Full Width [alt+shift+f] Shortcuts [alt+shift+k]
Sign Up [alt+shift+s] Log In [alt+shift+l]

Tom Blomfield

Tom Blomfield
Taking Risk I just spent a week talking with some exceptional students from three of the UK’s top universities;...
9 months ago
102
9 months ago
I just spent a week talking with some exceptional students from three of the UK’s top universities; Cambridge, Oxford and Imperial College. Along with UCL, these British universities represent 4 of the top 10 universities in the world. The US - a country with 5x more people and...
Tom Blomfield
What is “founder mode”? We held a YC event a couple of months ago where Brian Chesky from Airbnb gave a passionate talk...
4 months ago
62
4 months ago
We held a YC event a couple of months ago where Brian Chesky from Airbnb gave a passionate talk about his experience running Airbnb over the last 17 years. He believed that as Airbnb hired more professional managers, he lost a close connection with the details of the end product...
Tom Blomfield
Monzo growth I’ve been asked a few times recently how we got customers to sign up to Monzo in the early years and...
over a year ago
18
over a year ago
I’ve been asked a few times recently how we got customers to sign up to Monzo in the early years and I haven’t been able to give a satisfactory answer in a sufficiently short space of time. I thought I’d write out my thoughts in a longer piece so I can feel less bad about giving...
Tom Blomfield
When to join a startup Something has changed in the last few years which has made an increasing number of people want to...
over a year ago
17
over a year ago
Something has changed in the last few years which has made an increasing number of people want to join startups. It seemed to start around the time the Social Network movie came out - perhaps it’s just a coincidence, but part of me imagines a group of MBAs sitting around watching...
Tom Blomfield
How to raise investment Update: I am no longer personally angel investing - I’m focussed on other things at the moment....
over a year ago
16
over a year ago
Update: I am no longer personally angel investing - I’m focussed on other things at the moment. Please don’t ask me to invest in your company! 🙂 I started angel-investing in 2021, and a large proportion of the companies I put money into asked for help raising an investment...
Tom Blomfield
Making something people want - The GoCardless story I’m a co-founder of GoCardless, a direct debit payments company in London. This is the story of our...
over a year ago
15
over a year ago
I’m a co-founder of GoCardless, a direct debit payments company in London. This is the story of our first two years and the people we’ve met along the way. Making something no-one wants One startup I know very well in San Francisco was started by 3 ex-financiers. Their idea...
Tom Blomfield
Unit Economics The old joke describes a lot of companies at the moment - “I’ll sell at a loss but make it up on...
over a year ago
15
over a year ago
The old joke describes a lot of companies at the moment - “I’ll sell at a loss but make it up on volume.” Pilloried in the press, startups burn through vast sums of capital before spectacularly imploding. Let’s go back to 2012-13. The world was finally emerging from a punishing...
Tom Blomfield
Growth “When eating an elephant, take one bite at a time.” - Creighton Abrams I was chatting with an...
over a year ago
15
over a year ago
“When eating an elephant, take one bite at a time.” - Creighton Abrams I was chatting with an investor a year or two ago, shortly after our Series A, and the subject of revenue goals came up. At the time, our revenue was pretty low - less than 10% of monthly costs. We estimated...
Tom Blomfield
Home-Brew Customer Phone Support This is the technical part of a longer piece on “Automating Customer Service at a Startup”  DIY...
over a year ago
14
over a year ago
This is the technical part of a longer piece on “Automating Customer Service at a Startup”  DIY Phone Support We implemented a home-brew customer service phone line in a few hours with a basic Sinatra app on Heroku, using the Twilio-ruby gem to generate TwiML (saving us the pain...
Tom Blomfield
Peter Nixey: Cook something or get out of the kitchen Peter Nixey: Cook something or get out of the kitchen: peternixey: I seem to have a lot of...
over a year ago
14
over a year ago
Peter Nixey: Cook something or get out of the kitchen: peternixey: I seem to have a lot of conversations recently with people who find themselves in the kitchen but without the means to cook anything. As a cook myself they often ask me how to go about finding themselves a chef...
Tom Blomfield
Startup Series Part 1: Interviewing Engineers There’s been a huge volume of literature written on the subject of startup methodologies and...
over a year ago
13
over a year ago
There’s been a huge volume of literature written on the subject of startup methodologies and philosophies. This is a positive thing for the ecosystem - just as new software tools mean it’s simpler and cheaper to start a company, these methodologies allow first-time entrepreneurs...
Tom Blomfield
Five Unbreakable Rules for Startups I’ve been involved with 4 startups over the last 10 years or so, 3 as a co-founder. I’m a follower...
over a year ago
13
over a year ago
I’ve been involved with 4 startups over the last 10 years or so, 3 as a co-founder. I’m a follower of Paul Graham and the YC camp of startup wisdom. There’s now a great deal of literature laying out the unbreakable rules for startups. Despite studying this literature, I’ve...
Tom Blomfield
Advice Starting a company is a challenging process - you’re thrown into the deep-end with nothing but your...
over a year ago
13
over a year ago
Starting a company is a challenging process - you’re thrown into the deep-end with nothing but your wits to help you. Often, though, advice will be forthcoming. This post is about that advice, and how to spot the difference between good and bad. Some advice is expert - your...
Tom Blomfield
Don't write tests - The Hidden Cost of TDD I’ve been following the TDD/testing debate with some interest; I work at an early-stage payments...
over a year ago
12
over a year ago
I’ve been following the TDD/testing debate with some interest; I work at an early-stage payments startup called GoCardless where we test religiously. We’re not dogmatic about whether the tests come first or not, but code doesn’t get deployed without full unit & acceptance tests....
Tom Blomfield
Automating Customer Service at a Startup Customer service can make or break a company; it has been one of the key differentiators as a new...
over a year ago
12
over a year ago
Customer service can make or break a company; it has been one of the key differentiators as a new generation of startups seeks to compete against incumbents. While people remember examples of awesome customer service, the opposite is also true. At GoCardless, we decided early on...
Tom Blomfield
Customer churn can kill your startup Startups are about growth, and of all the different possible metrics, startups often focus on user...
over a year ago
12
over a year ago
Startups are about growth, and of all the different possible metrics, startups often focus on user growth - if people aren’t using your new product or service in greater and greater numbers, it’s a good sign that you’re not on the right track. And, as long as your business-model...
Tom Blomfield
Startup Series Part 4: Deadlines The question of deadlines is one of the most divisive issues in software development today....
over a year ago
12
over a year ago
The question of deadlines is one of the most divisive issues in software development today. Business-people despair at developers’ inability to meet goals, while developers lament the latest unachievable deadline imposed by their pointy-haired boss. In practice, there is often a...
Tom Blomfield
Getting Shit Done I was recently talking to a handful of successful startups founders about issues they were facing as...
over a year ago
12
over a year ago
I was recently talking to a handful of successful startups founders about issues they were facing as they scaled up their companies. Unanimously, hiring and retaining people who “get shit done” seemed to be their biggest problem. I’ve been thinking about this for the last few...
Tom Blomfield
Automate Everything Performing manual, repetitive tasks enrages me. I used to think this was a corollary of being a...
over a year ago
12
over a year ago
Performing manual, repetitive tasks enrages me. I used to think this was a corollary of being a programmer, but I’ve come to suspect (or hope) that this behaviour is inherent in being human. But being able to hack together scripts simply makes it much easier to go from a state of...
Tom Blomfield
Apple is propping up a fundamentally broken payments industry Apple’s latest announcement on payments has sparked some interesting debate but also a fair share of...
over a year ago
11
over a year ago
Apple’s latest announcement on payments has sparked some interesting debate but also a fair share of breathless pronouncements on a “revolution" in mobile payments. To be clear - Apple Pay is a step forward in terms of end user experience - but it simply entrenches a...
Tom Blomfield
Startup Series Part 3: You make what you measure Merely measuring something has an uncanny tendency to improve it. If you want to make your user...
over a year ago
11
over a year ago
Merely measuring something has an uncanny tendency to improve it. If you want to make your user numbers go up, put a big piece of paper on your wall and every day plot the number of users. You’ll be delighted when it goes up and disappointed when it goes down. Pretty soon you’ll...
Tom Blomfield
Startup Series Part 2: Attracting great engineers This is the second in a series of articles on the operational side of running startup - once you’ve...
over a year ago
7
over a year ago
This is the second in a series of articles on the operational side of running startup - once you’ve found product-market fit and raised VC cash, how do you go about building a business? The first post in this series, on the hiring process, assumes you have a sufficient number of...