Little concerning that Monzo staff leaving due to cost cutting? Anyone have any more information on this?
As per the article - she was only one day a week so itās a nice gesture but not a big deal for the bottom line of Monzo.
One day a week or not its concerning when CTO leaving and cost cutting are put together by a reputable source such as TechCrunch.
Kinda my thoughts too
Are there any businesses that are not trying to cut their costs at the moment?
We are in unprecedented economic times, canāt bury head in the sand until itās too late
5 Likes
I believe the interest from BoE deposits was a somewhat significant factor in working out profitability especially until plus and business get going. Now with interest rates tankedā¦
Is it possible for a CTO to be productive and keep up to date on everything working only 1 day a week?
12 Likes
Itās also possible that Monzo know or suspect that additional rounds of funding are going to be much more difficult due to market conditions. That would slow the rapid expansion that weāve seen
2 Likes
She just had her finger in too many pies 
She was known for being a great mentor before joining Monzo and seemingly continued to mentor lots of āoutsideā people after joining, which doesnāt count as āgetting stuck inā, if you ask me.
You can have great people join a great team and it can not work out for a million reasons. Something tells me ācost cuttingā is far from the truth, but then no one on here knows anything about what happened so maybe we should just leave it as that rather than trying to understand her exact reasoning.
Ps. This is why you always need to leave for āpersonal reasonsā and sail off into the sunset without anyone trying to understand who, what, why and how (what went wrong and whose fault it was).
6 Likes
Exactly, ācost cuttingā is very vague and could mean absolutely anything.
Cost cutting an employee on one day per week (allegedly) is absolutely pointless. Youāve got to be scraping the barrel if that was genuinely to cut costs (or she was paid one hell of a wage) 
The bigger question Iād have (as someone who doesnāt frequent these forums anymore), is what did she actually do?
I donāt mean that in a negative way, but I remember she was brought in with much fanfare, but then pretty much disappeared into the role, and was never heard from again as far as I can see.
Iām not sure I could point to any noticeable difference in Monzo during her time here? But perhaps some of it was uncredited (or unseen).
I have to say, Iāve enjoyed using my Monzo account as my main account much more since Iāve stopped checking up on the FinTech news.
But every article I see about Monzo, just makes me question the overall leadership and direction of the company.
The āappealā of Monzo from 2 years ago, is fast becoming the norm, and I just donāt see where Monzo are utilising their ādynamicā approach to banking. It was always said that because Monzo didnāt have the ālegacy rustā, to quote @Rjevski, they could innovate quicker and bring in new features etc etc.
Iām in a position where I donāt need them, and Iām pretty content with everything when things are going well (i.e. not needing to contact CS for anything), but I just wonder where Monzo will go next.
7 Likes
I think this is hugely unfair. Literally anyone who works here would say the exact opposite. But unless you have significant experience in scaling up engineering teams then itās not easy to verbalize. We have maybe 5x or more engineers since Meri started and thatās a huge dynamic shift that a lot of companies would buckle under unless you know how to efficiently structure it.
Look, itās not my place to speculate on things like cost-cutting, and I donāt know a huge amount more than any of you. But as I said the other day, we are in a global business crisis due to the current pandemic, and every company in the world is trying to understand what it means for them. There are all sorts of reasons why people leave companies and unless they come out and directly say it, itās not great form to speculate.
10 Likes
How is it unfair? I said that I couldnāt see any noticeable difference with Monzo, but perhaps some of it was uncredited (or unseen).
You then go on to state exactly that, and a lot of it was unseen or difficult to verbalise? Surely that proves my point.
I think you also need to remember that whilst you may have seen 5 times the number of engineers come to Monzo, I certainly havenāt seen 5 times the output of the bank/service.
If anything, Iād argue that Monzo developed much faster before Meri joined (again, not a dig at Meri, but just an observation).
I appreciate engineers do all sorts of work, and a lot of it wonāt be seen - But you donāt get to have a community forum when it suits you, and then shut down the conversation when it doesnāt.
Meri was one of the highest ranked people at Monzo - The same way weād discuss a high ranking employee at Starling, Barclays or Apple.
Itās unfair because of what it implies. Not everyoneās work involves obvious public-facing changes. Could you specifically point to the noticeable differences that any top-level executive has made in the company? Probably not, but they lead disciplines so that literally everything that happens under them is accountable to them.
How would you feel if I said that I couldnāt see what noticeable difference you make at your company? You wouldnāt say that feels like an unfair implication?
6 Likes
I donāt think itās normal for output to directly scale with team size, bigger or more teams creates a communications overhead
Iād also say that now Monzo is out of beta, and some are rely on Monzo as their main account they need to be more cautious about adding new features
I also expect that being regulated adds to the overheads of each team, as there will be more testing and perhaps stricter requirements over messaging and flow
Itās likely also the case the a lot of what was done earlier was simple quick wins, those run out over time
If I was one of the top ranked employees of a company that offered banking services to over 4 million people, Iād expect there to be an opinion on my job - Good, bad or indifferent.
Monzo are incredibly quick to champion and verbalise their successes - Sometimes, it may seem trivial, but either way, it usually likes to cheerlead from the front (understandably so).
Like I said from the start, Iām not criticising Meri or implying anything - Iām merely stating an observation on a community forum (as a long time reader and long time user of Monzo as my main account).
If, as an employee, you can champion her in ways that us mere plebs wouldnāt have been able to see, then I think it would be great if you could do so.
But if you take out the emotion for a second, you have a new CTO coming in with much fanfare - Taking over the role from a co-founder no lessā¦ And then it appears she went down to one day per week and is now leaving for good, after less than two years.
On a community forum, I think thatās a fair talking point.
3 Likes
I thought we were meant to reply to content and not tone? I canāt see anything that the CTO has added to the company but equally I would not expect to be able to see anything they had added. It is not a role that is public facing. Iām not sure why the strong defence of her is needed. It was not implied she did not do anything (the way I read it anyhow) 
Edit: I donāt think giving an example of Angela from Apple who was I think VP of retail is very fair, as her impact was on every single customer.
3 Likes
Pretty sure the original comment was simply to name another exec who made a difference at any company.
Not for one minute saying they are comparable.
1 Like
Two years in which this company tripled in size and user numbers, launched all manner of new features, and permanently embedded itself as a mainstay of British culture with over 4 million users.
2 years in a company growing this quickly is probably equivalent to a decade in most companies. The responsibility, especially at that level, is gigantic, the burnout is very real even with what I believe to be world class mental health support, work/life balance support, etc.
Regardless, sheās had a colossal impact here and we are all very grateful for it.
4 Likes
Fair point
1 Like