Monzo Staff Weekly Q&A - Leah Templeman (Interim VP People)

I might be risking the wrath of other forum members here, but why don’t you come back to the rest on Tuesday? Relax and enjoy a well deserved long weekend :wink:

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What’s great about working at monzo?

What would you improve about working at Monzo?

Hey @Peter_G :wave:

I certainly can! Monzo started in Feb 2015, initially out of a gin bar (Ask for Janice off Smithfield Market - we’ve had all our birthday parties there but I think next year we’ll finally be too big) and then from the more conventional White Bear Yard (after Passion invested in us). There were 11 of us there right from the start and it was honestly one of the best times of my professional life! I didn’t have any much start-up experience and the uncertainty of everything was really exciting! A lot of the team (myself included) had very limited banking experience, and spent a lot of our time asking questions, and then working out how to answer them. We knew we wanted to get a banking licence for an app-based bank but that was about it… Initially, we put a lot of effort into working out how the banking licence application process would work and in building an MVP of what the app might look like. By March 2015 we had our first MVP app which we called “minibank”. There was no card with it or anything, but Tom took £100 from everyone and we used peer to peer payments to settle bills between ourselves. We officially started the process to get the banking license in May 2015 when we had our “challenge session” with the PRA. We pretty quickly realised it was not going to be as simple as we thought (we’d estimated we’d be able to launch as a bank in Dec 2015…) and so we immediately began investigating what it would take to launch some product to market before then, which is how the prepaid programme was born! I think it was one of the best decisions we made :grin:If you have any other specific questions you’d like me to answer about that time, just let me know!

In terms of how I came to be involved in Monzo, as you may have guessed (from your question) I moved across from Starling with a fair few other people. I first heard about Starling, and moved there, because I was at university with @tom and always knew he’d do great things (I really wouldn’t say this if it wasn’t true - I think he gets far too much praise as it is :wink:). For me, it made a lot of sense to move with him because honestly, at the start, I was much more excited about working with Tom than the actual product. I’ve always had a lot of current accounts and pick them for the interest rates they pay… I didn’t think people would move to a bank paying no interest. How wrong I was! Luckily, I was wise enough to trust Tom’s instincts rather than my own. And soon we’ll have a way for people to make their money work for them from within the Monzo app (finally!).

Luckily I’ve never had any unsolicited messages or payments, and I’m very grateful for that. The Monzo community is the best :heart:

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This is fun and relaxing though! Promise!

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I’m a sucker for romcoms @tbutz

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Hey @jamesdevonport :wave:Great to speak again :wink:

It’s a continual challenge, but by far the best thing we’ve done is hire people who care at least as much as I do about our customers. I think that’s really key. We’re now working really hard to make sure we give our COps the tools they need to continue to be able to provide this service in a sustainable way at scale, but fundamentally it’s all about the people :family_woman_woman_boy_boy:

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Great question about operations, for which I don’t have a great answer because it’s continually evolving! When we first launch the prepaid card, I was the only “operational” person we had and the focus was on ensuring we had a product which would work (mostly supplier management), making sure we had a way to get our cards created and in the hands of the customer (although @tristan really ran the handout events, so maybe operations can’t take much credit for it initially!) and being there whenever it wasn’t working as expected (customer support). Pretty early on, we got hit with a large amount of fraud and so managing fraud and investigating suspicious activity became a core part of operations as well. Since then, we’ve expanded the role of operations to include company operations as well, and so TFC (Tom Foster-Carter, our wonderful COO) is now also responsible for our people and office team. Basically, we just make sure everything at Monzo is working :wink:We don’t have an “operations” team as such anymore, as we try to create multidisciplinary teams based around problems and solutions, rather than skillsets. Our biggest team by far though is the Customer Operations team which is now at 160!

Really tricky question re. Monzo: the musical. I think every good musical (for me!) has a love story in it somewhere, and @jonas and I started dating about 2 weeks after Monzo incorporated as a company, so i think that storyline would be big. We’re getting married this summer so there’s a happy ending too :kissing_heart:My mum told me when I was about 5 not to sing in public, so I’m not sure my character would get a solo…

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Hey @leonardh :wave:

My favourite feature of Monzo so far is probably the ability to send money to your friends on Monzo with emoji in the notes. I think it’s these small touches which make Monzo so great! I also really love the find nearby friends feature recently released - it’s so handy when splitting bills at dinner!

I’m most excited for Joint Accounts (I’m lucky enough to be one of the early testers!) and being able to get savings products through Monzo :money_with_wings:So excited for the new few months!

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Hey @jzw95 :wave:You have no idea how much your comment made me smile :grin:I was so touched I had to read it out to @jonas who is sat next to me on the sofa :heart_eyes:

The thing I miss most about the early days was the ability to know everyone in the office really well! I used to get everyone a birthday card, and in the very early days, a birthday present and a birthday cake and it was sad when that became too time-consuming to be sustainable. It’s now almost impossible to even know everyone’s name in the office, which is really sad :cry:

The best bit about working here now that wasn’t there in the early days (and this sounds really corny but is true) is all the amazing people who are now involved, both in the company and the wider community, who hadn’t even heard of Monzo back then. It’s really humbling and the product is so much better for it! I can’t wait to see where we are after the next 3 years!

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I :heart:️pineapple on pizza! What are your thoughts @jrlagerman?

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Good question @neovo! My favourite thing about working at Monzo is the amazing people I get to work with every day.

I think as we’ve grown, we haven’t always been the best at adapting to the growth within the company. At the moment, we’re running out of space in the office (although the wonderful @Bethtoms is making sure we’re moved in to a wonderful new office this summer!) as well as numerous other growing pains. It’s all an amazing learning experience though!

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Thanks so much for this @simonb - it’s been a blast! I’ll check back in to see if there are any follow up questions next week. Have a great Bank Holiday everyone :heart:

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Wow, thanks so much @leah - such in-depth and interesting replies. And late on the Friday before a bank holiday, too.

I now understand where @simonb was coming from when he said:

Now, go enjoy your weekend! :smiley: :muscle: :monzo:

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I knew you couldn’t be perfect :broken_heart: :cry:

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Thoroughly enjoyed your questions everybody and thanks for your answers @leah

My question to you (after you’ve returned all refreshed from a chilled bh weekend) is…

Can you name 5 people or companies who inspire you in terms of people development and culture (excluding Monzo) and explain why?

Thanks,
Steve

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