Renata Skvorcevica, Asset Finance Operations Executive on her journey from her native Latvia to her place on the Capitalflow team.

At the age of 15, I moved to Ireland, with my family, from Latvia with no English. We left an idyllic rural town for the Dublin suburbs. Being honest, the first two years in Ireland were really difficult. I literally cried myself to sleep every night. But life goes on and after two years of tears, I managed to embed myself in Irish life, completed my leaving cert and successfully earned a place in college.

After graduation, I embarked on a week’s work experience in the finance sector and realised that finance was an area I was really interested in. I started working for a large finance institution and really enjoyed the work itself, but due to the financial downturn and the subsequent banking crisis, the environment was often fraught.

I had heard about Capitalflow, a start up in the finance sector offering business finance and I jumped at the chance to join. After a successful interview, I joined Capitalflow in 2017 and haven’t looked back.

In comparison to my previous roles, the start-up ethos of Capitalflow was refreshing. I was given training across the business, in the Invoice Discounting team, and then moving to leasing where I found my fit. From the outset all of teams were very supportive and happy to look after and mentor all the new joiners. And with the huge growth of the company – from 3 to now 57 people and growing – there are always plenty of new starters! There is a nice mix of seasoned financiers and graduates. We all sit together on the one floor which I really enjoy. It means I can be part of a deal from the very start of the process to the very end. And particularly at months end everyone mucks in the get deals over the line. Teamwork is so important to us.

I feel lucky to be part of a team that enjoy actually coming to work, like each other and like what they do. It may sound simple, but it’s not always easy to achieve!