Where are you from originally, and what is it like?
I’m originally from Estonia which has a population of about 1.3 million citizens, but home is a small town in the middle of the country called Turi, which has a population of around ten thousand people.
I grew up there until the age of 10 and I remember it being such a peaceful and convenient place to live when I was growing up. The school, the shops and the playground were all within walking distance of my house.
What do you miss most about home?
The things I miss most about home are all food-related!
Every time I go back to Estonia, I have to visit my closest bakery to get my favourite sausage filled pastries (always served the best piping hot and fresh out of the oven). I also miss Estonian potato salad as well, which is another go-to dish whenever I’m back home.
What’s your favourite memory from home?
Estonia has quite a few islands and during the summer holidays, my friends and I would travel to and spend a few days out on one of them. We would go canoeing on the rivers nearby and even the sea, which was incredibly fun.
Great weather with great friends. Having fun on these trips will always remain one of my fondest memories from back home.
What do you enjoy most about living and working in a different country?
When you live in your native country, you can be forgiven for thinking that that’s ‘the world’! It wasn’t until I moved over to the UK, that I realised I was living in my own little bubble.
Moving to a new country where you don’t know the language or culture gives you a much better, more well-rounded perspective. Naturally, you become more appreciative and have a better understanding of the place you’ve moved to and the people that live there.
There’s a resilience and a level of tolerance that you’ll experience if you ever make the move to a new place, and I would recommend it to absolutely anyone thinking about it.
Although it can be daunting and difficult to start from scratch somewhere foreign to you, you’ll find yourself with a new appreciation and empathy for other nations, cultures and people’s struggles.
What’s your role at Zego and where do you sit within the organisation?
I’m the CEO and Co-founder of Zego, but I’ve pretty much held every role in the business. I started out in the customer service team, I worked in our finance department and did some work as a researcher, and a tester for our Tech team.
There’s now about 300 of us at Zego and it feels like the responsibility and scope of my role has changed every two months, so it feels like I’ve had about 80 different roles for the last four and a half years.
What did you do before you worked at Zego and where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time?
My professional experience is mostly in startups and small businesses that have developed new value propositions for their customers.
Before I started Zego, I worked at Deliveroo for some time during the company’s infancy, while it was growing incredibly fast. Before that, I worked for a company called One Fine Stay, which is like a more expensive version of Air BnB. Both companies were venture capitalist funded businesses, with a strong emphasis on growth and great products.
When I was 17, I actually had my own business making paper notepads as well!
In 5 years’ time, I see myself still at Zego building the brand and business to be the next great company that solves millions of its customers’ insurance problems.
What do you love about your job?
One of the things I consider to be a gift and a curse of my job is the constant change. I enjoy change and I embrace it but sometimes the intensity of change can weigh on me. The fast-paced and never-static nature of being a CEO in a startup is something that I really enjoy though.
I also get a lot of energy from the team and working with such great people every day. Working with so many exceptional people that are smart, driven and passionate definitely galvanises me - you feed off each other, and I really relish these moments.
I remember when we first started the company and people thought we were mad, but there is definitely something really cool about creating products that help to power the opportunities of the people we serve.
Who have you learnt the most from at Zego so far? What have you learnt from them?
I‘ve learnt a lot from my direct reports. They are a lot better than I am, at the jobs they’re doing within the business. I’ve also learnt a lot from my advisors as well.
I’ve purposefully and thoughtfully surrounded myself with people who are way better in some areas than I am so that by working closely with them I can also learn a lot from them.
I feel like I’ve learnt a lot of useful skills especially empathy, people management and managerial skills. I would also say that I‘ve learnt the difference between good and great, and now I know what great looks like!
Finally, I feel like I've learnt so much from the mistakes we’ve made. I probably get more things wrong than I get right, and I believe learning from these mistakes is a rewarding experience.
What advice would you give to a Zegon on their first day?
There are two things I would say to any new Zegon starting out. Firstly, you need to be comfortable with change.
If you’re not comfortable with change you’ll end up driving yourself mad and end up hating the job. Sometimes we can hire you for ‘Job A’ but when you start it changes to ‘Job B’ because the circumstances of the business changes so quickly, so you’ll need to be well equipped to handle a lot of moving parts.
Secondly, when you start on day one it can feel like it’s not too fast-paced but trust me, things will get much faster. You may feel overwhelmed or even out of place for the first couple of weeks but don’t worry because by the time you get to week three, the dust settles and most Zegons find their feet.
By week four, you’ll be completely settled in and start to build on your newfound knowledge of the business and connections you made in the process. Every Zegon can attest to this exact experience!
How would your 10-year-old self react to what you do now?
I think they would say, they never thought you would do this.
I remember when I was 17 or 18, I thought selling insurance was like selling hot air, as I was much more interested in physical and tangible products. But here I am a few years later working in insurance, excited and amazed by the opportunity of the space.
My 10-year-old self would probably think I was boring and I just look at a computer screen all day but I can assure him that that is definitely not the case.
What advice would you give to your younger self?
I would tell him to go with the flow! Having worked in companies that change a lot, with growth as the target, it can be easy to tie yourself to long term planning but it’s not always futureproofed.
I even used to set myself yearly personal goals and objectives, and found that the more specific I was the less I achieved them. I took a step back and went with the flow and found that I achieved much more than I had with a more rigid approach.
Plan less for less stress!
Tell us about your typical working day...
I work out about three times a week, starting my days at around 7:30am. After the rest of my morning routine, I head into work and start between 8am and 9am.
Typically, I think I spend about 10 hours (at the very least) in front of my computer screen, with a lot of my time in the mornings divided between things like candidate interviews, team meetings, and PR work. Since we’re working from home a lot of the time now, all of these meetings can get exhausting, so I usually schedule these meetings back to back so I can take my lunch!
I usually home cook my lunch (which I really enjoy) and then in the afternoon, I tend to leave big blocks for some strategic work.
No two weeks or even two days are the same for me at Zego. For instance, one day I could have five interviews and the next I could have five hours free to concentrate on strategic work, and then two days after that could be press/PR or team meeting heavy so it varies a lot.
If you could entice one (famous?) person, alive or dead, to work at Zego, who would it be and why?
I would look no further than a child, and get them to work closely with me and the team. Children have a real knack for asking ‘why?’ to questions and statements they do not fully understand, and if something doesn’t make sense to them you’ll find out straight away.
I think this simple way of evaluating what we’re doing could really help when we decide whether or not to test something new and review things we already have in place.
I’d also see if we could get a data scientist from SpaceX! We have so much data at Zego and it would be really interesting to see how someone from a completely different industry would use and interpret it.
If you had unlimited money to start your own business, what would it be?
I’ve always been fascinated by container ships and logistics in general. A lot of goods and products are moved around in ships and containers so I would love to develop a technology that would help the ship move 10 times faster.
I would create something that is sustainable, good for the environment but could also help a ship that would typically make a journey in 10 days down to 2 days!
Another thing I would love to develop further are 'tree labs'. A way of growing trees 10 times faster to replace millions we lose from deforestation each year.
What’s your favourite way to spend a day off?
I love to lie in, so I would start with that of course! I’d then head to the park with my wife and dog for a wander and to enjoy being close to nature, as well as to give my dog some exercise with a game of fetch!
I would also go for a run and workout, before a nap in the afternoon. I love doing DIY and building things, and am a sucker for a good jigsaw puzzle! Finally, I’d usually cook a nice steak, and watch a fun movie on the sofa with my family to top it off.
Where’s the next place on your travel bucket list and why?
I was supposed to get married in Utah, United States of America, but the pandemic caused us to cancel the original wedding plans. Once we’re allowed to travel again, that will be the first place we go as we had a great trip planned travelling the deserts of Utah!
What was the last thing you read?
High Growth Companies: Driving the Tiger by Thomas Ahrens.
It’s a business book from about 30 years ago and I find it fascinating to see which principles from back then still apply today, and which don’t!
If you had to choose a song to personify you, what would it be?
I couldn’t pick a specific song, but I’ve always wanted to be in a boy band and the Backstreet Boys are always in my playlist for when I want to get my work done, so I would have to choose one of their songs.