Tom Blomfield and other top bosses sold shares

Selling Monzo to a big boy is now A real possibility in my opinion as technically they could offer £1.5 billion

This feels a bit overblown and sensationalist. I can see how crowd investors might be annoyed reading that headline if they weren’t allowed to sell but the founders have been able to… that’s a minor annoyance, however their agreements were different and these entrepreneurs are sitting on close to 8-figure paper fortunes so it is just common sense to convert a small amount into real money (or in the case of those who planned to move on - as much as they can).

Where Tom is concerned, that is a very small percentage of his holding sold and seems like a huge vote of confidence in the company to keep holding so much in stock. If I had £90m or whatever he has in Monzo shares, the first thing I’d do is try to make sure I have a £10m rainy day fund and be able to get a taste of that future wealth.

What’s the point of having £90m if you need to live off beans on toast for 10 years before you see any of it?

Let’s be honest, this company would be the next TSB if Tom decided to cash in his chips and disrupt the artisanal flour industry instead.

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You knew going into this that you wouldn’t be able immediately to sell your crowd-funded shares, Crowdcube take great pains to explain this to investors when they sign up.

Monzo’s shares are not publicly traded, it’s a private limited company - and you’re not an employee or founder. What did you expect?

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We make money broadly when you use Monzo as your main bank account, so it makes sense to invest in features that incentivize that.

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well in fairness I did offer to buy your shares back in july 2016, you never got back to me, you were very sceptical about their prospects from the 51p round :man_shrugging: :slight_smile:

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That’s only 50 % of my point - the other 50% is you have a bank that does not make money and Needs to increase its offering of products to make it a sustainable business

All In my opinion

Ian I think you know that the sale would have been refused permission so it was not ever a Serious solution / offer.

That’s in the past my main concern is Monzo becoming a more sustainable business

There is evidence of many having sold in exactly the same situation , in the earlier rounds , you decided ooooo look at the price going up , maybe I will hang on, until it suits me … just look at the shares wiki .

Monzo does want to make money , it does want to become profitable , it does want to become sustainable , the pandemic has to an extent curtailed their accounts that would make money , the business accounts were not prioritised enough 12 or 18 months ago …who knew with hindsight … if the pandemic had not have happened , I would have put the next valuation at maybe 3 to 4 bn pounds conservatively , maybe £21 - £28 a share … it happened … life eh

I get you are frustrated about having to follow the conditions that you signed up to on purchasing the shares , I get that you have a paper profit that you want to realise , I have as well , but I understood when I signed up , that there were conditions to me buying shares in a company that was unlisted , was not easily tradeable and couldn’t realise any potential profit that I had on paper made . it was quite clear at every round … the conditions of investing , the fact you now want to get out and bank your profits from buying shares just because the founders have realised some of their efforts …who built the business can do so because of the conditions they signed up for seems a bit of sour grapes Im afraid …

You do understand the conditions that you signed up to when you bought your shares ?

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If Brewdog and revolut allow it why can’t Monzo - regardless to the rules at the time of investing - if a sedonadary market can be run at no cost to Monzo - like Brewdog has Allowed - why are monzo stopping it

I have bought and sold Brewdog shares and it was simple and pain free - Monzo could allow this but are instead stamping down on it.

So sour grapes no - frustration - yes as Monzo have no reason to stop a secondary market

because Monzo aren’t brew dog or revolut , that might not be what you want to hear but that is the situation, and Im sorry that you are so frustrated with the situation , and I can understand some of it , but we signed up to those conditions when we passed the money over to crowdcube, the fact that investors come on every few months to complain about not being able to realise their on paper profits doesnt alter the rules that they agreed to

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I’m sure I read somewhere that Crowdcube were planning on introducing a secondary market (seeing as Seedrs have one), so would that mean Monzo shares could be traded there, once live? Who knows.

its down to Monzo as far as I understand , they have the final say, which is what everybody has agreed to , doesnt really matter what crowd cube want - who knows :slight_smile:

Oh indeed, I think any company (including Monzo) would have to give their approval before the shares could be added to any secondary market. But at least it would remove the need for Monzo to administer it themselves, and approve each possible transfer. Perhaps a minor change to any underlying legal T&Cs, and bing bang boom. We can only wait and see.

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" Tom has probably held back to make sure it does not look like a avalanche of leavers cashing in "

come on lets be serious about this , if and its a big IF Tom was so inclined… when Gary could sell most or all of his stake a year ago or whenever he sold out ,and Tom had the intentions as you rudely insinuate without being open about it … to rinse the crowd cube investors , Tom Im sure as eggs are eggs would have found a way … if he was so inclined … to get his £120 million, or whatever todays valuation is … out of Monzo.

Im now getting a bit tired of your insinuations about the directors of Monzo acting in an underhand manner , because

(a) somebody not being able to fill a form in properly and it being reported as a "cover up "
and
(b) because you cant go against the terms you signed up to when buying your shares.

You should have a think about your unfounded allegations before you post any more :slight_smile: as I have said I get your frustration

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Not insinuating anything just Curious as to why so many founders leaving, CEO changing, valuation dropping 40% - then discovering that founders have cashed out, and it was omitted from Companies House (mistake Of a 3rd party) and only corrected after a member of public complains to companies house

Plus all the other stuff with paid for accounts etc

I think even you Ian can see I have fair cause to be cheesed off and question all of these things.

founders leaving … you would have to ask them as to their motives, as Ive said if I had worked for five years I would want a reward , wouldn’t you ? some will have thought its a good valuation at the time of sale, others will have kept the majority of their holding thinking the share price is undervalued , but wanted to have a draw down for their efforts , some will have other financial commitments to satisfy, some will have been ready for another challenge chasing Alpacas around a field with a lovely red tractor having come to the conclusion that chasing around on foot at 60(?) odd would be too much but still wanted a change .

Valuation dropping 40% already discussed in these threads as you know

omitted from Companies House the original question am I shocked … I am surprised that somebody who is employed to fill forms in doesnt fill them in correctly , I am also surprised that Taylor Wessing can action the submission with missing information ( ? )

I agree you have legitimate right to question these things.

Questions from me , did you understand the terms and conditions of buying the Monzo shares when offered , and , when you gave your money over to buy the shares did you agree to the T and Cs of the contract.

As someone who rarely uses Monzo, here’s my take on how it looks.

Down round

The down round is really devastating to me. N26 raised during Covid, and didn’t face a down round. I know it was an extension of an existing round, but why couldn’t Monzo have done the same then?. It leads me to think there was clearly reasons to take a HUGE chunk off the company valuation. I know it has been largely confirmed this is not the case, but Tom stepping down right before a huge down round is suspicious. Basic logic would have people think this is a stipulation of the round.

Revolut raise a massive 500 million. That’s nearly 50% of Monzo’s new company valuation. With Revoluts new amazing UI, it leads me to think their forecast and constant product release is highly appealing and suggest a really positive future. I don’t know when Monzo last released a feature that their competitors don’t already have a better version of. It’s been so so long and that’s concerning. Monzo feel far behind and stagnant for nearly a year now.

It would be one thing if Monzo was progressing like Revolut and N26, but it seems like the company has been stagnating and a bit more lifeless since these people cashed in. I am sure if they hadn’t cashed in, they would work a bit harder to ensure a successful IPO

Company House

I am not saying this happened, but there are a lot of positive reasons behind these not being on Company House. One of the main reasons that hasn’t been discussed here is other staff. Imagine £33+ million pounds of stock were cashed in. You might have wanted to get in on that. Rather than each person getting several million, what if each member of staff could cash in 50k or 100k worth of stock. What if each founder cashed in one million each - that’s a lot left over for other people. It really feels like a few people making sure they’re set up for life and consciously making a decision not to let other staff cash in. There was clearly room for lots and lots of other members of staff, even lots of staff who have been there longer than three years who’ve sacrificed so much as well. I would feel let down and ready to move on after all the loyalty I pledged and that being the response.

If Monzo had failed and that wasn’t flagged to company house, everyone would have thought we’re in it together. Now that they cashed out, it doesn’t really matter if Crowdfunding investors don’t see a return. These people are set for life.

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Ive a feeling this is going to be my last post on this thread, its got a bit too much conspiracy theory with absolutely no facts from a Times article which was written in a similar vein :slight_smile:

" what if each member of staff could cash in 50k or 100k worth of stock. What if each founder cashed in one million each - that’s a lot left over for other people. It really shows a few people making sure they’re set up for life and consciously making a decision not to let other staff cash in "

thats a big " what if " conjecture

Probably, and I am sorry if that’s the case. I edited it to say “feels like”. I am just trying to look at it as if I was a member of staff who has sacrificed a lot as well. I have no idea what legal grounds surrounded the sale of shares and who is allowed to sell them on what grounds.

I think this situation has highlighted how boring it is to run a highly regulated business (i.e a bank, not a tech startup). I don’t blame the founders and early team for leaving/cashing out, and even Tom for taking a side ways step into his new role.

Unfortunately for all of us crowdcube investors, we can’t cash out - but this was made very obvious to us at the time of buying, and if you read the prospectus for both rounds you’ll know that these sales for early staff were mentioned in the share offer.

Clearly Monzo has had a significant turnover in the C suite in the last 12 months (just look at the faces in the 2019 Annual Report), and the down round will probably be the outcome of this and the COVID-19 economic armageddon. I would say it is a confluence of these factors that have led to the current situation. I hope TS will provide a reinvigorated emphasis into the senior management in terms of Governance & Funding, and Tom, in his new role as President will provide leadership on Product & Community.

I’m still bullish on Monzo, but if they sell to Lloyds or anyone else - we will all still make money.

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