S1E05 : “Taking a Leap of Faith: From Paris to New York”, with Emmanuelle Hoppenot, Senior Director of International Marketing at Butterfly Network

In this episode of The Marketing Consultation podcast, Emmanuelle Hoppenot, Senior Director of International Marketing at Butterfly Network, a MedTech company based in the US, recounts her journey of relocating from France to the US, a move initially prompted by her husband's career.

Emma's choice to join Butterfly Network after over 11 years at Medtronic France was driven by several factors: the company's inspiring mission to democratize healthcare and medical imaging access, the dynamic team she encountered during her interviews, and the significant investment from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 

Emma underscores the rapid pace of innovation at Butterfly, characterized by weekly or monthly releases of new features and improvements. This vibrant environment necessitates a more responsive and flexible approach to her marketing strategies. She also shares her experiences of living in New York, touching on the cultural adjustments, the high cost of living, and the enriching experiences her children had.

 On her return to France, Emma reflects on the challenges of readjusting and the delight of reacquainting herself with the benefits of her home country. She imparts advice to the audience, urging them to welcome change and take bold steps in their careers.

 This episode offers valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities of international career transitions, the contrasting dynamics of working in a startup versus a large corporation, and thesignificance of aligning with a company's mission and values.

 Please do not hesitate to share your feedback with us on our LinkedIn or Instagram pages and to give us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify. This is very important to help us grow The Marketing Consultation community!

Transcript

0:04

Hi everyone and welcome to the Marketing Consultation, the podcast for Healthcare Marketers by Healthcare Marketers. In the Marketing Consultation, Greg and I are having biweekly conversations with top leaders from the healthcare industry to uncover the key experience, insights and advice when it comes to carry on development, leadership and building high performing teams or marketing strategy and innovation. Whether you work in healthcare marketing or are interested in this field, our goal is to help answer your key questions and challenges and support you in your professional growth so that you can accelerate your career and stay ahead of the curve. In today's episode, we have the pleasure to welcome Emmanuel Hoppenot who currently serves as the Senior Director of International Marketing at Butterfly Network, a US based company whose mission is to democratize healthcare by making medical imaging accessible to everyone around the world. We had a very open conversation where Emma shares about her and her family taking a leap of faith a few years ago to leave France and go to New York. What was initially her husband's carrier move turned out to be Emma's career move as well. She left Medtronic and joined what was at the time a startup with no commercial product. Yet Emma shares without Filter about her doubts the challenges of starting everything from scratch in a very different environment, but also the rewards of such a radical change, both from a career and personal standpoints. Hello Emma. This is our absolute pleasure with Greg to welcome you on the marketing consultation. The pleasure is all mine. We've known each other for over 10 years as the three of us worked together for a few years at Medtronic Diabetes. Greg and I were working in the European headquarters and you were leading marketing for France. We then went on our respective path and I must say I was very impressed by the bold move that you made a few years ago, Bold from a professional standpoint, but also from a family standpoint. So my first question to you Emma is could you tell us more about this opportunity that came up to you in 2018? And could you also elaborate on the decision making process that led you to pursue it? Well, I mean, living abroad wasn't really part of a plan. I know some people dream to move and and work somewhere else. That was in our case, to be honest. I was working for Medtronic and I loved it. Our kids were four and six. We just literally bought a new a new flat off plan. But my husband was working for a big IT company, was a sales Rep at the time, and all of a sudden, basically his manager asked him if he wanted to do exactly what he was doing in Paris but in New York. And we thought, sure, I mean, why not A New York is amazing . It's actually amazing for our kids because they won't have to learn brands in the kitchen. I mean, they're going to be free and extremely easy and super young. And we thought from a family perspective, it's just a unique opportunity. And worst case scenario, if we hate it or they're not happy or we're not happy, we'll just stay there a year and then we move back to France, We'll find new jobs and that's it. So the risk from our perspective was very limited. So we just decided to take a leap of faith and once again that was New York. So it was pretty easy to to to make such a decision. Actually, no, we are really curious about all that move as influence, your family life, your career or you've been dealing with this big change also because you had one moving, joining your partner, your husband with the kids, which is quite a big change, but that is significant impact also on your career this, Can you tell us more about it? Sure. So I mean originally it was supposed to be a two year move. It ended up being a four year one. But at the beginning we really thought we will stay two years. And I was the one following my husband. So it was supposed to be his career move and not mine. And when you move to the US you have to wait for at least six months to get a work permit. So I just went there, just enjoyed being a mom and waiting for my visa and then I started building my network. And at the beginning, I honestly thought I would just pick any job to keep myself busy and to discover something new. And I just had the amazing opportunity to find a great job that I absolutely loved. And that's how it became my career move as much as my husband's career move. But that wasn't really something we planned. So that's you said that has it was all easy and very smooth but knowing from our previous conversation it was not so easy to find the right opportunity for you. So could you share with us? How many applications you had to make to find the right job? Yes, I actually made 120 tailored application that I sent out to pretty much, I mean all of the firms, all of the companies that were around New York. So yeah, 120. Standard personalized application. That's That was how much I actually tried to read. And were you specifically looking to work still in Med tech or did you apply in other industries that maybe you never had considered before? So at the beginning I thought, hey, you're in the US, let's try something completely different. You would have never tried in France. And I was passionate about cloud and AI and IT. So I thought, hey, let's try a junior position in a field that you don't know. And I quickly realized that was not going to happen because absolutely nobody was answering to any of my resume or cover letter. And then I just love healthcare. So I decided to go back to my my country, if you want or they feel that I really adored. And that's how I actually find a job much more easy than when I was looking for a completely different position in an industry that I didn't know and that didn't know me. And I'm curious, can you describe a little bit more for audience, you know what's your new role in US and also why you choose Butterfly, because at that time if I remember when you had multiple opportunities and you decide to go for that specific but also very distant opportunity about what you were doing before. Sure. So I have the pleasure to be the Senior Director of International Marketing for Butterfly, which is a US based company. And the reasons why I actually chose Butterfly and multiple, the first one I come from Medtronic and I just loved it, but it was a very big company. I think you can describe Medtronic as being a fairly big one. And Butterfly was a startup at the time. When I joined or when I had the opportunity to join, the product had not even launched. So I knew there was a different kind of environment that I wanted to try. The second reason is they have an extremely inspiring mission, which is to democratize healthcare and access to medical imaging, and I really love that. The third one is when I did my background research, I realized very rapidly that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was one of the main investors, so I thought their background work was very likely more intensive than mine. So that gave me faith in the credibility of the company. And the fourth reason, I just absolutely loved the people that I met through the interview process and I was like they're passionate, they were so clever, I want to work with them. So they were really the factor that made me go to butterfly. Perhaps just one more question amount on that one. Can you describe what is butterfly, what the therapy or the diagnostic you are providing and what's making it so unique? Sure. So Butterfly is a met tech company. We have a ultrason probe. So usually when you want to scan a part of the body, you need different probes depending on the part of the body that you want to be imaging. And Butterfly has a completely new technology that makes it possible to have just one probe to scan the entire body. So it's basically a probe and then the physician is going to plug into their iPhone or their iPad. To just go and scan, there is an AI component to actually guide as much as possible the healthcare professional to get best image quality possible. And then there is a cloud and enterprise component where the data can actually get into the butterfly cloud and where we can integrate with the HR of pretty much any hospital. So it's both a hardware and a software play if you want. Sounds very exciting, so. As you described it, you went to one of the biggest medical device companies in the world to a smaller growing company with a very interesting technology and concept. What we would be very curious to learn about, especially as Greg and I have stayed in the world of big met tech companies, is what do you think would be the key differences between working in this big corporate environment versus working in a company like Butterfly? I want to see the first one is really the pace of innovation. I mean, Metronic innovates very fast, but Butterfly, because the heart of the product is actually the cloud and the app, There is literally every week something new. Every month we're pushing a new version of the app with big differences, with a new preset, with a new part of the body that you can scan. So I want to see the first one. The main difference is really the pace of innovation. The second one is When you're a small company, you have nothing to lose. So you can literally try and succeed or try and fail very very easily and you're pushed to do that, to explore new opportunities. And the third one is especially at the beginning we had very few processes, if not none. And when you come from a world where processes are what keeps you safe, but at the same time as also. From time to time, a bit rigid and a bit challenging. That was almost frightening to have none at the beginning. Can you tell us what was the biggest reward for you and your family when living and working in New York? And also what was the biggest challenge? Sure. So I mean the rewards to start with the positives. Honestly, the first one is my kids. I mean to see them speaking English much better than they actually spoke French at the end. And blending in in the US public school system, that was just magical. The second one is New York is so dynamic and especially when you live in New York, you can actually access most of the museum for free. So being able to go to Broadway, to go to the Med, to the MoMA, it's just absolutely amazing. And the third reward is. When you're French and you work for U.S. company, I mean at the beginning it was like what on earth am I going to bring to those people? So being able to actually find your spots with people that are not from your country that you think you have very little in common in discovering that you just make an amazing team. And you're actually, you're actually part of that team, it's extremely rewarding. So I'm sure you know a famous singer who said if you can make it here, you can make you can make it anywhere. That's pretty much how I felt, starting from knowing nothing to becoming part of the team that was like extremely rewarding from a professional post point point of view in terms of challenges. I mean you said it COVID was super hard. the US borders were closed for almost two years. So it meant we just couldn't see anyone from our family and if anything happened to them in France, we wouldn't have been able to go there because it meant it would have meant we would not have been able to actually go back to the US, which is where we lived. So Kobe was definitely very challenging and being stuck on US soil, if you want the second challenge is, is really what I described earlier. You need to learn everything from scratch from your, I mean in your daily life. I know it's on city, but. Where do you go when you want to do your groceries? You're looking for the milk because in France it's pasteurized. In the US it's not. So you need to find out it's actually in fridges. So it all things like that or you need to find a Wi-Fi provider, you know nobody, you don't know any brands so you you need to stop from scratch for for anything. And the third challenge is really the cost of living because New York is amazing but it's also extremely expensive also with kids. So it means that you have to be super careful on how you. You spend your weekends and your evening, let's put it that way. So Emma, I just like to come back to your previous answer around the main differences between Medtronic, let's say and Butterfly. So there are two things that really interest were really interesting to me in your answers. So first of all, the pace of innovation. So my question to you would be, how as a marketer do you keep up with that pace of innovation? How does that change the way you approach your marketing plan, your marketing activities? Well, instead of having a plan a year in advance, which is what I had when I was working at Medtronic, you basically do monthly plan and you're just based on how the market is reacting. So it forces you, but also enables you to be much more reactive than based on on the RI and how your audience is reacting to your messaging to your campaigns. So the base that it forces you to have is also much faster and it's. More exciting for your brain, I guess, because nothing is ever done and nothing is ever settled and you need to reinvert yourself very, very frequently. And so that's really the main difference with what I had before. Thanks Emma. And if you're looking to the Emma of 2023, what would you tell to the Emma of the 2017, the Emma of 6 years ago? What will be the thing? And you say it's really something you need to know? It's gonna be fine, because I'm naturally worried about many things. And don't doubt yourself because you're worth something, actually, Because also like trust in my abilities is something that I've been working hard over the years and I'm still working my way through it, honestly. So yeah, it's gonna be fine and and you're something. I think that that would be my 2 learnings. And if there is any advice and you want to give to the audience, you know audience, we have a lot of more junior marketer on their way to where you are today. You know anything you will share with them and you say that's something I want to give you as a recommendation, advice or just way of thinking. Just try and don't be afraid of change, because worst case scenario you'll find something else if it's not the right fit for you. So it's not because you feel comfortable or because you don't think you have the knowledge you'll learn. And the only way to grow is actually to try something new. So take the lip of faith and if something feels right, just go for it. Thanks Emma. I think that's very, very inspiring, but also very courageous for from you and your family to have made that move. So this adventure actually came to an end because as we speak now you're actually in Paris in the Boulogne Billancourt or exactly. And so could you tell us more about what drove your decision to come back after four years in New York and how was it to be back in France ? Sure. So I mean after four years, it's no longer a small adventure, especially with three years being completely separate from our home country which is France and all elders was going to start middle school. So we're really in the process after four years of it was like a crossroad either we decided to stay there for many more years or We wanted to come back at some point, and then that point was actually now, because the older the kids grow, the harder it is to actually go back with them. And we went back to France. But for all kids, they just moved to another country they just barely remembered. So we just, I mean, there are many great things about the US, but there are also many things about the values, the school systems. The shootings, etcetera, and our kids were part of of 1. Something happened in our neighborhood. So as parents we really wanted them to grow in a French environment. So we thought, OK, it's now or never with middle school starting this year. So that's really what triggered the move back-to-back to Paris. And it's very nice to to be back. It was just amazing to be in New York, but it's also nice to be back back in France because I know that. Everybody realizes that when they live in France, but it's an amazing country with a great healthcare system, etc. So we just feel very lucky that we have a country that is safe to go back to once we decided to leave the US. L Let's ask you the same question for your move back to Paris ? What was the biggest impact for you and your family, both from private and from professional point of view?  So the first month were super hard. They were actually harder than when we moved to New York. The reason being I was working so I kept my job. I'm just doing it from a different time zone and having a full time job. I completely underestimated moving back. I thought it would just be a plug and play, but no. Like after four years you have to start everything from scratch again, even though you have to Apply for Social Security. Again, you have to open your bank account, etc, etc. So the first three months were a bit rough and our kids were not happy with our decision to move to France, so that was not easy. But after three months everybody got in a new routine and now we're in a much better place. So it's like we had the best of both worlds. If you want. We enjoyed everything we had to enjoy in New York and now we Look at everything we just love about that country and what made us get back here. Thanks Emma, for this very insightful conversation. It's triggering a lot of inspiration, but also reflection for Fabienne and myself and for our audience. Let's go now for our signature section. For each guest, we go behind the scenes and we ask a few questions to discover better the person behind the smart marketer. Let's start with what was the impact of your childhood and education on your professional life? My dad is a GP and my mom was a radio operator, so healthcare has been something I've always seen my entire life and they were both passionate about their jobs. So I'm pretty sure that's why I'm not working in healthcare and why I really wanted to find something that I loved. Are you a coffee or a tea drinker? Absolute tea drinker and I had the chance to spend one year in the UK so I know how to drink a property. So definitely can you tell us what are the top two countries on your travel bucket list? I would say Iceland and Egypt. American food or French food? Come on, French food, Paris or New York? Can I say both, like in my earlier word, six months in New York and six months in Paris? Emma. Thank you so much for your time today. It was great to have you with us and to really learn more about your inspiring story and move. We wish you all the best being back in France with your family and and yeah, thanks again for your time. Thank you so much, both. Have a great day and then bring us to the end of today's episode. We hope you found this discussion informative and insightful. We encourage you to continue the conversation and stay connected with us on LinkedIn and Instagram at the Marketing Consultation. If you have any question or topics you would like us to cover in the future episode, please do not hesitate to reach out. We need your help to grow the marketing consultation community and have more healthcare marketers benefiting from the experience and advice of our speaker. Please feel free to share with your network. And also to give us a five star rating on Apple podcast. This is super important to increase our visibility. Thanks again for listening and we look forward to bringing you more insight and ID from top LKR leaders in our next episode.