Startup Life: Unscripted #31 with Estelle Berton, Operations Lead at Eucalyptus

Startup Life: Unscripted is a TNG Media newsletter, as part of The Nudge Group, where we feature candid conversations with startup operators about their career journeys and experiences. If you received this email as a forward, you can read all our past interviews and subscribe right here.

Welcome to another edition of Startup Life: Unscripted! Today, we're featuring Estelle Berton from Eucalyptus, who's transitioned from tech and airline giants to leading operations in health-tech. In our conversation, she shares her journey of adapting her extensive corporate experience to the fast-paced and innovative startup environment.

Key interview takeaways:

🌟 Career Evolution: Estelle discusses how her experiences at major corporations shaped her approach to leadership and operations, emphasising the role of mentorship and empathy.

📅 A Day in Her Shoes: She gives us a sneak peek into her daily life at Eucalyptus, from strategising patient experiences to grappling with the challenges of a rapidly evolving industry.

🚀 Corporate vs. Startup Culture: She compares the cultural differences she's experienced in her career, highlighting the dynamic and evolving nature of startup life at Eucalyptus.

🔧 Advice for Career Transitions: Estelle offers insights for those looking to make a leap between sectors, focusing on building a versatile skill set and embracing change.

Hey Estelle, great to have you here today! Your career has been a fascinating journey across some pretty amazing companies - Apple, Qantas, Commonwealth Bank, and now Eucalyptus. Can you share how these experiences have shaped your current role in Operations at Eucalyptus?

For me, the people I've learnt from, and worked directly with, have been more impactful in shaping my career, than the brand of the company. I'm particularly grateful that I was able to learn from three female managers in all my previous roles.

They each supported me through various personal and career challenges; the most memorable being stood down from working at Qantas when COVID hit. They showed me it's possible to walk the tricky tightrope of being a friend, whilst also being a mentor, how to lead with empathy and vulnerability, and how to be kind and direct at the same time. 

Contrary to some opinions, I think it’s not only possible, but very valuable, that friendship and reporting structures can exist symbiotically. It’s also good for the business - it’s a key lever for keeping people engaged in their role.

I recently moved into a new role leading the Patient Experience team at Euc. This was a big step up, I went from managing one team member, to a much larger team. It's been a challenging introduction to leading a function, but focusing on adopting the leadership qualities that I admired in my previous managers has been a good starting point.

Making a move from banking and airlines to a health-tech startup must've been quite a shift. Can you share what motivated this transition, and how it's been different from your previous experiences? 

It was COVID lockdown 2021, so naturally I was feeling restless. I remember going for a walk within my 5km radius with a good friend who works at an Aussie startup. She was telling me about her work projects and I realised she was operating with a hell-of-a-lot more responsibility and autonomy than I was, and I was craving that challenge. 

Six months later, I started at Euc in the Operations team and it was a verrryyy steep learning curve. At CBA I was an individual contributor at a large company; 80% of the time I was executing on decisions made by others, and 20% of the time making my own decisions.

At Euc, that completely flipped. Once you've aligned on outcomes with your team, you basically have free reign (within some constraints) to decide how you will achieve those outcomes. This level of autonomy, responsibility and ownership was incredibly daunting at the start, but it's why I love working at Euc today. 

Your role as Operations Lead must come with its own unique set of challenges and rewards in a healthcare startup environment. Could you give us a sneak peek into your day-to-day responsibilities?

No day is the same at Euc. At the moment the business is navigating how to take a patient-first approach to medication that is in a global supply shortage - this is resulting in constant change in the patient experience.

A lot of my time is spent working with the team, helping them build systems to take uncertainty that inherently comes with change, and turn this into certainty (processes, decisions trees, etc), so the team can support patients with their questions.

I'm also spending a lot of time looking at the best use cases for automation in our support workflows as we're betting this will enable us to solve patient questions more quickly and to a higher quality. I'm new to the AI space, but it's been fascinating learning about the applications of generative AI in customer service.

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You've had a taste of corporate life and startup hustle. How would you describe the culture at Eucalyptus, and how does it compare with your experiences at Qantas or Commonwealth Bank?

Euc is a 5 year old company. Qantas and CBA are 100+ year old companies. This dichotomy manifests very noticeably in the organisational cultures. 

Qantas and CBA have established cultures, shaped by set structures, processes and legacy. Euc is a high-growth scale up and the organisation is changing rapidly.

I’ve not only seen the culture evolve as the team grows, operations scale and we serve more patients (around the world), but I feel like I've been able to play an active part in that evolution by working at the company during its formative years. 

You started your career as an intern at NMG Consulting. Looking back, how did this experience contribute to your professional growth? Are there any key takeaways from your time there that still influence your work today?

NMG Consulting provides professional services to investment, asset and wealth management, insurance and reinsurance firms. While the firm was great and the people were extremely talented, I wasn’t passionate about these areas when I was working there.

I took the role, for all of the wrong reasons. I wanted to 'tick a box' and get an internship at a reputable company on my resume, before finishing university. Unsurprisingly, I was disengaged from the get-go. I invested very little time and energy into learning about insurance markets, and as a result, I got very little in return from the internship. I remember finishing my two months there feeling really disappointed with myself. 

The key take away from me was to never again take a role for the wrong reasons, and only seek out opportunities where I'm genuinely interested in learning about the industry and/or the role. 

Finally, as someone who has successfully navigated diverse industries, what advice would you give to our readers who might be considering a similar career path? Any tips on making smooth transitions between different sectors?

I can provide some tips for the generalists out there... (sorry specialists!) 

1. Build your 'Generalist Toolkit'. 

These are your transferable skills, for example; analytical skills, first principles thinking, leading with empathy, communicating with clarity, decision making, etc. With the right attitude and willingness to learn, your generalist toolkit will set you up for success in any generalist role, in pretty much any sector.  

2. Learn how to navigate the uncertainty and discomfort that comes with starting work in a sector you know little about. 

This will look different for different people based on how you like to learn. For me, one of the first things I need to do when starting in a new role (whether that be at the same company or a new company), is very quickly understand the areas I will need to upskill in, versus those areas I don't, to be successful in the role. Once I'm clear on these, I then map out how I'll go deep - who do I need to talk to, what content do I need to read, what online/in-person course should I consider. 

3. Be clear on your strengths and the areas you want to develop. Seek roles that play to your strengths, but also provide the opportunity to grow. 

I took on the Patient Experience Lead role at Euc, because I wanted to gain experience leading a function and learn about managing a P&L. I'm still on that journey, and while every day brings a new challenge, it's fair to say, I'm much more engaged than 21 year old Estelle at NMG consulting. 

4. Don't underestimate the power of ‘soft skills’.

These are what set you up to move roles within an ambiguous company, lead people who may have more specialist experience, manage up and down, work with external stakeholders and embrace new challenges.

From the Startup Life team

And that's a wrap! We hope you've enjoyed this edition as much as we loved putting it together. Stay curious, keep learning, and above all, enjoy the rollercoaster ride that is Startup Life. Catch you in the next one! 👋 Not subscribed yet? Do it here and don't miss out! Subscribe Now.

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