Find out about internal moves at iwoca from Partner Operations manager and ex-professional athlete Serita!

What do you do at iwoca? It’d be great to hear what a typical day looks like for you.

I’m a Partner Operations Manager. I’m the main point of contact within the Partnerships team for both internal and external stakeholders to make sure everything runs smoothly and efficiently. My role includes supporting end-to-end projects, testing and monitoring performance, and identifying opportunities for improvement. I particularly enjoy being able to identify and fix problems that arise and make the process smoother for our customers. I also love how varied my role is; each day brings new challenges and being able to work with such smart and helpful people allows me to grow.

Tell us more about the partners you work with.

Our partners include market comparison websites, digital banks, accounting software platforms and SaaS providers. Our partners refer customers to us in a number of ways but most commonly through our Application Programming Interface (API), which allows them to deliver a fast digital journey for their customers. It's a privilege to work with such a wide range of partners and get to learn about their businesses.

How has your role evolved since joining iwoca?

Since joining iwoca 4 years ago, I’ve had such an exciting journey with my role continuously evolving. I originally started in the Customer Success team, first as a Customer Onboarder before progressing to Account Manager. I then had the opportunity to join the Broker team as a Broker Account Manager, whereby my role changed from looking after our customers directly, to being the first point of contact for the brokers we partner with. In March of this year I moved into my current role as a Partner Operations Manager. It’s been amazing to work in an environment where there is so much support for development and growth, allowing me to progress the way I have.

Before starting with us you were an athlete. How did the career change into a Customer Success role at iwoca come about? How do you apply your sports mentality to your approach to work?

I decided to move on from athletics as I wanted a new challenge and a different direction in life. A friend of mine was working at iwoca at the time and told me about the company. From speaking to them and doing my own research, I immediately loved the sound of the company culture and iwoca’s core values really resonated with me. In regards to how my athletics background has impacted my approach to work, I strongly believe that sports nurture a lot of transferable skills. I use many of them to progress through the work place, such as setting goals and detailed plans and being self-motivated and disciplined. Wanting to be the best version of myself naturally brings better performance.

What’s your proudest moment with us?

The pandemic was a difficult time for our small business customers, who turned to us for help during this challenging period, resulting in increased volumes of applications within the Broker team. I was so proud of how we dealt with the extra workload and really pulled together as a team, while being there to support our Brokers and customers when they needed it the most. Watching the whole company adapt and support each other was inspiring and made me proud to be a part of iwoca.

We’re all about small businesses - if you were to set up a small business, what would it be? And why?

An athletics academy for young track and field athletes starting out in their career. As a former athlete I understand the difficulties athletes face who often don’t have enough support. I’d love to help them along their journey, by giving them access to equipment, experienced coaches and former elite level athletes as this can make a huge difference to someone at the start of their career. Seeing others grow and achieve their dreams would be so rewarding and beautiful to watch.

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