Pete Townsend is joined by Eoghan Powell, who runs WorkIQ, a new innovation centre for founders and early-stage companies in Tallaght, on the edge of Dublin.

This is Part 2 of a pair on the Irish startup scene, after Derek O'Doherty of West x West on the capital side.

Where Derek covered how founders find the money, Eoghan goes underneath that, to where founders come from in the first place. They start with Ireland's reliance on a handful of multinationals for its tax base, and the thin middle in the economy between company formation and homegrown giants like Ryanair and Kerry Group.

Pete pushes back on how exposed the country really is, given how embedded Apple, Google and Meta have become, and they land on the point that whether or not the multinationals pull back, the founder pipeline needs building either way. Then the heart of it: Eoghan's case that this isn't a money problem, it's an ambition one. A kid in Dublin 4 grows up seeing founders at the dinner table; a kid in Tallaght or Kerry or Mayo often doesn't, and ends up believing people like them don't get that. His fix is honest role models, a visible front door, and the warm intro done at scale.

Connect with Eoghan:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eoghanpowell1983/

Website: https://workiq.ie/

Chapters
0:00 Cold open

0:36 Intro and welcome

1:14 Ireland's reliance on the multinationals

2:47 The gap in the middle, and where founders come from

3:17 Why the next Google needs a homegrown base

5:02 The hard question: are the MNCs too embedded to leave?

6:09 Why wait for them? The case for building our own

7:47 Ambition, role models, and seeing the struggle

8:33 The Collison brothers myth

9:55 Does the kid in Tallaght believe they have access?

11:15 Building the base: the front door

12:20 The two-email warm intro, and how it scales

14:04 Where to find Eoghan and WorkIQ

Sharp riffs, big ideas and real insights from smart people, all in under 15 minutes. Hosted by early-stage investor Pete Townsend with the people rebuilding money, markets, and the internet from the ground up.

Website: https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/

X: https://x.com/PeteTownsendNV

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petetownsend353/

Email: info@norioventures.com

Pete Townsend is joined by Derek O'Doherty, founder of West x West, the two-day tech, venture and culture festival in Castlebar, Mayo that brings Irish founders together with global investors.

Derek spent thirty years in capital markets across London, Sydney and New York, and until last week a year inside Enterprise Ireland building international VC relationships for scaling companies.

They get into why the Irish economy isn't big enough to carry a founder from pre-seed to Series B on home capital alone, the VC pecking order that sends founders abroad to raise, why Irish founders outside the US are second only to Israel in the share who raise capital, and why Derek left a state agency to build a festival that brings the funders to the founders instead. Plus the Nik Milanović super-connector path, why he's rooting it all in the West rather than Dublin, and what's on at WXW this October.

Connect with Derek:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/derek-o-doherty-91669530/

More on West x West:
https://westxwest.ie/
https://www.instagram.com/westxwest.ie/

Listen and subscribe:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4F8uOLxiscYVWVGEfNxTnd

Chapters
0:00 Cold open
0:11 Intro and welcome
0:47 Why Irish founders hit a wall on home capital
1:22 The VC pecking order
3:11 The pre-seed funding reality
5:06 Bringing the capital to the market
6:13 Why leave Enterprise Ireland now
7:57 Why a festival, not a fund
9:16 Community and the super connector
10:18 Event details and lineup
11:42 Close

Sharp riffs, big ideas and real insights from smart people, all in under 15 minutes. Hosted by early-stage investor Pete Townsend with the people rebuilding money, markets, and the internet from the ground up.

Web: https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/

X: https://x.com/PeteTownsendNV

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petetownsend353/

Email: info@norioventures.com

Steve Whyman spent 20 years trading fixed income at Bear Stearns, ABN AMRO, and BlackRock, then ran digital assets and tokenization inside Fidelity International, before leaving in 2025 to build onchain-native. In this episode he makes the case for tokenization from the one seat almost nobody tells it from: the trading desk.

What pulled him out was seeing blockchain put every instrument on the same settlement rail. The frustration is what came next, five issuers wrapping the same stock five different ways, none of them netting against each other, and issuers walking away when the wrapper carries no legal recourse. Also in this one: why a desk never actually buys technology, whether AI agents can settle 24/7 when a smart contract can't own a security, and Steve's "wings of finance" case that the real prize is financing and collateral, not the shiny tokenized equity everyone's chasing.

Connect with Steve:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-whyman-210a6273/

Referenced in this episode:

Semi Liquid: https://pcp.co/

Solana Breakpoint, London, November 2026: https://solana.com/breakpoint

Chapters
0:00 Cold open
0:24 Intro: Steve Whyman, from fixed income to onchain
1:10 What made a 20-year trader jump: the rails are the same
3:42 What a desk actually needs before it touches a tokenized instrument
5:42 The F1 pit crew: why adoption is operational, not technical
6:52 The fragmentation problem: five wrappers, one stock, no netting
9:53 Same but better, or just adding layers?
10:35 The wings of finance: financing and collateral, not the shiny equity
11:28 Can AI agents legally settle 24/7 when a smart contract can't own a security?
12:09 The love-hate: going native, and what stuck
14:08 Where to find Steve, and Solana Breakpoint

MoneyNeverSleeps: sharp riffs, big ideas, and real insights from smart people, in under 15 minutes. Hosted by early-stage investor Pete Townsend, GP at Norio Ventures.

moneyneversleeps.ie

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/
X: https://x.com/PeteTownsendNV
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petetownsend353/
Email: info@norioventures.com