Tom Blomfield
Born 1985 · Age 40
British entrepreneur; co-founder of Boso.com, GoCardless and Monzo; appointed OBE; Group Partner at Y Combinator.
Compare Your Trajectory
See how your career milestones stack up against Tom Blomfield and other industry leaders.
Life & Career Timeline
Born in Buckinghamshire, England
Thomas Benjamin Blomfield born in Buckinghamshire; father an entrepreneur with an engineering company.
Started secondary education at Dr Challoner's Grammar School
Attended Dr Challoner's Grammar School in Amersham (secondary schooling years approximated).
Built first paid website for a local estate agent
Early entrepreneurial project: charged £250 for a webpage plus £3 per house listing added after instructions.
Won £1,000 Oxford Entrepreneurs prize and launched Boso.com
Won a £1,000 business-plan prize at Oxford Entrepreneurs and launched an 'eBay for students' called Boso.com.
Boso.com expanded across UK universities
Boso.com expanded to operate across 50 universities in the UK; Blomfield ran the business from 2004–2006.
Exchange at Panthéon-Assas University (Paris II)
Spent an exchange year (2005–2006) at Université Panthéon-Assas studying French & European law.
Boso.com sold to a Canadian company
Boso.com was sold to a Canadian company for 'several million dollars' and was later remade into Auctomatic.
Graduated BA (Jurisprudence) from University of Oxford
Completed undergraduate degree in law (jurisprudence) at the University of Oxford (reported First Class).
Completed master's degree in Law at Oxford
Returned to Oxford for a master's degree in Law (2007–2008) and completed it (reported First Class).
Associate consultant at OC&C Strategy Consultants
Worked as an associate consultant at OC&C, working across consumer and service-sector clients.
Co-founded GoCardless
Co-founded the fintech payments company GoCardless with Hiroki Takeuchi and Matt Robinson in January 2011.
GoCardless accepted by Y Combinator; received early investment
GoCardless attended Y Combinator and received an early investment reported as £125,000.
Worked in Silicon Valley helping build GoCardless
Spent several months in Silicon Valley (YC) building GoCardless; cited as formative for understanding payments.
GoCardless raised capital and scaled while Blomfield was involved
During his ~3 years with the company, GoCardless raised around £35 million and hired ~100 people (cumulative during period).
First met Anne Boden (Starling) and discussed digital banking
Met Anne Boden around 2011 and discussed the idea of digital banking; relationship later influenced roles at Starling and Monzo.
Left GoCardless when Hiroki Takeuchi appointed CEO
Left GoCardless in 2013 after Hiroki Takeuchi formally became CEO; retained a 'very small share' in the company which was then valued at ~£50–100m.
Joined Grouper (NY) as Head of Growth
Moved to New York to join Grouper social club / dating site as Head of Growth after leaving GoCardless.
Named one of top five entrepreneurs under 30 by the European Commission
Recognised as one of the top five entrepreneurs under 30 by the European Commission.
Left Grouper
Departed Grouper in 2014; Grouper itself later closed in 2016.
Worked briefly at Starling Bank
Returned to the UK and worked with Anne Boden at one of the early digital banking startups, Starling; departed in early 2015 amid disagreements.
Co-founded Monzo (originally Mondo)
Founded challenger bank Monzo in 2015 (initially called Mondo); began issuing prepaid cards the same year.
Raised £1 million in 96 seconds (first Monzo crowdfunding)
Monzo's first crowdfunding round reportedly raised £1 million in 96 seconds, demonstrating strong community demand.
Monzo obtained a banking licence
Monzo transitioned from prepaid card issuer to a regulated bank after obtaining a banking licence (two years after 2015 launch).
Stripe invested in Monzo (first Stripe round)
U.S. payments company Stripe invested in Monzo as part of its growth funding (first reported Stripe investment 2017).
Monzo raised £113 million in financing (2018)
Monzo completed a reported £113m financing round in 2018 (reported in media as 2018 round).
Y Combinator & investors backed Monzo; valuation reported $2.5bn
Y Combinator and other investors participated in funding that valued Monzo at about $2.5 billion (2019 reports).
Monzo financial & user milestones (circa 2019)
Reports cited ~£1.2bn in customer deposits and ~3.8m registered customers (figures reported in 2018–2019 media coverage).
Monzo FY loss reported (year ending Feb 2019)
Monzo reported a loss of £47.2m on revenues of £9.1m for the fiscal year ending February 2019.
Appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)
Appointed OBE in the 2019 New Year Honours for services to improving competition and financial inclusion in banking.
Co-founder Paul Rippon departed Monzo
Fellow founder Paul Rippon left Monzo to pursue farming alpacas (reported January 2020).
Forgoing salary for 12 months to support Monzo during COVID-19
In April 2020 Blomfield announced he would forgo his salary for one year to help the company through the pandemic.
Moved from CEO to President of Monzo
In May 2020 Tom Blomfield stepped down as UK CEO and became President of Monzo.
Left Monzo permanently
Announced his permanent departure from Monzo in January 2021.
Joined Y Combinator as Visiting Group Partner
Became a Visiting Group Partner at Y Combinator after leaving Monzo (reported 2021).
Promoted to Group Partner at Y Combinator
Listed as Group Partner at Y Combinator in speaker and profile timelines (reported 2023).
Public commentary: criticism of Silicon Valley & British culture
Made public criticisms calling Silicon Valley a 'dystopia' and critiqued British culture for stifling entrepreneurs (press 2024 coverage).
Public advocacy for mental health & critique of tech wealth inequality
Has publicly advocated for better mental health support in tech and critiqued wealth inequality associated with Silicon Valley culture (ongoing commentary through 2020s).
Launched Recipe Ninja (AI recipe generation app)
Launched Recipe Ninja in March 2025 — an AI recipe app created by 'vibe coding' (personal project/product launch).
Recipe Ninja received media attention for bizarre generated recipes
Media reported that the app generated troll/bizarre recipes (e.g., 'Cyanide Ice Cream', 'Uranium Bomb'), prompting coverage and critique (Apr 2–3, 2025).
Western Business profile reports Monzo and personal net worth estimates
Profile pieces (May 2025) published claims about Monzo user growth, profitability and estimates of Blomfield's net worth (~£200m); these claims vary in certainty.
Key Achievement Ages
Explore what Tom Blomfield and others achieved at these notable ages:
Similar Trajectories
Zoe Sugg
Born 1990 · Age 35
English media personality, entrepreneur and author (aka Zoella). Began blogging/YouTube in 2009; built beauty/homeware brands; bestselling novelist and co-author of YA duology.
John Collison
Born 1990 · Age 35
Irish entrepreneur; co‑founder and president of Stripe. Co-founded multiple startups with brother Patrick Collison; became the world's youngest self-made billionaire in 2016.
Bowen Yang
Born 1990 · Age 35
Bowen Yang (b. Nov 6, 1990) is a Chinese-American comedian, actor, writer and podcaster known for Saturday Night Live, the podcast Las Culturistas, and film roles including Fire Island, Bros and Wicked.
Evan Spiegel
Born 1990 · Age 35
American entrepreneur, co-founder and CEO of Snap Inc., creator of Snapchat. Known for founding Snapchat as a Stanford class project, leading Snap through fundraises and IPO, philanthropy (Snap Foundation) and high-profile personal life (marriage to Miranda Kerr).
Daniel Sloss
Born 1990 · Age 35
Scottish comedian, actor and writer known for dark, socially incisive stand-up; multi‑special Netflix and HBO performer and international touring artist.
Graham Stephan
Born 1990 · Age 35
American real estate investor, YouTuber, and financial commentator known for content on real estate investing, frugal living, and personal finance.