📰 Q&A with Tom Blomfield, founder of Monzo – Open Up Challenge

Monzo Chat
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This is a really good interview with Tom.

Highlights:

Today, the venture boasts more than 600,000 customers, with 60,000 new sign-ups each month.

Our average customer opens the app 12 times a week, which is almost twice a day.

Barclays launched ‘freeze your card’ very recently, which is fine. There is a saying in ice hockey: ‘You’ve got to skate where the puck is going’. If you skate at the puck, it will have moved so far ahead by the time you get there that you’ll have missed it. Banks are looking at us. We are the puck.

If you talk to a rich investment banker, they don’t get it. They want their cashback and their Avios points. This is for people on a normal salary, living a normal life. Our service is relevant to 90pc of the population. It’s not for the 1pc. If you have a private bank account at Coutts, then fine, stick with it.

There seem to be a lot of banking start-ups in the UK, right now…

In the UK consumer space, there is only Starling and us.

The increased press awareness of us all helps us all, but I don’t feel like we’re in competition with each other, I think we’re in competition with RBS.

We’ll pass 1 million customers this year.

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Thanks, Alex. Good to see a lot of this restated.

More thoughts later, maybe. In the meantime:

I worry that I’m significantly pushing up the average here. :scream:

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Me too! :sweat_smile:

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Same 3 :smile:

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Yeah, I probably open the app 5 times a day myself…

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It’s fine everyone, a high average is good!

I do it also, but a lot of customers probably open it when they spend, or maybe not even then because the notification tells them.

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I think I’m opening it more than usual because I’m excited by the new Spending/Summary tab!

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Same! I check it every day :see_no_evil:

I got a judgey reaction to my font when I posted a screenshot with feedback though. It’s such a personal taste, but it amused me.

(judgey in the friendliest Monzo way)

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I open it each time after a purchase to add a tag to what I just bought, in case I wonder what I spent my money later on that night.

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Was it comic sans?

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Nonono :no_entry_sign:

Screenshot_20180517-125945_Monzo

(it’s a typewriter font and I enjoy it)

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That font :nauseated_face::face_vomiting:

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ANYWAY - this excites me

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We should start the pool.

I say September 21st.

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I’ll need to think about this. :thinking: :monzo:

#datascience #informedguessing

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Ah I love typewriters. I’ve started collecting them. One of the many things around the world that last almost forever.

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I’m going with the 10th of October :smiley:

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I’ll say 23rd October 2018

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3rd September 6pm

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For Context, Monzo are currently at 677k