Diary of an Insurer: ManyPets’ Pierre du Toit

Monday

The week starts early, very early, courtesy of our three-year-old toddler who firmly believes sleep is optional and Monty, our three-year-old dog, who believes that barking at absolutely nothing is a vital public service. 

After the slightly chaotic nursery drop-off, I settle into my Monday working-from-home routine.

Mondays are my moment to take stock. I start by scanning our automated dashboards, reviewing company performance and most importantly, customer feedback. 

It’s a reassuring mix of numbers, trends and the occasional surprise that calls for a deeper look. I still like to roll up my sleeves, running a few Python scripts to explore the data – a perk of being a chief data officer who won’t give up hands-on work entirely.

Then it’s on to the weekly data leadership team meeting. We walk through our sprint deliverables, untangle blockers and make sure the brilliant teams in engineering, analytics and data science have what they need.

By early evening, I transition into bath-time negotiator and story-time enthusiast. Once the toddler is finally asleep, I reclaim a small pocket of peace: a book in hand, some background music and the brief illusion that I’m a well-rested human being.

Tuesday

Another nursery run, another early start. 

I board the Metropolitan Line into our Farringdon office armed with coffee and a Spotify algorithm still traumatised by months of Baby Shark requests. 

My commute playlist swings wildly from Glass Animals and Rosalía to Beethoven, before spiralling back into nursery rhymes. I’ve accepted my fate.

Life at ManyPets is a delightful blend of numbers, narratives, pets, and people

Tuesdays are senior leadership team days full of insightful and passionate discussions. We dig into KPIs, updates on key projects, trading and debate where we can push harder or smarter. 

The afternoon is usually spent translating those conversations into actions and ensuring the right teams have clarity on what comes next.

Before heading home, I enjoy a quick drink with a colleague: half social, half debrief; entirely necessary.

Wednesday

The morning begins with the nursery run, preceded by a Lego-building session where our toddler’s vision defies gravity - holding me accountable to somehow make it all stand upright.

Most of the morning is then dedicated to preparing for the upcoming board presentation to sharpen key messages, refine slides and ensure the narrative behind our data and artificial intelligence strategy is clear and compelling.

The afternoon is a procession of one-to-ones with my direct reports across data engineering, analytics and data science. These are some of my favourite conversations: part coaching, part strategy, part problem-solving. 

I spend time with our lead data scientist reviewing the latest model performance covering training losses, SHAP plots, Gini coefficients and crucially, what they mean for the business and our customers.

In the afternoon, I head to a conference to present to vets and industry professionals, sharing how we use AI and automation to streamline claims, reduce friction and create a better experience for both customers and their vets.

Then it’s a sprint back to the tube so I can make it home for bedtime stories. The day finishes with my wife and I watching something on Netflix, which is the perfect antidote to a day filled with metrics and model diagnostics.

Thursday

Another early start, another tube journey, but this time with a seat and enough space to prep for my first meeting of the day.

In the afternoon, I meet with the people team to plan the next features for their internal AI Agent, then co-chair our AI council that reviews how our other AI models are performing and being adopted across the business.

Back home that evening, I take Monty for a walk. He bravely growls at absolutely nothing, convinced he’s protecting the neighbourhood. I let him enjoy his moment.

The evening ends on a more musical note. I take out my electric cello and try to fit in some practice. Quietly enough not to wake the household, creatively enough to remind myself why I love doing it. 

Friday

The final nursery run of the week brings a small sense of triumph.

The morning includes team feedback sessions and our sprint retrospective. It is always inspiring to see what the team delivered and a good moment to reflect, celebrate and plan next steps.

After that comes a committee meeting where we review the latest loss-ratio developments, enhancements to datasets and impacts of new data enrichment factors, followed by a session with engineers on improvements to our data pipelines and machine learning operations platform. 

With newly developed models demanding more compute power, we discuss how best to scale while keeping costs sensible.

I finish the workday by reviewing and signing off BRDs, clearing emails before the weekend and posting shout-outs on our Many Thanks Slack channel to celebrate some of the fantastic work colleagues have delivered that week.

Once the toddler is asleep, it’s cocktail and film night for my wife and I. We settle in with good intentions and great snacks, press play… and inevitably fall asleep halfway through. Life with a toddler and a dog doesn’t leave much energy in reserve, but it certainly makes for an entertaining week.

If nothing else, life at ManyPets is a delightful blend of numbers, narratives, pets, and people and I wouldn’t have it any other way.