UK challenger bank Monzo’s co-founder and deputy CEO Paul Rippon has left the company “to go and enjoy life” at his alpaca farm.
He has spearheaded the growth of UK challenger bank Monzo since 2015 together with his four co-founders. But even though he has enjoyed building the brand from nothing to a venture with over 1,500 employees, 3.5 million customers and a £2bn valuation, Rippon is simply tired.
“Building a fast growing bank takes its toll and even reducing my ‘work hours’ didn’t reduce the cognitive and emotional overhead,” Rippon said in a blog post on LinkedIn. “At the same time [my wife] Debbie [Rippon] and I, mostly Debbie, has built our other business from scratch, Barnacre Alpacas. With no farming background or experience we now have over 300 alpacas and welcome many visitors to our farm and holiday cottages.
“For the next few weeks and months I’m going to enjoy some time with Debbie at our wonderful farm in Northumberland. You’ll find me doing the feed rounds, hosting alpaca walk ’n’ talks and driving my tractor (a Massey Ferguson 390T if you like that sort of thing – otherwise it’s big and red!). Sometime after April 2020 I plan to spend a day a week doing non-executive, consulting or coaching; the rest of the time will be reserved for Debbie, our alpaca farm and enjoying life.”
However, while Monzo has been quick to tout its success stories like being named the most recommended brand in Britain and integrating Google Pay into its services, the FinTech unicorn also faces its fair share of challenges.
In September, Monzo was forced to cancel its premium membership service after just a few months due to customer criticism. The company removed the subscription service and refunded some of the early adopters.
Monzo did hint that it would take the service back to the drawing board and that it might eventually be relaunched.
Nevertheless, the rollback could be reason for concern for the challenger bank’s investors who are yet to see any return on their investment.
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