Tom Blomfield, a startup founder turned investor, built and launched a recipe app called RecipeNinja.ai using Windsurf, a tool that integrates AI to build applications. He was impressed by the speed and quality with which Windsurf...
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Tom Blomfield, based in London, co-founded Monzo and GoCardless, studied Law at Oxford, and blogs about software engineering and startups.
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0What is "founder mode"?
2024-10-07 •
The text discusses the concept of 'founder mode' and 'manager mode' in running a company, and the challenges faced by young, inexperienced founders as their companies rapidly scale. It emphasizes the importance of leaders staying ...
0Taking Risk
2024-05-18 •
The text discusses the difference in attitudes towards risk and entrepreneurship between the UK and the US. The author, Tom Blomfield, shares his personal experiences and observations, highlighting the pessimism in the UK and the ...
0Monzo growth
2022-08-01 •
Tom Blomfield discusses the growth of Monzo, a digital bank, from its inception in 2015 to reaching 1 million customers in 2018. He details the strategies used to attract customers, such as press coverage, scarcity, and exclusivit...
0How to raise investment
2021-09-11 •
The text is a guide on how to raise investment based on the author's experience raising $400m at Monzo and investing in 75 seed deals as an angel in 2021. It includes advice on fundraising, the VC business model, raising with just...
0Unit Economics
2018-06-10 •
The text discusses the strategy of negative unit economics, where companies spend aggressively to gain market share, believing that they can turn things around once they achieve enough scale. It highlights the risks and benefits o...
0When to join a startup
2016-01-14 •
The text discusses the different stages of a startup and the experience of joining a startup at each stage. It provides insights into the challenges and opportunities at each stage, from bootstrapping to Series C funding. The auth...
0Five Unbreakable Rules for Startups
2015-12-13 •
Tom Blomfield shares five unbreakable rules for startups, based on his experience with 4 startups over the last 10 years. He emphasizes the importance of choosing cofounders carefully, having written agreements from the start, imp...
0Getting Shit Done
2015-11-08 •
The text discusses the importance of hiring and retaining people who 'get shit done' in startups. It describes the characteristics of such people and the impact they have on a company's success. The author emphasizes the need to i...
Apple's latest announcement on payments has sparked debate. Apple Pay is a step forward in user experience but entrenches a fundamentally broken card payment network. It makes significant strides in in-app payments. The new paymen...
0Customer churn can kill your startup
2014-07-10 •
The text discusses the importance of customer churn in startups, highlighting that while user growth is important, churn can be the death of a company. It explains the differences between high-churn and low-churn businesses, and p...
0Growth
2014-03-29 •
The text discusses the importance of growth in business and the significance of revenue goals. It emphasizes the need to focus on growing every month and provides examples of how long it would take to grow by 100 X at different gr...
0Startup Series Part 4: Deadlines
2013-09-29 •
The text discusses the issue of deadlines in software development, emphasizing the importance of scoping a project and breaking it down into manageable chunks. It highlights the benefits of scoped deadlines, such as promoting an i...
0Startup Series Part 3: You make what you measure
2013-09-26 •
The text discusses the importance of metrics in startups and how they can be used to improve performance. It emphasizes the need to choose the right metrics, break them down into actionable KPIs, and ensure that they are objective...
0Startup Series Part 2: Attracting great engineers
2013-09-22 •
The article discusses the challenges of attracting top-quality developers to a startup company and provides actionable tips for first-time founders. It emphasizes the importance of providing high-quality equipment, working on side...
0Startup Series Part 1: Interviewing Engineers
2013-09-20 •
The text discusses the challenges and pitfalls of hiring engineers at technology companies. It provides practical tips for designing and running an effective interview process, including defining a clear process, preparing good qu...
0Advice
2013-05-28 •
The text discusses the challenges of starting a company and the advice that is often given to early-stage startups. It highlights the difference between expert advice and baseless advice, and the importance of understanding the ma...
0Making something people want - The GoCardless story
2012-11-08 •
The text discusses the importance of making something people want in a startup. It shares the story of a startup that failed due to focusing too much on their vision and not enough on the actual needs of the users. It also highlig...
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0Don't write tests - The Hidden Cost of TDD
2012-04-01 •
The author discusses the benefits of testing in a large codebase, but also argues that in ultra early-stage startups, comprehensive testing may not be the right solution. The priority in such situations is to work out what people ...
0Home-Brew Customer Phone Support
2012-02-13 •
The text is a technical piece on automating customer service at a startup, focusing on implementing a home-brew customer service phone line using a basic Sinatra app on Heroku, the Twilio-ruby gem, and a simple Campfire gem called...