ISABELLE PITMAN
What I Do
I partner with founders and leadership teams at social impact startups, particularly in healthtech, to build the strategic, operational and cultural foundations that enable sustainable growth. I'm both a strategic partner and hands-on operator – comfortable defining North Star goals and rolling up my sleeves to build the systems that deliver them.
01
Strategy & Operating Model
I support founders in clarifying their North Star and strategic goals, then design and run the operating rhythm that turns ambition into execution. This includes annual and quarterly planning, OKRs, building operating models, fundraising support and cross-functional alignment – ensuring your teams stay focused, accountable and consistently making progress on what actually moves the business forward.
02
Special Projects
Early-stage companies always have critical initiatives without a clear owner. I take these from 0 to 1, whether you're launching new functions, driving AI adoption, managing cross-functional programmes or founding new products or territories. I define scope, building the roadmap, aligning stakeholders and delivering results. I bring structure to ambiguity and momentum to strategic projects that might otherwise stall.
03
Internal Operations
I take finance, legal, process improvement, internal systems and day-to-day business operations off your plate – putting in place the AI-lef automation, processes and controls that enable efficiency without slowing momentum. Crucially, I look ahead: adapting your infrastructure as you grow so internal operations become an accelerator of scale, rather than a bottleneck to revenue and impact.
04
People & Culture
I partner with founders on culture, organisational design and talent strategy, then create the people systems that scale with your business – from performance management to engagement. I weave your values and performance principles into daily operations, ensuring culture isn't just a slide deck; it's lived and felt. Whether owning the employee lifecycle end-to-end, building a people experience that drives clarity, accountability and measurable engagement.
MY WHY
Building for impact, driven by purpose
I'm Isabelle — an East London resident who loves exploring the world, elaborate meals, and the occasional sound bath. But what drives me professionally is a genuine belief that technology can tackle some of our toughest social challenges with real scale and impact.
My mission is to support people to live more fulfilling, healthier lives by helping founders build products that solve real-world problems. This is personal. As someone who's lived with chronic conditions and experienced burnout, I understand the transformative power of digital health products to improve accessibility, equity, and quality of life. In my last role, I was part of a team building resilience and reducing workplace stress. I didn't just believe in the mission; I lived it. High performance can only be sustained with resilience, and operational resilience is what I strive to embed in every startup I work with.
I came to operations from a humanities background when I realised that the right systems and processes unlock better outcomes. A decade later, I'm still here because I love the variety and the problem-solving. I'm naturally a supporter – I build systems, fix problems, and create the conditions for others to thrive. I've seen brilliant founders get pulled into internal chaos when their time is better spent on product, revenue and external relationships. That's where I come in.
My currency is impact: solving real-world problems and driving measurable results. I'm obsessed with hitting our North Star metrics and ensuring we're constantly moving the needle on what matters. I believe in applying product principles to operations, treating employees as users, getting close to their needs, and building solutions through evidence-based decision-making, agile ways of working, and continuous iteration.
That's my why: to help mission-driven founders build the operational foundations that enable their teams to thrive and their products to change lives.
ABOUT ISABELLE
Operations leader passionate about the intersection of technology and social good, with 10+ years scaling purpose-led startups
I'm an Operations & People leader with over a decade of experience scaling purpose-driven startups from Seed to Series B, with particular interest in healthtech.
For the past four years, I've been at WONE, a Series A healthtech startup, where I've built our operating model from the ground up – owning strategy, OKRs, P&L, people and culture. I've scaled the team 2x, doubled our eNPS to 43, and co-created the financial model that supported our $7M Series A raise.
Before WONE, I grew with Culture Trip from 10 employees at Seed stage to 300 at Series B, and led operations at Tech City Ventures. Across these roles, I've been a trusted partner to CEOs and leadership teams, supporting fundraises totalling over $85M, launching new functions from 0 to 1, and driving strategic priorities across strategy, finance, people, culture and internal operations.
I'm a generalist operator who moves fluidly between strategic thinking and hands-on execution. I believe in applying product principles to people and operations, and I'm passionate about building the systems, culture and teams that enable ambitious startups to scale sustainably and deliver genuine impact.
I'm now offering fractional support to early-stage, mission-driven founders who need strategic and operational partnership to build the foundations for sustainable growth.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
VP Operations & People
2021-2025
Walking on Earth (WONE) → Seed to Series A B2B healthtech building an AI Stress Coach (Octopus & Notion VC)
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Strategy & Operating Model: Partnered with the CEO and leadership team to define our North Star goals and build our operating model from the ground up – establishing our North Star Framework, leading cross-functional squads, testing and iterating operational efficiencies, and owning OKR planning cadences
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Fundraising & Finance: Supported our $7M Series A raise and contributed to due diligence preparations. Owned P&L management, quarterly board reporting, grant funding applications, and achieving financial health targets including 85% gross margins
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People & Culture: Owned the employee lifecycle and scaled the team 2x. Doubled our eNPS to 43 through targeted engagement initiatives and embedded values & high-performance principles that defined our culture. Led strategic organisational development, hiring roadmaps, and our annual company retreat (consistently receiving 9/10 satisfaction scores)
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Strategic Projects: Drove critical initiatives across the organisation, including AI adoption, a company rebrand, product development groups and commercial research. Interim managed the Tech team, and launched Customer Success, Data & Science teams from 0 to 1, conducting research, developing strategies and roadmaps, and hiring founding team members
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Internal Operations: A true generalist, I owned day-to-day operations across finance, legal, people, security, systems and processes – continually adapting infrastructure to support sustainable scale
Director of Operations
2020-2021
Tech City Ventures → Social impact venture builder, scaling tech ecosystems & building public sector products
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Strategy & Execution: Implemented OKRs across the business and led cross-functional execution and strategic planning
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Commercial Growth: Managed B2B and public sector client relationships and delivery, including Greater London Authority and Connected Places Catapult. Identified grants and drafted tenders.
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People & Culture: Led People strategy, recruitment and performance management throughout the employee lifecycle
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Content: Managed editorial team and executed social media strategy, tripling site readership and achieving 700% LinkedIn growth
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Product: Partnered with Product team on roadmap development and user experience, designing and running human-centred design workshops
Chief of Staff
2015-2020
Culture Trip → Seed to Series B B2C mediatech startup with over $100M in VC funding
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Strategic Partner: Acted as the CEO's right hand across the entire organisation during hypergrowth, participating in the leadership team and standing in for CEO decisions
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Fundraise: Supported $80M Series B fundraise through pitch deck creation, board reporting, and competitor research
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Growth: Managed recruitment team of 10 during a period of growth from 100 to 300+ employees. Personally hired 30+ employees, including C-suite executive recruitment
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Culture: Project managed the development and rollout of company values and led our Values, Culture & Ethics Council. Managed our Wellbeing Practitioner and D&I Manager, overseeing mental health strategy and 5 Employee Network Groups
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Internal Communications: Owned internal communications, facilitating alignment upwards and downwards across the organisation
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Business Partner: operationally supporting Content and Social Media teams, projecting KPIs and holding teams accountable to their targets and strategic goals.
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Strategic Projects: Conducted research into new strategic business areas, including the basis for our expansion into China.
Strategic partner. Operations leader. Impact scaler.