How did you get into insurtech?
I was programming from quite a young age and always knew I wanted to work in tech.
I studied Computer Science in Dublin, which has quite a vibrant start-up community, and it was there that I got involved with the local scene through various side projects. When I graduated, I wanted to join a start-up, but it coincided with the pandemic so due to economic uncertainty I opted for a safer corporate bank job.
Working in fintech enabled me to learn a lot about the financial markets and then I joined McKinsey, working for QuantumBlack. After about two years there, my now co-founder Jack – who was also working for McKinsey – reached out with an idea for what we’re now doing at Nettle. He brought insurance industry background and I brought the tech.
Since we started the business, I’ve learned a lot about the industry, and I’ve come to really love the insurtech space.
What made you decide to set up a company?
Throughout my career, I’ve built a lot of deeply technical products focusing on data infrastructure and LLMs. I always knew that I wanted to eventually do my own thing. When Jack reached out to me with the idea that would become Nettle, I didn’t know much about the space but I loved how niche the market was, how big the problem was, and the impact we could have.
What appeals to me about running my own company is having more freedom over the direction of a product.
During my career whenever I built successful products, someone more senior would take over the control and take it in a direction that I didn’t always agree with. Being the CTO means that is much less likely, which is huge for me and is one of the biggest reasons I wanted to start my own company.
I think it was something I’ve always wanted to do; get really embedded inside a market and become an expert on the meeting of two worlds, LLMs and commercial P&C insurance; and build my own team, choosing exactly who we work with and how we work. I think all those things are important.
What challenges have you had to overcome in being a female founder?
I think my age is one; hiring is hard enough by itself but there can be additional challenges when you are younger than most of your candidates. This has forced me to recognise that sometimes years of experience does not necessarily equate to competence.
I think also adapting to management from being an individual contributor. One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced is learning to trust my own instincts.
When you're an individual contributor or even managing teams, as I was towards the end of my corporate career, you're still taking decisions and guiding other people based on what other people say and an existing precedent. But when you're managing your own company, you must put all of that aside and understand that there's no rulebook and only you know what's right or what's best. I’ve had to learn to trust myself.
What single decision has been most impactful in getting you to this point in your career?
I don't think there is any one decision but throughout my student years and subsequent career I have always tried to go the extra mile to do things that I don't have to do and, crucially, not necessary knowing that there's going to be an immediate payout.
At university that meant getting involved with lots of extra curriculars and going out of my way to get involved with the start-up community. I had no specific goal or outcome in mind other than the idea that ‘you never know what it might lead to’.
Likewise in my jobs before I started a company it was doing extra things like picking up other people's work or running a boot camp after work for underprivileged women learning tech.
Right now, I'm doing a part-time Master’s degree unrelated to what I'm working on to develop better research skills and critical thinking.
It's doing extra just because, to challenge yourself and to experience new things. Every time I've done something like that it's always come back to me in a positive way so I think, the more I do it, the more it reinforces to me that it's good to do things because you never know what they might lead to.
What or who has helped you the most in your career?
Probably some of the managers – both technical non-technical – that I've had that have challenged my thinking.
My manager at the bank where I got my first internship still pops into my head every few weeks because he embedded in me many of the rules and approaches I take to my work today. I thought at the time he was quite militant but over the years I’ve come to be grateful for all that he taught me and take a similar approach with my own team.
And then, at McKinsey, there was another person who affected me in the same way but through a commercial lens. He challenged me to go outside of my technical space and do more of the client management work during a difficult project. After working with him, I was emboldened to continue going outside my comfort zone on other teams and he remained somewhat of a mentor regarding my personal projects or work opportunities.
I also like having other founders around – both male and female. They are the people I can be open and earnest with, who share my struggles.
However, I think the most important community for me is the one outside of work. It allows me to step out of the madness and to be with people who have no idea what’s going on in the start-up world. When I’m with those people I don’t talk about my work at all. Most of them don’t even know that much about what I do and I think that’s good for my mental health to be able to step away from it all.
What moment stands out to you as a career highlight?
Raising the funding round last year was a huge moment. We had interest and investment from people that Jack and I worked with at McKinsey and who were influential in our careers.
It felt like the culmination of a lot of hard work. We were grateful to finally have the opportunity to build a company of our own, something that we’ve both always wanted to do.
When it comes to women in insurtech, is there enough representation?
We work with a lot of insurance companies and carriers and, from my perspective, it varies from company to company.
I work with a lot of women in risk assessment and we also see a lot of women in leadership positions, often very senior ones.
From the outside looking in, I’d always thought insurance was quite male dominated but, although it’s not 50:50, I think it’s a lot better than what I’ve seen in finance and in management consulting.
From where I’m sitting and the people I’m working with and the groups we’re speaking to, it’s much better than I think most people give it credit for.
What advice would you give to other female founders?
I think as women, when we are in leadership positions, especially if you’re someone that’s direct and to the point like me, it's a delicate balance of public perception.
You want to be decisive, clear, honest and transparent but you have to balance that with how that is received – and often these things are received differently from women than from men.
Since I started managing people within my company I've had to learn through trial-and-error about how I represent myself with my directness. I've always preferred a more direct style, but you have to consider who is on the receiving end and how they might interpret tone and sometimes, unfortunately, gender.
My advice would be to remain authentic to who you are, but you have to adapt to the reality of your circumstances. You don't have to give up who you are, you just might want to tweak it a little bit for how it's received. I think everybody does that and for us women, we may need to pay a little more attention to perception, which I think is okay.
What advice would you give to young women just starting out in their careers?
Of all the career advice I’ve heard myself, there's something that’s always resonated with me; there is passion, but most often passion arises from expertise and recognition.
Kids are told to do "what they’re passionate about", but how can you know what that is when you’re 18? Instead, I would say hone a skill that’s valued by others and, if you get recognised for your abilities, you will start to feel passion for what you do.
So, if you're working at a bank, be the person that brings in the sales, get really good at it and then, over time, you will care a lot about what you do.
So, my advice is: 'don't find passions, find where you're valued and where you can grow and develop a real skill'. If you do that, then I think you will find there is a snowball effect.