The serial start-up man whose final stop will be delivery vans

WHEN Tristan Thomas has some spare time on his hands, rather than sink into a Netflix binge, he starts a new business.

- Lucy Tobin

It was while working as head of marketing at digital bank Monzo that he launched a wine company side hustle — “it was lockdown,” he says, “and I found myself with time on my hands and a desire to source cheap wine.” And it was while he was running the wine business and about to leave Monzo that he decided to start a logistics company.

“The wine business — Wine Post — was a fun side project to keep me entertained. Wine for millennials,” he explains, “you order wine, rate each bottle, and we send more wine based on your notes. But during a year of running it on the side while at Monzo, I ended up getting a first-hand view into the terrible world of logistics,” he grins.

So Thomas’s brother took over Wine Post, while he set up his own logistics business. The resultant firm, Packfleet, is only two years old but already has big-brand customers including clothing rental firm Hurr, restaurant meal kits Dishpatch and Monmouth coffee — and a £1.3 million turnover.

He did leave his day job this time — after five years at Monzo, Thomas, who is now 31, says he was “ready for a new challenge, keen to go back to the early days of a start-up. I thought that the logistics industry could be revolutionised by using technology.”