Lessons learnt on the way to becoming a double unicorn

I finished working at ManyPets Pet Insurance in October. Since then, I've reflected on seven amazing years with what was a little-known start-up when I joined.

When I joined in June 2016 there were 20 of us – squeezed into a tiny London office space. We were seed-funded, with annual revenues of less than ￡1m. Back then, we focused on finding insurance products that were being Googled but didn’t exist.

We used our knowledge of this 'unmet demand', and insights from social media data, to set our path and find insurance partners willing to help us meet this demand.

Taking pet insurance as an example: We could see from the online search data in the UK that there were lots of people in the UK searching for pet insurance to cover pre-existing health conditions. We also knew from social media they were frustrated that there were no products that did this. And so began our journey to become a global pet business…

Using our data, we decided to develop our own pet insurance products – to be underwritten by Munich Re.? As part of the design-process we also engaged 120,000 of our pet insurance members and asked them a simple question: “If you were to design your own pet insurance product, what features would it have?”.? Unbelievably, we received 40,000 responses, and in early 2017 we launched 7 new pet insurance products in the UK, three of which were the direct result of this feedback.

Fast forward to April 2021… we had raised $350m in Series-D funding – giving us a valuation of $2.2bn and making us a double unicorn – and we were well on our way to having over 600 employees across 3 countries.

Highlights for me personally over this period included being responsible for launching and leading ManyPets in Sweden and then the US (even though I was stuck in the UK due to lockdown), and also leading some key acquisitions.

Fast forward again to 2023… ManyPets had over 600k pets insured globally, including 50k in the US and 31k in Sweden.?

Quite a ride!

So, here’s what I learned:

1. A strong vision and mission are important We all need our teams fully behind us. An inspirational vision and mission, and clear strategy helps them to go above and beyond to deliver the vision.? Add to that clear metrics to track progress, and full transparency across the organisation in tracking them.
2. Dare to think big This was one of the core values at ManyPets and I believe it helped us achieve the success we have. If you are pushing the boundaries of innovation, or pursuing an opportunity that feels big, hairy and audacious, this may sometimes result in failure and this is OK as long as you learn lessons from it. If you're not pushing the boundaries and trying new things, you'll never have that game changing breakthrough for your business.
3. Data, data, data You can never have too much data as it gives you the valuable insights that help you make the best decisions. In today’s world there’s lots of it around, which means a data analytics team is essential, and can give you the edge over competitors. In doing this, insurtechs on the latest tech stacks have an advantage over insurance incumbents with segregated, legacy systems.?
4. Being customer–centric multiplies success Using focus groups, engaging on social media, developing a 'cult' of customer excellence, and having an unwavering commitment to 'do the right thing' for our customers have been instrumental in the ManyPets story. This approach ensured we delivered products and services that customers valued as well as needed.?
5. Don't just translate your brand – interpret it for new markets When we launched in Sweden, I was adamant that we needed to be culturally relevant, not just an English to Swedish translation of our UK customer experience. That’s why I hired Swedish team members early on – tasked with making sure we felt both authentically Swedish and authentically on-brand: harder than you think when you don’t speak the language! I was delighted with early customer feedback that labelled us as a "new Swedish pet insurer" but also confirmed we’d successfully exported our ManyPets tone of voice.?
6. Be prepared to invest in the US Probably not a surprise but important to stress: From legal advice and hiring a team, to marketing and servicing customers, the US is expensive. With differing insurance regulations and laws across each state, it’s expensive to understand and expensive to cater to the difference, not to mention the geographic scale. In summary, don’t scrimp on your US plans, and don’t consider international expansion without plenty of investment funds, as ManyPets had.?
7. Your office location is crucial If you’re entering a new market, do your research about where to locate your business. Spend time on the ground and getting a feel for the place. Most cities have local Chambers of Commerce that will be very happy to show you around, introduce you to local recruiters, landlords and similar businesses that you can learn from. Consider analysing a basket of data from each, from salaries and tax rates, to crime rates and availability of skills.
8. Validate your go-to-market assumptions Are all countries more or less the same? No. For us, the difference in insurance regulations between the UK and other countries meant factoring in changes to our systems and processes. And customers can have the same needs but different expectations too. For instance, just because customers in one country like to pay by credit card, don't assume others will.?
9. Insurance regulation in the US is tricky Each of the 51 jurisdictions of the US has its own insurance regulator. Once you have got regulatory approval as an insurance business in a state, you have to file your prices and policy wording with the regulator. And it’s all public, unlike the UK, including the actuarial data and formulae you use to justify your rates. To make it worse; approval takes months (it took us 20 in one state) so, wave goodbye to agile pricing.?
10. A great culture is a game changer One of the achievements I am most proud of at ManyPets was the inclusive, safe culture we created. Our founders, Steven and Guy, had a clear vision for the culture they wanted to create. With an Exec team driving the culture and behaviours, and hiring people who shared our values, we created the best culture I have ever worked in. Company-wide discussions on individual experiences of racism, struggles with mental health and more made me proud that we had created such a safe environment for our team to come to work and truly be themselves.
11. Take time to onboard Our onboarding process started a couple of weeks before the new team members started, letting them know their itinerary for the first few days, who their 'buddy' was going to be and ensuring they had received their laptop at their home. And, once started we encouraged managers to be generous with their time to help new team members to understand the company, and industry. This set them up for success and became even-more relevant during Lockdown and resulting ‘hybrid’ world.
12. Don’t miss out internal comms When I joined Bought By Many (ManyPets) we were a start-up with a single room office. Everyone overheard everything – so, everyone knew what was going on. Once you are over 50 employees, and especially when you’re hybrid, deliberate and well thought-through internal comms becomes a key part of ensuring strategies and priorities are understood, and successes (and failures) are highlighted.
13. A strong, aligned, diverse executive team is essential for success The ManyPets Exec Team was the best Exec Team I've been part of.? It was diverse (50:50 male to female) from very different backgrounds and skillsets. We could have completely opposed opinions – have a healthy, respectful, challenging debate – and then all align behind a decision before leaving the room as friends. Mutual respect and diversity were key factors in making this possible.
14. Skillsets needed change as the business changes A scrappy start-up trying to impress its first potential clients and investors is a very different proposition to an established scale-up with hundreds of thousands of customers. Fact. So, sometimes you have to recognise that someone who was a star performer in the start-up phase, might not the right fit for an enterprise scale business. Not giving these early stars a way out at the right moment can hamper your future success – and their careers too.
15. Structure needs to grow with the company The right org structure is imperative for success, but that ‘right’ structure will need to flex, especially if you grow fast. When expanding to other markets, it often makes sense to leverage existing skills in more developed markets to help accelerate, rather than building all your local functions in one go. But, over time this need changes as markets develop and benefit more from control over their own priorities and efficiencies.
16. End the week on a high Every Friday since Covid hit, the whole company met on Zoom at 4pm for 20 minutes. This 'shout-out Friday' (called "Many Thanks”) was a great way to end the week and to hear our colleagues thank each other for going the extra mile or living our values. It sounds like a small thing for an exec team to prioritise, but it became a big part of our culture.

So, there you have it, a few lessons from my amazing time at ManyPets. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there - I worked with some fantastic colleagues, learnt SO much about how to grow a successful B2C business, including international expansion, and had a ton of fun doing it.

If anyone would like to hear more, please don't hesitate to reach out to me.

#insurance #insurtech #petinsurance #international #internationalexpansion #usexpansion #hypergrowth #culture #customercentric #localisation #regulation #vision #onboarding #comms #data

Many thanks: Steven Mendel , Guy Farley , Julia Ingall , Oke Eleazu , Luisa Barile , Charlotte Halkett and Lidia Oshlyansky ????