We’re so excited when members of our team stay in touch after they’ve moved on from Carbon Re – and even more so when they come back!

This summer, we welcomed back Chiara Campagnola – our very first employee back in 2021 (and the first person I’ve ever hired as a boss of a company). She was that brave soul who took a leap of faith on an idea that, at the time, was more ambition than company.

When Chiara joined us straight out of her master’s in machine learning at UCL, we became a team of five – four founders and one very smart graduate with a knack for getting things done. We had big ideas, a deep sense of purpose… and not a lot of money.

After three years helping build Carbon Re from the ground up, Chiara packed her bag, said goodbye (to our great heartbreak), and took off to travel. I caught up with her recently to talk about what it was like to leave, what she learned while she was away, and what it’s been like to come back nearly a year later.

The early days of a startup

“It was chaotic and exciting,” she laughs.  “No red tape. Someone gets off a call with a customer and suddenly you’re having a conversation about trying something new “Can we do this? Yes? Maybe? Let’s go, let’s see where it takes us”.

There was a lot of experimenting. There still is”.

 

Very quickly, Chiara went from being our first machine learning hire to also building some of the company’s infrastructure from scratch.

“We needed better MLOps, so I became the MLOps person,” she says. “I’d never done it before, but I was trusted to figure it out  – I was lucky to have people like Nantas Nardelli and Bob Gregory as mentors.”

 

A memorable moment?

“During my master’s thesis I had gotten used to having mountains of highly relevant papers that I could use for inspiration. I remember my first week at Carbon Re sitting down to do that same exercise of looking for relevant papers, but I could only find a handful, and they weren’t particularly insightful. I had this moment of “Oh, right. We are the bleeding edge. For real”. It felt both daunting and exhilarating.”

When we were tiny: Carbon Re’s first office space in 2022

Leaving Carbon Re to explore new horizons

After three wild, wonderful, and slightly exhausting years, Chiara decided to take a break.

“I’d been reading about rewilding and sustainable agriculture,” she says. “And I realised I was in a perfect position to actually go and see it for myself. No mortgage, no kids, a bit of savings – why not?”

 

Her travels took her across Europe and South America, working with biologists in the Amazon and  volunteering on rewilding projects in the Italian Apennines.

“I met some incredible people working on these projects. People for whom it’s not just a career, it really is their life. They are fully committed to protecting nature and its wildlife, and their work has a material impact. Seeing that passion reminded me that that’s how I want to feel about my own work.”

 

Did she miss Carbon Re?

“Definitely. Especially the people. While I encountered so much passion from people living and working on the ground, I also met so many travellers who hated their jobs, and I felt lucky that I’d left a job I actually loved.”

Chiara in the jungle on her career break

A Carbon Re homecoming: same mission, new energy

A year later, Chiara has returned to London, and to us Carbon Re (to much cheer and celebration – although sadly the ‘green’ red carpet we ordered for her first day didn’t arrive in time.

This time, Chiara is a Software Engineer and Team Lead.

“It feels really good,” she says. “When you’re small, every new person changes the culture, so I wasn’t sure how it would feel. But I’ve been so impressed. We’ve hired brilliant, kind, funny humans. There’s so much good energy.”

 

Her team now has more women than men – something that happened naturally.

“We didn’t set quotas,” she says. “We just hired great people, and they happened to be women. I love that.” She grins. “I’m so stoked about that.”

What’s changed – and what hasn’t?

“The mission hasn’t changed,” she says. “That focus on impact, and the fact that anyone can raise an idea and be heard – that’s still true. But the scale? Totally different. When I left, we had only had a small number of customers live at once. Now there we have loads and more in the pipeline. It’s wild.”

 

She laughs.

“I came back and thought, ‘Wait, we have too many customers now?’ What a nice problem to have.”

 

She’s also noticed a new level of maturity.

“We’re still fast-paced, and there will always be discussions and disagreements, but it feels like we’re all pulling in the same direction. There’s trust. People listen.”

Culture, humour and how to thrive at Carbon Re

“If you need constant direction, this probably isn’t the place for you,” Chiara says. “But if you like being trusted to use your own initiative and best judgment, and you care about the mission, you’ll thrive. We’ve got people who just get on with things – and laugh a lot while doing it. ” She adds, “A sense of humour and an appreciation for a good pun definitely help.”

The best thing about being back

“The best thing?” she smiles. “Working with one team again and building something long-term. After a year dipping in and out of various projects, I missed that sense of commitment and shared purpose. It’s really good to be back.”

 

“Well, that and the office snacks.”

Epilogue

We’re so glad she came home.

Chiara’s story says so much about what makes Carbon Re special and what makes me so proud to be a cofounder: the purpose, the people, and the humour that gets us through the chaos.

It’s not always easy. But as she says:

“A small group of passionate people can have an incredible impact.”

 

That’s the story of Carbon Re – and why we’re thrilled to have Chiara back helping us write the next chapter.

If you like the sound of Carbon Re and want to join our team, check out our careers page: https://carbonre.com/careers/