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Tom Blomfield

47 statements across 2 episodes · 7 bullish · 19 bearish · 1 people on the record · first statement Nov 30, 2018 by Tom Blomfield · said 18 times in 7 episodes since 2018 · across every show →

On the record as a speaker too: Tom Blomfield's record, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.

Mentions by year

brought up most by Harry Stebbings (17), TS Anil (1)

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every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about Tom Blomfield, oldest first

Nov 30, 2018 positive
Opinion
Blomfield: Slack is far superior to alternatives and underpriced
“Slack, I think, is a really good example of, like, you just, you move on to that, and it's so much better than anything else out there. Like, I would really pay a lot more than they're charging to keep this product right now.”
Tom Blomfield Nov 30, 2018 ▶ 11:59 20VC: Monzo's Tom Blomfield on The 3 Phases of Startup Scaling, The Secret To Building a 1.2m Community with No Advertising & How To Use Boards As A Tool To Instil Operational Excellence
Nov 30, 2018 neutral
Disclosure
Blomfield: Monzo has completed product scaling and is defining its business model
“For us, for Monzo, I think we've just finished that second phase. We're into the third phase of really getting the business model nailed down.”
Tom Blomfield Nov 30, 2018 ▶ 10:03 20VC: Monzo's Tom Blomfield on The 3 Phases of Startup Scaling, The Secret To Building a 1.2m Community with No Advertising & How To Use Boards As A Tool To Instil Operational Excellence
Nov 30, 2018 negative
Disclosure
Tom Blomfield initially did not believe in brand or design at Monzo
“I came into Monzo really not believing in brand at all, or design.”
Tom Blomfield Nov 30, 2018 ▶ 20:41 20VC: Monzo's Tom Blomfield on The 3 Phases of Startup Scaling, The Secret To Building a 1.2m Community with No Advertising & How To Use Boards As A Tool To Instil Operational Excellence
Nov 30, 2018
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Blomfield: Preemptive mega fundraising rounds are extremely rare
“You hear about these mega fundraising rounds that were done preemptively and blah, blah, blah. That's so, so rare. Don't think about that. Think about if you can raise money at all, you're doing better than most startups, actually.”
Tom Blomfield Nov 30, 2018 ▶ 25:34 20VC: Monzo's Tom Blomfield on The 3 Phases of Startup Scaling, The Secret To Building a 1.2m Community with No Advertising & How To Use Boards As A Tool To Instil Operational Excellence
Nov 30, 2018
Insight
Blomfield: Passionate customer love is the single prerequisite for scaling
“Do your customers love this product? Is the, I think the only thing that actually matters at that point. I like this question of, to try and figure this out, asking your customers, how would you feel if we took this product away? And it's sort of like, I would…”
Tom Blomfield Nov 30, 2018 ▶ 11:28 20VC: Monzo's Tom Blomfield on The 3 Phases of Startup Scaling, The Secret To Building a 1.2m Community with No Advertising & How To Use Boards As A Tool To Instil Operational Excellence
Nov 30, 2018
Insight
Blomfield: Startups can scale successfully before establishing a business model
“I think there's actually a third phase now of sort of business model. I think a lot of companies Find product market fit, but without the business model. And you can scale very successfully without having the business model in place.”
Tom Blomfield Nov 30, 2018 ▶ 9:49 20VC: Monzo's Tom Blomfield on The 3 Phases of Startup Scaling, The Secret To Building a 1.2m Community with No Advertising & How To Use Boards As A Tool To Instil Operational Excellence
Nov 30, 2018
Disclosure
GoCardless was founded primarily to avoid working in management consulting
“The problem we were really trying to solve with GoCardus was How can we not be management consultants anymore? So we were really looking for anything that would let us start a company. We were more interested in the starting of the company than the, you know, …”
Tom Blomfield Nov 30, 2018 ▶ 4:17 20VC: Monzo's Tom Blomfield on The 3 Phases of Startup Scaling, The Secret To Building a 1.2m Community with No Advertising & How To Use Boards As A Tool To Instil Operational Excellence
Nov 30, 2018 negative
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Monzo's early product was so buggy that 10% of card payments failed
“The very early Monzo product was so buggy that people used it because they believed in this mission that we kind of talked a lot about, but the actual product experience was kind of crappy, actually, and it didn't really work, and probably 10% of payments fail…”
Tom Blomfield Nov 30, 2018 ▶ 9:01 20VC: Monzo's Tom Blomfield on The 3 Phases of Startup Scaling, The Secret To Building a 1.2m Community with No Advertising & How To Use Boards As A Tool To Instil Operational Excellence
May 13, 2024 negative
Opinion
Blomfield: Standard Oxford-to-McKinsey career paths are 'boring' for YC candidates
“That's the kind of exceptionalism that we're looking for in some area of their life. And it might come out through the application, it might be the interview video, or the interview itself, but we're looking for that spark that they are not average, like they'…”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 24:31 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Blomfield: Offhand Founder Remarks at Monzo Sent 30-Person Teams Off Course
“At Monzo, anytime I said anything, A whole team would, like, spring into action, and even if I didn't intend them to do it, I'd be very careful what I said, because literally I'd come back two weeks later and find 30 people had gone off in crazy tangent.”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 57:58 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024 neutral
Insight
Blomfield: Extreme work intensity works short-term but is unsustainable long-term
“I agree over a short to medium time period. I think, I don't know how founders do it over a 10 or 20 year time period, because I cannot work for that intensity for that long.”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 55:17 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024 positive
Opinion
Blomfield: Mickey Malka is the ultimate board choice for fintech
“If I was doing fintech, I would choose Mickey Malka from Ribbit.”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 59:37 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024
Disclosure
Blomfield: Reads thousands of YC applications per batch to fund 25 startups
“I'll read several thousand, pick a hundred to interview, fund 25.”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 22:48 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024 positive
Insight
Blomfield: AI B2B SaaS startups should target mid-market, not other startups
“Big companies are now more willing to spend money on this stuff than they ever were. So the previous advice of, like, go and sell to other startups, I think is actually not good for very, and maybe a dev tool startup, go and sell to other startups, but in gene…”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 51:40 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024 negative
Opinion
Blomfield: Startup founders are not necessarily the most likable people
“I don't think founders are necessarily the most likable people, honestly.”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 21:02 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Blomfield: 20% to 25% of startups in a Y Combinator batch pivot
“20, 25%.”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 31:30 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024 negative
What-if
Blomfield: Profitable $1M ARR YC startup accepted lower valuation due to fundraising anxiety
“And this happened to a couple of my companies, this batch, where a phenomenal, like, crazy all-star team, like, ridiculous, like, every sort of pedigree you'd want amazing product, profitable, like, more than a million in revenue, and that just, the founder wa…”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 34:19 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024 negative
Opinion
Blomfield: Chase Sapphire and Amex prevent neobanks from winning affluent US consumers
“It's just not been a successful mainstream neobank in the U.S. Chime is good, but it's targeting kind of gig economy workers, and then for the more affluent customers, Chase Sapphire and American Express just have the market sewn up.”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 17:02 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024 negative
Opinion
Blomfield: Complacency is the single biggest threat to Y Combinator
“Complacency, I think. We could coast on our laurel, rest on our laurels, I guess, not to mix metaphors, for quite a long time without realizing it. Yeah, and then we just recruit bad partners who give bad advice, but continue to recruit reasonable companies, a…”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 1:04:23 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024
Disclosure
Blomfield: Top YC startups always raise pre-Demo Day, prompting new deadline rules
“The trope was always, oh, everyone raises before demo day, which is true, like the best companies absolutely always raise before demo day, and so now we've just set a deadline, like two weeks before demo day, and said, you may start fundraising on that day, tw…”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 33:00 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024
Insight
Blomfield: Startups should launch with tiny, highly polished feature sets
“I would always encourage founders to go for a very, very, very narrow feature set, like, even narrower than they possibly could imagine, and polish it to a very, very high level of quality and get people, only a few people, a few hundred people, really excitin…”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 29:51 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024 positive
What-if
Blomfield: I wouldn't have started Monzo without Y Combinator
“I mean, I wouldn't have started Monzo without it, for sure”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 3:20 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024
Disclosure
Blomfield stayed at Monzo long after he stopped being happy
“It drove me to do Monzo, and drove me to stay at Monzo for a long time after I was happy, and in the years since, it's kind of gone away.”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 1:06:16 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024 negative
Opinion
Blomfield: Starting a family brings more happiness than building another unicorn
“Yeah, like if I, if over the next 10 years I met someone great and we had a family, that would be happiness for me over creating another billion dollar company. Like, who needs another one of those?”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 1:10:01 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024 negative
Opinion
Blomfield: All VC funds have terrible politics, except Y Combinator
“All of the funds I've seen have, like, pretty horrible politics, and I think YC has the least politics of all of them.”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 1:09:07 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024
Insight
Blomfield: VCs should back arrogant, obnoxious founders if they build massive businesses
“I don't think so. I mean, it helps, it makes your life more fun, but there are people who are just like a little bit scary, you know, it's like they're a little bit arrogant, perhaps a little bit obnoxious, a little bit too sure of themselves, and I wouldn't w…”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 20:40 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024 negative
Opinion
Blomfield: SoftBank's London team is arrogant and unwelcome on cap tables
“Probably SoftBank. I had a very unpleasant experience with the SoftBank London team. Just a bunch of pretty arrogant, like, Deutsche Bank traders turned venture capital investors. They were not fun at all.”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 1:00:07 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024 negative
Assertion Partly supported
Blomfield: Founders Were Selling 25% to 30% at Seed Stage
“The advice we've seen, or the trends we've seen over the last few years is that founders were getting way over diluted in their seed round. They're giving away 25 or 30% of their company at seed.”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 35:36 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024 positive
Opinion
Blomfield: Monzo's CEO and COO navigated regulation better than I ever could
“And I think TS, the new CEO, and Sajata, the COO, are spectacularly good at that, as well as maintaining the culture and the products. And they've just done such a good job taking it over the, you know, when I left it over the next four years that I couldn't h…”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 56:51 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024 negative
Disclosure
Blomfield: Monzo scaling to 1,000 employees created culture clash over work-life balance
“The first, absolutely first two, three years at Monzo, we were working like crazy people. I mean, the first 50 people at Monzo were so spectacularly talented, and gave, like, I'm friends with so many of them now still, and they're like, they Bear the scars of …”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 55:27 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024
Disclosure
Blomfield: YC interviews count for only 10% to 20% of admissions decisions
“I'd say the interview is like 10 or 20% of the entire process.”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 23:50 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024 negative
Opinion
Blomfield: I ended up hating Monzo because it became bloated and over-regulated
“I loved the product all the way through, but by the end I hated the company because it got so big and so over-regulated in my opinion,”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 56:22 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024 negative
Assertion Supported
Blomfield: GoCardless couldn't raise any investment in London in 2011
“We couldn't raise a single penny of investment in 2011.”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 4:28 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024 neutral
Assertion Partly supported
Blomfield: YC requires 18-month visiting partner role before full partnership
“YC has this interesting model where they make you do a, be a visiting partner for 18 months, which is The, like, the most brutal job interview I've ever done.”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 17:37 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024
Assertion Supported
Blomfield: Monzo received 96 consecutive investor rejections for a 2020 flat round
“And I had 96 no's in a row for that fundraise to try and do a flat round.”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 4:59 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024
Insight
Blomfield: Great founders simultaneously hold 10-year vision and daily execution
“This is a key skill of a founder, which is holding these two realities in your head simultaneously without the cognitive dissonance or driving yourself crazy. One is the big vision of 10 years. Say the one percent best outcome, if this really, really works, wh…”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 30:30 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024 negative
Insight
Blomfield: Repeatedly pivoting a startup indicates the founder is the problem
“Pivoting is like divorces. Like maybe one or two is reasonable, but if you're doing it multiple times in a row, maybe the problem is you.”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 32:16 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024 negative
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Monzo board blacklisted predatory investor who attempted last-minute valuation cut
“He has been blacklisted from, he's tried to invest even after I left. And to their credit, the Monzo board have said, we're not working with you.”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 1:01:57 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Blomfield: YC partners gather enough evaluation data in 3 to 4 minutes
“Get enough in three or four minutes, but it seems rude to finish the interview so quickly.”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 23:23 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024
Assertion Supported
Blomfield: A single YC partner can unilaterally decide to fund a startup
“Each of the partners has access to the entire application pool, but if I read an application and I, I'm the first one to say, yes, that's mine, then I get to interview it. And if I interview it, and I'm the sole person who says, yes, we will invest, then it ge…”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 22:09 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024
Disclosure
Tom Blomfield made 76 angel investments in nine months during 2021
“And then I started angel investing in 2021, and I managed to sell some shares in GoCard as my first company, and I put aside a pot of money that I wanted to put back into the tech ecosystem, specifically the UK tech ecosystem. So I made I was planning to inves…”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 10:27 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024 neutral
Insight
Blomfield: YC visiting partners act as teaching assistants to professors
“Being a visiting partner is a great apprenticeship, but it feels like, a little bit like being a teaching assistant at a university versus being a professor at a university. You know, the professor sets the syllabus and the exam questions and admits the studen…”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 17:54 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024 negative
Prediction Open · timeframe May 2029
Tom Blomfield: I will absolutely never found another company
“Absolutely not. I love it, but it ruined... It ruined my life in a way.”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 53:10 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024 bullish
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Blomfield: AI startups hit $1M revenue from Fortune 500s within YC batch
“I've seen companies go from zero to like half a million or a million of revenue within the YC batch. With really, really big companies, like Fortune, 500 companies, and turn them into recurring contracts.”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 52:21 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Blomfield: Shutting down Continuity improved YC's relationships with multi-stage VCs
“Shutting down continuity, our growth fund, has enabled to have a, enabled WIC to have a much more collaborative relationship with multi-stage VCs.”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 32:42 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024 negative
Insight
Blomfield: Preemptive VC offers yield lower valuations than Demo Day auctions
“They give you a preemptive offer. But the valuation is not as good as you would get by demo day, because that's why they're doing this, right?”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 33:36 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 13, 2024 negative
Opinion
Tom Blomfield: Running a large company really sucks
“The problem is, when you're good at that stuff, it turns into a big company. And then you have to run a fucking big company, which sucks. It really, really sucks.”
Tom Blomfield May 13, 2024 ▶ 53:34 Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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