Tom Blomfield: How I Created Two Billion-Dollar Fintech Startups

TL;DR

Tom Blomfield co-founded GoCardless (B2B payments) and Monzo (neobank). He describes the extreme emotional volatility of building unicorns, the near-collapse of Monzo during COVID when funding was pulled 72 hours before close, and his eventual step-back due to burnout.

Key insights

• Taking on a very hard problem (e.g., starting a bank from scratch) can make some things easier: it attracts the smartest, most ambitious talent, press coverage, and customers excited to be part of a b
• The YC bar is much higher than most founders assume; Blomfield and his co-founders realized they were “play acting” until YC reset their standards.
• Launching a minimally viable prototype quickly (prepaid debit card in 3–4 months) and using “do things that don’t scale” tactics enabled Monzo to grow from zero to 1M customers in 2.5 years with zero