About
Two startups, two exits. I am a Melbourne product leader and engineer. I focus on going zero to one.
I co-founded VenueSafe during COVID. me&u (formerly Mr Yum) bought it in six months. I stayed two years, helped me&u reach 15M+ users, and supported the US launch from Austin, Texas.
Next I co-founded Fingertip with Olly Hoffman and the founders of Catch and Menulog. We reached tens of thousands of small businesses in 100+ countries. Linktree then bought Fingertip.
Today I work on AI at Linktree. I build AI tools for creators and small businesses.
On the side I ship apps, developer tools, and open-source libraries as the Blode Stack: the Glide typeface, Blode UI, Blode Icons, allmd, and DiffHub, a local diff viewer for cmux and agent-written code.
Highlights
- 6 months
- VenueSafe went from idea to acquisition by me&u in six months.
- 15M+ users
- Helped scale me&u's mobile ordering platform to 15M+ users globally after VenueSafe was acquired.
- 100+ countries
- Fingertip supported small businesses globally before its acquisition by Linktree.
- Zero to one
- My specialty is building the early product, engineering, and AI systems that get new ventures moving.
Experience
Linktree (opens in new tab)
AI Engineer
2025 - Present
Building AI agents and assistants that help creators grow and manage their Linktree.
- Building AI agents and product experiences for 90M+ Linktree users.
Fingertip (opens in new tab)
Co-founder & CTO
2023 - 2025
Co-founded Fingertip with Olly Hoffman, Gabby Leibovich, and Hezi Leibovich to help small businesses run more of their business online.
- Scaled to tens of thousands of small businesses across 100+ countries.
- Built product and engineering across website creation, bookings, payments, and invoicing.
- Fingertip was acquired by Linktree in 2025.
me&u (opens in new tab)
Senior Software Engineer
2022 - 2023
Joined me&u (formerly Mr Yum) after the VenueSafe acquisition and helped scale the platform to 15M+ users globally.
- Helped scale me&u's platform to 15M+ users.
- Moved to Austin, Texas to support US market expansion.
VenueSafe (opens in new tab)
Co-founder & CTO
2020 - 2021
Built a COVID contact tracing platform for Australian venues and hospitality businesses.
- Went from idea to acquisition by me&u in six months.
- Built and shipped the product during the peak urgency of COVID operations.
Light Creative (opens in new tab)
Front-end Web Developer
2019 - 2020
Built React frontends for enterprise clients across e-commerce and corporate platforms.
- Delivered fast, responsive interfaces for high-traffic web applications.
Education
Bachelor of Design, Major in Digital Technologies from the University of Melbourne (opens in new tab), 2018 - 2020.
Community & advisory
Startmate (opens in new tab)
Accelerator Mentor
Mentoring startups in Australia's leading accelerator and supporting the next generation of founders.
OpenAI (opens in new tab)
Codex Ambassador
Supporting local developer communities through community sessions, feedback, and hands-on learnings.
Airtree (opens in new tab)
Explorer
Part of Airtree's operator community connecting experienced builders with early-stage founders.
VCMC (opens in new tab)
Co-founder
Co-founded the Vibe Coding Micro Community with Luca Bonelli and Ryan Hendler to bring AI-native builders together.
FAQ
Blode is Matthew's surname, and blode.co is his personal site. It is not a studio or agency. A few house tools use the name, like Blode UI, Blode Icons, and Blode.md. The rest have their own names.
Let’s connect
Whether you’re building something new or just want to swap stories, let’s have a chat. I typically reply within a day.