Said no investor ever (apart from small fry crowd-funders).
Monzoās big fry VCās seem to say it pretty consistently
Characteristic candour from Tom. Iām keen to see what next for him and what for Monzo.
Good luck on your future endeavours Tom, you did an amazing job building Monzo from the ground up and really changing how banking works.
Monzo has helped so many people take control of their money, understand budgeting and saving etc
Funnily enough I was paraphrasing something one of our investors said earlier todayā¦
If youāre happy to share, how did the news go down at Monzo, Dan?
Probably not as a surprise, I would think.
All the best for the future Tom.
Even the notoriously shortsighted Y Combinator?
For transparency, my choice of adverb there may be hyperbolic. The only other company I liked who they were invested in pushed them to sell out and shutdown to the competitor they posed a significant threat to, despite reaching profitability and following to surge in popularity.
I guess weāre all feeling a little bit torn! I mean like Tom is Tom, right? But it was fairly obvious how exhausted he was earlier this year and today he was laughing and smiling and you could tell he was much happier than he had been.
So of course weāre really sad heās moving on, but at the same time that heās found his happy place.
Tom is inspirational and the candour with which he talks about how he felt, the way he approaches the problem he was having, the advice he gave for other people in the same situation. Heās incredibly self-aware, and is so passionate about people and the product that his enthusiasm and approach to work rubs off on everybody. He inspires people every time he opens his mouth.
I remember doing my training in Cardiff, grabbing a beer from a fridge and listening to Tom speak in the company All Hands. I mean Iād never worked anywhere that made the time for the whole company to get together once a week for an hour and here was the boss answering some difficult questions (I asked one about Monzo Plus and the situation with that (bearing in mind this was August 2019!!) and I was like - what on Earth? Is this some surreal universe where leadership listen and speak their mind?
There just really arenāt any words to describe the respect that people have for him. We have a slack channel where people can chat during All Hands (and has been used a lot more since we closed the offices and everything moved remoteā¦ thanks COVID) and there were a lot of emojis being shared throughout.
Monzo is in great hands though, TS is absolutely fantastic - he gets Monzo and what makes Monzo tick and heās passionate about the mission. Sujata is a real people person, sheās spearheaded some changes which are making a big difference to employees across the company.
So on balance, as Tom said it is bitter sweet but Iām sure heāll not be a stranger.
Having been an investor for 30 years - Iāve seen long-term strategies come and go. Often the staff find out with the publicā¦
Can something be simultaneously a shock, but not a surprise?
There are no certainties, sure. And I think that Monzo folk know that. Could you accept, though, that this was the message from today? Iām sure youāll agree that todayās news would have no marked impact on exit?
Oh definitely.
Donāt forget too that there are lots of staff who are investors and that we also get share options as part of our employment and so thereās always an incentive to be able to cash that in!
A bank isnāt one person at the end of the day. So long have a nice life doing whatever it is you want to do next.
Hereās hoping that thereās a renewed focus now from the top down.
Fair play for the candour and openness, he should be unbelievably proud of what heās done, and has left the bank in good hands.
Interesting to see revenues are growing even in the pandemic as part of the TechCrunch article, so good news among the sad
Forever be Tom Monzo to me
Itās good to see someone in a senior position talking about mental well-being.
All the best Tom.
If Monzo can become a true challenger to the current account market then Iām sure you will reap the rewards - psychological speaking.
Anyone has any idea of whatās cooking in Monzo ?
As a long standing customer all Iād say is fair play to him for what heās helped to achieve with Monzo and best of luck for whatever he decides to do in the future.
For me,in helping to start Monzo heās done me so many favours as regards my banking.
Good luck Tom and thanks.