Rhiannon White - CEO, Clue

My first job was working in the local cinema where I grew up, starting when I was 15. I loved that job, did it weeknights and weekends for years and years, through until I finished university. I had three jobs at the same time through High School; I worked in the cinema, in the local library and in the local dentist office. I also was a (very bad) waitress for one summer. The only job I've ever been fired from!

I started my career as a Junior PR dogsbody at L'Oreal UK in London. I liked the products and the industry, and I enjoyed the female-focus. However, there were a lot of things that were less than ideal in the culture there too.

I used to practice visualizing it all sliding right off my 'silicon shell'. I also learned that even scary-seeming things like crisis media can be managed with preparation and taking a minute to stop and think it through. Both are lessons I still practice today!

I felt this amazing click inside when I landed my first management role in my late 20s, I just loved it so much. It was a revelation to realize just how much further and faster we could run together as a team, than I could as an individual contributor.

That’s when I started to think that maybe I would be interested one day in a CEO role. I knew I had to make sure I wasn't boxed out of the possibility/make sure I was in a discipline where that could happen.

I did a lot of research on the paths women took to the CEO role. And it was very clear that they were making it to the C Suite by being close to the heart of the business and revenue generation. You really need to have owned revenue/held P&L responsibility at some point, especially if coming from a non-traditional background. It's essential for really understanding what matters to shareholders and the Board, and for building credibility with them.

People often describe my career path so far as 'eclectic' I have tried to follow my nose but also to always be moving, as far as possible, closer and closer to the heart of the business, and of revenue generation. And this was because I started so far from both.

I had ten different roles before the CEO role, nine different industries and ten organizations. And three lines of work - PR/communications to Marketing to Product Management.

Despite the discipline, it still seemed very far away and impossible. However, I got the first CEO role I tried for.

When I started the role, it turned out that I had all the technical skills I'd need, the major growth was all internal and how I approached various aspects of the role. I had to relearn some old lessons I'd first learned a long time ago, and maybe forgotten a little, and to learn some new ones.

I was surprised by how it doesn't actually have to be lonely. A lot of folks comment on the loneliness of the job - I haven't found it lonely at all. I am fortunate to work alongside a brilliant Management Team and a wonderful Board, and we're deeply collaborative.

I have also been surprised by how much self-restraint the role requires. There's an enormous amount of not-doing. It's a lot more like gardening than the linear-nature of product development, for example. It's important to place bets, continually monitor the conditions, nudge and fertilize where necessary, but then you have to wait and see if those bets were right.

In many ways the CEO role is like the stone in the middle of the arch - that stone isn't weight-bearing itself, but if it's not there, the other stones can't carry their weight and the arch doesn't connect as a whole.

You are not the role! CEO'ing is a role, and it's an amazing role, but it's not an identity. Once I realized that, it depersonalized everything and enabled me to see the feedback that comes from all sides as valuable input, not a series of failings on my part!

Also it's a role, not an end point. The joy and the privilege is working on interesting problems with great people, and that can be done in any industry and any role.

It's such an immense privilege to work on a product that is useful to people, this is always my main motivator. I put my hand up for the CEO role here because I was so proud and inspired by the Clue team and what we had created together - I wanted the opportunity to serve them and continue to support them all to continue to build this wonderful product and experience for women and people with cycles across the world.

I think the last thing I'd add is - it's FUN! CEO'ing is an incredible role and for those of us who are insatiably curious in life, it's catnip! I love the licence and time/space to be curious about every aspect of the business - I love that I can spend an hour with the Finance team working on cashflow, then switch to focusing on our people, then switch to looking at the external context, then to a specific piece of product or marketing development. So much of leading and building high performing teams is saying 'yes' to people and empowering them to do what they already know is the right thing to do - and CEO'ing is getting to do that at a company-wide level, it's an amazing privilege and genuinely, deeply fun.

Being a CEO is an amazing role and a brilliant learning experience so go for it!