Leaders Unscripted

Conversations with leaders about the challenges they’ve faced and what they’ve learned.

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16: Starting a Family and a Company at the Same Time with CEO & Co-Founder of Cable, Natasha Vernier

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Think upon how often Founders refer to their businesses as ‘their baby’ - could you imagine balancing that with an actual child of your own?

Between Co-Founding Cable and parenting two children, Natasha Vernier’s first CEO experience is about as intense as you could ask for.

With a noble mission to create global impact in anti-financial crime, we hear from Natasha about leaders as ‘stress absorbers’, the unique CEO challenges, and balancing the financials against family life.

This Episode Covers:

  • Natasha’s background in financial crime through her role at Monzo
  • The huge amount of laundered money that inspired Cable’s mission
  • Having an outsized impact on your team as a Founder and CEO
  • Balancing parenthood, business ownership, and postnatal depression
  • A more holistic approach to businesses’ values and operating systems

Episode Highlights:

“When I started doing this financial crime work at Monzo, I didn't have any preconceived ideas or knowledge of how any banks did anti-financial crime. That enabled me to come to this area with really fresh ideas and a different way of thinking about how we could mitigate financial crime. ” - 6:25 - Natasha Vernier
“Financial Crime is this thing that almost nobody has heard of, but which actually impacts everybody every day. The bribery and corruption of governments in the UK and the US, for example, increases everyone's taxes. Then you've got the fact that 4 in every 1,000 people are in modern slavery.” - 9:25 - Natasha Vernier
“One of the differences between being just an employee in a senior role vs being a Co-Founder and a CEO is the outsized impacts that your bad days have on people. I'm feeling frustrated, fed up, tired or sad, I very much feel like I can't fully show that at work.” - 20:00 - Natasha Vernier
“I always say that, as a leader, your boss is not your boss. Your boss is the business and being a good shepherd of the business.” - 21:35 - Suzan Bond
“Katie and I have built the company in a very particular way. We want people to have lives outside of Cable. We've got other people at the company that have kids, or other dependents. That shouldn't be impossible, just because we're trying to build a big, impactful company.” - 29:10 - Natasha Vernier
“Make sure you have good support, and open and honest communication with your family first. It would simply not be possible for me to have done this, if I didn't have Stephanie stood right beside me.” - 37:25 - Natasha Vernier

Links & References:

Constellary: https://www.constellaryhq.com/

Suzan Bond: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzanbond/

Natasha Vernier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natashavernier/

Cable: https://cable.tech/

Cable (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/company/cable-technology-limited/

Cable’s ‘Operating System: https://community.cable.tech/cable-operating-system/