Today on the podcast we have Tom Blomfield - founder of not one but two UK unicorns - Monzo and GoCardless. We asked Tom on the show to give the inside story on what it takes to found a multi-billion dollar business - the character traits but also the sacrifices. Are there consistent characteristics that unite leading founders, and ultimately is the struggle worth it? To say scaling Monzo has been challenging would be an understatement. From its messy origin emerging from a competitor, to convincing regulators to allow a 29 year old run to a bank, to dealing with the highs and lows of an intrusive British Press, forging Monzo from nothing has been extremely tough. Tom is incredibly open about the toll Monzo took on his mental health. He ultimately left in 2021 to become a prolific angel investor - seeing entrepreneurship from the other side of the table. We co-invest with Tom regularly and have loved working with him as a product-focused board member for our portfolio company Kapu. He recently moved to San Francisco to join Y Combinator as a Group Partner. There are a few people in the world better positioned than Tom Blomfield to identify what it takes to create a technology giant from scratch. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.