Matthew Blode
I’m a Melbourne AI engineer at Linktree. I co-founded Fingertip and VenueSafe, sold both, and made Forbes 30 Under 30.
Tools, lessons and field notes from building real products.
Make something worth using
Learn the decisions, use the tools, and see them in a finished product.
Train your eye
Practise the design decisions that turn a working interface into a considered one.
Explore Taste TrainingBuild with the stack
UI components, icons, type and agent tools made for the work of shipping software.
Explore the Blode StackTry the finished product
Done Bear is my calm, local-first task manager for focused people and teams.
Try Done BearNotes on building better software with AI.
Design decisions, useful tools and lessons from shipping real products. Occasional emails. Free to join, unsubscribe anytime.
Behind the work
I built VenueSafe during COVID from idea to acquisition by me&u (formerly Mr Yum) in 6 months. Stayed two years, helped scale me&u to 15M+ users, and supported the US expansion in Austin, TX.
Then I co-founded Fingertip with Olly Hoffman and the founders of Catch and Menulog. We scaled to tens of thousands of small businesses globally before Fingertip was acquired by Linktree.
Now I’m on AI at Linktree, building agents for creators and their audiences.
On the side I build the Blode Stack: open-source tools including Blode UI, Blode Icons, the Glide typeface, and DiffHub, a local diff viewer for reviewing cmux and agent-written code.
My specialty is going zero to one.
Experience
2025 - Present
2023–2025
2022–2023
2020–2021
2019–2020
Community & advisory
Startmate
Accelerator Mentor
Mentoring startups in Australia’s leading accelerator and supporting the next generation of founders.
OpenAI
Codex Ambassador
Supporting local developer communities through community sessions, feedback, and hands-on learnings.
Airtree
Explorer
Part of Airtree’s operator community connecting experienced builders with early-stage founders.
VCMC
Co-founder
Co-founded the Vibe Coding Micro Community with Luca Bonelli and Ryan Hendler to bring AI-native builders together. Grown to 120+ builders.
Let’s connect
I’m an OpenAI Codex Ambassador and co-run VCMC, a WhatsApp community of 120 builders. Bring something you’re working on, a question, or a lesson from shipping it.
