The challenge
When I joined, Monese was at pre-seed stage: two founders, an idea, and no product, customers or established banking infrastructure. The ambition was to make banking more accessible through a mobile-first experience, at a time when mobile-only banking was still an unfamiliar proposition in the UK. Building the product meant coordinating engineering, design, regulatory requirements, external partners and operational capabilities that were themselves still taking shape.
My role
I joined as Monese's first non-founder hire and moved gradually from marketing into product development and delivery. As the company grew, my responsibilities spanned internal and outsourced engineering teams, product requirements, QA, technical coordination and delivery. Approximately three to four months before the planned first launch, the Head of Product left unexpectedly. I took over responsibility for getting the product across the finish line.
What I led
The final launch required much more than finishing the mobile application. I coordinated outstanding product scope, engineering and design decisions, integrations, partner readiness, testing, customer support, AML operations and internal systems, all against a planned public launch and press coverage.
Getting a mobile-only bank through review
App Store approval was the hardest single piece. The mobile-only banking model was unfamiliar to reviewers, and Apple's process required detailed explanations and additional work before the application could even be assessed.
After launch
Responsibilities kept expanding across internal systems, regulatory product operations, engineering leadership, recruitment, localization and strategic initiatives. I helped introduce OKRs across the company and led localization work supporting eight languages.
The outcome
Monese launched within the intended window, which let the business begin serving customers, expand its operations and pursue its next stages of growth.
During my time there the company grew to hundreds of thousands of customers across Europe, roughly 300 employees across four offices, and native iOS and Android applications averaging around 4.6 stars. It subsequently raised a $10 million Series A and a $60 million Series B.
That growth belonged to a great many people. What I can say precisely is where I stood in it: I joined when there was no product, and I left having helped build the systems, teams and capabilities behind a European fintech.
