrepreneurial problems and solving global political problems, the professional merits of podcasting, hating and loving writing, his view on economics....and his grasp of the Swedish language!

This week we’re catching up with Colin Platt, whose LinkedIn profile describes him as a “crypto performance artist” in addition to being an independent consultant, but where you really want to follow him is on Twitter @colingplatt and on his blog on Medium.

Pete remembers how Colin’s departing email from BNP Paribas way back then said “I’m going to give this entrepreneur thing a shot,” and Colin's leap was one of the inspirations for Pete's own leap.   Fast-forward five years and about 200 podcast episodes later between the two of them - Colin mostly on Blockchain Insider and Pete mostly right here on MoneyNeverSleeps - the two pals get into:

Colin's history in the corporate world, his awakening with cryptocurrency, and his inspiration to take the leap.

The "do I or don't I" question when it comes to following a problem that could create some great traction when you solve that problem, but it's a dramatically different problem than the one you set out to solve.

That fantastic feeling when you finish a project and the client turns around and says,"OK, I absolutely didn't think about this, and this changes everything I need to do now," and seeing them light up on the success of really understanding something differently.

Seeing a client 3-6 months down the road after you've worked with them, and they say "We pivoted and then really got traction with this, and we couldn't have done it without you."

The professional benefits of stage presence and presentation skills from doing tons of podcast episodes.

On blogging:  "Being able to write is a superpower - it doesn't have to be anywhere special - LinkedIn, Medium, wherever.  Write a blog about something and just continually write 600-800 words every couple of weeks and put it out there."

On the economic effects of this global pandemic we're going through:  "I think one of the things that I got really interested in early on with bitcoin or ether as an asset class is this notion that you can actually see where everything is and how it works.  That parlays quite quickly into having money that is more traceable on the one hand, but at the same time less controllable. It's got to be something that starts to rear its head."

On economic stimuli:  "Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, as more money is pumped into the system, you're going to have people that demand transparency [on where it goes]."

Colin's status as the richest man alive (tongue firmly implanted in cheek) and "creating a coin that was worth $3.6 quadrillion, which is thirty-three thousand six hundred thousand trillion, so a really big number."