Small Team, Big Impact: what low ego actually looks like at Marshmallow

At Marshmallow, our values are more than posters on a wall. They lie at the core of everything we do. To give you an idea of what we mean, we spoke with Lee Crouch, Claims Director, and Connor Jordan, Operations Manager at Marshmallow Repair Ltd (MRL), to see what it looks like in practice.

How MRL started

Connor joined Marshmallow in 2023 and within a year, he found himself moving into a new role to build a new function from scratch.

Most of Marshmallow's claims teams work on the defendant side, managing the cost of claims to keep prices competitive for our customers. MRL was set up to do something different. As a claimant operation, it handles credit hire and vehicle repairs for customers who weren’t at fault. Rather than managing claims costs, MRL recovers them from the other party’s insurer. That difference gives MRL genuine commercial autonomy within the broader Marshmallow group.

Connor was the first and only team member when MRL launched in April 2024. He built the foundational processes and supplier relationships the team would depend on, with no template to work from. By early 2025, there were three permanent team members and early signs of results heading in the right direction.

Scaling the model

Lee joined in February 2025 after years at a huge global insurer. He’s upfront that adjusting to how we work was a steep learning curve. “At my previous company, you’d wait until something was near-perfect before launching. Here, we launch and iterate in the knowledge that nothing is ever perfect.”

With Connor’s foundations in place and Lee accountable for commercial outcomes, MRL began to scale. Every hire comes with a clear commercial case. When the team saw that outbound calling could open a new revenue stream, they made the case for a dedicated role.

The team also went back to the original processes to get revenue flowing faster. Through relentless iteration, turnaround times dropped by 85% in a single quarter.

We own things together

MRL were named Team of the Year in 2025, not for a single win, but for how the team showed up every day.

“There’s zero ego and everybody works together,” Connor says. “Everyone has taken on something additional to their core remit, whether that’s owning complaints, the finance process, or recoveries.”

When people spot an opportunity outside their remit, they’re encouraged to run with it. “We’ve helped stretch people with skills they wanted to gain. There are benefits on both sides.”

Growing MRL has always meant finding the right person, not just filling a role.

Ideas and opinions matter

When something isn’t working, the team jumps in together to fix it. Input is wanted, heard and acted on. “Oh hang on, we can fix that in five seconds” is a more common response than “let’s move on.”

“The commercial opportunities typically come from me and Lee,” Connor says, “but the team are the ones who spot friction, bring solutions and make them happen. They’re closest to the work, and that gives them the most useful insight.”

Connor remembers having his opinion sought by senior leaders early on. “I remember sitting there thinking, I’m way too junior to be in this conversation. But they asked more questions, took my thoughts on board, and changes were made because of my reasoning. That felt amazing.”

When something doesn't work

MRL recently trialled a customer incentive that got less uptake than expected. Rather than drop it, the team ran a one-month trial with a stronger incentive.

Lee frames it carefully. “I don’t think it’s either success or fail. It wasn’t what we set out to achieve, but we still generated additional business we wouldn’t otherwise have gained, and we learned what to do differently next time. That’s still a win.”

Ownership and opportunity drive your growth

As a scaling business, career growth at Marshmallow is a little different. Here, growth is about taking ownership and opportunity.

Lee joined to lead MRL when it was small and very new. His remit grew across recoveries, claims finance, third-party and fraud, before he was promoted to Claims Director.

Connor joined as a Senior Claims Handler, moved internally to launch MRL, became Team Lead, and is now Operations Manager, all in under three years. “So many people get stuck seeing development as a ladder. It’s not always necessarily true. It’s expanding your knowledge and having more understanding of the space around you.”

The pattern is consistent: ownership comes before the promotion. Connor ran key supplier relationships and negotiations independently before his promotion came through. “Giving people those opportunities earlier than a promotion is a really great signal that you trust them,” Lee says.

What they'd tell anyone thinking about joining

You’re trusted to get on with it and held accountable for your results.

Lee came from a large global insurer where it could take a long time to make a small change. The contrast to working here was immediate. "At Marshmallow, you are on the hook for performance, but also you are empowered to deliver the stuff that's going to help that performance. You need both together, that is the big difference".

Lee's closing thoughts say it best. "It’s a genuinely close team, full of people who enjoy working together and have each other’s backs. That’s harder to find than people think. At Marshmallow, you get out what you put in. If you come in here, work hard, bring your ideas, and deliver on it, then you can go a long way."

Interested in a career where your ideas are heard, ownership is real, and growth doesn't follow a fixed ladder? Explore open roles at Marshmallow.