Tom Blomfield</a> is one of them.</p><p>Rarer yet is just how<em> real</em> Tom is about all of it. Listening to his stories from the early days of <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/gocardless/">GoCardless and <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/monzo-bank/">Monzo feels like riding a roller coaster — because that’s what building a company is. The highs are high, the lows are low, and the transitions between the two can be so sudden they leave you spinning.</p><p>Each episode of <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/surbhi-sarna-backstory/">our series Backstory</a> will introduce you to one of YC’s Group Partners and the path they took to get here. This is Tom’s story.</p><figure class=\"kg-card kg-embed-card\"><iframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.youtube.com/embed/QKPgBAnbc10?feature=oembed\%22 frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen title=\"Tom Blomfield: How I Created Two Billion-Dollar Fintech Startups\"></iframe></figure>","comment_id":"65b9523965f4090001462638","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2024/01/SR09E02_Thumbnail.jpg","featured":true,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2024-01-30T11:47:05.000-08:00","updated_at":"2024-01-30T14:32:07.000-08:00","published_at":"2024-01-30T14:04:45.000-08:00","custom_excerpt":"There aren’t a ton of people in the world who can say they founded a billion dollar company. There are far fewer that can say they did it twice.\n\nYC Group Partner Tom Blomfield is one of those few — this is his backstory.","codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710d2","name":"Garry Tan","slug":"garry","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2023/03/Instagram-Image-Template--Square---21-.png","cover_image":null,"bio":"Garry is the President & CEO of Y Combinator. Previously, he was the co-founder & Managing Partner of Initialized Capital. Before that, he co-founded Posterous (YC S08) which was acquired by Twitter.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":"@garrytan","meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/garry/"}],"tags":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71172","name":"Video","slug":"video","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/video/"}],"primary_author":{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710d2","name":"Garry Tan","slug":"garry","profile_image":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/images/2023/03/Instagram-Image-Template--Square---21-.png","cover_image":null,"bio":"Garry is the President & CEO of Y Combinator. Previously, he was the co-founder & Managing Partner of Initialized Capital. Before that, he co-founded Posterous (YC S08) which was acquired by Twitter.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":"@garrytan","meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/garry/"},"primary_tag":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71172","name":"Video","slug":"video","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/video/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tom-blomfield-backstory/","excerpt":"There aren’t a ton of people in the world who can say they founded a billion dollar company. There are far fewer that can say they did it twice.\n\nYC Group Partner Tom Blomfield is one of those few — this is his backstory.","reading_time":1,"access":true,"og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"email_subject":null,"frontmatter":null,"feature_image_alt":"YC Group Partner Tom Blomfield under the text \"BUILDING A BANK: Tom Blomfield's Backstory\"","feature_image_caption":null},"mentions":[],"related_posts":[{"id":"64b847eef63b700001fe8526","uuid":"6a136ace-31a7-4b43-b5aa-b4f70c554e7d","title":"Introducing our newest video series: Office Hours","slug":"introducing-our-newest-video-series-office-hours","html":"<p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/brex/">Brex’s co-founders originally wanted to build a VR headset. <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/goat-group/">GOAT’s co-founders set out to build an app for meeting new people over dinner. Instagram was a Foursquare competitor. Slack was a game. YouTube wanted to be a dating site. </p><p>It turns out many of the billion dollar companies you know and love today pivoted on the way to getting there, and that’s what the first episode of our newest video series <strong><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/library/carousel/Office Hours/">Office Hours</a></strong> is about.</p><p>How do you know if it’s time for your startup to pivot? How can you narrow down which idea to try next — and how will you know if that next idea is the one?</p><p>In <strong>Office Hours</strong>, we’ll feature Y Combinator’s <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/people/">Group Partners</a> discussing the startup topics that they know better than just about anyone else in the world, because they’ve built their own successful startups and have advised thousands more. What other set of people in the world has seen zero-to-one success so many times? There is no parallel.</p><figure class=\"kg-card kg-embed-card\"><iframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.youtube.com/embed/DmehFuCMtvc?feature=oembed\%22 frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen title=\"Startup Experts Reveal Their Favorite Pivot Stories\"></iframe></figure><p>Pivots are frequently misunderstood. You might think that pivoting is something done only by the startups that don’t make it; in reality, a huge number of the best startups pivoted. The first steps on your startup journey might not be in the best direction, but they’re getting you that much closer to the path you’re looking for.</p><p>This is just the first co-production by YC's video team (Zach Both and Ryan Loughlin) and Garry Tan, president of YC, in deep collaboration with all dozen of YC’s deeply experienced group partners. Be on the lookout for the next episode of Office Hours in just a few weeks.</p>","comment_id":"64b847eef63b700001fe8526","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2023/07/office-hours-featured.png","featured":true,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2023-07-19T13:30:38.000-07:00","updated_at":"2024-01-11T10:40:53.000-08:00","published_at":"2023-07-21T10:34:33.000-07:00","custom_excerpt":"Many of the billion dollar startups you know and love had to pivot, and that’s what the first episode of our newest video series Office Hours is about. ","codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710d2","name":"Garry Tan","slug":"garry","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2023/03/Instagram-Image-Template--Square---21-.png","cover_image":null,"bio":"Garry is the President & CEO of Y Combinator. Previously, he was the co-founder & Managing Partner of Initialized Capital. Before that, he co-founded Posterous (YC S08) which was acquired by Twitter.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":"@garrytan","meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/garry/"},{"id":"645000ebb09be6000165fbad","name":"Greg Kumparak","slug":"greg","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2023/05/greg.jpeg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Greg oversees editorial content at Y Combinator. He was previously an editor at TechCrunch for nearly 15 years.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/greg/"}],"tags":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71172","name":"Video","slug":"video","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/video/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a711b8","name":"#1556","slug":"hash-1556","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"internal","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/404/"},{"id":"64bab4222f303f00013abd53","name":"#168","slug":"hash-168","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"internal","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/404/"},{"id":"64bab5032f303f00013abd59","name":"Office Hours","slug":"office-hours","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/office-hours/"}],"primary_author":{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710d2","name":"Garry Tan","slug":"garry","profile_image":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/images/2023/03/Instagram-Image-Template--Square---21-.png","cover_image":null,"bio":"Garry is the President & CEO of Y Combinator. Previously, he was the co-founder & Managing Partner of Initialized Capital. Before that, he co-founded Posterous (YC S08) which was acquired by Twitter.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":"@garrytan","meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/garry/"},"primary_tag":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71172","name":"Video","slug":"video","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/video/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/introducing-our-newest-video-series-office-hours/","excerpt":"Brex’s co-founders originally wanted to build a VR headset. GOAT’s co-founders set out to build an app for meeting new people over dinner. Instagram was a Foursquare competitor. Slack was a game. YouTube wanted to be a dating site. ","reading_time":1,"access":true,"og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"email_subject":null,"frontmatter":null,"feature_image_alt":"A promo image for Office Hours featuring three YC group partners","feature_image_caption":null},{"id":"61fe29f1c7139e0001a71bcd","uuid":"fc4ee9d2-93ac-4052-9d66-b4ce182dd591","title":"ICYMI: Watch 40+ founders pitch at YC's Work at a Startup Expo","slug":"watch-yc-founders-pitch-from-work-at-a-startup-expo","html":"<!--kg-card-begin: html--><p>If you&#8217;ve ever wondered what <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/demoday/">YC&#8217;s Demo Day</a> is like, YC&#8217;s annual <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.workatastartup.com/events/startup-career-expo-s20/">Work at a Startup Expo</a> is a peek behind the curtain. Founders share what&#8217;s unique about their company, business and team, and attendees get to meet founders 1-1 to learn more. Granted, these pitches are geared a bit more towards hiring and engineering, but the stakes are still high and founders share the same energy and drive as during Demo Day. (And hiring a great early team is often as important as raising an early round.)</p>\n<p>We were lucky to be joined by 40+ founders for this year&#8217;s virtual event. There was a wider range of startups, from up-and-coming seed-stage startups like <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.workatastartup.com/companies/13208/">WhatNot and <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.workatastartup.com/companies/13290/">Candid Health</a>, to post-Series A companies <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.workatastartup.com/companies/13097/">Pulley and <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.workatastartup.com/companies/13227/">Welcome.

/n

We&#8217;re sharing the recording in case people are interested in crafting their pitch, learning about new technology or even joining a YC startup themselves. (Joining a startup is often the best way to learn what it&#8217;s like to start your own.) Watch the pitches above, and learn more about the companies and see open positions on YC&#8217;s Work at a Startup:</p>\n<p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.workatastartup.com/events/startup-career-expo-s20/">https://www.workatastartup.com/events/startup-career-expo-s20

/n by Garry Tan, Greg Kumparak