> First, a note about the context. We started the company in the UK in February 2015, when “digital banks” weren’t yet a popular idea. BankSimple had launched in 2012 with some big plans, but sold to BBVA in early 2014 with about 100,000 accounts, having struggled to raise sufficient funding to continue. N26 started development in late 2013, initially as a card for kids, while Revolut was founded a few months after Monzo, in April 2015.

Is it odd that the author, along with the rest of the founders, came from Starling Bank[1], a UK digital bank founded in 2014, and yet Starling Bank isn't mentioned?

Slightly less obvious, but still important, is the UK's first internet bank, Egg, was founded in 1998! [2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monzo [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_Banking

Good old Monzo times.

Sadly, in my opinion the company took on too much investment and was now bound to deliver tech-company returns with a product that fundamentally isn't compatible with them. This led them to become yet another bullshit "growth & engagement" operation and ultimately killed the appeal of the product, all while competitors such as Starling Bank stepped up their game and delivered a very similar product that is not only profitable but doesn't have those "growth & engagement" vibes because they didn't have the same pressure and could afford to take things slow.

I was one of the early adopters. Monzo felt fresh and exciting back when it started, kind of like Google in its early days. But I later switched to Revolut and never looked back. I was driven purely by intuition and no particular reason.

While trying to understand why, I thought it was probably because there was too much PR and fuzz around Monzo as an "ethical business" and little action. You don't just talk about being ethical or caring about the customers (most data collection companies say "we value your privacy"). You prove it by doing, by delivering an amazing product and customer support, and by showing how you are going to turn profitable. Revolut and other competitors talk less but you can see they are doing reasonable job on all fronts.

Sadly closed my Monzo account down recently after applying for a joint account with my partner and being denied with no explanation (both long term users, good credit etc). Apparently a common story. Opened a Starling account and got one straight away. It's a shame because the Monzo user interface is miles better.

Earlier this year my partner and I switched our joint account from Monzo to Starling simply because we both hated using the Monzo app. Navigating the app feels unnatural to us and probably due to how infrequently we use it, we never learnt to live with it. Last week I finally closed my personal Monzo account as I only used it for one small DD a month and much prefer the Starling and NatWest apps.

On a general note, referral rewards are not necessarily a good thing i.e. when you say "invite a friend and get $X". Turns out non-money rewards work better.

A quote from [1]:

> When money comes into play it switches us from ‘social mode’ to ‘business transaction mode’. We become more selfish, distant, less helpful, and less willing to be helped.

You don't even need research to back this, it seems obvious when you think about it.

[1] https://tips.ariyh.com/p/non-money-referrals

I downloaded Monzo on the Play store and installed it. During registration it asked for personal data like my address etc then proceeded to tell me it’s a UK only app. I was shocked. I’m in the EEA and thought I could use the app. It should be clear in the app’s description that it’s a UK only affair. I imagine this has happened to many more people other than me.

Given Monzo's hiring practices, I'm not sanguine about the future of this company.

I myself went through their interview process not long ago and to say it lived up to the sentiment of the glassdoor reviews is putting it mildly. Several rounds, silly armchair-psychologist behavioral questions, and the interviewers made it blatant that they didn't want to be there. Did my last interview at 4pm one day, got rejected by 8am next business day. I've gotten offers from Google, Amazon, etc so I know I interview well, not sure what happened there but really got the vibe that their employees are never quite sure if they're doing well, and management likes it that way.

They're a bank struggling to market themselves as a tech company.

Not the intended use case, but the monzo.me links are great for financial domination too.

As a cash slave, it makes it very easy to send to UK-based cash masters from outside the UK.

How do they make money?

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