In this riveting solo episode, Sabine VanderLinden confronts what she calls "the capacity gap"—a silent barrier that undermines organizational success in today's complex business landscape. Rather than blaming common culprits like strategy, leadership, or talent, she reframes the issue as a structural mismatch between ambitious goals and the finite resources available to deliver on them.    Drawing from her extensive experience in the insurance sector and referencing compelling case studies from companies like Ping An and Nestlé, Sabine VanderLinden unpacks the math behind the capacity gap and lays out a practical five-step playbook to help leaders bridge it and thrive in the era of AI-driven transformation.   Key Takeaways Reflecting on the capacity gap, it becomes clear to me that most organizations are not failing due to weak ideas or a lack of vision, but because they are unable to match their strategic ambitions to their actual capacity to implement them. The sheer pace of technological change, combined with heightened expectations around innovation, puts immense pressure on existing operating models, especially in sectors like insurance.    The essential insight I share is that companies will win not by having the grandest vision, but by developing the operational elasticity to close the capacity gap faster than competitors. This requires a rigorous assessment of current delivery abilities, a relentless focus on throughput, leveraging external partners as capacity multipliers, and embedding elasticity into both technology and workforce design.   Most crucially, making capacity a leadership and board-level metric shifts the organization from admiring problems to solving them. As I explore in the episode, frontier firms show us what’s possible when capacity is managed as a dynamic asset rather than a limiting factor. The future belongs to those who can execute, not just strategize.   Best Moments   "What if the single greatest obstacle to your company's future success isn't the competition, a lack of budget, or even the speed of technological change—but a silent thief of momentum that lives in the space between your boardroom's bold vision and your team's daily reality?"   "It is not a people problem. It is a math problem, a fundamental mismatch between the infinite demands of strategic ambition and the finite capacity of your organization to execute."   "The winners will not be the companies with the most visionary strategies. They will be the companies with the smallest capacity gap."   "Frontier firms are not just managing capacity; they are weaponizing it."   "Closing the capacity gap is not about asking your teams to work harder. It is about redesigning the work itself."   ABOUT THE HOST   Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.   If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.   And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

In this episode of "Scouting for Growth," Sabine VanderLinden welcomes Florian Graillot, founding partner at Astorya VC, for an in-depth conversation about the evolving landscape of risk management and insurance innovation. The discussion explores how risk management is shifting from static predictions to adaptive strategies designed for tomorrow's uncertainties, emphasizing the rise of the “frontier firm”—organizations that continuously learn, adapt, and act in real time.   Florian Graillot shares insights from his experience investing across insurtech, cyber, climate risk, and financial fraud, highlighting the increasing importance of technology, data, and AI.    Together, Sabine VanderLinden and Florian Graillot discuss the structural advantages Europe may hold in building AI-native, trust-driven business models and the critical role of agent-human collaboration in future risk management. They address the challenges faced by incumbents—including talent acquisition, cost efficiency, and profitable growth—and consider what distinguishes great founders in the frontier firm era.   KEY TAKEAWAYS   This episode underlines that risk management is no longer about controlling yesterday’s uncertainties but engineering resilience for tomorrow. I was struck by Florian Graillot's argument that insurance leaders must rethink the entire risk value chain—not just the insurance segment—but encompassing prevention, risk assessment, capital efficiency, and claims. Simply layering AI onto legacy workflows isn’t enough; true transformation requires intention, an openness to external partnerships, and a clear ROI focus.   It’s clear to me that embracing AI isn’t “optional practice"—it’s existential. Organizations that experiment vigorously and collaborate with tech-first ventures gain a competitive edge, especially as emerging risks outpace traditional data models. Europe’s more measured regulatory approach, sometimes critiqued as cautious, actually presents an opportunity to build trust-by-design, ensuring AI is explainable and aligned with both ethics and end-customer value.   Ultimately, the essence of any successful frontier firm lies in clarity of vision, a readiness for real change, and a focus on trust between leaders, employees, and customers. As the industry shifts, those who can articulate and measure technology’s value, while empowering agent-human teams, will undoubtedly shape the risk landscape of the future.   BEST MOMENTS   "Risk management is no longer about predicting yesterday's risk. It is about designing for tomorrow's uncertainty."    "Either you consider emerging risks as a threat and retreat from the market, or you leverage technology to build resilience. That resilience is the optimistic side of the challenge."    "The perfect founding team is a blend of technology expertise and deep industry knowledge—you need both to create real value in insurance."    "If you expect big figures tomorrow morning, it will not work... But if you are ready to take more time and invest accordingly, innovation can deliver real and very nice results."    "In the end, technology doesn’t remove risk. It actually reveals our choices."    ABOUT THE GUEST   Florian Graillot is the co-founder and founding partner at Astorya VC, one of Europe’s most influential venture capital firms focused on early-stage insurtech, risk, and regulatory technology.    With 15 years of tech investing experience—ten of them specializing in insurtech—Florian Graillot has an unparalleled vantage point on the evolution of the insurance and risk landscape. He is passionate about backing founders who are redefining resilience, tackling climate, cyber, and financial fraud with cutting-edge data and algorithms, and reshaping how risk is owned and governed across enterprises.   ABOUT THE HOST   Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.   If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.   And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

In this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine VanderLinden welcomes industry veteran Karl Grandl, now of Miss Moneypenny Technologies, for a wide-ranging conversation on the real transformation underway in financial services and insurance.  Sabine VanderLinden sets the stage by emphasizing that digitization is no longer enough—true change means re-architecting operating models for velocity, intelligence, and trust at scale. Together, they explore the pitfalls of strategic complacency, the opportunities provided by European regulation, and the immense potential of intelligence layers and wallet technology to redefine how institutions interact with customers.  The discussion moves from strategic leadership to practical use cases—from frictionless onboarding and claims to agentic customer experiences—offering a roadmap for both incumbents and challenger firms looking to thrive in the era of real-time risk and embedded governance. KEY TAKEAWAYS Reflecting on my conversation with Karl Grandl, what became clear is that transformation in financial services isn’t just about digitizing legacy systems—it’s about fundamentally re-architecting the industry. For decades, institutions like banks and insurers were built for stability, but the pace of change and customer expectation today demands real-time, intelligent, and seamless experiences. Simply layering new digital tools over old processes leads to fragmentation, not progress. We’re stepping into the era of frontier firms: organizations powered by intelligence, human-agent collaboration, and embedded governance. As Karl emphasized, automation by itself doesn’t mean autonomy or intelligence. Instead, success hinges on evolving operating models and creating trust at scale. Regulatory changes, particularly in Europe—such as the EU AI Act and the introduction of digital identity wallets—are not burdens, but strategic advantages. They force discipline, drive infrastructure modernization, and create opportunities to offer frictionless experiences for 450 million citizens. Karl’s insight into customer experience “activation layers” resonated deeply. True transformation is about orchestrating intelligent touchpoints so insurance feels invisible and effortless, yet highly trustworthy, especially at moments of service or claim. This approach preserves the value of brokers and advisors, enhancing their roles as strategic risk partners instead of replacing them. Finally, leadership, not technology, is at the heart of transformation. The ability to articulate a clear vision and quickly demonstrate value is what distinguishes the winners. Real-time governance, compliance by design, and empathetic human engagement are becoming essential to build—and keep—customer trust. The challenge for every executive now is not just to optimize yesterday’s operations but to actively build tomorrow’s intelligence layer. The frontier is being defined now, and it begins with a leadership mindset ready for structural redesign and velocity. BEST MOMENTS "Automation is not autonomy, efficiency is not intelligence, and digital channels without orchestration create digital fragmentation."  "European regulation is our unfair advantage. It’s not just about discipline, it’s about infrastructure."  "You have to evolve—from transaction intermediary into a strategic risk advisor, augmented by intelligence that handles routine so you can focus on relationships, empathy, and judgment."  "Governance is about to become the most strategic capability. When compliance agents and financial AI are embedded in every workflow, governance shifts from retrospective reporting to real-time intervention."  "The frontier firm is not defined by how much AI it deploys; it is defined by how intelligently it integrates risk, compliance, capital, and customer experience." ABOUT THE GUEST Karl Grandl is often dubbed an “insurance dinosaur,” with over 30 years in the industry spanning Swiss Life, GetSafe, WeFox, and now Miss Moneypenny Technologies. His experience spans product development, distribution, and embedded insurance, as well as scaling tech-driven aggregators across markets.  At Miss Moneypenny, Karl is spearheading the integration of wallet technology and intelligence layers, focusing on frictionless customer interaction and embedding trust and compliance by design.  An advocate for regulation as a strategic advantage and transformation as a leadership imperative, Karl is a sought-after voice for both legacy insurers and challenger MGAs looking to build tomorrow’s intelligence-driven operating models.  Connect with him via LinkedIn or at upcoming events such as InsurTech Week and InsurTech Insights in London. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

In this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine VanderLinden sits down with Manish Shah, President and Chief Product Officer at Majesco, to explore the rapidly changing landscape of insurance core systems.  Together, they examine how AI is shifting the industry from being purely a protector to one that also focuses on prevention and dynamic participation. The conversation covers everything from the persistent protection gap and the urgent need for behavioral—not just technological—transformation in insurance to the practical realities and fears surrounding the implementation of agentic AI systems.  Manish Shah shares actionable insights on overcoming internal resistance, building trust with customers, and the importance of leadership courage. Throughout, listeners will gain an insider’s view on how insurance models are transforming and what sets bold, future-ready leaders apart. KEY TAKEAWAYS I was delighted to welcome Manish Shah to explore how the insurance industry is being transformed at its core. Our discussion began with the fundamental premise that insurance is built on trust and a promise of protection—yet today, both are being challenged by shifting customer expectations, legacy systems, and the rapid evolution of AI technologies.  Manish emphasized that closing the protection gap is not merely an issue of customer education but primarily a challenge of product and experience design. If customers do not understand or value our offerings, it's a failure of design, not comprehension. We agreed that the path to genuine transformation must be grounded in a behavioral shift—beyond technology upgrades or business process reengineering. Transformation executives must start by listening deeply to customers, adapting to their evolving needs, and fostering a culture that is not afraid to take bold risks rather than settle for incremental change. The conversation also delved into how AI, when embedded into the core—not bolted on as an afterthought—can help insurers move from process-led to truly human-centered operations. This enables better capacity, more personalized experiences, and the ability to anticipate rather than react to customers’ needs. Crucially, Manish Shah articulated the importance of trust, transparency, and auditability in the AI era: true trust is built through consistent, clear, empathetic engagement, supported by AI that augments—not replaces—human judgment. The insurers that will thrive in the next 3-5 years are those who are brave enough to rethink their business models, leverage intelligent, agentic cores, and prioritize behavioral change.  The future belongs to those willing to become active partners in their customers' lives, focused on prevention, participation, and peace of mind. BEST MOMENTS “If our customers don’t understand or see the value in the product, then it is a design problem. It’s not really a customer problem or an education problem. “Trust is built in small moments, not in any marketing material or strategic deck.”  “If we can actually execute well as an industry, insurance should feel more like a proactive safety net than a just reactive payment mechanism.”  “The brave ones… are those who are willing to rethink their business model and not just the tech stack.”  ABOUT THE GUEST  Manish Shah is the President and Chief Product Officer at Majesco, a leader at the intersection of technology, product strategy, and insurance industry expertise.  With over 30 years in the insurance sector, Manish Shah has been both a witness and a driver of major transformation, from the analog days of the industry to today’s AI-driven innovation. He is particularly passionate about embedding intelligence into the foundation of insurance operations—not just talking about AI, but delivering it as an engine of change.  At Majesco, Manish Shah oversees strategy for their cloud-native, intelligent core platform, with a special focus on agentic workflows, operational effectiveness, and preparing insurers for future challenges and opportunities in P&C, Life, Health, and Benefits. If you want to connect with Manish Shah, he encourages open dialogue and learning across the industry. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

In this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine VanderLinden welcomes Gil Arazi—a serial entrepreneur, executive, and leading insurtech investor—to explore the urgent transformation taking place in insurance. Gil Arazi argues that the industry’s traditional role of simply paying claims post-loss is outdated and that prevention is the new north star for sustainable growth. Their conversation dives into why insurance must shift from risk transfer to risk mitigation, what the future holds as data, AI, and even quantum computing disrupt business models, and how prevention can actually drive profit—not just avoid cost. Gil Arazi introduces The Spark, a not-for-profit initiative designed to help insurers decrease systemic risk and increase societal resilience through practical collaboration, not empty innovation theater. KEY TAKEAWAYS Reflecting on my conversation with Gil Arazi, several themes truly stood out, affirming both the urgency and opportunity for true transformation across insurance.  First, it’s clear that insurance cannot remain content with its legacy of paying claims post-loss. We are entering an era where prevention, not just remediation, is imperative—technological advancements, from AI to quantum computing, now offer insurers the tools to anticipate and prevent systemic risks, fundamentally altering their value to customers and society. The model must evolve from chasing losses to proactively reducing risk, and this shift is not just about cost efficiency, but empowering profitable growth through enhanced customer retention and relevance. In building The Spark as a nonprofit prevention lab, Gil Arazi emphasized a collective responsibility: by leveraging data, domain expertise, and increasingly mature technology, we—insurers, partners, and innovators—can bridge the protection gap and act as genuine “protection architects.” This vision requires us to move beyond innovation theater and toward real operational enablement, where execution trumps experimentation. The challenge, however, is not just technological—it is cultural and emotional. Building trust across competitors demands we fall in love with solving the problem, not just owning the solution. Clear boundaries and shared vulnerabilities create the foundation for meaningful collaboration on the risks no single entity can control alone. BEST MOMENTS “The insurance industry needs to move from reacting to the claim ... to proactive prevention of this damage or systemic risk.”  “The only way insurance can be actually successful and sustainably profitable is by being biased.”  “Technology will predict risk, but humans will decide what to do with it. Algorithms are very good at probability, but they're terrible at responsibility.”  “Do something good for humanity and for yourself. If you can't measure your impact by the loss that never happened, you're just optimizing the decline.”  “The real revolution isn’t technological anymore. It is emotional, it is behavioral, and it is strategic.”  ABOUT THE GUEST Gil Arazi is recognized as an insurance industry disruptor and visionary. He’s the founder and managing partner of Fintlv Venture Capital—a top insurtech VC fund with close to $1 billion invested globally—and the founder of The Spark, a purpose-driven, not-for-profit global prevention lab.  With a career spanning nearly 30 years, including executive leadership, board roles, and serial entrepreneurship in insurance, Gil Arazi has first-hand insight into the industry’s pain points and future opportunities. His work focuses on shifting insurance from loss-payout to loss-prevention, leveraging technology and collaboration to build resilience and drive growth. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

In this forward-thinking episode, Sabine VanderLinden returns to kick off the year with a transformative discussion on “frontier firms” and the rise of agentic enterprises. As digital transformation accelerates, leaders face challenges like increasing climate risks, cyber threats, and widening protection gaps—pushing businesses (especially in regulated industries like insurance) to rethink strategies. Sabine explores how trailblazing organizations are leveraging AI not just as an assistant, but as an autonomous driver of capacity and productivity.  Through practical frameworks and real-world case studies, this episode lays out the playbook for riding the next wave of innovation, resilience, and growth. KEY TAKEAWAYS This year on Scouting for Growth, I wanted to regroup and make sure my podcast continues to deliver what matters most to you in the fast-paced transformation market. After a brief pause and reflection, and evaluating the insights from the World Economic Forum, with a clear sense that the world feels increasingly uninsurable—climate risk, cyber threats, and protection gaps are all expanding. But I believe that this narrative of uninsurability is simply a choice, not a certainty. I see a new class of leaders emerging, those who aren’t just trying to manage risk but who are fundamentally changing how we approach it. Transformation isn’t just happening in isolated labs; it's exploding at the convergence of capital, technology, and strategy—the true frontier of business. This is where agentic enterprises are emerging, blending human leadership with AI agents, forming digital workforces where competitive advantage depends on our agility with data, not just data ownership. Examples abound: Telstra is scaling AI across thousands of employees, UBS has put AI at the heart of its business via a Chief AI Officer, Mercedes-Benz uses digital twins and multiple agent systems to optimize production, and at Nestlé, AI is transforming everything from farm to fork. These companies aren’t dabbling—they’re fundamentally rethinking their models and leadership. My message is simple: the agentic frontier is not some distant theory—it’s here and now. The uninsurable world is a choice, and you can choose to lead in this new paradigm. The tools and models exist, and the only question left is who has the courage to execute. As you listen and engage this year, I’ll keep guiding you through these themes—helping you build, not just watch, the future unfold. BEST MOMENTS "The uninsurable world is a choice, not a certainty. While some twist their hands over these challenges, a new class of leaders is rewriting the rules of the game." "A frontier firm in the simplest terms is an organization that is human led but agent operated. This means your people set the vision and define success, while AI agents handle a significant share of the execution, working autonomously with oversight across processes." "Mastering [these levers] is the difference between watching the future happen and actively building it." "The market is sending an unequivocal message: the future of financial institutions including insurance, all regulated industry belongs to the agentic enterprise. This is not a distant vision; it is happening right now." ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Sangha Penesetti, founder and CEO of goZeal, who didn’t just break the glass ceiling—she installed a flexible skylight. Today we’ll dive into the economics of equity, why flexible work is not a perk but a performance driver, and how insurers can win by rethinking who gets a seat at the table—and how that table is set. KEY TAKEAWAYS In my early career, every client meeting I walked into was a room full of men. I was the only woman of colour. When I became a mother in 2010 I felt first-hang how unforgiving the industry was, there was no real flexibility, no empathy around new mums (though that may have just been the company I worked for then), and certainly no system that was designed for working mums. During Covid I found my own community: Brilliant, highly educated women, especially Indian and Asian mums, step out of the workforce to raise kids and never return. Not because they lacked ambition, but because the system simply wasn’t build for them. That’s the moment I realised it wasn’t an individual struggle but a systemic design flaw, that’s when goZeal was born. We talk about empowerment a lot, but what is empowerment? It‘s the financial empowerment, the capacity for women to have the money to spend on whatever they want be that a Gucci bag or feeding their kids. The data is clear: When women (and especially women of colour) advance, companies become more innovative and perform better financially.  BEST MOMENTS  ‘My experience taught me that being included isn’t the same as being empowered.’  ‘Radical inclusion flips the dynamic. It’s not about representation, it’s about access to meaningful work decision-making authority and economic mobility.’ ‘Remote work is not “flexibility.” Flexibility means flexibility of time. I wanted to hire women directly to give them the autonomy of time. Direct impact comes when you are the employer.’ ‘True flexibility allows for peak productivity not proximity. When people work at their best insurers benefit from higher quality work, lower burnout, less attrition, stronger retention, all of that good stuff.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Sangha Penesetti is the powerhouse founder and CEO of goZeal, a company rewriting the rules of work by directly hiring skilled women, especially women of colour, for high-impact, flexible roles in insurance and tech. With 18 years of experience in finance and insurance, she’s lived the challenges of being the only woman at the table—and decided to build her own. Under her leadership, goZeal is more than a talent platform—it’s a movement. One that’s tackling systemic inequity, modernizing legacy operations, and showing insurers that flexible work is not a perk but a strategic edge. She’s here to talk about the real economics of inclusion, why hybrid isn’t enough, and how insurers can close talent gaps while building a future-ready workforce. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Marinela Profi, Global Market Strategy Lead for AI, GenAI and Agentic AI at SAS, about the rise of agentic AI and how we will move from hype to real, reliable AI. In today’s episode, we’ll discuss: Why LLMs alone don’t solve business problems – and what does, how governance is becoming the new frontier of AI trust, and what leaders should expect by 2026, as enterprises shift from experiments to autonomous, explainable intelligence. KEY TAKEAWAYS A generative AI chatbot is really good and answering questions, generating text, or summarising content. But, it typically stops when it comes to conversation. On the other hand, an AI agent goes beyond that, it can take action, it has goals, memory, reasoning capabilities and can orchestrate multi-set workflows using a combination of not just large-language models but also rules, data and analytics. Generative AI talks, and agentic AI does. The 5-step lifecycle of an agent is a framework I put together to help me and my customers understand what an agent actually does step-by-step in practice. 1. Perception 2. Cognition 3. Decisioning 4. Action, and 5. Learning. Governance boards in 2026 will act more like digital oversight committees, they will ensure that agents aren’t just smart, but they are safe, explainable and accountable.  BEST MOMENTS  ‘Post action the agent learns from feedback from a human operative. It’s important to monitor the learning loops, you cannot allow the agent to “self-update” in ways that are uncontrolled.’  ‘How autonomous should an agent be? 90% of the time it depends on the risk and impact of the task.’ ‘Autonomy without accountability is a risk multiplier.’ ‘Governance doesn’t stop at deployment, performance must be continuously monitored.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Marinela Profi helps organizations move from AI hype to trusted impact. As Global Market Strategy Lead for AI, GenAI, and Agentic AI at SAS, she works with enterprises in financial services, healthcare, and government to build AI systems that don’t just act fast—but act responsibly. With an MBA and a Master’s in Statistics and AI, Marinela bridges two worlds: translating complex data science into clear business strategy. Her work focuses on how agentic AI—intelligent systems that perceive, reason, and act autonomously—can deliver governed, explainable decisions instead of black-box predictions. A frequent keynote speaker at international AI and analytics events, she shares insights on the evolution from generative to agentic AI and the new frontier of AI governance, trust, and human-AI collaboration. Marinela is also an Advisory Board Member for Wake Technical Community College’s Data Science Program, helping shape future-ready curricula that connect classroom learning with real-world AI innovation. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Andrei Craciunescu, founder and CEO of RiskCube, about why the next generation of insurance will be built like software: adaptive, transparent, and embedded into every business platform. They also discuss how AI and data are transforming the broker's role from middleman to intelligent orchestrator, and what the insurance experience of 2030 could look like when protection becomes invisible and trust becomes the new currency. KEY TAKEAWAYS What companies want from the insurance market is fast underwriting, not to talk with humans so much anymore, especially startups; they want a quote in minutes, not months. This is how we got into the segment where we offer business insurance for startups – mainly venture-backed startups. Some providers already offer what we are doing, but there is no comparison. Every founder needs to go to each insurance company separately and ask for a quote, which often varies a lot – sometimes by 40%. They spend a lot of time investigating these quotes, which is expensive and hard to understand. RiskCube is an AI insurance agency for startups where founders can buy and manage insurance online. We looked at what an agency traditionally does: it has different processes in place, such as insurance applications, renewals, cancellations, and claims. We tried to map out all these processes to see which can be done by AI agents. AI cannot solve the whole insurance value chain, but we see a huge adoption in the claims and applications processes. Generally, most founders don’t really care which insurance company they’re with; they care that they have somebody who really understands them as a customer. We want startups to come to us because they trust the system, which provides a fast experience that works for them. It’s not very complicated, what we do for them at the beginning, we provide a smooth process where we can say they have high, medium or low risk then evaluate different quotes for them. BEST MOMENTS  ‘Everybody’s pushing on the AI front, but the insurance market is also evaluating if it’s really necessary; it’s not all in, which is impressive.’  ‘We build the firm first and then embed the technology inside the firm. This will make us defensible in the future because we will own the data in our agency and use it to train our own model.’ ‘People are using a lot of AI nowadays, but nobody really understands where the data is going or hosted.’ ‘Insurance companies tend to adapt AI for themselves, not for the whole market. We want to bring them all together in one channel.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Andrei Craciunescu is redefining risk management with RiskCube, an AI-powered platform revolutionising insurance by streamlining risk assessments, accelerating quote processes, and providing real-time insights to help businesses secure coverage faster and smarter. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Rob Schimek, Group CEO at bolttech, about how bolttech’s connector model is redefining global insurance distribution, from telcos to auto makers and beyond. They also talk about why the future of protection will depend on trust, data and design more than policy documents and premiums, and what leadership really looks like when you are building at the intersection of revelation, innovation, and human impact.  KEY TAKEAWAYS If you have an hour to solve a problem you should spend 55 minutes on the problem and then 5 minutes on the solution. I’ve spent my career in the problem, the formation of bolttech is the attempt at the solution – it’s the path that I’ve chosen to bring that solution to the marketplace. Our mission is to work out how to close a multi-billion-dollar protection gap that has existed for years, that’s getting bigger? In order to do that we need to really understand the problem. We think there are 4 basic drivers for this multi-billion-dollar protection gap that and they’re pretty irrefutable. We’re trying to make a seamless connection between the buyers of protection products (insurers) and the distribution partners who have access to the customers so we can put those solutions into the hands of the customers. bolttech’s here to try to provide tailored, affordable, accessible, and convenience insurance in the hands of the customer on a B2B2C basis, connecting big partners who have lots of customers to the insurance providers. Without the data there’s a tendency to paint everything with one brush, like it’s all the same. Data is accessible and available on a real-time basis today and it can be available with no intervention, straight from the vehicle telematics about the unique driver. BEST MOMENTS  ‘We really want to connect people with more ways to protect the things that they value, we want to close the global protection gap.’  ‘The more we make connections frictionless, the more the connection will happen and the more the protection gap will get closed.’‘ If the mission and the vision are super-well-known then nothing can distract you from solving that problem, regardless of what’s going on in the marketplace around you.’‘ If a customer doesn’t trust the use of AI in their interactions with you then AI won’t be successful in that space because it won’t be accepted in that space. Ultimately it comes back to do we do things the right way and give the customers a reason to trust us?’ ABOUT THE GUEST Rob Schimek is Group Chief Executive Office at bolttech where he leads the team across its operations globally, overseeing its growth and partnership opportunities. With more than 30 years of experience in the financial services industry, Rob previously held senior leadership roles, including Managing Director & Group Chief Operating Officer for FWD Group, President and Chief Executive Officer of AIG’s commercial insurance businesses worldwide, and Chief Executive Officer of the Americas for AIG. Prior to that, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of EMEA for AIG, and was the Chief Financial Officer of AIG’s global property and casualty insurance business. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to us about all she’s learned from the numerous guests on the show recently, from startup founders who build AI to simplify the chaotic insurance back office, to innovation leaders in Fortune 500 firms wrestling with ethics, regulation, and talent shortages. After dozens of conversations here’s what Sabine has learned: AI isn’t just changing our tools. It’s changing our temperament. This episode is her reflection on those lessons; a guide for leaders and builders trying to navigate this new age of intelligence and unpacks five principles that define successful AI adoption. KEY TAKEAWAYS When Branch Insurance introduced AI into its claims process, something unexpected happened. It wasn’t the customers who resisted, it was the adjusters. They were worried, not because AI made mistakes but because it didn’t. When Lisa Bechtold’s (who led AI governance at Zurich Insurance, now at Nestlé) team started implementing AI, they faced the classic dilemma: Move fast or move right. Lisa said: “We don’t see governance as slowing innovation – we see it as enabling trust at speed.” ERGO Group worked with CamCom, a startup from India that uses computer vision to detect car damage from photos or drones. The tech was brilliant. The challenge? Integrating it into a multinational insurer’s process. They didn’t just hand over the product, they sat side by side – engineers, adjusters, compliance officers, even lawyers – to make it work. It took nearly a year to get from pilot to production and the result wasn’t just faster claims; it was a new relationship model. The startup learned how corporates think. The corporate learned how startups move. That’s the real win. After all the talk about data, systems, ethics, and pilots, what really matters is how humans evolve. AI won’t replace people, but people who know how to use AI will replace people who don’t. That’s not a threat, it’s an invitation. AI is already changing what we expect from talent. Claims adjusters now need to interpret AI outputs. Underwriters must question models. Leaders must learn to manage digital teammates. BEST MOMENTS  ‘Intelligent tool don’t remove human judgment; they reveal it in higher resolution.’  ‘In this AI era, trust is the new currency.’‘Every AI dream dies in the shadow of bad data.’‘The irony is that the more intelligent our systems become, the more human our leadership must be. Empathy, creativity, ethics aren’t data points, they’re our differentiators.’ ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Stephen Brittain, co-founder of InsurTech Gateway, a pioneering venture builder focused on bringing early-stage startups into the heart of the insurance world – a regulated industry that typically moves at glacial speed. Over the past decade, Stephen has helped launch and scale ventures inside one of the most regulated, risk-averse business sectors on the planet: the insurance space. He has been the spark for innovation inside large insurance corporates and the strategic partner for founders who wanted to navigate the labyrinth of regulation, procurement and distribution at scale. In other words: he has been solving the archetypal “how to innovate inside a large enterprise” question while keeping the spirit of a startup alive. KEY TAKEAWAYS I was a product /service designer, and I found myself – through building bigger and bigger products – coming up against risk, and I saw risk as a constraint. I knew that if I could only understand risk better that I might be able to do bigger and bolder and better projects. That’s how I outgrew product design and moved into insurance. InsurTech Gateway’s original intention was to find amazing founders and fast-track them into market with enough creative energy to survive, adapt and evolve in an environment where your first idea had to be your fixed idea. Today we give founders greater agility to learn and evolve, because no one ever knows what to do when they first start, it’s a learning journey. The upside, the enthusiasm, the opportunity framing of entrepreneurialism and venturing gets everybody started, rallies people together. But, an a bad day, the downside view is actually the long-term sustainability of any new category. VCs and insurers have never sat round the table together. BEST MOMENTS  ‘The opportunity was not to make insurance sexy, it was to look at the secret powers of insurance to create mutual models to work at scale, to unlock lending and put trust into ecosystems that didn’t exist before.’  ‘One of the biggest challenges in InsurTech is; to get a successful outcome from something that looked great on day 1 but didn’t evolve into the opportunity.’ ‘Pattern recognition has never been higher and the cost to entry and experimentation has never been lower. We recognise what works and what doesn’t much better, but can we validate it with an insurer and get them onside? I think we still need to work out the connectivity.’ ‘If you can work with innovators, and you understand risk, and you can help unlock that innovation, you can make it sustainable.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Stephen Brittain is the Co-Founder of InsurTech Gateway, the world’s first authorised venture builder and fund focused on insurtech. A true pioneer at the intersection of innovation, investment, and impact, Stephen has spent the past decade turning bold ideas into scalable ventures that redefine how insurance and technology collide. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Sebastien Denef, CEO and co-founder at AGENTS.inc, a company at the forefront of building intelligent agent platforms for enterprises. On this episode we explore how agentic AI architectures are reshaping industries, what it takes to scale agentic AI solutions across siloes, and why the winners in this space will be those who master both the technology and collaboration. KEY TAKEAWAYS You can give a task to an AI agent – a piece of software – that autonomously handles the task. When compared to previous layers of automation, we can now increase the autonomy level because of the AI models and the increased amounts of data we have.  It’s underhyped. The impact we can have with today’s technology is very, very big and it will impact all sectors, from education to finding a job, buying a house, buying your groceries, deciding where to go on your weekend where right now we’re only seeing the beginnings of what could happen.  Almost the entire industry is trying to improve ChatGPT, to make it a little bit better, we actually see that this chat function isn’t really needed. What is needed is having a tireless workforce that tirelessly works for you as AI agents – you don’t necessarily want to converse with all of them because there would be too many messages to handle. You need a control interface to steer these new employees. RPA allowed us to move a document from A to B. AI agents will allow us to understand what’s inside that document, extract the right stuff, put the right thing into the system, evaluate the information, and so on. All these things were impossible before, that’s the big difference and that is possible today. BEST MOMENTS  ‘Think of AI agents as computers that work while you are asleep.’  ‘We will see shifts in entire industries, especially those with large workforces which will no longer be needed, and we will see new stuff coming up because of that.’ ‘Companies are only just waking up from the dream that if you use ChatGPT or Microsoft CoPilot you’re “AI-ready”.’ ‘More than 70% of the work people do right now can be automated.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Sebastien Denef is CEO and co-founder at AGENTS.inc who is inventing the future of human-computer interaction. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Ulrich (Uli) Homann, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft, and Mark Luquire, EY Global Microsoft Alliance Co-innovation Leader, about how to build an agentic AI enterprise that doesn’t just work faster, but works smarter and, most importantly, works for everyone. KEY TAKEAWAYS In the past automation has been very task driven and specific, things had to go in a certain order and you needed to know that order ahead of time. While you need some of that with generative AI, we now have a system that can help do some of that thinking, so if things change in the process along the way, you can deal with it. Now you can rethink what processes even need to exist and focus on the outcome and how to get to it in a new way.  By giving everyone at EY access to generative AI a couple of years ago we learned that people were able to accomplish more more quickly. They used it as a thought-partner, used it as a way to fine tune the product they were working on. Being able to see the evolution of generative AI to now where it’s coding applications on its own almost, seeing the new agent capabilities and tools, and being able to take action on its own with very little prompting, it opens the doors to possibilities and what you’ll be able to do in the future.  BEST MOMENTS  ‘Focus on where you want to be and then rethink how you’re going to get there, that’s the real key.’ ‘It’s not just an assistant to you, providing you with information, it’s actually taking on work it’s actually thinking through and processing those things as well.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Ulrich (Uli) Homann is a Corporate Vice President & Distinguished Architect in the Cloud + AI business at Microsoft. As part of the senior engineering leadership team, he’s responsible for the customer-led innovation efforts across the cloud and enterprise platform portfolio. Previously Homann was the Chief Architect for Microsoft worldwide enterprise services, having formerly played a key role in the business’ newly formed Platforms, Technology and Strategy Group. Prior to joining Microsoft in 1991, he worked for several small consulting companies, where he designed and developed distributed systems and has spent most of his career using well-defined applications and architectures to simplify and streamline the development of business applications. Mark Luquire leads the EY organization’s global efforts to co-develop innovative solutions with Microsoft and clients, driving growth and accelerating technology strategy. He oversees cross-functional teams spanning sectors and service lines, serving as a key liaison to Microsoft’s product and engineering teams. Previously, Mark headed Platform Adoption for EY Global, leading enterprise-wide AI and cloud enablement, including integrating generative AI tools like EYQ, GitHub Copilot and Microsoft Copilot. He also created the first EY Global DevOps Practice and led cloud transformation efforts, making EY a leader in Microsoft Azure usage. Mark’s career includes leadership roles in large healthcare enterprises and technology startups, where he established scalable operations, spearheaded digital transformation, and built high-performing global teams. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Laurna Castillo, Senior Vice President of Product at CSAA Insurance Group, a AAA insurer serving millions of customers across the western United States. Laurna has become a leading voice in reimagining how the insurance industry – and entire communities – can build resilience in the face of escalating wildfire risk. On this episode, Laurna will share her journey, lessons learned from the frontlines of growth, and actionable insights for listeners eager to drive meaningful impact in their own ventures. KEY TAKEAWAYS The AAA was originally an automobile association focused on making cars safer, advocating for seatbelts, for example. Without seatbelts, car insurance would be more expensive, making driving less accessible to the average person. It’s the same with wildfire; there are massive quantities of homes being lost every year, and if we don’t have these solutions for fewer homes being burned down by wildfire, it’s going to be less accessible for the average consumer to live in places like California. Knowing where to start was our biggest challenge, but picking a direction and sticking with it, and recognising all the different facets that need progressing, we leant in when we recognised those. We’ve learned that people are overwhelmed. There’s so much information out there, if you speak to your neighbour, you might get one thing, if you speak to your local fire chief, you might get another. That was reinforced in our community engagements, as was the fact that trusted voices matter; people are most likely to trust the motivations of people they know rather than insurance companies. We’ve been leaning into this problem with this mindset for over a decade, and it’s becoming a strategic focus and imperative for us because of the increase in large-scale fires affecting many properties. One of the most important issues is where to start with mitigation. The 0-5-foot ignition zone is the single most important factor. The next is scalability, we need to rally around and give common standards and similar messages, that will help homeowners receive clear, consistent guidance. BEST MOMENTS  ‘Do the next, best, right thing that’s in front of you. If you keep doing that, eventually it builds up into a system of change and collective progress.’  ‘I cannot emphasise enough how important partnerships are to this problem. They extend reach.’ ‘The easiest way to have a wildfire resilient home is to build one, building one that’s not resilient and trying to retrofit it is less optimal and not as easy.’ ‘The single most important thing is clearing flammable material (fences, overhanging trees and bushes) from a 0-5 foot zone from the house.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Laurna Castillo is a forward-thinking leader and passionate advocate for innovation and sustainable growth. With a dynamic background spanning entrepreneurship, community development, and strategic leadership, Laurna has dedicated her career to empowering organizations and individuals to unlock their full potential. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Yo Kwon, CEO at Voltaire.Claims. Together, we pull back the curtain on how enterprise operations (and in particular finance and insurance operations) are being reinvented – not tomorrow, but right now. KEY TAKEAWAYS           I was working with my co-founder on Ai technology trying to work out what would be applicable for wider businesses. While we were testing ideas someone was using one of our products to write claims letters. Adjustors don’t enjoy writing claims letter, especially denials, they lean heavily on templates and cheat sheets to figure out the clauses to cite, so small mistakes and big ones can slip though. Voltaire generates each letter from scratch, it doesn’t take shortcuts which removes the room for error.  Litigation alone adds an average of $10,718 per claim in loss adjustment expense, we projects Voltaire can reduce litigated claims by 10% or more through more defensible correspondence. Even a conservative 5% improvement in leakage through clearer letters translates to $320,00 in recovered value.  We include critical guardrails. If an adjustor requests a denial letter but there’s no valid policy exclusion that exists to support the denial, the system returns ‘no relevant policy language was found’. This prevents a wrongful denial or compliance violation before it happens. BEST MOMENTS  ‘Before I started this company I did not think this would be a problem in 2025, and this is a problem because of the complexities of claims.’  ‘Whenever productivity is measured, people will choose speed over compliance, I’d go far as to say most adjustors never actually learn the correct way to write a claims letter.’ ‘Claims managers and adjustors have told us the AI is teaching them things about policies that they’ve never known before.’ ‘Our approach treats compliance as a product feature, not an afterthought.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Yo Kwon is the Co-Founder and CEO of Voltaire.Claims, where he leads the development of cutting-edge AI solutions that transform insurance correspondence. With deep expertise in artificial intelligence, decentralized systems, and cybersecurity, Yo brings a rigorous technical perspective to one of the industry’s most overlooked but high-impact challenges: claims letter automation. Under his leadership, Voltaire has built a lightweight, API-driven platform that integrates seamlessly with core systems like Guidewire to deliver accurate, regulator-compliant claim letters in seconds. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Bobbie Shrivastav, co-founder and CEO of Solvrays about building AI-driven workflows that aim to eliminate 70% of manual back office work with governance, auditability, and with human-in-the-loop controls directly built in. They also talk about what makes vertical AI for insurance defensible and measurable, compressing sales and implementation cycles without cutting corners on risk, change management, and how to augment teams as talent retires while new talent ramps up. KEY TAKEAWAYS When the work comes into an organisation, not everything is digital. Things are still mailed, the first help we provide is extracting the information from those manual sources and place it with the right person in their case management system. That alone eliminates 5-7 touch points. When an agent sends an email we’re able to get a new business application, we’re able to extract the information, we understand that this is a new business applications, and we can take that data and integrate it into the new business solution. Before, someone would have checked an email, gone to the new business application and keyed that in so work could move in. We’ve eliminated that complex new business touch point. 74% of our industry is still tackling legacy. Customers don’t care if you’re still using mainframes, they shouldn’t feel a difference. We’re using agentic AI as a connector to legacy systems, we’re also doing database to database connectors, and for newer systems we’re using APIs. We eliminate a dependency factor and empowered IT to work with new technologies, so they’re not dependent on us. But the business and IT partnership with any project, whether it’s our solution or another, is the key to success. BEST MOMENTS ‘We want to be a ray of hope for the operations staff for back office.’ ‘What makes us superior, from an industry point of view, is that we’ve innovated in this space for the last 10 years, we understand operations intimately.’ ‘Once a signature is signed, our goal is to do one workflow in two weeks, not months or years, weeks.’ ‘Where I’ve seen most anxiety in business and IT is in implementation, it can drain your team. Our goal is: If we can build our orchestration layer the right way you don’t have to be so tense.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Bobbie Shrivastav is founder and managing principal of Solvrays. Previously, she was co-founder and CEO of Docsmore, where she introduced an interactive, workflow-driven document management solution to optimize operations. She then co-founded Benekiva, where, as COO, she spearheaded initiatives to improve efficiency and customer engagement in life insurance. She co-hosts the Insurance Sync podcast with Laurel Jordan, where they explore industry trends and innovations. She is a co-author of the book series "Momentum: Makers and Builders" with Renu Ann Joseph. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Amit Santhirasenan, co-founder and CEO of hyperexponential, an actuary and software engineer who has built the AI native pricing and underwriting platform used by leading specialty carriers. In this episode we cover how to turn messy submissions into structured signals your pricing model can trust – without hiring an army, multi agent architectures, the agentic AI mesh, and the human in the loop controls executives need for auditability and speed, and where agentic underwriting is ready today (and where it isn’t), plus the metrics executives should track—cycle time, hit ratio, and loss ratio uplift. KEY TAKEAWAYS Email submissions were a luxury at the start of my career! What’s been so exciting for me, as a self-professed nerd, is the pace at which the capabilities of core models have got so good that even 6 months ago was a whole product’s capability and feature set is now within the gift of Gemini or GPT5. If you’re an underwriter filling out a spreadsheet/renew model, in 2025 you need to be working with hx underwriting , actuary or agent inside a renew model to have your paired partner helping you get to the best result. Why can’t you have deep risk research on every single risk? Why can’t you say: Tell me the most important characteristics in the world that you can tell me about the top 3 exposures? No human can do this work, the cost/benefit trade off there isn’t economic, but you can run an OpenAI deep risk API call to do that on every single risk you underwrite today. We do it for you, it’s what we do. All of a sudden it’s dramatically easier to bring that level of differentiation and specialism in the way that great underwriting has always been done to every single risk you want to touch. BEST MOMENTS ‘You won’t see that many places with a $7 trillion contribution to GDP, with such a small number of companies and people responsible for this.’ ‘We demonstrated the first API machine vision algorithm in the market in 2017, now kids coming out of university are doing that as toy projects before they get to our clients.’ ‘You can have an army of digital agents helping you now, all for $20 per month!’ ‘Generative AI models have unlocked the ability to pull data so quickly out of the information required for underwrite that you can put a very quick red/amber/green status on risks, several orders of magnitude greater than ever before.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Amrit Santhirasenan is the Co-founder and CEO of Hyperexponential (hx), the AI native pricing and underwriting platform for P&C insurers. Under his leadership, Hx Renew has become known for delivering executive-level outcomes: ~50% faster submission-to-bind, 10× faster model build and deployment, and a platform that supports $45bn+ in GWP for 20+ enterprise customers worldwide. A qualified actuary and computer scientist, Amrit previously spent over a decade in the London Market. He served as Head of Pricing & Analytics at Tokio Marine Kiln, building the managing agent’s first technical pricing team to support ~£1.5bn GWP, and earlier held actuarial roles at Catlin (including standing up the Canadian actuarial function). ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Will Ross, Co-Founder & CEO of Federato, and if you’re an underwriting transformation leader—drowning in Excel, stale pilots, and disconnected data sources—this episode is for you. Will Ross isn’t here to sell you hype. He’s here to show what it looks like when AI actually delivers: faster quotes, better decisions, happier underwriters, and measurable results before the next board meeting. KEY TAKEAWAYS Thinking back to when Amazon released the Echo with Alexa and a bunch of us bought them and took them apart to figure out how it worked reminds me of how Wild West the early days of AI was a decade and a half ago. Now any undergraduate student taking computer science will have some exposure to AI. One of the first things they might learn is how to do simple tasks like that on very little computational resource. I love jumping into our products like that to understand how they work. Break down what AI means: There’s an idea of intelligence or grasping a concept or knowledge, then there’s artificial – doing something in place of a human. You can take it a step further and look at ‘generative’ – generating a thing, or predictive – predicting a thing, agentic – giving it agency and allowing it to complete a task.  What is it that humans do today and, theoretically, what could humans do if they had unlimited time to do their jobs? For underwriters, the process is similar across many line of business: you analyse an exposure, loss history and loss control to come up with a rate perspective, etc. Where can AI systems interact with that process? BEST MOMENTS ‘One of the things I think is really scary with AI today is its perpetuation of news cycles and how fast it spreads.’  ‘No matter how sceptical people are, the vast majority of people are already using these technologies to do their jobs. By bringing them into the room, making them aware of what this technology does, and letting the interact with it, that’s a powerful thing.’ ‘There are going to be jobs that change, but we shouldn’t think about it as AI replacing our jobs, we should think about it as someone using AI to do our job who will replace us.’ ‘What we call AI today will change and change again because it always has; Deep Blue used to be called AI and is now called a chess simulator.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS William Ross is a product and operations leader obsessed with solving the toughest problems in insurance with a mix of pragmatism, speed, and machine learning. As a core member of the Federato leadership team, Will focuses on one mission: turning underwriting from a slow, manual grind into a dynamic, data-driven advantage. At Federato, Will is helping specialty and commercial carriers build resilience and growth into their underwriting operations, showing chief underwriting and transformation officers that AI doesn’t need to be another failed pilot—it can be the competitive edge that secures market share today. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Sara Mikulski, CTO at Kingstone Insurance, about the moment in her career that convinced her that the claims ecosystem could be rebuilt around a single, trusted data spine. KEY TAKEAWAYS When I started my career, success looked like stabilisation: getting to a point where we all understood what was happening in which system, where the data was, and just making it work. It wasn’t a long-term scalable solution, but I didn’t want to come into the organisation and disrupt it. It wasn’t ready yet, the first 18 months were about learning what was working and what wasn’t before making a move to address the concerns and questions in a scalable way. Between then and now, we’ve changed the entire platform and focused on ensuring that there were clear processes, good data in the right places, so we could automate more and enable future AI. This has made our adjustors so happy, as well as us, from an IT perspective, where it’s easier to maintain, help, and administer, etc. Many large AI initiatives that impact your core systems don’t always go as expected. The biggest learning we’ve had, as an organisation, over the last year was to not run before you can walk. Sometimes you think AI can fix the problem or the process, but when you start to talk it through or dissect it, you find out you could simply tweak the system to be better for the people using it or explore a different way of doing the process. BEST MOMENTS ‘There were less emotional decisions in the first place because we took our time and really thought things through.’ ‘You have to focus on how to make that one place your place – making sure the data that in there is clean, true, what data is there, what data your adjustors need to go outside of the system for and why.’ ‘Efficiency is king right now, which is why AI is getting such a movement behind it; you’re trying to find places where you don’t have to do something manually, or something that takes hours and condensing it to seconds.’ ‘AI will play an enormous role in current and future processes at all insurance carriers, but you still have to go back to the basics and figure out if you’re just trying to put a band aid on the problem or if you’re trying to solve it long-term.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Sara Mikulski is Chief Technology Officer at Kingstone Insurance and is responsible for managing our IT organization and accountable for the company’s systems and data strategy, IT security, infrastructure, development, support, and vendor management. Sara brings 15+ years of experience in IT, leading effective teams and improving IT operations. Most recently, she was the Deputy CIO at UPC Insurance, where she was responsible for delivering numerous projects aimed at consolidating platforms and reducing technical debt. She also held leadership and technical IT positions at Esurance. Ms. Mikulski also worked at several other companies in various IT-focused roles. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Arvind Sontha, COE and co-founder of Kyber, an AI startup redefining how carriers handle claims correspondence. The insurance industry is undergoing a seismic shift as carriers face mounting pressure to deliver faster, more transparent, and compliant communications to policyholders and clients, making the need for digital claims transformation greater than ever. KEY TAKEAWAYS If you think about insurance and tailoring, the underlying model of risk is effectively a ‘user personal model’. We started with an obscure line of insurance that didn’t exist yet, or did around personal cyber insurance. We wondered what it would look like, rather than SMB or commercial cyber insurance, as individual underwriting and risk modelling. We got lucky in finding a great partner in branch insurance very early on. Over the course of our time engaging with them, we ended up turning into an extension of their team. We were able to work closely with them; they trusted us to quickly understand their problems and iterate to deliver quick solutions, while at the same time, they understood that there would be quirks with products that weren’t fully fleshed out, which they could iron out over time. It was a symbiotic relationship. If an adjustor has to take an hour to put a document together, you have to clear a 1.5-hour space in your calendar to do that. Life is hectic, you have meetings and other tasks to do, and so that 1.5-hour block keeps getting moved back, same thing happens to managers. If you can take it from 1.5 hours to 30 seconds for a high-quality letter and a one-click approval, you can slip that into any part of your calendar. That’s a really underrated part of the process. Some of the things we want to do in the future include things like managed parameters. We think it’s obtuse for all the carriers to handle fraud language individually all the time, for example. Kyber could manage that for you to make sure everything’s automatically compliant and good to go. Statutory language really enables the full organisation to be prepared to catch each other. BEST MOMENTS ‘Kyber is an AI native, document generation and delivery platform made for claims teams, that’s what we do.’ ‘Nobody doubted that I could build the complex AI to underwrite and quantify the risk; what they needed to figure out was whether I could sell insurance, which is why I got my broker’s licence!’ ‘The results have been better than I expected, we’ve seen 65% faster drafting times, 80% consolidation of their templates across a 50-state operation, and 5x reduction in letter cycle times for documents.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Arvind Sontha is co-founder and CEO of Kyber, an AI startup that is redefining how carriers’ NTPAs handle claims correspondence. Arvind is at the forefront of digital transformation, leading Kyber’s mission to automate and streamline the entire lifecycle of claims forms and letters. Kyber’s clients report that the impact of AI automation is undeniable: Claims teams using Kyber have reduced letter drafting time by up to 85%, cut review time by 60%, and achieved a 3x faster outreach to policyholders. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Charlie Wendland, chief claims officer at Branch Insurance. The world of claims management is undergoing a seismic shift, with AI at its heart. Insurers leveraging AI have reported a 75% reduction in claims handling time and 50% increase in fraud detection accuracy. Cutting claims processing times allows adjustors to focus on complex decisions and customer care. Charlie talks about technology only being part of the story. The future of claims is about continuous transformation, balancing innovation with compliance, and making sure that as we innovate, we don’t lose sight of empathy and trust. KEY TAKEAWAYS The combination of investigation, problem solving, and most importantly, being there for people in their worst moments – as a claims adjustor – felt both intellectually engaging and genuinely meaningful. It really drew me to the role. We’re small and can’t afford to build a fully fleshed-out claims organisation. So, we made strategic investments to automate administrative tasks that typically weigh down our adjustors, affect road loss outcomes, and drive expense inefficiencies. We listened to our adjustors; we conducted many time studies to identify what’s bogging them down; we proactively sought out inefficient processes and looked for technology to improve them. We’ve taken an iterative approach to everything that we’ve built, understanding that it’s not going to be perfect when we first launch, but we’re going to be really sensitive to what is not perfect and seek perfection even though we know that’s not possible. BEST MOMENTS ‘Find administrative tasks that weigh down your adjustors, free them of those through technology, and they can spend more time on complex issues and customer care.’ ‘We get adjustor’s opinions on everything that we do, for the most part, which sounds inefficient, but it’s really not because we do it in a very thoughtful way.’ ‘70% of our first notice-of-lossis  now either done electronically or through a voice AI.’ ‘With a startup, change is ever-present because we’re trying to find a way to do something and we’re able to change quite quickly, but the hurdles are all self-inflicted, so if we’re not communicating effectively, that’s on us.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Charlie Wendland has 20+ years of expertise transforming claims operations across commercial and personal lines. As Chief Claims Officer at Branch, he leads an organisation that's reimagining the insurance experience through technology and customer-centric innovation while delivering optimal claim outcomes. Charlie’s leadership philosophy centres on driving operational efficiency that benefits both customers and the business, building collaborative teams that deliver exceptional results, and pioneering approaches that redefine industry standards. Throughout his career, Charlie has consistently delivered growth while enhancing customer satisfaction. I'm passionate about modernizing insurance and mentoring the next generation of industry leaders. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Barbara Schonhofer and Carmen Powell, two influential voices who have navigated and thrived in the ever-evolving insurance industry. In today’s conversation, we explore the sector’s evolution, the future of work, and best practices for continuous networking and development. KEY TAKEAWAYS When I started my career in 1972, men didn’t know how to behave as women came into their own in business and took frontline roles. It wasn’t so much misogyny that I faced; it was more like old geezers having a laugh; they didn’t know how to welcome women into their workplace because it was less usual. I found my way by being more humorous and smarter in my responses, so I sidestepped a lot of the banter in my early career. There were only a few predatory men; most just didn’t know how to behave in front of women. I have always celebrated being different. Anything that was an idiosyncrasy was put down to the fact that I was Spanish, and that suited me fine! That served me well because I didn’t have to follow the norms. However, when I interviewed for a very large organisation in the UK, the HR director asked me how I would cope with men making a pass at me. I said that I was coming here to work and that if anybody crossed the line, I knew how to deal with that. BEST MOMENTS ‘The men that were kindest to me didn’t help me, and the ones that gave me a tough time did business with me. I learned to keep my friends close and my enemies closer.’ ‘The most wonderful boss I had was a woman, the rest have been men, but, like Barbara, they gave me a hard time and pushed my boundaries enough, so I knew I was resilient enough.’ ‘With everything, you take two steps forward and one step back.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Barbara Schonhofer’s career in financial services covers four decades, operating as a business leader and later as an executive search consultant to the insurance markets. When she began her career, she set out to better understand the complexities of much-needed culture change in insurance. During her years in financial services as an executive search consultant, Barbara challenged conventional practices and identified the need to bring together women leaders in the London Market to network. Alongside ISC-Group, Barbara co-founded and co-Chaired GAIN, a non-profit membership organisation that encourages a better understanding and inclusion of neurodiverse individuals in the insurance industry. She is a Freeman of the City of London and a member of the Worshipful Company of Insurers, where she co-founded its female network, iWIN. LinkedIn Carmen Powell is an experienced international marketing and business development professional whose strategic expertise is underpinned by a practical, positive approach to achieving challenging goals, including establishing new markets and reversing declining revenues whilst successfully navigating large, complex organisational matrices. Carmen has a passion for building societal prosperity and strengthening the ethical behaviour of organisations through making a difference to their bottom line. Ethics matter. Carmen constantly strives to deliver value in ever-changing corporate environments while also making a positive difference in our world. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Yandy Plasencia, founder and CEO of DataHaven Software. In today’s conversation, we talk about Yandy’s journey and vision as well as how mid-sized insurance companies can explore and empower their finance teams, especially their CFOs, by automating data reconciliation and unlocking real-time insights. KEY TAKEAWAYS          For the most part, it all comes down to the basic ledger/sub-ledger challenge. The core systems are transactional and contain all the information about what took place, which payments were paid out, when a claim came in, and everything needed to verify that a claim has coverage within the rules defined by the policy. If the data isn’t easy to extract and digestible for the right audience, it will be challenging for that audience to interpret, reconcile, and do so in a timely fashion. In smaller carriers, there will be more technical folks who are not necessarily business-oriented. There’s always a gap between what the business and technology folks are looking for, and although technology does a very good job of getting the data where it needs to go, it doesn’t always meet the needs of the finance and accounting folks. There an ongoing friction between both departments. You need to build an intelligence layer with well-defined relationships across every data point related to financials. If it affects financials, you need to have a relationship, ontology, or something that tells you how these data points are interrelated. If you don’t have that, then it’s only creating a problem for something else that’s going to come up very soon. The main issue with spreadsheets with visualisation tools is that those tools solve the problem short-term until they don’t, they are extremely helpful until they become painful, and they become a bottleneck for the organisation to grow eventually. The tools don’t have change processes in place as data sets grow and organisations expand. They also become a personnel risk because only 1 or 2 people in the company understand it. BEST MOMENTS ‘Data is a powerful tool, and it’s “make it or break it” for a lot of companies, especially in insurance, where the devil is in the details.’ ‘Being able to trace an expense back to the root system and getting a full transactional detail for that specific number is the most reliable way to do something.’ ‘It’s only labour-intensive if you try to do this completely manually and you don’t leverage artificial intelligence in the right ways, and if you don’t have a defined framework to do this, if you do, it’s much easier.’ ‘It’s not rocket science… It’s just data science.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Yandy Plasencia is a visionary entrepreneur and software architect with deep expertise in AI, data engineering, insurance technology, and regulatory compliance. At DataHaven, Yandy and his team are creating an insurance-specific intelligence layer that automates reconciliation, accelerates financial analysis, and helps leadership trace changes in loss or expense ratios directly to operational events. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Mike Gulla, CEO of Adaptive Insurance, whose team is redefining what it means to be resilient in an era of climate uncertainty and operational volatility. We’ll explore why now is the time for parametric and adaptive insurance, what inspired the creation of Adaptive, and how emerging technologies like AI, big data, and cloud computing are transforming the insurance landscape. KEY TAKEAWAYS          Mike founded Adaptive in early 2024 to help businesses build financial resilience against climate change by leveraging parametric products and unique data assets. Starting a business comes with many challenges – revenue planning, product selection, and insurance. Our focus is on helping owners understand how environmental factors, such as extreme weather or business interruptions, could impact them over time. Power outages show that even with backup systems, grid failures can cause major disruptions – from dark streets to reduced customer traffic. As climate shifts, populations are moving into areas with new weather risks. My focus is on creating innovative insurance products that turn these challenges into opportunities for good BEST MOMENTS ‘The consumer needs knowledge to understand what the things are that are ultimately going to impact their business.’ ‘Speed is huge, which is why we use parametric products, a business owner needs to be able to make a decision very quickly after an event occurs. When you combine knowledge with speed, it helps them make a better decision for their business.’ The insurance industry has suffered from how fast things have changed.’ ‘Parametric insurance products are similar to streaming services in that they allow the consumer a new opportunity to have access to a different type of coverage that specifically focuses on something that might impact their business.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Mike Gulla, CEO and Co-Founder of Adaptive Insurance, has over 20 years of experience in the insurance industry and is passionate about transforming how insurance works by leveraging technology and innovative strategies. His career is marked by a commitment to making insurance more adaptive, efficient, and customer-focused. Mike’s leadership at Adaptive Insurance reflects his vision for a smarter, more responsive industry—one that meets the evolving needs of clients in a rapidly changing world. Known for his forward-thinking approach and dedication to excellence, Mike continues to inspire teams and drive meaningful change across the insurance landscape. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Sterling Parker, Senior Vice President of Global Solutions and Services at Ivanti. Sterling is a recognised leader in workplace technology and digital transformation, with deep expertise in helping organizations of all sizes – from global enterprises to fast-growing startups – navigate the evolving world of work. In this episode, we dive into the findings of Ivanti’s latest report, which gives insights into how leaders can build workplaces that are not only more efficient but also more human, flexible, and future-ready. KEY TAKEAWAYS Ivanti’s latest “Technology at Work” report reveals a striking insight: while 73% of office workers and 83% of IT professionals consider flexible working “high value” or “essential,” only 23% of employees say their current job is highly flexible - highlighting a major flexibility gap that organisations must address to attract and retain top talent. The study also explores the widening flexibility gap, the rise of shadow AI, and the critical balance between optimising technology and empowering people. Leaders need to hear the feedback from their teams. In terms of what’s preventing them – whether it’s perception or reality – from having flexibility in their day-to-day job. If you’re trying to address something without first hearing what your team demands in terms of flexibility, then you will have a hard time marrying the demand to the business objectives. That’s a delicate balance. If you’re not defining what success looks like for an individual, how are you going to be able to measure, as you pivot to more flexible work, whether or not that is really leading to the outcomes you need as a business to continue to invest in that flexibility? To redefine flexibility, it comes down to the mutual benefits involved in how individuals define ‘flexibility’. From what I’ve seen, it happens at a team level, especially when you’re working on different objectives. BEST MOMENTS ‘Lack of investment from businesses is leading to this 23% feeling like they don’t have any flexibility.’ ‘There’s real cost in time spent with family, there’s real cost in the commute, and people weigh those options.’ Since COVID, individuals are more willing to leave businesses for flexibility. Refusing to adapt will increase the likelihood of losing skilled employees, which will cost the business. ’ ‘When top talent leaves, or isn’t being attracted, then you’re going to have an innovation stagnation.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Sterling Parker is the Senior Vice President of Global Solutions and Services at Ivanti, where he leads the company’s worldwide support, services, and solutions strategy. With a deep background in IT operations and customer experience, Sterling is responsible for ensuring that Ivanti’s clients—ranging from large enterprises to small businesses—can securely and efficiently manage their digital workplaces in an era defined by rapid technological change and evolving workforce expectations. Discover more about Ivanti’s most recent report here. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Sam White , CEO of Stella Insurance. Sam is not just a leader in the insurance industry; she’s a trailblazer, entrepreneur, and advocate for creating a fairer, more inclusive world. In today’s conversation, we’ll dive into Sam’s incredible journey as an entrepreneur, her vision for Stella Insurance, and how she’s challenging the status quo in a traditionally male-dominated industry. We’ll also explore her thoughts on leadership, innovation, and the future of insurance. KEY TAKEAWAYS We didn’t realise, when we set Stella up, just how revolutionary it was because we had an entirely female management team all in our 20s and 30s, very spirited and high energy, going out and doing business in a very male-dominated marketplace. There are gender differences and I think we come at things with a different perspective, women do business differently, approach things differently, and have different needs and risks that they’re exposed to. What I love about the concept of insurance is the idea that a group of people come together and put money in the pot so that if one of them is vulnerable they can be supported. That community ideology is very appealing. When you look through the lens of women, you see a set of circumstances where my general experience when it works well with a large group of women that are all aligned on the same goal and support each other is magic. In terms of building good relationships, the principles apply. Firstly, you can’t build a good relationship with somebody who hasn’t got a good relationship with themselves and isn’t prepared to accept, acknowledge or work on that. My first business was launched from my sister’s conservatory where I picked up the phone to brokers and asked if they’d let me handle their claims. The benefit of that is that you don’t need to get funding and you can do it your own way, you’re learning on the job and experiencing direct feedback. The downside is that the foundations you’re building on may not be ideal. BEST MOMENTS ‘I was diagnosed with dyslexia as a kid and I think that creates a different type of mindset in terms of problem solving as well as resilience.’ ‘I like complicated problems, and insurance is one hell of a complicated problem!’ ‘Imposter syndrome is much higher in women than men, they second guess themselves continually. Most women are educated to not back themselves from the age of 7-8 and societally we also questions women far more than men.’ ‘The irony is; the process of the ‘do’ is the thing that gives you the confidence to keep on doing the doing. But, you have to do the first thing and make it through your first really big challenge.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Sam White is a dynamic, visionary entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience building and scaling successful businesses. As the CEO of Stella Insurance, Sam is a trailblazer in the insurance industry, known for her innovative approach and commitment to creating meaningful change. Under her leadership, Stella Insurance has become a trusted and award-winning brand, recognized for its customer-centric ethos and dedication to empowering women in a traditionally male-dominated sector. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Amélie Breitburd, the former CEO of Lloyd’s Europe, and a leading voice in the movement to rethink how we insure against tomorrow’s biggest shocks – from climate and cyber to the long-tail risks the industry still avoids. In today’s conversation, we’ll unpack her journey to Lloyd’s, explore the institution’s evolving role in a risk-saturated world, and dig deep into the bold ideas behind her latest work. KEY TAKEAWAYS Every day, people should focus on their specifications and should be reminded of it. When I see syndicates doing business only in the US, they could do business in Europe almost for free because, from a capital perspective, diversification helps. We’re here to help people. People wouldn’t do anything: Take a bike, drive a car, or fly to Mars without insurance. It’s a key enabler. As leaders in the insurance industry, I believe we can show a great sense of purpose. There was a period when companies were mainly focused on buying, which was killing teams. I think we’re definitely in the partnership era now, which is great for startups because they can work for different companies, increasing diversity and helping people learn from each other. Insurers have a lot of data, but it’s a bit outdated. Risk is evolving because the automotive industry, for example, is moving towards autonomous cars; data about car behaviour is no longer as important as it used to be; the software and batteries that will be in cars are more important, so we must build another set of data. Then there are things like flying to Mars and carbon capture, where there is no data because we don’t know how we’ll be doing them. BEST MOMENTS ‘Risk is at the heart of what insurers do, and risk is about diversification.’ ‘The statistical aspect is that when you are together, you’re taking risks together and lowering the cost of capital.’ ‘The journey today is like moving from paper to pdf, but the next change perspective is moving to more digitalised exchanges between various parts of the company.’ ‘Coopetition is the idea that if we work together as competitors, we can access a market which is currently inaccessible because it’s not affordable, we can price the risks differently to make them more accessible.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Amélie Breitburd is a strategic powerhouse in Europe’s insurance and risk management ecosystem, driving a bold agenda to double the size of the continent’s insurable market. With a sharp eye on the protection gap, Amélie brings an unflinching perspective on how to future-proof European economies—through syndication, public-private partnerships, and radical coopetition. A thought leader who thinks beyond tradition, Amélie fuses financial acumen with game theory principles to challenge how we scale solutions to climate risk, cyber threats, and long-tail systemic exposures. Her work on the Digital Insurance Exchange Market (Euro DIEM) envisions a next-gen insurance infrastructure—anchored in data access, distributed underwriting, and multi-layer diversification. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Geetha Sham, MD and President of CamCom in Europe, and Sathes Singam, innovation scout and programme manager at ERGO Group. In this episode, we will explore how ERGO’s Venture Client model turned a promising pilot into a production-grade capability, then we will investigate what it really takes to deploy AI in regulated multi-market environments, and how governance – if used right – can become a growth accelerator, not a roadblock. KEY TAKEAWAYS During initial discussions with our first insurance customer, we realised the inspection process was time-consuming, labour-intensive, prone to human fatigue, resulting in long, expensive cycles and inconsistency. This gap is now filled by our AI model, which provides a machine vision eye, enabling a mobile device to accurately capture images of vehicles, leading to damage assessments and reducing false positives. We want to democratise image capture; hence, we have built our product so it can operate on any type of forum and on mobile devices made since 2016. That makes us a leader in our own area, staying focused without scattering ourselves in the name of doing everything ourselves. There has been global adoption of AI, though what it does and how it is used varies, as every industry sees the value it adds. The standard way of implementing it is simple: it must align with the business and should not hamper existing business or processes within the industry/group. Edge cases must be addressed differently and modified so they are not completely controlled by standard feedback learning. BEST MOMENTS ‘Startup collaboration, in my experience, should become top of the management agenda.’ ‘It’s crucial to have someone locally who knows the culture in their particular country, and knows the people that need to be addressed.’ ‘It’s all about involving all relevant stakeholders in clear and transparent communication.’ ‘Each country has local laws, so there’s not only customisation, but there’s also localisation that has to be addressed. That’s where the governance model comes in handy.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Geetha Sham is MD and President of CamCom in Europe. She is a seasoned technologist and scale-up strategist who has held senior roles at Oracle and Mindtree and is now building out CamCom’s European footprint from Düsseldorf. Sathes Singam is an innovation scout and programme manager at ERGO Group. He is the lynchpin behind ERGO’s deployment of CamCoM across the Baltics, Europe’s first testbed of this solution. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Joel Agard, Group Head of Innovation at Zurich Insurance, who has been driving bold, transformative startup collaborations across 40+ markets. His work has reshaped the way a global insurance giant works with startups, proving that innovation isn’t just about flashy tech – it’s about building real, meaningful partnerships that deliver results. From navigating the early days of Zurich’s Innovation Championship back in 2018 to scaling the program during a global pandemic – and now leading the charge into the future – Joel brings passion, strategy, and a touch of risk-taking to every conversation. KEY TAKEAWAYS The 2018 football World Cup inspired us to piggyback on the competition concept to raise awareness of corporate/startup partnerships. Back then, working with startups in our industry wasn’t the norm; we were working with big technology companies. We asked ourselves, how can we show the art of the possible and show that working with startups can really work? This is when we invented the Zurich Innovation World Championship. In the beginning, the pace that startups wanted to – and could – go didn’t always resonate with the pace Zurich wanted to go. We had to align expectations and create a safe environment where we could test fast and where it was OK to fail. I’ve fallen in love with cool technologies so many times, and I still do: I’m a geek. But, we had to learn that if these shiny, amazing technologies don’t really solve a problem for our customers or internal stakeholders, they’re not fit for purpose for us. It might be too early or not a good fit for us. BEST MOMENTS 'We at Zurich bring our reputation, brand, and insurance expertise from 150 years. Startups bring agility and speed because they are born in a digital world.’ ‘Failing in a big corporation often doesn’t have a good image. We’ve proved that failing fast and cheaply is achievable and beneficial for startups. It’s now a normal part of our process.’ ‘The Covid pandemic accelerated digital transformations, there were a lot of opportunities out there to accelerate our initiatives, so we increased the number of startups and pilots.’ ‘It’s crucial to understand the gaps and problems you want to solve because we’d be wasting each other’s time otherwise.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Joel Agard is Group Head of Innovation at Zurich Insurance. With a career dedicated to fostering groundbreaking solutions, Joel spearheads Zurich's Venture Client Startup Engine, a program that drives innovation across 40+ markets worldwide. His work focuses on bridging the gap between startups and corporate needs, enabling Zurich to leverage cutting-edge technologies and solutions to stay ahead in the ever-evolving insurance landscape. LinkedIn Zurich Innovation Championship ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Gregor Gimmy, founder of 27pilots, a company dedicated to helping companies build and scale Venture Client units, and allows them to benefit from startup innovations faster at a large scale and significantly lower cost and risk than traditional corporate venturing methods. On this episode we will explore how this Venture Client model is shaping corporate innovation, the strategic benefits it offers, and how companies can adopt this game-changing approach to stay ahead in a competitive world. KEY TAKEAWAYS When I joined BMW in 2012, I was surprised to find that it was leveraging only a small number of startups to improve its technology landscape across its value chain. I told them that CVCs were investing in 2.8 startups per year. This is not nearly enough to solve all the technology challenges we have; we need more like 100. My initial idea was not to invent a new model but to improve the current one. I was told that if they invested in 50 startups per year, they would have around 250 startups in 5 years, whose equity state we would have to manage, which is impossible. I concluded that VC isn’t scalable, but it didn’t solve BMW's problem either: accessing, adopting, and transferring cutting-edge technology quickly, because it’s about investment, not technology transfer. These are two totally different business processes. We needed to look for a new approach: becoming a Venture Client. Accelerators and CVCs are indirect models – like using a third party’s battery technology in the cars you produce – you first make the investment and then adopt the technology. The difference in the Venture Client model is cutting out the middleman. If you want to be good at somethin,g you need a dedicated unit. If you do it part-time, it will only work partly. If you make it a department, you can dedicate more time to it, secure a dedicated budget, and build a more robust KPI structure. BEST MOMENTS ‘More than getting into the world of Venture Client Modelling, I invented the world.’ ‘A Venture Client is a company that adopts startup technologies through procurement and M&A.’ ‘A corporation cannot compete against a good startup like Palantir or Oracle when they were startups.’ ‘The Venture Client model will displace Corporate Venture Capital to become the standard of corporate venturing.’ ABOUT THE GUEST As captain of the 27pilots endeavour, and the visionary behind the Venture Client model, Gregor GImmy focuses on advancing Venture Client knowledge and growing the global community through 27pilots’ corporate clients and academic allies. Gregor is deeply engaged in researching, publishing, and lecturing on the Venture Client model through leading business schools and top business engagements. Gregor is also a frequent speaker at startup-relevant conferences such as Slush, Web Summit, 4YFN, and DLD. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL discusses the launch of a new series exploring the Venture Client Model, which is turning corporate innovation on its head. Instead of merely investing in startups and crossing fingers, big companies buy from startups to drive innovation – today, not years from now. Imagine a world where a major Fortune 500, an automotive manufacturer, an insurance giant, or a bank can plug in a cutting-edge startup solution as easily as adding a new app to your phone. The questions Sabine tackles include: What if your company’s next breakthrough isn’t built in-house, but bought from a startup in an early pilot? And what if being a startup’s customer is more powerful than being its investor? KEY TAKEAWAYS At its core, a venture client is a corporation that purchases and uses a startup’s solution to gain strategic benefit. No equity stakes, no controlling shares – just buying the solution early, when the startup is still a venture. The company becomes the startup’s client (often the first or an early client), providing the startup with revenue and feedback, while the corporation solves a problem with a cutting-edge product. Insurance is traditionally conservative – heavy on compliance, cautious with new tech – slow, one might say. But that’s exactly why venture clienting is so powerful here: it creates a safe sandbox for insurers to experiment with startups. Zurich has no corporate VC arm at the group level, so everything they do with startups ends up as a venture client relationship or partnership. That means all the effort goes into tangible pilots and deployments, not minority stakes in startups that might not align with the business. It’s a bold approach, but clearly paying off. Imagine car insurance: traditionally, if you buy a policy in many countries, an agent might physically inspect your car, or if you have an accident, an adjuster needs to assess damage. CamCom replaces a lot of that with a DIY solution – the customer can just take a video of the car, and the AI will spot scratches, dents, cracked windshields, you name it, and even estimate repair costs. That means faster claims, smoother policy underwriting, and less hassle. BEST MOMENTS ‘The Venture Client Model flips the usual script: instead of investing in ten startups and hoping one succeeds, you pay a startup to solve a problem and start benefiting immediately.’ ‘This isn’t just theory. It’s happening now.’ ‘The model turns the corporation into what I like to call an innovation magnet – attracting the best startups because the word is out: “This company loves to buy new tech”.’ ‘By the end of this series, you’ll know the ins and outs of the model, from big-picture strategy down to on-the-ground tips, like why having a one-page startup contract can save you months of headaches, or why “impossible” should be banished from your vocabulary.’ ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

Sabine VdL talks to Lou Smith, a true trailblazer in financial services and insurance. In today’s episode, we’ll dive into Lou’s incredible journey, explore the vision behind Neuron, and discuss the key takeaways from the latest report that insurance providers need to consider.  KEY TAKEAWAYS We all have moments in life where the last thing we want to look at is our credit rating and history, but those things can affect how you access financial services in the future. Lou was part of the team that delivered the first end-to-end mortgage renewal online, began breaking down investments, and got it into the hands of the many rather than the few. Everybody says insurance is behind the rest of the financial services industry, and it’s a funny statement. It doesn’t matter. What I’m seeing in insurance over the last 5-6 years is that this conversation has circled around: what do we do? But in the last 12-18 months, I’ve seen a passion for how we now think about using digital distribution models, digital analytics, and AI, and thinking of all of those things together and delivering distribution models that start to move the industry forward. The challenge is always in leadership, culture, and change adoption. This is because it’s really difficult to step into the unknown and think it’s going to be better than what you’re doing today. You want to empower people with the data and capabilities so they can do what they’re brilliant at: focusing on the best product and position for their client. Neuron and others enable brokers to do that. You also want to attract a new generation into the brokering sector, but rather than have them focus on the admin, they should be having great conversations with clients. All the work we’re doing enables brokers to do that. BEST MOMENTS ‘When starting my career, I had a real passion for how to make the services we were offering more successful for clients and customers.’ ‘We care about the customer and making financial data accessible to you through the narratives we use.’ ‘I’d love to say this was all planned out, we didn’t call it anything or know what it looked like, we just started to bring data and technologies together to build ‘workflow, " and that’s now cool.’ ‘We want to be the easiest, most predictable and consistent broker to work with.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Louise (or Lou) Smith is a trailblazer in the financial services and insurance industries, with a career spanning leadership roles across digital transformation, data, product innovation, distribution, technology, and operations.  Her journey has been marked by groundbreaking achievements, including delivering the UK's first steps into digital distribution at Barclays, leading the digital transformation of the Royal Bank of Scotland (including NatWest) during its turnaround to profitability, and becoming the first-ever Chief Digital Officer at Lloyd’s of London.  Currently, Louise is at the helm of Neuron, a transformative initiative aimed at redefining the insurance and financial services landscape. Through Neuron, she is driving innovation, collaboration, and growth, focusing on creating a more connected and customer-centric industry. WTWCO LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to James Birch, Director of Strategic Technology Solutions at Ki Insurance—the first fully algorithmic syndicate in the history of Lloyd’s of London. In today’s conversation, we’ll explore: James’s journey from VC to algorithmic-underwriting pioneer, what a “director of strategic technology solutions” actually does day-to-day inside a digital syndicate, the partnerships, cloud architecture and data streams that let Ki quote in seconds, the biggest trends shaping Algorithmic Underwriting 2.0—and what they mean for brokers, capacity partners and the wider market, and practical take-aways for anyone who wants to thrive as the next wave of automation rolls through speciality insurance KEY TAKEAWAYS Ki is a growth-stage business, not an incumbent; we’re trying to fight our way to win business and ultimately to grow. We have to do something different from everyone else to try to position ourselves differently and find a competitive advantage where we can. That’s something I’ve carried over from the VC space. We started out looking at what the digital model of the traditional model, where was the toil in the value chain and the broker’s work plan process and how can we simplifying it and make it more efficient using digital capabilities that we saw in the VC space, in FinTech and other financial service industries.  Lloyd's of London is a heavily regulated market, so we need to abide by all the regulations that apply to any carrier or underwriter in that market. Our approach from day 1 was to engage with the regulator early, explain what we’re trying to do, be transparent, open, and honest about where the gaps are if we haven’t reached a certain level of maturity, and not overstate the algorithm. We take regulation very seriously, which has helped because Lloyds has been highly supportive of us and our growth, and has allowed us to grow alongside the market. The main cost-saving of the algorithmic underwriting for brokers is that they don’t have to have loads of brokers running around the Lloyds of London building to find 2% on a slip or something; the broker negotiates with the lead underwriter, comes onto the Ki platform for the follow-up, and then spends their time on new business and client opportunities. BEST MOMENTS ‘Any business should evolve as the market evolves and the marketing dynamics change, you’ve got to react to those and be thinking 2-5 years ahead.’ ‘We still trip up on ourselves, even now, because we sometimes try to over-complicate things.’ ‘Speak to the customer, hear their problems, understand what’s not working for them, try to make it a simple transaction for them, and then they’ll use your products.’ ‘I’m a big advocate of the partner model because if you get 2, 3, or 4 like-minded companies as partners, you can build something great together because you’re all strategically aligned.’ ABOUT THE GUEST James Birch is the Director of Strategic Technology Solutions at Ki Insurance, the market-leading algorithmic syndicate that’s redefining how Lloyd’s of London does business.  Blending a venture-capital mindset with hands-on operating rigor, James has spent the past decade helping innovative companies move from bright idea to breakout scale. Passionate about demystifying insurance for the next generation, James is a sought-after speaker on topics such as data-driven risk selection, the future of algorithmic capacity, and what it really takes to scale a regulated tech business.  Whether mentoring founders or road-testing the latest ML models with his engineers, he’s driven by one simple goal: use technology to make risk transfer faster, fairer, and radically more efficient. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Mark Stern, founder and CEO of Custom Box Agency, an award-winning boutique specializing in bringing digital offers to life through innovative offline ‘box experiences.’ Today, he’ll share how he made the leap from corporate to startup life, offer practical tips for integrating physical touchpoints into a digital world, and discuss the secret sauce behind building high-impact customer journeys. I can’t wait to dive into his wealth of knowledge. KEY TAKEAWAYS When I mixed physical and digital together with my publication called ‘Entrepreneur Elements’ I people started posting unboxing videos, which a digital-only product can do. Everyone who received the product became an ambassador and lots of organic traffic was being created as a result. During Covid the virtual event game became bloody red, in terms of competition, because everyone became a virtual event expert overnight. But the boxes, and how we were approaching this to get results faster, was an unknown, exciting realm which  I went 100% in on and the business skyrocketed from zero to a million in the first year just by pivoting and focussing on this opportunity. What we include inside our boxes is a welcome note, a getting started guide – which, for me is the most powerful sales pieces to orient people on the journey that they’re about to start and see your universe, a journey map – a visual depiction of the recipe that’s going to get you the result, then all the tools and resources. This isn’t SWAG (Stuff Without A Goal), think of it a product development and who we can truly get into your programme and give people the incentive structure to want to take one step at a time. I love data, so I can engineer feedback loops to say, once you’ve hit a certain milestone, how can I get you to provide me with the information I need so 1, I can celebrate you, but 2, it also gives me good intel to make the product you’re making better. BEST MOMENTS ‘In the online space done beats perfect. I approach the standards of the online realm in a corporate way; the client’s either ready or not ready at all.’ ‘If you have a digital product, you have to compliment it with something physical because physical can tap into other modalities and senses that digital can’t.’ ‘It’s not about you, it’s truly about your customers and their needs.’ ‘Boxes can be a tool to take what you’re already talking about/teaching, or the service you’re providing, making it easier for people to have the breakthrough in a tangible way that a digital-only product just can’t.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Mark Stern is an accomplished serial entrepreneur and the visionary behind Custom Box Agency, an award-winning experience design firm headquartered in Austin, Texas. Leveraging his background as a top-ranked strategy consultant at Deloitte, Mark has guided major retail and lifestyle brands through transformative growth initiatives. He holds an MBA from Duke University and has been recognized as a Forbes Next 1,000 Entrepreneur, as well as featured in Joey Coleman’s bestselling book Never Lose an Employee Again. Mark’s passion for merging the physical with the digital underpins his signature approach of crafting “offline-meets-online” experiences. By moving beyond standard swag and focusing on strategic box campaigns, Mark’s team has successfully launched 100+ direct mail initiatives—boosting conversions, slashing churn, and extending customer lifetime value. As a mentor at SXSW, sought-after keynote speaker, and champion for innovative entrepreneurship, Mark remains dedicated to helping businesses of all sizes adopt experience design as a powerful lever for growth. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Colin Hirdman, the antidote to automated mediocrity. As a lifelong entrepreneur and co-founder of Monkey Island Ventures, he has spent two decades scaling SaaS tools, digital agencies, and now Rainmaker – a ‘white-glove’ service that ethically automates LinkedIn outreach to turn connections into revenue. Colin discusses Rainmaker’s ‘Authentic Engine’ framework: 10-30% connection rates, campaigns tailored to micro-audiences, and why human-driven strategies still dominate AI in B2B growth. As well as why he targets 25 people/day — and how even solo founders can replicate this, the ‘criminal justice grad’ who turned entrepreneur, accidently and sold his first startup days after college, and LinkedIn’s automation guardrails: What’s ‘ethical’ vs. what gets you banned. KEY TAKEAWAYS          I’ve done a lot of growth hacking through email and LinkedIn, but I got better results through LinkedIn and ended up building out a software and process for myself. Rainmaker was born through me making it available to other businesses. But, you don’t need me or rainmaker to do any of the things we discuss on this podcast, you can do it manually. You have to be authentic on LinkedIn, both as yourself as well as the brands you represent. You should also have an educational mindset – no one wants to be sold to on LinkedIn, but almost everyone is willing to be educated – and an experimentation mindset, trying different features and functions of LinkedIn, stack the things that work and set aside the things that don’t. Understand the pains an barriers that you prospects are trying to overcome and know what it is that you can teach them. Growth hacks: LinkedIn Events – if you have a direct competitor, industry or organisation putting on a LinkedIn Event that your business solves for, if you attend that event you can see everyone else who attended that event and create a prospects list. Use people who are big in your area as proxies – use people’s open connections to see all first connections to her, second connections to you and is in your area, and begin connecting to them Building out your first connections is critical. I reach out to 15 people per day Monday-Friday during normal working hours. That gives you 500 people per month, which is below LinkedIn’s limits. Typically, you’ll get a 20% connection rate. Within 30 days of sending an invite, and they haven’t connected, withdraw the invite. It’s good hygiene, but after 3 weeks you can reach out to them again. Everything you do after that only gets better and has stronger possibilities as your audience grows. BEST MOMENTS ‘There are lots of opportunities to engage with your prospects on LinkedIn in ways that are valuable for relationship building and set you up as a thought leader.’ ‘People undervalue the value of being a first connection, when you’re a first connection you can see all kids of information about them, direct message them, and use other features and functions to engage with them.’ ‘I typically build my audience through Sales Navigator – a tool within LinkedIn that allows you to hone in on audiences..’ ‘If you’re using automation that is in any way inauthentic, it won’t work; you wouldn’t immediately set up a meeting with someone you just met. I wish people would stop; it’s lazy.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Colin Hirdman is a lifelong entrepreneur, startup advocate, and visionary behind Rainmaker, a platform revolutionizing LinkedIn’s growth strategies through its "Authentic Engine." As co-founder of Monkey Island Ventures, a venture studio launched in 2007 with childhood friends, Colin has spent nearly two decades fostering tech innovation and scaling ventures like SaaS tools, digital marketing agencies, and software development firms. His passion lies in unlocking the power of authentic relationship-building, as evidenced by Rainmaker’s mission to help founders, coaches, and sales teams expand their networks, generate leads, and close deals ethically on LinkedIn. A Minnesota native, Colin’s journey began with selling his first startup (launched just days after college) and evolved into mentoring entrepreneurs through actionable strategies like LinkedIn automation, audience targeting via Sales Navigator, and educational outreach. His philosophy blends authenticity, experimentation, and a focus on solving audience pain points—principles he shares as a board member of MNblockchain and a sought-after voice in B2B growth. When not advising startups or hosting LinkedIn livestreams, Colin champions the entrepreneurial spirit, proving that even a criminal justice graduate-turned-accidental-founder can redefine 21st-century scaling. Catch his insights on turning connections into revenue—no bots or spam required. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Georgiana ‘Gia’ Laudi, a strategic advisor, keynote speaker, and co-founder of Forget The Funnel, a consultancy focused on helping B2B SaaS companies drive predictable, recurring revenue through a truly customer-led approach. In this episode, Gia and I will explore why so many companies get stuck throwing “spaghetti at the wall,” instead of researching who their best customers really are. We’ll look at the common pitfalls teams face when relying solely on funnel-based thinking—plus the steps any organization can take to cultivate a thriving, customer-centric culture. Gia will also share highlights from the remarkable work she’s done with various SaaS brands, as well as tips you can put into practice right away. KEY TAKEAWAYS Two years after drafting up a customer experience map for our company, through the lens of the customer, we grew revenue by 900%. We’d aligned the team and the company, and it facilitated more streamlined conversation, more alignment, more understanding cross-departmentally making things much easier. It gave us a tool and a shared language for operationalising around customer experience. A big reason for forgetting the funnel and leveraging a more customer-led approach is through the lens of recurring revenue businesses. Even if you don’t have a recurring revenue business model most businesses agree that customer retention, expanding existing accounts vs finding new customers contains a lot of value. This serves all kinds of businesses very well. Customer research is often equated with long, drawn-out projects that are very costly and leave you with more questions than answers. There’s a lot of resistance when we use the term ‘customer research’, we tend to use the term ‘customer insights’. We use targeted, streamlined and intentional research via ‘jobs to be done’ which reveal meaningful patterns from as little as 10-12 people which can identify what leads people to seek your business out. Not all customers are created equally, you shouldn’t try to serve every customer, narrow your focus on who really, really cares about the problem that you solve, has a high willingness to pay, deeply understands the value in what you provide and would sing your praises from the mountain tops. BEST MOMENTS ‘If you orient your operations around the customer experience it becomes easy to make all kinds of decisions.’ ‘Existing customers are worth more and are less costly to us as a business vs finding new customers.’ ‘Your relationship with your customer does not end with the purchase, it begins with the purchase.’ ‘Early stage companies should focus on one customer and do a really good job, later stage companies shouldn’t conflate all customers into a homogenous group but think of segmentation in a meaningful way so you can still provide high-converting and resonating experiences even for multiple segments.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Georgiana (“Gia”) Laudi is a strategic advisor, keynote speaker, and co-founder of Forget The Funnel, a consultancy specializing in customer-led growth for B2B SaaS companies. With over 20 years of experience in marketing and product strategy, she’s helped high-growth businesses such as Unbounce, Calendly, and Sprout Social deepen customer insights, align teams around customer value, and drive predictable, recurring revenue. As co-author of the book “Forget The Funnel,” Gia advocates a practical, step-by-step approach to uncovering why the best customers buy—and how to ensure more of them succeed post-purchase.  Based in Montreal, Gia is passionate about turning real customer needs into clear messaging, frictionless onboarding, and expansion strategies that empower businesses to scale sustainably. She joins Scouting for Growth to share her journey, discuss common growth pitfalls, and offer actionable tactics any organization can use to become truly customer-led. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Ron Rock, former Managing Director for the Financial Services Sector at JobsOhio, now guest editor at FF News. When you think "FinTech hub," your mind might automatically jump to Silicon Valley or New York. But there’s a powerhouse in the heartland that's giving these coastal giants a run for their money: Ohio. In our conversation today, we'll unpack why Ohio – a state that puts you within a two-hour flight of 75% of the U.S. and Canadian financial services industry – might just be the strategic move your startup needs to make. KEY TAKEAWAYS Ohio has the 4th-largest financial services economy in the US, so if you’re looking for partnerships, a market, and people who’ll have a conversation with you, the operating costs will be much lower than on the coasts in New York and California. If you’re a graduate in IT, thinking about going into an IT profession, maybe it’s time to think about financial services. If you can do that kind of development, programming, or coding, there are a lot of opportunities in InsurTech and FinTech.  There are a few pillars you need for growth. The first is the state's economy, which we do. Then you need the ecosystem of players – investors, large companies, startups that have found a footing- and the talent in that ecosystem as well. When we look at the talent needed to fill jobs of the future in financial services, we have to ensure curricula are up to par, including AI and low-code environments. We’re not a one-size-fits-all; we have programmes that didn’t fit earlier-stage companies. We looked at that and how we could support formally and informally, and now we have 3 innovations across the state. These provide support, whether that’s proximity to other innovators or incentives like JobsOhio's Growth Cap for early-stage companies. BEST MOMENTS London and the Midwestern states share similar mindsets and amicable relationships. We find a way to make something happen.’ ‘Startups have found footing in Ohio because of the climate we’re in; we don’t have large catastrophes or losses, so if you’re testing a new product or company, you have that in your favour.’ ‘Ohio is a microcosm of a larger market, almost like a sandbox in which you can pay before you launch.’ ‘I call myself a connector, or facilitator, it’s the core of my job. I have to know the industry, but I’ll never get deep into knowing exactly what the industry is doing. So I stay in my lane and make connections to the right individuals, listen to companies, and introduce people.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Ron Rock is a forward-thinking business management executive and Managing Director of JobsOhio’s Financial Services Sector. With over two decades of experience spanning financial services, insurance, economic development, and process improvement, Ron is renowned for creating and executing strategic growth plans that boost market share, elevate customer loyalty, and broaden service offerings. A dynamic leader, innovator, strategist, and connector, Ron bridges the gap between traditional institutions and emerging technology ventures. He regularly partners with founders, investors, and corporate stakeholders to identify opportunities for expansion into Ohio, home to the nation’s fourth-largest financial services economy. Under Ron’s guidance, JobsOhio provides tailored incentives and support, empowering promising fintech and insurtech startups to flourish while meeting the needs of major banks and insurers throughout the state. Known for his collaborative style and commitment to continuous innovation, Ron’s work centers on connecting bright ideas with meaningful partnerships, ultimately creating jobs and sparking economic growth. His deep understanding of market dynamics, coupled with his emphasis on data-driven strategy, has positioned him at the forefront of Ohio’s rise as a nationwide hub for financial technology and insurance innovation. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Alon Kaufman, CEO and Co-Founder of Duality Technologies, a company that is revolutionising the way organisations collaborate on data while preserving privacy and security. During today’s conversation, we’ll explore the vision behind Duality Technologies, the real-world problems it is solving, and how organisations can future-proof themselves against risks by adopting privacy-preserving technologies. We’ll also dive into Alon’s inspiring journey as a technology leader and his perspective on the ethical and strategic aspects of data collaboration in the age of AI and Big Data. KEY TAKEAWAYS Combining and enhancing data sets is becoming more and more challenging in a world where privacy, security, regulations and data protection are becoming more critical. This is a good thing. What inspires us at Duality is to find a way to allow organisations to unlock the challenges around working together on data in a way that both protects the data and allows you to get the utility out of it. At the source of Duality is: How can we work on data sets without leaking or sharing the data. That’s where homomorphic encryption comes in. This allows us to work on and analyse data while it remains protected or encrypted. Two companies each have a list of customers and they both want to understand how many customers they have in intersection. The way you did this before is for company A to disclose it’s list of customers to company B which does the analysis and fins the intersection or go to a trusted third party. With duality, the two companies can use our software platform to run a computation that comes up with the intersection without either company seeing each other’s data. We all want our governments and law enforcement to be able to do their work, but we don’t want them to pull in every data point that we leave outside. Duality allows law enforcement investigations to run queries and analytics only on data that is allowed and only giving the insights that are needed. Government and healthcare – where data sets are large an sensitive – are big places where Duality has been successful. BEST MOMENTS ‘In order to get the most value out of data, the more you can bring data sets together and enhance them the better off you are.’ ‘Duality’s mission is to run AI data science analytics on data sets that cannot simply be centralised, and doing it where ethe data is  while making sure the data isn’t exposed, privacy isn’t leaked or challenges of data localisation and regulation are not violated.’ ‘Companies that already know to work on their own data, and control it, can now go to the next step and do it in a collaborative way.’ ‘Insurance companies need to work together around fraud because the fraudsters utilise the fact different companies don’t talk and will attack one and then the other because they know the level of data shared between them is limited.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Alon Kaufman is the CEO and Co-Founder of Duality Technologies, a pioneering company at the forefront of data encryption and privacy technologies. With over 20 years of experience in technology leadership, Alon has a rich background spanning Big Data, Data Science, Machine Learning, and Cybersecurity. As a thought leader, Alon frequently speaks on Big Data, Cybersecurity, and Innovation. He is committed to advancing the conversation around data privacy and security. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Sara Simeone, an award-winning entrepreneur behind NoCodeLab.ai, the First Vibe Coding Launchpad that helps non-technical dreamers ship AI-powered products in just five weeks—no keyboard sorcery required. Whether you’re a Gen Z founder sketching ideas on a dorm whiteboard, an investor scouting the next scalable platform, or a corporate leader hunting for fresh growth engines, Sara’s story is your front-row seat to how Vibe Coding is about to change the way we build. KEY TAKEAWAYS Vibe coding is defined as creating something using your natural language and vibe with the code to try to understand how the product in front of you is changing as you add more prompts/features. It’s an evolution of the drag-and-drop of no-code platforms but allows you to express yourself in a clear, specific and tangible way to translate visions into products. When I stepped into the startup founder world, I realised that there was a very big problem: There are a lot of subject matter experts who had a lot of dreams, but they couldn’t make these into tangible products. A lot of accelerator programmes only teach you how to launch a product rather than create one because they take for granted that you have a technical co-founder or you can create it yourself, this excludes non-technical founders from a big portion of the entrepreneurial world. Founders don’t need to become techies, but they need a new process to make tch work for them. That’s when I realised AI can help. My goal is to give non-technical founders the creative freedom to move fast but with the discipline of the corporate world. We guide them to develop something new, that wouldn’t have been able to have been developed before. It’s now possible to create, realise and build that idea, it’s a mindset shift where we can become our own CPOs, CEOs, CMO, COOs, etc, we just need the right community around us. I want founders to be aware that they can solve their own problems and they can build something in plain English. When you’re building something, ask yourself who are the customers? What do they need? How much am I going to charge for this? Once there you can start generating technical foundations and product requirements – front/back end, database, APIs, etc in order to create that product. BEST MOMENTS ‘Vibe coding was coined in 2025, so it’s brand new, but I’d been doing it before the term was created.’ ‘AI gives us a lot of tools but we need to know how to use them.’ ‘The beauty of AI platforms is that if you see that something is going wrong you can question the code, understand what’s wrong and ask the AI to fix it for you.’ ‘With vibe coding and NoCodeLab you can build your ideas in days, weeks, or months depending on your technical expertise or background.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Sara Simeone is a multi-award-winning entrepreneur and product strategist who has spent the past two decades turning frontier technologies into real-world growth engines. Today she wears several cutting-edge hats: Founder of NoCodeLab.ai, the first vibe-driven coding accelerator for non-technical founders; CEO & Co-founder of Niftyz.io, the Web3 token-factory that lets brands transform data and IP into tradable digital assets; and lecturer in Blockchain For Business at the MedieInstitutet in Sweden.  ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Ivan Pylypchuk, the CEO of Softblues, and Olha Pylypchuk, the company’s COO. In today’s discussion, we’ll explore: What Agentic AI is and why it’s poised to disrupt traditional business processes, how Ivan and Olha are leveraging multi-agent systems to solve domain-specific challenges and deliver business transformation, and the future of AI agents and their role in shaping the workplace of tomorrow. KEY TAKEAWAYS If you talk about traditional AI systems, they can handle one simple, specific task, such as image recognition, data classification, or content generation. Agentic AI is more autonomous and capable of complex decision-making across multiple steps. Our approach is focused on controlled, multi-agent systems.  The biggest challenge companies face is collecting and integrating data. Often, companies have their valuable data spread across different systems and departments, like customer databases, email records, and business software. These don’t always talk to each other. To ensure an effective AI implementation, you must ensure that all this data is collected neatly and accurately. Surprisingly, some companies don’t know how their people work. When you observe their processes, you sometimes see that they miss important details about their daily operations, which can lead to significant wasted investment when we rectify these mistakes afterwards. That’s why we invest a lot of time working with and talking to the businesses about how their workflows move from point A to B. Then, we can enhance them with AI. How team members embrace this technology is very important. Even a perfect solution will fail if teams don’t use it. We create simple interfaces and make sure our systems explain their recommendations in plain language. This approach dramatically improves understanding of how AI works and builds trust. BEST MOMENTS ‘Agentic AI gives us scalability in different domains, explainability to understand what it’s doing, so we can provide the exact information that is needed across an organisation.’ ‘It’s important to start very small, on a piece of a project, so the AI can show clearly its quick results. After the goal has been demonstrated, then we scale the solution.’ ‘Our recruitment solution helps reduce time to hire by 60% and provides an increase in the quality of hires by 40%.’ ‘It gives you more time to do strategic work that brings more value to the business than managing this data.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Ivan Pylypchuk is the CEO and AI Solution Architect at Softblues, a company specializing in building multi-agent AI systems to tackle real-world business challenges. LinkedIn Olha Pylypchuk is the Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Softblues, where she drives operational excellence and spearheads AI-driven business automation initiatives. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine meets Areiel Wolanow, the managing director of Finserv Experts, who discusses his journey from IBM to founding FinServ Experts, emphasising the importance of focusing on business models enabled by technology rather than the technology itself. Areiel delves into the challenges and opportunities presented by artificial intelligence, responsible AI practices, and the implications of quantum computing for data security, highlighting the need for organisations to adapt their approaches to digital transformation, advocating for a migration strategy over traditional transformation methods KEY TAKEAWAYS Emerging tech should be leveraged to create new business models rather than just re-engineering existing ones. Understanding the business implications of technology is crucial for delivering value. When harnessing artificial intelligence, it's essential to identify the real underlying problems within an organisation, assess its maturity, and build self-awareness before applying maturity models and gap analyses. The EU AI Act serves as a comprehensive guideline for responsible AI use, offering risk categories and controls that can benefit companies outside the EU by providing a framework for ethical AI practices without the burden of compliance. Organisations should prepare for the future of quantum computing by ensuring their data is protected against potential vulnerabilities. This involves adopting quantum-resilient algorithms and planning for the transition well in advance. Leaders should place significant responsibility on younger team members who are more familiar with emerging technologies. Providing them with autonomy and support can lead to innovative solutions and successful business outcomes. BEST MOMENTS 'We focus not on the technology itself, but on the business models the tech enables.' 'The first thing you have to do... is to say, OK, is the proximate cause the real problem?' 'The best AI regulations out there is the EU AI Act... it actually benefits AI companies outside the EU more than it benefits within.' 'Digital transformations have two things in common. One is they're expensive, and two is they always fail.' ABOUT THE GUEST Areiel Wolanow is the managing director of Finserv Experts. He is an experienced business leader with over 25 years of experience in business transformation solutioning, sales, and execution. He served as one of IBM’s key thought leaders in blockchain, machine learning, and financial inclusion. Areiel has deep experience leading large, globally distributed teams; he has led programs of over 100 people through the full delivery life cycle, and has managed budgets in the tens of millions of dollars. In addition to his delivery experience, Areiel also serves as a senior advisor on blockchain, machine learning, and technology adoption. He has worked with central banks and financial regulators around the world and is currently serving as the insurance industry advisor for the UK Parliament’s working group on blockchain. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Lisa Bechtold, a global executive and strategic leader in technology and law, who at the time served as the head of AI governance from a transformative viewpoint at Zurich Insurance Group. Lisa is now with Nestlé. In this episode, we explore the challenges and opportunities of the current AI transformation, what it takes to drive innovation in insurance while minimizing potential risks of AI, the role of digital trust and sustainability in leveraging AI for long-term growth, and how leaders can prepare their teams for the digital transformation ahead of us. KEY TAKEAWAYS AI governance is about how we use AI, which already affects all areas of our private and business lives. The acceptance and potential success of AI applications, tools, and use cases correlate with the respect of legal systems and the culture of the country or region. With the tools, systems, and platforms we’ve built at Zurich, we’ve driven and scaled AI adoption, including the reuse of solutions that have proven extremely successful. In parallel, we drive AI literacy to foster adoption and ensure AI tools are used optimally. For example, setting the right prompts is crucial for generating the most valuable output from GenAI tools. On the one hand, we invest in the education of our workforce, with a particular focus on digital upskilling and AI literacy. On the other hand, it’s crucial to allow experimentation in a safe sandbox environment so everyone can embrace technological opportunities. Insurance has always been a data-driven industry, so the adoption of AI techniques is well-founded across the insurance value chain, from risk modelling to all phases of the insurance business. Looking ahead, with the AI revolution taking place this year, both opportunities and risks will be taken to another level. Today, AI systems are beginning to autonomously interact with one another and adapt their behaviours accordingly. I expec thatt, as things increase within both the interaction of individual AI agents as well as in the creation of high-performance, multi-agent systems. Such multi-agent systems offer a multitude of business opportunities but also pose challenges, such as potential information asymmetries and miscoordination, which need to be understood and managed. BEST MOMENTS ‘The goal of deploying AI solutions must be to optimise the benefits of the technology while effectively minimising the risks.’ ‘AI governance is the foundation of being a catalyst of AI innovation and ensures high-quality outcomes and inspires trust in customers.’ ‘Today we’re focusing on the scalability and further optimisation of our AI capabilities.’ ‘Managing the complexity of multi-agent systems in a safe and lean way while optimising business value will be one of the key priorities for 2025.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Lisa Bechtold shares: As a Global Executive and Strategic Leader and Leader in Technology & Law, I have profound expertise and experience in Data, AI, Governance, Digital Risk, and Regulatory Affairs to protect corporate assets and optimise business performance. After serving as Head of AI Governance at Zurich Insurance Group, I moved to Head of Group Risk Management at Nestlé. I have pioneered and led the operationalisation of a framework for AI Quality & Safety to oversee the development and deployment of AI solutions globally. My multifaceted background positions me perfectly to provide strategic advice on data, digital solutions, and technology topics, integrating legal & risk considerations, to generate sustainable business value and digital trust as a competitive edge. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Alex Schmelkin, a visionary entrepreneur who's reshaping the future of insurance operations. Alex is the Founder and CEO of Sixfold, a company at the forefront of harnessing Generative AI to empower insurance underwriters with groundbreaking tools and capabilities. Today, we'll explore how Sixfold is leveraging Generative AI to transform underwriting practices, the challenges and opportunities in implementing AI at scale, and Alex's vision for the future of insurance operations. KEY TAKEAWAYS          There’s close to $7 trillion of premium written around the globe every year. That equals 7% of global GDP, it’s an enormous amount of premium that’s needed for the world to function and for people and businesses to take risks. The most underserved population are the underwriters, the people making decisions day in day out on that $7 trillion worth of business trying to figure out the good and bad risks and why. There’s so little support for these unsung heroes. The typical underwriter is reading the equivalent of a novel every 2-3 days in documentation. These are not interesting fiction novels, they’re information-dense losses, statements of values of property and exposures. We’ve expected them to consume more and more but it’s information overload. Enter language models and AI, in the first time in human history we have the ability to take in a nearly limitless volume of data and help the underwriter to see through that to find the patterns without having to read every single word on every single page and free them to do the extra research at the end to find the best result for the end customer. Regulators understand that AI is here and have already embraced it. They’re not as ahead of it as we would like them to be, as an industry, and they’re not getting everything right. But by putting a few fence posts around the problem we’re trying to solve they’ve forced the conversation and the industry to respond to it and to start rolling out the way we are with some of these AI transparency partner models. The single challenge we run into everywhere is underwriter trust. The underwriters, despite being overworked, there not being enough of them, and despite it being a challenging job, are really good at what they do. The reason is they’ve been trained over the years to do everything they can to get the right answer. They’re the front line protecting insurance companies from bringing on bad risks. The hardest thing is to convince them is that AI is accurate. If they have a bad experience with AI first time they may not go back ever. BEST MOMENTS ‘I found insurance – or it found me – almost 20 years ago and I’ve never looked back, and it’s all underwriting all the time.’ ‘The biggest use of GenAI today is helping underwriters to find more accuracy, be more effective, and more transparent in their underwriting efforts.’ ‘We attempt to arm the human with a bevy of different things for those who are the less value-producing part of their jobs.’ ‘The human is so much more effective when they’re working beside a robot that helps them be more accurate and more efficient at their job.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Alex Schmelkin is the Founder and CEO of Sixfold and is at the forefront of revolutionizing how insurance underwriters operate through Generative AI—a game-changing approach that not only enhances decision-making but also streamlines processes for a more efficient future. His knack for identifying industry pain points and transforming them into innovative solutions has been the backbone of his success. With a deep-rooted belief in the power of technology to drive growth, Alex has consistently pushed the envelope, challenging norms and inspiring those around him. Beyond his entrepreneurial endeavors, Alex is a dynamic speaker who captivates audiences with insights on SaaS, customer experience, and technology ethics. His passion for responsible innovation shines through in every conversation, as he advocates for solutions that not only meet business needs but also uphold ethical standards. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Anneli Scopazzi, CEO and Founder of Boulevard Recruiting. With a background rooted in fast-growth startup environments, Anneli has become an authority on matching world-class talent to the right opportunities—particularly in an era brimming with AI-driven disruption. Expect a compelling conversation about how technology is changing the face of recruiting, the critical importance of upskilling and reskilling in today’s competitive market, and what early-stage ventures need to keep in mind while scaling with AI. KEY TAKEAWAYS We work with early-stage startups, starting with series B but it’s moved down to series C when the market crashed, but we now sit in series A where we’re hoping to scale with those clients for the next couple of years to be the first recruiters on the ground, working very closely with the founders. As the companies start to scale and hire internal recruiters the we’ll work very closely with them too. Covid benefitted us in vary big way as a remote company founded in Q4 2019, I was fiercely committed to working remotely, it was the number one driver of the company, the name Boulevard was chosen because it represents remote work. When Covid happened, everyone had to figure out how to work remotely and now companies are accustomed to it and how it works. AI is something that felt scary for a minute back when ChatGPT was released and there was all this appearance of fast acceleration. But, working in tech, we’ve known this has been going on for years. I wanted to be the first to adopt and work with these early tech companies, you don’t want to be the company that doesn’t survive the extinction event if you can’t work it out. In the recruiting landscape I haven’t seen any amazing AI solutions just yet. There are some things that make us more efficient, but we’re in a bit of a safe space because of the relationship focus, which is really hard to replicate with AI technology. The more exciting thing is working with the AI companies and seeing them get funded massively. It’s an exciting space to be in. BEST MOMENTS ‘I’ve loved the French language and Paris since I was very young and I didn’t want to name my business after myself. What I love about Boulevard is that it’s of French origin but it’s very recognisable around the world.’ ‘What excites me about working with early-stage startups is that you have the ability to do more than you’re qualified to do.’ ‘A lot of my personal growth has been very self-taught. That’s been very liberating and rewarding but also can be very painful at times learning through mistakes.’ ‘There’s a lot of administrative work in recruiting, in-bound applications have surged dramatically in the last couple of years globally. The recruiting tools we’re seeing are sorting through profiles faster and narrowing it down to a shorter list for the human to review.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Anneli Scopazzi is the CEO and Founder of Boulevard Recruiting, a boutique San Francisco-based agency that specializes in matching startups with world-class talent in engineering, product, and beyond.  She began her career in accounting before transitioning into recruiting about seven years ago, initially stepping into a 100% commission role at a boutique agency and later being recruited to Palantir.  This non-traditional path enabled Anneli to grow quickly in leadership, ultimately becoming Head of Talent at Figma, where she played a key role in tripling the company’s headcount through its Series B and C stages.  In September 2019, driven by her passion for connecting people and technology, Anneli founded Boulevard Recruiting—a remote-focused firm that balances expert matching of talent with a flexible work culture for its team members. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Emmanuel Djengue, a dynamic professional whose passion for technology and user-focused innovation has shaped his remarkable career path. From leading tech initiatives to connecting diverse people and ideas, Emmanuel exemplifies the very spirit of relentless curiosity and strategic thinking that we celebrate on this show. We’ll be delving into his personal journey, uncovering how he transforms ambition into concrete impact, and discussing the role of collaboration and how talent can play a crucial role in fostering exponential growth as the world goes through a workforce transformation requiring reskilling and upskilling, while finding the talent for the right role across markets. KEY TAKEAWAYS          Insurance is a product no one wakes up wanting to buy, but it’s super essential to society and people, especially life insurance. We need to help people understand the importance of insurance and ensure that everything we offer customers is simple, attractive, and delivered at the right time. Health insurance is also very important. How do we help people with this? I’ve studied how people think to figure out how to motivate them. If you bring this element into industry innovation, we’d be able to improve how people interact with insurance, how they care about it, and how they take care of themselves. There are 3 types of InsurTech players: Integrators – those that identify solutions and want to integrate them into what an insurance company is doing. Disruptors – They want to change everything that doesn’t work well so that it does. These require financial capability to do that, so there aren't many startups that can be disruptors. Collaborators – who want to touch base with insurers to try to improve what’s going on The difference between a great and a bad insurer is not so much in the product, efficiency, etc. It’s on the people making the company great. If I need to do more innovation, change things, and bring something different, why not help people solve this issue? The number one business problem for anyone is unsuccessful hiring. BEST MOMENTS ‘South Africa has one of the most innovative markets in life and health insurance; there are a lot of startups doing great things there.’ ‘Too many startups turn up in the market to play disruptor roles, but only 1 or 2 players can do this and win.’ ‘In insurance, David is not going to win against Goliath.’ ‘Both sides need the partnership and want the partnership to happen.’ ABOUT THE GUEST From the moment he first tinkered with a computer at a young age, Emmanuel Djengue has been captivated by the power of creativity and innovation to transform lives. His journey—marked by curiosity, resilience, and collaboration—has taken him from passion projects in his hometown to spearheading tech initiatives on a global stage. Along the way, Emmanuel developed a talent for weaving user-focused storytelling into every project, bridging technology and humanity in impactful ways. Fueled by an enduring love of problem-solving, he thrives on connecting diverse people and ideas to craft solutions that don’t just work but inspire. Whether rallying a team around a new software concept or mentoring future innovators, Emmanuel’s drive to make a positive impact is as unyielding as his imaginative spirit, promising that every new chapter of his story will be just as vibrant and compelling as the last. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Anna Bojic, founder and CEO of Miss Moneypenny Technologies, which is on a mission to transform wallet apps into dynamic, customer-focused engagement tools. On this episode, Anna will share how her artistic roots inspired her approach to scaling Miss Moneypenny Technologies, especially in collaboration with leading insurance brands and more, as well as why digital wallets have become transformative assets for businesses looking to modernise their communication, streamline processes, and deliver exceptional customer experiences. KEY TAKEAWAYS My co-founder and I have something in common; that we learned a practice of critical refinement, building something up with all the ideas you have but noticing when the time has come when you have to look very intensely at it and strip away everything that isn’t essential to the core of what you intended to do, the real solution behind it and destroying everything you don’t need. We’re in a world of information overload/overwhelm, and the information has varying qualities. Some is very fleeting, and maybe we don’t need it very often, but when we need it, we really need it. It may be very small, or we may just need it for a short time. We have this information at home, but it was never presented to us in a way that would be helpful when we need it. We realised that the digital wallet could provide the capabilities for reducing the chaos, stress, and overwhelm. Companies and insurers try to use techniques that work for family members, but they don’t have that kind of pull. But they do have an amazing opportunity to build relationships that are trust- and reliability-based, and have a different tone. The wallet is the home for building these kinds of relationships. Regarding vehicle insurance, what we would have done if we’d had an accident is scribble our details on a piece of paper and take pictures of driver's licenses (which is a security concern), all while very nervous. Now you can scan the QR code of my digital insurance card. You would receive a digital accident card, which would trigger an automation in Wallet Studio, and both people would receive messages that would then pull us into the client’s processes that Zurich has. It provides us with all the information until the claim is completed. The cost savings are substantial. BEST MOMENTS ‘I have a background in fine arts, but I’ve always been a creator. I love to think deeply about problems I encounter in whichever subject matter, I just love problem-solving.’ ‘We’ve trashed 100,000s of lines of code because we suddenly understood what we should have been doing, to let go of the things that weren’t working and tackle the real solution to the problem.’ ‘Expectations of consumers have changed. 5 years ago, it was fine to wait for a week when I placed an order, now I get nervous on day 2.’ ‘Wallet Studio adds to the capabilities of what wallet technology can already do, making it scalable within a large company.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Anna Bojic is the founder and CEO of Miss Moneypenny Technologies, the no-code wallet studio, which enables Businesses to use the native digital wallet apps Apple & Google Wallet to connect and interact with users in a new, powerful way. It’s a SaaS product, Wallet Studio, a digital wallet engagement and automation suite that enables companies to transform digital wallet cards into dynamic, interactive, meaningful, and invaluable communication hubs. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Danilo Raponi about the trends and topics from this year’s ITC London event, including AI, sustainability, new startups, and why InsurTech isn’t dead. KEY TAKEAWAYS          Climate change is the biggest risk, along with misinformation and generative AI, because its misuse can amplify its spread, affecting many economies and democracies. Partnerships are essential, though it’s not always super easy, especially when we’re talking about public/private partnerships. There has to be awareness on both sides that the starting points can differ, but the goals and objectives we want to achieve are the same. For example, the public sector doesn’t always seek profit as a motive, but it may recognize that the private sector has to make money somehow. Technology can really help us with risk protection and the monitoring and detection of things like forest fires. There are fantastic startups out there with devices that detect forest fires extremely early, including devices you can place strategically where fires are likely to occur, as well as satellites. There are many materials that can now be used to rebuild houses and make them less prone to burning down. When these risk mitigations are in place, it becomes easier for insurers to provide insurance. Insurance and reinsurance are essential to make the world work. And they’ve been important in growth and innovation across the world, going back to the merchants in Venice. Attracting talent from the younger generation is important, but they need to work in a place that lives up to its values. It’s easier to attract talent in innovation because it’s all about technology, and it’s cool. But when you combine purpose with that and show the positive outcomes the products will have for other people, it becomes even easier. BEST MOMENTS ‘Generali is a 200-year-old startup, which is a fancy way of saying that we’ve always had a remarkable ability to stay ahead of the trends, innovate and be close to our customers.’ ‘We need to be humble. These are big things that no one can solve on their own.’ ‘Parametrics can be an option to be looked at in modelling and technologies around insuring the ‘uninsurable’.’ ‘There’s a growing awareness that all the issues that the world is facing are big ones, but they can also be turned into opportunities for insurance companies.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Danilo Raponi is the Group Head of Innovation at Generali, Managing Director, Board Member, Angel Investor, MBA (Bocconi), PhD (Cambridge) Danilo Raponi serves as Group Head of Innovation at Generali, one of the world’s leading insurance and financial services companies. In this capacity, he focuses on accelerating the company’s strategic and business transformation and spearheading new product development to enhance customer experience. Alongside his executive role, Danilo is a Managing Director and Board Member, helping guide strategic decision-making and long-term growth across multiple initiatives. He is also leading Generali Ventures, the VC initiative of the Generali Group, bridging corporate strategy with entrepreneurial ecosystems. Danilo holds a Master of Science summa cum laude from LUISS University in Rome, an MBA from the Bocconi School of Management, and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. These academic achievements underpin his multidisciplinary approach to innovation, enabling him to navigate complex challenges and foster impactful solutions within Generali’s global network. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to John Hewitt, a true pioneer in the tax preparation and financial services industry, having founded and scaled two companies to over $500 million in value - Jackson Hewitt Tax Service and Liberty Tax Service. Throughout his illustrious 55-year career, John has always kept his driving purpose in sight – to change lives. He takes pride in having a monumental positive impact on franchisees, employees, and customers. We'll be exploring his strategies for scaling successful empires, overcoming barriers, financing growth models, and more. KEY TAKEAWAYS One key ingredient is getting buy-in from everyone involved. You have to have a dream that’s fairly accurate, then get your employees, customers, vendors, investors, etc to buy into where you’re going. As a franchisee, you want your franchisor to deliver consistency and quality. Whoever offers the worst service in your system will determine what your brand name is worth. We call every customer and ask them how we did, which no one else does, in the franchise world, they send and email, text, or send them a survey. It’s been great for us because not only do we police our brand, but our customers also love being called and asked how we can improve our service to them. Plus, we get higher staff retention and get more referrals. Anything that’s systemic should be able to be provided by software and computers. We divide issues up into ‘tip of the iceberg’. If it’s systemic – an iceberg – we’re looking for a solution; if it’s just a one-off, we don’t build systems or use software for it. I’ve been doing it this way since 1981, making things more expeditious and consistently high-quality. Train your staff so they can go anywhere and be successful, but treat them so well that they want to stay. It comes from creating a culture and an attitude in your organisation, and the attitude starts with employees first: If you want your customers to be treated well by your employees, you have to treat your employees well, you have to listen and be loyal to your team, and build a team of people with a great attitude. You can’t teach a great attitude. BEST MOMENTS ‘There are two major parts of growth: The amount of money you spend, and the amount of money you take in; you always have to make sure they’re balanced.’ ‘I’ve been in taxes for 55 years: There are only 2 certainties in life: death and tax, it’s recession proof.’ ‘In the pet industry, we’ve seen young people in the past 10 years delay having children. Sometimes I ask if they have children and they say: “I have 2 dogs, those are my children.”’ ‘Brand loyalty is such a cool and important thing to have, which is why my company is called Loyalty Brands.’ ABOUT THE GUEST John Hewitt is a visionary entrepreneur renowned for founding two of the largest tax preparation companies in the United States - Jackson Hewitt Tax Service and Liberty Tax Service.  As the pioneer behind the "Hewitt" in Jackson Hewitt, John grew the company to over 1,300 offices and $483 million in sales before selling it in 1997. Undeterred, John founded Liberty Tax in 1997 and rapidly expanded it to over 4,000 offices in the U.S. and Canada. By 2012, Liberty Tax was one of the top 100 largest retail organizations in North America. Now, John is applying his strategic prowess to investing. He helps entrepreneurs build their own empires as CEO of Loyalty Brands. Guided by ambition and faith, he continues to compete - and win - on an extraordinary level. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Danny Nathan, founder of Apollo 21, an innovation and product design studio based in New York City. Learn about the transformative role of emerging technologies like AI, quantum computing, and cloud services in reshaping traditional business models. Danny discusses how Apollo 21 integrates these frontier technologies to solve complex business and operational challenges, helping clients across industries such as healthcare, finance, fitness, and more. KEY TAKEAWAYS I focus on layering together the ideals of innovation, entrepreneurship, and technology, helping companies understand what it means to build a culture of innovation, what that looks like from an operational standpoint, and how that perspective shapes how companies are structured and how they approach their work. We then leverage those thoughts to help companies create interesting new products  We work with companies of all sizes, from napkin-stage founders who have an idea but haven’t figured out how to bring it to light or defined what an MVP product might look like to serve their customer needs, to large companies like Bank of America. Interestingly, the problems they’re trying to solve are not exactly dissimilar; it’s a question of scale and customer expectations today and where they want to get to tomorrow. We’ve found that large companies are not inherently set up well to support the ideals of innovation. As companies grow, they optimise for efficiency and look for ways to wring every dollar out of every penny invested. Innovation is inherently an inefficient process that requires some expenditure on experimentation and trial and error, and that’s difficult to align with the way large companies operate in terms of budgeting. One of our core values is: Crawl, walk, run. Having run startups ourselves, we’re highly aware of the benefit of starting small, understanding what you’re building, determining where the value is being delivered or not, and iterating on that over time, so we can truly build something that accomplishes a need and gives us an opportunity to figure out where we misstepped along the way. BEST MOMENTS ‘Gen AI is the elephant in the room today, you can’t help but be aware of it because of the pace it’s coming into fruition. A lot of companies aren’t ready to incorporate it into their workflows.’ ‘Start getting your data in order, understand and learning what type of structure and data you need to align to the goal you have for AI use cases in the future.’ ‘Figure out ways for your employees to  begin interacting with and utilising AI to accomplish the tasks they’re doing today, so they aren’t afraid of it and how to ask the right questions of it to get beneficial responses from it.’ ‘One of the things a lot of people overlook is the level of research and understanding of your customer and their needs that should go into the process prior to building anything.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Throughout a roller-coaster career spanning acting, advertising, consulting, technology, and entrepreneurship, Danny Nathan has developed a habit of helping companies create new products and services and launch new ventures.  Known variously as a product person, UX guy, designer, strategist, marketer, creative, and sometimes even "The Cleaner," Danny brings a wealth of experience to every project he undertakes. Today, Danny is the founder of Apollo 21, an innovation and product design studio based in New York City. Apollo 21 sits at the intersection of business consultancy, product design studio, and venture studio. The company helps organizations foster innovation, leverage venture-driven growth, and remove barriers to scale by building technology that solves complex business and operational challenges. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Scott Gunther, who is not only a corporate venture capitalist and start-up enthusiast—he’s also the secret ingredient that helps big businesses think like nimble innovators! In this episode, we’ll hear how Scott’s unique blend of strategic vision and hands-on execution has set him apart in both blue-chip boardrooms and early-stage tech circles. We’ll dive into the venture client model, explore the evolving CVC (Corporate Venture Capital) landscape through the lens of 2025, and uncover the do’s and don’ts for insurance providers and emerging Tech founders. KEY TAKEAWAYS Recently, we’ve seen some stability in CVC investment. There’s been a strong volume of deal-flow dollars pouring into startup investment. At the same time, we’re seeing corporations change their attitudes and approaches to innovation and venturing. Some have closed their CVC funds, others have changed their investment focus, some have scaled back altogether, although some are quite the opposite. We’re starting to see CVCs experiencing slower exit returns, and their financials aren’t what they were in 2021/22. In the last 2-3 years, the savvy CVCs have done 2 things well: they’ve kept their portfolio afloat and held onto their strategic assets, while also helping it grow. This will be a trend for CVCs in 2025. We don’t put anything up to our investment community until we have an exec sponsor because post-investment is when the exec sponsor comes to life, and the VC model starts to hit home. We have a dedicated post-investment team that connects the startup and the corporate. The biggest opportunities for insurers and CVCs operating in that space is understand how people use and interact with digital technologies, and how they’re affecting society. Also, customer segmentation and proposition development are different for different demographics now, and how different cohorts are researched, bought, serviced, and claimed, it’s not one size fits all. The savvy insurers know what these macro-trends are and understand how the latest technology, data, and AI trends are. This could help us get to the holy grail: The segment of one! BEST MOMENTS ‘We’re going to see more competition, things are going to happen faster and cheaper, but there’s still an uncertainty about which things we should own and which we should outsource.’ ‘I think a lot of people focus on the E and S or ESG, but not the G, but the G incorporates some of the most crucial aspects about how a company runs itself.’ ‘The more efficient and effective a company can run, the more it can have on its customers and community.’ ‘We connect the startup with the corporate to create mutual commercial value, it’s an ethos we live by.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Scott Gunther is a Corporate Venture Capitalist and start-up enthusiast with a track record of partnering with business leaders to identify strategic opportunities and guide transformational change. Drawing on years of experience designing future-state, digital-first businesses and delivering critical programs across multiple industries, he brings a rare blend of strategic vision and execution prowess to his clients and colleagues. LinkedIn Firemark Ventures  ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Staci Gray, Founder and CEO of Organize To Scale, whose journey is nothing short of inspirational. Imagine graduating high school at 16, diving headfirst into the entrepreneurial world, and buying your first property at 18. When her mother was diagnosed with stage four cancer, Staci leaped into action. Taking the reins of her family businesses, she transformed overwhelming challenges into streamlined successes. In just 36 months, Staci helped launch 36 syndication businesses that collectively raised over $300 million.  Today, we'll dive into Staci's unique approach to scaling businesses through people and processes. We'll explore how she empowers leaders to build strong teams, streamline operations, and prepare for successful exits—all without losing their minds or their personal identities. KEY TAKEAWAYS You need to know yourself, whether you’re a visionary, an integrator, or more operationally minded. Getting that level of clarity is critical because the visionary role is externally focused, thinking 5 moves ahead, caring about customers, interested in advancement, and expansion. Whereas the integrator (COO) role is internally focused on the team, fulfillment, and operations. Sitting in both seats at the same time is fragmenting yourself, it’s important you choose which role you do and then employ the opposite of that who also buys into your vision. As a business, you should be continually adapting. The technology or the team you need at 6-figures is not the same as the one you will need at 8-figures. Your job as a leadership team, in whatever seat you’re sitting in, is to get good at pushing to the next ceiling, hitting it, and then adapting to keep your cash, tech, and trained team aligned. Those things are critical to scaling. I’m a huge advocate of scaling businesses in a way that truly creates freedom: Tim freedom, financial freedom, and geographic freedom. That’s only our ‘eyes-open freedoms’, sometimes people also sacrifice their internal freedoms; Joy, love, peace, connection, belonging to scale their businesses. I think that’s a bigger sacrifice. It’s important not attach my identity to my business; it’s not me, it’s something that I do. All building a business really is is taking an idea and turning it into a reality. It’s also people. People are doing the work, even if they’re using technology. And ideas and people sometimes create friction; we see it everywhere, and that friction can create bottlenecks. We have to be able to have conversations around what isn’t working, in a non-personal, objective way, to see how we can improve communication, workflow, accountability, processes, and documentation so the flow is smoother and we can all achieve and win by driving revenue, scale up the business, create operational efficiencies, and improve gross profit. BEST MOMENTS ‘The best integrators are ‘co-visionaries’, they can envision with you and also take the vision and sculpt it into tactics.’ ‘Stay in your lane, if you try to get in someone else’s lane it can fragment operations.’ ‘The moment I found out my Mum had stage 4 cancer was when I realised the importance of organising to scale your business before there was a crisis.’ ‘Doing whatever it takes to build your business might look different than what you think it looks like.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Staci Gray is the Founder and CEO of Organize To Scale, a company dedicated to liberating mission-driven leaders from operational chaos and empowering them to scale their businesses effectively. With a passion for organizing businesses and building strong, high-performing teams, Staci envisions a world where entrepreneurs and leaders can grow their enterprises, fuel the economy, and make a tangible impact on people's lives without sacrificing their personal well-being. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to a panel of global experts to explore the bold new frontiers shaping insurance technology in 2025 and beyond, including microinsurance in Africa, digital disruption in Latin America, the evolving tech scene in the US, Asia, Europe and the UK. KEY TAKEAWAYS AI cannot just be something we add on top of existing infrastructure, there needs to be some re-work to integrate it into existing infrastructure. Foundation for AI scalability and security (not as a bolt-on) will be a big trend. The second thing is generative AI that’s across ecosystem.  There is a trend emerging and growing in InsurTech in Europe at least around emerging risks. 20% of all the deals done in 2024 were around that specific topic. Most of the startups in this area are in the pricing/underwriting part of the value chain. There is a need for these with emerging risks that didn’t exist (or weren’t as prevalent) in the past, such as climate change or electric vehicles. In Asia, especially South-East Asia, the markets are way more green field than they are in the US. Here, embedded insurance and ecosystem integration are a really big deal. As people get onto external ecosystems outside of their own they want to embed insurance in them across sectors. We don’t think insurance just in the insurance space is enough. There’s a lot of brain drain in Africa where skilled professionals are leaving the continent. But the paradox of that is that there’s a lot of influx onto the continent. The questions is: Where exactly do the opportunities lie? There’s a lot of grown happening in the emerging communities where companies are developing the mindsets and capacities to transfer risk in all kinds of insurance, not just life.  BEST MOMENTS ’95-97% of the economy in Asia is driven by SMEs, and 75% of employment is in the SME sector, and it’s wildly underserved from an insurance perspective. It’s a massive opportunity.’ ‘Accessibility possibilities that the technology and maturity curve provides in emerging markets, especially, is quite exciting because it’s making insurance sustainable, affordable, and reaching more people.’ ‘The population where I live is very young, they were the first penetration for insurance here and, unlike the rest of the world, they’re deeply unconcerned about data privacy, they’re willing to trade their data access for convenience, better products and more personalisation.’ ‘Don’t only stick to the regulations timeframe, keep an eye on what entrepreneurs are building because the market can move faster than the regulations.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Florian Graillot (covering InsurTech Europe)  Hilario Itriago (covering InsurTech LATAM)  Lisa Wardlaw (covering InsurTech USA) Michael Waitze (covering InsurTech Asia) Tunde Salako - Africa InsurTech (covering InsurTech Africa) ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Carolina Klint, Managing Director and Chief Commercial Officer for Continental Europe at Marsh McLennan, who shares her views on the latest WEF report and its implications for businesses and insurers worldwide. KEY TAKEAWAYS My goal in speaking about and promoting the Report is to place the topics of risk and resilience on the agenda of world leaders, decision-makers, executives, and board members. The business world is so complex and difficult to navigate, and we have an environment now where risks are not only interconnected but also layered. So, the Global Risk Report is a great place to start making sense of this. When a company looks at the risks that have the potential to impact or execute on strategies, it’s so difficult to get it right: You’re going to go through your risks and scenario planning to pull together an ambitious risk register. Most companies have good processes for this, but in the current environment, it’s very rare to identify and prepare for the risks that will hit you. By cultivating a culture of risk awareness and resilience, and by taking a holistic view, connecting the dots between people, risk, and strategy, companies that do so have a much better opportunity to deal with whatever ends up hitting them. If you have culture and awareness, and empower your leaders and employees to manage when something hits, it’s going to lead to a much better outcome for you, regardless of the risks. We need to not just look at what’s in front of us, but look at the long-term perspective. Human beings are wired to focus on what’s in front of us, and it’s easy to forget the long-term horizon. This is where the Global Risk Report is so helpful: it looks at perceptions of current risks and the 2-year and 10-year risk horizons.  BEST MOMENTS ‘We look at how we can bring more value and become more relevant to our clients by connecting people, risk, and strategy – and the WEF Global Risk Report speaks directly to that.’ ‘The business environment is very difficult to navigate, and it’s only through collaboration and looking at the business holistically that you can achieve a long-term sustainable business model.’ ‘For anyone in risk and resilience, when the Global Risk Report comes out, it’s like Christmas Day as a 5-year-old!’ ‘Everyone’s got a plan until you get punched in the face – that’s exactly the way it is in the current environment.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Carolina Klint is a recognized expert in global risk management and a key contributor to thought leadership initiatives, including the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report.  As a Managing Director and Risk Management Leader for Continental Europe at Marsh McLennan, she works with clients across industries to anticipate, quantify, and navigate emerging threats—ranging from geopolitical and environmental disruptions to the rapid evolution of technology. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Michael Lingelbach, CEO and co-founder of Hedra, a company specializing in long-form generative video and agentic AI solutions. In just over a year, Michael and his team have seen explosive growth and raised backing from leading tech investors, including Index Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. From marketing and social media campaigns to corporate training videos, Hedra’s technology is revolutionizing how we produce immersive, human-like content at scale. Michael and I discuss the power of agentic AI, the ethical dimensions of automated digital creation, and how he’s charting new paths for startups, enterprises, and content creators alike. KEY TAKEAWAYS We’re still very early in ‘generative media’. Stable Diffusion came out 2 years ago for images; video models have been maturing rapidly, but right now they’re focused on small fragments of content rather than cohesive brand storytelling. Building models that can not only generate compelling dialogue performances but also incorporate consistent identities and assets is a challenging research problem, and we’re pushing on it. When people first think about generative AI, they think about increasing the volume of content, but that typically isn’t a problem. The predominant concern of most marketers now is engagement. We live in a limited attention economy, so the focus now – in my opinion – is how to make really good content that’s going to hook people. For short-form content, you’re usually trying to hook the viewer’s attention in the first 5-10 seconds as they’re scrolling through a TikTok-style feed. You want bright colours, a crazy character, or a hook like “OMG you’re not going to believe what we’re going to talk about today!” With long-form content, you’re optimising for retention. You still want the viewer to be engaged, but usually, they want information or entertainment. We think the big opportunity is making it accessible for product/social marketing managers to have access to this powerful technology to generate video and to have a workflow where they’re working together with AI to make compelling content. That doesn’t require them to outsource to an external agency. We then get rapid feedback cycles rather than drawn-out ones when you’re working with an external partner.  BEST MOMENTS ‘We’re focused on bringing this technology from something that’s fun to play with to something that’s a strong part of an enterprise/brand marketing workflow.’ ‘Are you conveying information that makes the user feel like you’re conveying information that’s also usable for them? That’s the job of a content creator.’ ‘Video is the most natural form of communication; people have been talking to each other face-to-face for a long time!’ ‘Video is a massive market, and it’s growing rapidly; it’s where most advertising, marketing information, learning, and spending is shifting towards.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Michael Lingelbach is the CEO and co-founder of Hedra. While pursuing his PhD at Stanford, Michael worked closely with world-renowned AI researchers and developed a deep interest in pushing the boundaries of long-form video generation.  Seeing an opportunity to combine advanced visual models with natural, human-centered dialogue, he set out to create a platform that produces fully generated video and immersive, conversational virtual avatars. Under Michael’s leadership, Hedra attracted early backing from top-tier investors, including Index Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. Since launching publicly in 2023, the company has grown its user base to over one million registered users, earning recognition from both independent creators and major enterprises.  Hedra’s generative video technology now powers cutting-edge use cases ranging from marketing and social media content to more complex interactive experiences. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Denise Garth, a globally recognized InsurTech thought leader and Chief Strategy Officer at Majesco. In our talk today, we dive into the top trends shaping insurance and InsurTech as we head toward 2025—from next-gen technology enablers to constantly evolving customer expectations. Denise will share her insights on where the industry is headed, how to stay ahead, and why a collaborative mindset is crucial. KEY TAKEAWAYS What was happening in the resilience market in 2024, from both economic and risk standpoints, has had a huge operational impact on insurance companies. As a result, as we go into 2025, the reaction of loss ratios increasing, unprofitability, high interest rates, all the economic factors are forcing us to step back and see it as a wake-up call.  We’re in the midst of business model and technology driven change. We’re finally realising our decades old operational models and technology foundations no longer meet the challenges and opportunities of this fast-changing risk, technology, and customer demographics world. It’s a race to the future because there’s a growing protection gap that we must address in a different way. We’ve been on a technology ride for 10-15 years , especially in InsurTech, but the last few months have been mind blowing with the pace of change and what the technology, like GenAI and IoT can do. They can help us do risk assessments better, give better customer experience and optimise the whole operation.  Cloud computing is expanding the capabilities. We’ve got to fundamentally rethink the technology and business architecture of our solutions to optimise and take advantage of not just cloud computing but all the other technologies that are going to leverage cloud. BEST MOMENTS ‘We must think about how to underwrite and assess risks differently, more importantly how do we minimise the risk. We can’t keep growing the risk and the insurance costs, people can’t afford it.’ ‘Data is the lifeblood of this industry, and we’re coming to realise that we’ve got to democratise and demonetise data because everybody needs to have it.’ ‘MGAs and full-stack insurers are trying to think how insurance is going to be done, but also, what constitutes the insurance policy.’ ‘48% of part-time workers don’t have access to life or health insurance, they want a simple way of buying insurance, and they also want the risk about themselves by having Protection as a Service based on usage.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Denise Garth is an internationally recognized InsurTech thought leader and innovator, serving as Majesco's Chief Strategy Officer. With a passion for transforming the insurance industry, Denise leads global strategy, marketing, industry relations, and innovation—helping companies navigate disruption and harness new technologies to capture growth.  Her accolades are numerous, including being named among the 30 Most Powerful Women in Business: The Titans of Industry (2024) by International Business Times, an InsurTech Top 50 Influencer, and one of the Top 50 Women in SaaS. Bringing a blend of deep insurance expertise and visionary thinking, Denise’s work focuses on how today’s industry challenges can spark tomorrow’s opportunities. She has served in leadership positions around the world, developing go-to-market strategies, guiding operational transformation, and fostering collaboration across multiple continents—from Europe to Asia-Pacific. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks about the technology trends shaping the future of insurance and finance in 2025, the big shifts, from AI wizardry to climate tech disruptors, that are revolutionizing how we manage risk, measure reward, and generally conduct business in these fast-changing industries. KEY TAKEAWAYS AI in insurance alone is predicted to jump from just over $8 billion in 2024 to potentially over $140 billion in 2034. With generative AI tools creating on-the-fly risk assessments and personalized product recommendations, the old “one-size-fits-all” insurance model is heading out the door. Soon, underwriting or credit-check processes that once took days could be done in mere minutes. With 5G, insurers can collect real-time driving data to offer usage-based policies – like getting rewarded for being a safe driver. Meanwhile, finance companies roll out mobile-first investment platforms that update your portfolio in microseconds. VR is also taking the stage, letting financial advisors or insurance agents hold “virtual meetings” with you inside immersive 3D worlds. This creates deeper engagement and a better understanding of the coverage you’re getting. As hurricanes, floods, and wildfires occur more frequently, insurance providers are analyzing climate risks like never before. Some are even adjusting policies in real-time based on environmental data, which is crucial for those living in high-risk areas. Meanwhile, finance giants are offering “green bonds” or environmentally friendly investment options. Sustainable practices aren’t just an afterthought; they’re part of corporate strategy, and regulators are stepping in to promote responsible business. “Financial Services 2.0” covers InsurTech, embedded finance, embedded insurance, blockchain, and more. This signals a future where financial services, insurance, and other industries blend into platform-based experiences. Blockchain is a game-changer here. From frictionless cross-border payments to “smart contracts” that auto-trigger claims payouts, the possibilities are endless. We’re also seeing digital currencies – from stablecoins to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) – gain traction. BEST MOMENTS ‘Insurance is flipping from driver-centric to vehicle-centric as self-driving cars become more common. Meanwhile, in big cities, sensors track traffic to reduce congestion, meaning fewer accidents and lower claims.’ ‘Cybercrime could cost the world up to USD 10 trillion annually by 2025. For insurers, that spells an opportunity to offer robust cyber coverage, but it also means constantly updating your own defences.’ ‘AI and data-sharing help shape new solutions—but trust erodes quickly if people sense their data is being misused or if algorithms are biased. Transparency and good governance are your best friends.’ ‘Step outside the old “policy mindset” and start innovating in ways that deeply resonate with how people live, work, and move.’ ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Zaid Ammari. What sets Zaid apart is his ability to transform complex data into actionable insights, empowering businesses to make smarter marketing decisions. His mantra, 'work smarter, not harder,' is reflected in his approach to managing PPC campaigns and optimising SEO strategies. In today's episode, Zaid will share his insights on how businesses can leverage paid media, navigate recent changes in Google's SEO and Ads platform, and utilise data for maximum impact. KEY TAKEAWAYS While I was working at a bank, not making much money and unable to move up the ranks, Facebook launched and became popular. I decided to withdraw my savings and set up a car marketplace. I paid a developer to make the website, then the challenge was to get traffic to it. As well as putting up physical posters, I ran some Google Ads and learned from my mistakes, which helped me learn fast! Eventually, I started looking at who I wanted on my website. I looked at time spent on the site, how many pages they look at, what they’re doing, and what keywords they’re clicking on from Google and how can I get more clicks from better keywords.  The biggest challenge is managing your budget and doing long-term projections. Every time I get a client, I run projections/estimates for them on how much money they’d need to spend to make some back. First, plan long term, you can’t just run marketing for 1-3 months, you need at least a year and you need to budget for it.  If my organic traffic is converting at 10% (buying a product/submitting forms/getting leads), I’d halve that and assume it’s my paid traffic conversion rate. Then I’d go into Google Ads to the free Google Keyword Planner to find the high-intent keywords (where people who click from are looking to purchase) and find the average cost-per-click to see how much money it makes sense to spend on Ads and keywords compared to what you’d expect back. BEST MOMENTS ‘Most of my learning came from watching my dollars religiously. What happened to that $50 I spent today? I had to be careful because I had a super limited budget.’ ‘If you’re not making a lot of money or selling high-ticket items from your business, it’s very challenging to do big advertising from the beginning.’ ‘The hardest clients are those that are looking for lead generation because there’s a problem with tracking if you made money from that keyword.’ ‘If you’re trying to rank on page 1 of Google, you could run a report and see what keywords you’re not ranking for on page 1 and start bidding on them. The top three positions get 50%+ of the traffic.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Zaid Ammari’s story is a testament to resilience and innovation in the digital marketing space. From his humble beginnings as a minimum-wage bank employee to becoming the founder of a leading digital agency, Zaid has carved a niche for himself as a formidable force in PPC and SEO. With over 11 years of experience, he has transformed the digital strategies of renowned brands such as Sony and the University of California, helping them not only meet but exceed their revenue goals. Website LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Paul Austin, a pioneer in the world of psychedelics and a leading voice in leveraging these substances for intentional personal growth and enhanced leadership. Today, Paul joins us to delve into how psychedelics are revolutionizing personal transformation and professional success. We'll explore how these tools can be harnessed to navigate the complexities of leadership, spur innovation, and drive growth in both personal and entrepreneurial realms. We will delve into the implications for insurers and pharmaceutical companies. KEY TAKEAWAYS I grew up pin a place where psychedelics, cannabis and all sort of illicit substances were frowned upon. But, at the age of 16, I was introduced to cannabis, and I started to experiment with it. My parents found out and were very disappointed in me. A few years later at university I started experimenting with psylocibin and it was much more profound and life changing. It inspired me to travel abroad and became a digital nomad, experimenting with microdosing. In 2015 I started an educational platform called Third Wave, because there wasn’t a lot of great educational information on the internet about psychedelics and I wanted to help people learn about the history, recent scientific studies as well as the risks sop that they could use it safely and effectively during their work. Back then it was still highly stigmatised, there weren’t a lot of people who understood some of the benefits and risks. Simply by being a first moved, providing free educational content, starting a podcast allowed me to help steer people when they came into the space. My focus then was mostly on microdosing. In our current climate that we live in, we’re very disconnected from the natural environment and we’re seeing the negative consequences of that. When people have psychedelic experiences they feel more connected to the natural environment. Psychedelics can be used as a tool, when used with intention and responsibility, to help us wake up to the fact that how we relate to the environment is how we relate to ourselves. The wider mission is how we step into a mode of environmental regeneration and how can psychedelics help leaders to recognise this? BEST MOMENTS ‘Life is what you make of it, we’re all sort of making it up as we go along, there’s massive creative potential to live life on your own terms.’ ‘Microdosing 2-3 times a week helped me to stop drinking alcohol and find more flow and creativity in my every-day life.’ ‘When psychedelics are done with intention, responsibility, in a safe way, they can have really productive outcomes for those who choose to take or work with them.’ ‘My intention has always been to make psychedelics accessible to more people. Microdosing is like getting in the shallow end of the pool before you jump in the deep end.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Paul Austin is the founder of Third Wave, an educational platform dedicated to the responsible use of psychedelics. Paul has empowered millions to explore safe and meaningful experiences. With a focus on microdosing and intentional psychedelic use, Paul specializes in helping entrepreneurs, executives, and creatives unlock their full potential. He believes that psychedelics, when used responsibly, can enhance leadership abilities, creativity, and overall well-being. By combining scientific research with practical application, Paul guides individuals to become better communicators, recognize emerging patterns, and foster innovation in their respective fields. Psychedelic Coaching Institute ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Beate Chelette, known as the Growth Architect, about her journey from being a broke single mom immigrant with $135,000 in debt to selling her business to Bill Gates for millions. In this episode, Beate shares her hard-won wisdom on what it really takes to pressure-test your idea, build a solid foundation, and scale your business sustainably. She reveals the most common pitfalls she sees founders making at each stage and how to avoid them. KEY TAKEAWAYS I trained to be a photographer and ended up as photo editor at Elle Magazine. I always liked working with creative, non-conforming, colourful people who had great ideas and needed somebody to help them. I later moved to LA to do something new and that would put me in charge of my own life. After an economic recession I became an entrepreneur on my own with a 6-month-old baby. It was a rough road.  I went through a lengthy and expensive lawsuit, my Dad died, multiple natural disasters impacted my clients and then 9/11 happened. I had to file for bankruptcy. Then I got a letter from the White House that put me in touch with a small business administration that helped with funding for small business owners. They helped my find a bank to restructure my debt into a single loan that freed up my line of credit. Three months later I broke even and 18 months later I’m the world leader in my category. Next thing I know I’m doing a transaction with Bill Gates after his company agreed to buy my business. I became a self-made multimillionaire 18 months after the worst moment of my life. As a creative, the reality is that you’re in your creativity 30% of the time and in business 70%. Creatives want to be in the creative world because they don’t want to be in the business side of things. But the successful creative has to be creative and they have to understand business. Somebody who isn’t creative and is only in the business only has to master one skill, so the creative has two strikes against them to be successful. The idea of being a Growth Architect came from the fact that when you’re building something you’re architecting it, you’re deciding where it’s going to be, how big it will be, which way it faces for the sunset/rise, what it’s built from, who it’s for, etc. I build the blueprint so you can build your house any way you want, but I advise you every step of the way. BEST MOMENTS ‘I left Germany to find adventure and I’ve not had a boring day since.’ ‘Before you need to be right, be very careful of what you’re getting yourself into. A fight for your life could end up being a fight for nothing.’ ‘A good idea is nothing unless somebody else wants to buy it.’ ‘If you look at AI and image creation, creativity has taken a new route. It’s no longer about taking something that exists and making it look good, it’s an imaginary world and a completely different business.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Beate Chelette is the Growth Architect and Founder of The Women's Code. She equips visionaries and leaders with proven strategies, blueprints, and growth maps to improve business systems, strengthen leadership skills, and scale their impact. Beate believes success resides at the intersection of strategy and spirituality, a philosophy she infuses into her work as the Growth Architect. Her mission is to empower others to embrace strategic thinking, unlock hidden opportunities, and build sustainable business models, especially in challenging times. LinkedIn Quiz ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Marinela Profi, a leading expert in AI and the Global AI and Generative AI Marketing Strategy Lead at SAS. Marinela has a wealth of experience at the intersection of data science, artificial intelligence, and strategic marketing. At SAS, she has been instrumental in crafting global marketing strategies for cutting-edge AI solutions, helping organizations worldwide leverage AI to drive innovation, enhance productivity, and achieve operational efficiencies. Today, Marinela will share insights from the recent SAS Generative AI Global Research Report, and we will both delve into how organizations are approaching generative AI, the benefits they're seeing, and the challenges they're facing in areas like governance, compliance, and skill gaps. KEY TAKEAWAYS The SAS Generative AI Global Research Report interviewed 1600 organisations from 16 different countries from all continents so the data would be as diverse and include as many voices as possible. The results found that the top 2 players are China and the US. China leads the world with usage (83% said they have adopted the technology and are experimenting with it) while the US leads in implementation and maturity. Generative AI truly allows organisations to enhance operational efficiency while improving employees’ experience through more personalise, streamlined, accessible resources. Ultimately what generative AI is doing, at a high level, is creating a more agile, responsive and engaging workplace for employees. However, there are things we need to think about. Generative AI is not delivering the same value to all employees, from business users to business analysts, data scientists, IT people, marketers. They each see different kinds of benefits, but at the same time they need to be aware that there are different kinds if risks and they are asking themselves different kinds of questions. Having governance in place is one of the top challenges between winning and failing with generative AI. When you don’t have governance frameworks in place (and the report shows that the majority of organisations are not thinking about this), there are a lot of risks that you could incur. Ethical risks, compliance and legal issues, intellectual property risks, and security vulnerabilities. BEST MOMENTS ‘Higher adoption and implementation doesn’t necessarily equate to effective implementation and effective returns.’ ‘Banking is one of the top markets for generative AI implementation even though you may think it would face the most challenges because of being a highly regulated industry.’ ‘AI’s answers may sound convincing, but how do users ensure accuracy? By prompting more effectively.’ ‘Generative AI is being used worldwide in either sharing information that is right or creating positive engagement, or misinformation. Governance allows to make sure that we are not incurring any ethical concerns.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Marinela Profi helps organizations move from AI hype to trusted impact. As Global Market Strategy Lead for AI, GenAI, and Agentic AI at SAS, she works with enterprises in financial services, healthcare, and government to build AI systems that don’t just act fast—but act responsibly. With an MBA and a Master’s in Statistics and AI, Marinela bridges two worlds: translating complex data science into clear business strategy. Her work focuses on how agentic AI—intelligent systems that perceive, reason, and act autonomously—can deliver governed, explainable decisions instead of black-box predictions. A frequent keynote speaker at international AI and analytics events, she shares insights on the evolution from generative to agentic AI and the new frontier of AI governance, trust, and human-AI collaboration. Marinela is also an Advisory Board Member for Wake Technical Community College’s Data Science Program, helping shape future-ready curricula that connect classroom learning with real-world AI innovation. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Adrian Mendoza, founder and general partner of Mendoza Ventures, whose inspirational journey sees him go from a first-generation Mexican-American to a tech-exit success who turned it into a platform for empowering others. He’s a living embodiment of the power of perseverance and vision. On this episode, Adrian shares his insights on everything from pitfalls to how to deal with corporate life, and building a corporate innovation lab to the art of securing strategic investments. KEY TAKEAWAYS It was very rare to find an operator/founder who was also an investor in 2015, but we had a lot of experience meeting people with domain expertise who would come to us because they’d invested in us through funds. VC was a black box that would never connect to founders. We theorised there was significant potential to break that black box open and connect founders with investors who had operational and domain expertise. Venture has been very localised. When we first looked at the landscape, we realised there was an opportunity to find incredible talent that wasn’t the kids that went to Oxford or Stanford, because you’re missing out on everything in between. One of our first investments was two Latinos who were working at RSA security and left because they had an idea, they didn’t have Ivy League educations, they were domain experts. That company returned 10x to us in 5 months. For us, DE&I is not just about black, brown, and female identities, but also about age diversity, veterans, and people from rural areas. If you’re going to look at equity and inclusion, it can just be within a sub-segment because then it’s incredibly hard to find talent. We want to find talent no matter where it is and what it looks like. To achieve the best outcomes, you cannot be a passive investor; you have to help find customers and investors, mentor these individuals because they’ve never run a company with 80-100 people before, and help them find the talent and ways into mainstream financial institutions or corporates.  BEST MOMENTS ‘No one looked like us, there were no women or Latinos writing venture cheques, we didn’t know that we were one of the first Latinx Venture Funds on the East Coast until individuals in private equity told us.’ There are incredible talents in corporations in rural areas of the Midwest that no one’s touching, out there having ideas and building companies. We invest in this talent because we look like that talent.’ ‘60% of California is Latino, if we’re looking at being representative of that area, then 60% of the capital should be going to Latinos. Most states are 50% women, 50% ofthe  capital should be going to women.’ ‘Our references aren’t just the investors, they’re the founders that we backed and those that we’ve had exits with.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Adrian Mendoza is the founder and general partner at Mendoza Ventures, a Latinx- and woman-owned VC fund that is the first Latinx-founded VC fund on the East Coast. His firm focuses on investments in Fintech, AI, and Cybersecurity, with diversity playing an important role in their investment decisions—about 80% of their portfolio consists of startups led by immigrants, people of colour, and women. Since its founding seven years ago, Mendoza Ventures has raised two funds and had two successful exits. The firm is currently raising its third fund, a $100M fintech fund anchored by Bank of America, focused on early growth funding rounds. In 2022, Axios Magazine listed Adrian as one of the five most influential people in Boston, and the LA Times honoured Adrian as a DEI visionary as one of California’s most prominent game-changers and thought leaders in the business world today. Adrian is also a regular contributor on CNBC on the state of Venture capital in the US, and the firm has recently been covered in Forbes, Bloomberg, and The Boston Globe. Mendoza Ventures and Mendoza Impact ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Marcy Axelrod, a bestselling and award-winning author, TV contributor, two-time TEDx speaker, and renowned management consultant. Her latest book, "How We Choose to Show Up," has recently been honoured with the prestigious Hayakawa Book Prize. In today's conversation, we'll dive deep into the concepts from her book: The idea of "Showing Up"—the invisible system connecting us to our society, our situations, ourselves, and each other, how understanding and embracing the way we choose to show up can lead to a happier, more effective, and balanced life – whether we're parenting, coaching, playing, empowering others, or steering a global company. KEY TAKEAWAYS At 6 years old we moved from Baltimore to Boston, my older sibling wanted nothing to do with me and I needed something I wasn’t getting. There was no one making me feel felt, which is what all humans need, and rather than act out I acted in and took it out on myself, I developed a stutter which led to me losing the ability to speak. Back through time to when we lived in caves we were never just in one role. We were always individuals distinct from, but also we were always a member of a family, a tribe, and we were at the whim of the environment. My book says that we were not designed to show up as inward facing individuals, we’re designed in 3 roles: We’re a discreet self (but not separate from), we’re a situation member, and we’re defined by a society there that creates who we are, and we create it as part of the collective. The model of how we can show up is easy for anyone to intuit, I’ve just put it on paper. Level one is burned out, stressed, not engaged, you can’t show up in a meaningful way – and there are valid reasons for this that we all go through as part of life. Level 2 is just showing up, just getting stuff done – this isn’t bad, we have to be there some of the time with a narrow, deep focus that is tactical and practical. Level 3 is truly showing up. There’s a believe system behind how humans are designed to show up, and it’s an important one because it gets us back into the flow of how nature designed us. There’s nothing cultish, woo-woo, or mystical, it simply recognises you can’t have up without down, left without right, or some version of individual without there being a society collective. BEST MOMENTS ‘I became a natural and deeply driven observer of how other are showing up, and I saw that they can show up as they choose, and yet they are not choosing.’ ‘Our bodies are sensing flow systems, the skin exists because we can feel the world; temperature, pressure, motion, movement, the granularity and nuance of what we can perceive is awe inspiring.’ ‘A big part of the ‘showing up continuum’, and what it means to be a level 3, is recognising what and who we truly are.’ ‘Some people wake up at 5am and get more done before 8am than some of us do in a day, but sometimes they can burn out and stress about things. We all dance along the continuum.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Marcy Axelrod is a bestselling and award-winning author, esteemed TV contributor, and dynamic 2X TEDx speaker. With a robust career as a management consultant, she has earned recognition and accolades, including the prestigious Hayakawa Book Prize for her latest work, "How We Choose to Show Up." This groundbreaking book is the culmination of over 20 years of research, offering a revolutionary 3-D model of human thriving that has transformed the lives of thousands. Website ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Theodora (Theo) Lau, the founder of Unconventional Ventures, where she spearheads efforts to create an ecosystem that brings financial institutions, startups, and venture capitalists to meet the diverse needs of consumers, particularly older adults and gig economy workers. In today's conversation, we'll delve into the evolving landscape of fintech, exploring the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. Theo will share her insights on fostering corporate-startup collaborations, now called Venture Clienting, leveraging technology for social good, and building a more inclusive financial ecosystem. We'll also touch on her recent work, including her books "Beyond Good" and "Metaverse Economy," which explore the future of finance and the role of technology in shaping it. KEY TAKEAWAYS The world of FinTech is about money movement and how we get people from point A to point B. You got to a bank or online lender for a loan for a house, or saving up for your children for retirement, these are both moving from A to B. There are more player in this space over the last few years using technology and “super-apps” to allow access to micro-loans, access to insurance, saving money and paying people. What gets me really excited about AI isn’t the ChatGPTs of the world, it’s how we apply it and how we can change how we do things. For example, how do we use that to help small businesses? How can we create a connection between financial institutions and the people that they serve? Those are more interesting use cases that I’d like to see more.   A lot of people in the industry are very hung up on whether it is or isn’t a bank. From a consumer perspective, they simply need a means to save or do ‘x’. From their perspective they’re interfacing with an app, not a specific bank. The most important thing is that consumers are protected and not exposed to predatory measures/practices. Do I trust the entity that is giving me advice? Do I trust a faceless algorithm? How do I know they’re acting on my best interests? For it to work I need to expose all of my financial interests to this tool, which goes back to trust. BEST MOMENTS ‘With things like Apple’s savings account, why would people need a regular bank account?’ ‘We need to focus on why consumers go a specific route and have the tools to help them spend responsibly.’ ‘We all need information, and we need to be more informed on where we are from a financial well-being perspective.’ ‘It’s really hard to create an AI to be a CFO in your pocket, autopiloting your finances. We’re not there yet, but hopefully we will be.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Theodora (Theo) Lau is a dynamic public speaker, writer, and startup advisor who is dedicated to inspiring innovation and enhancing consumer financial well-being. As the founder of Unconventional Ventures, Theo focuses on building and nurturing an ecosystem that includes financial institutions, corporations, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists, all united to address the unmet needs of consumers, particularly older adults and gig economy workers. She has a strong commitment to supporting women and minority founders and regularly mentors and advises FinTech startups. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Ian Chamandy, a truly inspiring guest who has mastered the art of helping businesses and individuals unlock their unique potential. In today's conversation, we'll explore: The importance of a clear and concise purpose statement for startups seeking investment and corporate clients. How to uncover and articulate the unique value proposition that sets your business apart in a crowded market. The role of storytelling in attracting investors and fostering strong client relationships. Practical steps startups can take to align all parts of their business towards a common goal. KEY TAKEAWAYS I was originally a copywriter, and I found it all so generic, banal, and cliché-driven. I was frustrated because I wanted to get to the true authenticity of the company/brand/product/service. I asked an art director to make me a sign that says: “Is that true?” and I taped it to the wall behind my typewriter. It didn’t improve my copywriting, but it did begin a journey to get to the root of authenticity. Once you have an expression of what makes you uniquely remarkable, you can use it to define the 2 broad activities of the organisation: What is everything that it does (operations, product development, service/product delivery), and everything it says (branding, marketing, sales)? Step 1 is to find your gift; the one thing that makes you uniquely remarkable. Once you define what that is you’ve really got to the root and the true authenticity of who you are. Because you’ve articulated that you can use it as a guide for how you live, it’s a tool that helps you make decisions when faced with a problem or challenge, and how to deal with or avoid it, depending on how it aligns with your purpose. The reason organisations struggle to be clear about what makes them unique to their customer segment annoys me immensely. I believe the single most important strategic asset of any organisation is knowing what makes it uniquely remarkable. That’s your basis for differentiation, but 98% of companies around the world don’t know what that is.  BEST MOMENTS ‘We define the one thing at the essence of the organisation that makes it uniquely remarkable, there’s always one thing, in 7 words or less.’ ‘My definition of purpose is: Your purpose in life is to find your gift and share it with the world.’ ‘If you dig deep enough, figure out what it is, and articulate it in a clear, concise, and compelling way, then you can live that life for your business by design, actively, intentionally, rather than having it working in the background without knowing it’s exerting its influence.’ ‘We’re so focused on short-term gains that we forget that the short-term gains happen because of our long-term planning and our understanding of who our company is.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Ian Chamandy is an author, speaker, coach, and strategist with over 20 years of experience helping organizations define their purpose and become uniquely remarkable. Through his proprietary Blueprint process, Ian has assisted more than 400 CEOs and organizations in transitioning from traditional management to purpose-driven approaches, resulting in enhanced focus, increased employee motivation and retention, and boosted sales. The Blueprint process involves identifying the one thing that makes an organization uniquely remarkable—in seven words or less—and leveraging it to design how the organization operates and communicates. This distilled purpose becomes the foundation for making a company consistently and sustainably remarkable. By knowing their root superpower, companies can align all parts of the business toward a common goal and effectively communicate their full value. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Dawn Herndon, a visionary leader at the forefront of artificial intelligence innovation. With a profound passion for technology and its transformative impact on society, Dawn is spearheading IBM's efforts in embeddable AI and the groundbreaking watsonx platform.  Her work is revolutionizing how organizations across industries integrate AI into their products and services, enabling real-time data processing, decision-making, and automation directly within applications and devices. Dawn will share her insights on the challenges and opportunities organizations face when integrating AI, the importance of trustworthy and responsible AI, and her vision for the future trends in our rapidly evolving landscape. KEY TAKEAWAYS I have the best job in the company, every day I get to talk about emerging technologies and right now it’s all about AI. Pert of what makes this an exciting topic is that it’s a bit unknown to people, and organisations and companies are trying to figure out what to do with AI.  What excites me most about AI technology is the innovations that comes from companies take advantage of these technologies and the ability they have to leverage it to drive real and tangible outcomes for their business. These can be enhanced productivity, attracting new clients, getting to new markets, driving their products, services, and solutions into new market categories. My passion lies in helping drive that innovation with the companies that we work with by providing thought leadership or co-creating with them. Embeddable AI has evolved not only so a company can leverage NLP/speak-to-text/text-to-speech technologies in the AI space but has expanded into the production of the “what’s next platform.” IBM’s platform provides not only machine learning technology and advanced analytics but also an overall studio for organisations to incorporate large language models, train them, fine tune them, provide governance around the models, and ways for organisations to take advantage of IBM’s AI technologies to drive productivity, efficiency, and optimisation. You can’t have AI if you don’t have data. If you have large sources of data and you don’t know where it came from then you have risk and exposure. IBM believes that data should be trusted, that you should know the data and, if you’re working with our AI technology, that you own the data, we don’t use your data, you use it to accomplish the outcome you’re driving in your business. More than that, we have a keen focus on governance, risk management and compliance – AI ethics. BEST MOMENTS ‘What is your company trying to solve and how can we work together to leverage technology that helps you solve that initiative and helps you drive that outcome you’re trying to achieve?’ ‘We want to make sure it’s tangible for an organisation and we do that by using an AI assistant, which doesn’t just provide a conversational AI-based interface but integrations to back-end systems.’ ‘Once a person joins an organisation and becomes an employee, watsonx orchestrate provides that ability for a manager to take action on anything to do with employee relations, like processing a salary increase.’ ‘Productivity is an ambiguous word that can be applied to so many different situations within companies, AI can improve that productivity across your enterprise.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Dawn Herndon is an experienced global business leader with over 25 years at IBM, demonstrating expertise across functional areas, general management, and strategic partnerships. Currently serving as the IBM Vice President of EMEA Build Ecosystem and AI Partnerships, Dawn is at the forefront of the evolution of AI, focusing on embedding AI and watsonx. She spearheads the development of strategic partnerships that drive innovation and deliver value for organizations across industries and market segments. LinkedIn IBM PartnerPlus IBM Watsonx IBM Embeddable AI IBM Podcast ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Ola Jacob, Business Development Director for the UK & Ireland at Descartes Underwriting, a specialist Parametric Insurance MGA and Insurer. On today's episode, Ola will provide an educational deep dive into the world of parametric insurance. He'll explain what parametric insurance is, how it differs from traditional insurance, and why it is gaining traction as a data-driven solution to cover risks like natural catastrophes.  Ola will share real-world examples of how parametric insurance has provided significant value to corporate clients and industries adopting this innovative approach as part of their risk management strategies. KEY TAKEAWAYS When I started in insurance, I didn’t know much about it, but when you strip it down to its bare bones, it’s about making good on your promise. That was a big draw for me because it felt altruistic. When it’s done right, and someone receives their cheque for the claim after everything has gone smoothly, it's the best feeling in the world. The stigma we get from bad experiences is what damages insurance's image. The best solutions are ones people don’t know about and that don’t get in the way, making things better. If you’re going to create a solution that helps, it should have another login or portal, something clunky that gets in people’s way; it should be cool and slick like a Rolex. Innovation can’t be done on your own, when I won the Insurance Times Technology Champion of the Year Award, it was a reflection of the whole industry and all the people I’ve met on my journey that have been open to change. I don’t think we’ve done it yet. I think there’s so much more change to be had, and I’m excited to see how we can push further. The biggest problem with parametric insurance is the name, which sounds so complicated. But it’s actually the simplest form of insurance there is. The Mantra behind all parametric policies is: When a pre-agreed parameter is met, then a pre-agreed payout is made. This forms the backbone of all parametric contracts. That differs from indemnity, which is a promise to put you back in the same condition you were in before the loss; parametric insurance is pretty much black-and-white. BEST MOMENTS ‘If you add parametric to indemnity, it could really be a game changer that could change the face of how we do insurance forever.’ ‘I’ve always wanted to come in and do something to help change insurance for the better with technology.’ ‘In parametric products, the parameters must be measurable and independent, something that’s not controllable by somebody else, like weather.’ ‘Clients recover, using parametric insurance, with 10X less limit than they’d previously because of the speed of payout. And they’d planned how they would use that payout because they already knew what they were going to get if this event happened.’ ABOUT THE GUEST When recording this podcast, Ola Jacob was the Business Development Director for the UK & Ireland at Descartes Underwriting, a specialist Parametric Insurance MGA and Insurer covering Natural Catastrophe exposure globally. He is today the Business Development Director at Global Parametrics. With over 13 years of experience in the London Market Insurance Sector, Ola has worked on UK Retail, Product Recall, Terrorism, Onshore Energy, and Parametric insurance. Ola's background in Human-Computer Interaction and Psychology has fueled his passion for developing new approaches to risk transfer and managing risk for clients. As one of the pioneers of parametric insurance, Ola helped build a distribution strategy for one of the first successful parametric solutions in the London Market. In 2024, he was named Insurance Times Technology Champion of the Year for his innovative work. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Barbara Maheshwari, CEO and co-founder of Remote Bob, a game-changing virtual assistance hub that's redefining how entrepreneurs and businesses operate in our increasingly fast-moving digital world. Barbara is not just a successful founder; she's a go-to-market consultant, a sought-after speaker, and a startup scout for ABC Accelerator. With her finger on the pulse of the future of work, Barbara has helped countless businesses navigate the complexities of remote staff augmentation and achieve remarkable growth. Today, we'll be diving deep into Barbara's expertise, exploring the trends shaping the future of work, and uncovering valuable insights for scaleup ventures.   KEY TAKEAWAYS                                                                                                                                         The gig economy is characterised by an increasing preference for flexible, project-based work arrangements. This trend is driven by both workers seeking more autonomy and employers looking for cost-effective, on-demand talent. The gig economy allows individuals to work on multiple projects for different clients, often remotely, which can lead to a more diversified skill set and work experience AI and automation are reshaping job roles by taking over repetitive tasks and enabling new forms of human-AI collaboration. This integration is creating opportunities for workers to engage in more complex and creative tasks, while also necessitating the development of new skills to work alongside AI technologies. The shift is expected to lead to the creation of new job categories and the transformation of existing ones The future of work is being shaped by a variety of trends that emphasise flexibility, technological integration, global collaboration, and well-being. These trends are transforming traditional work models and creating new opportunities and challenges for both employers and employees. Both the gig economy and digital nomadism are experiencing significant growth globally. The gig economy encompasses a vast and diverse workforce, while the digital nomad community is characterised by its flexibility and global mobility. These trends are reshaping the future of work, offering new opportunities and challenges for workers and employers alike.   BEST MOMENTS ‘The global gig economy has seen substantial growth, with the World Bank estimating that there are approximately 435 million gig workers worldwide.’ ‘The number of gig workers has increased dramatically, with a 170% rise between 2019 and 2021. This growth is driven by various factors, including economic pressures such as inflation, which has led 63% of workers to turn to gig work.’ ‘The digital nomad community is also expanding rapidly. Estimates for 2023 indicate that there are around 40 million digital nomads globally.’ ‘Digital nomads are a diverse group, with no single generation, profession, or socio-economic class dominating. While they tend to skew young and male, one-third are female, and 54% are over the age of 38.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Barbara Maheshwari is the CEO and co-founder of Remote Bob, a virtual assistance hub that connects entrepreneurs with skilled virtual assistants. With an MBA from COTRUGLI Business School, Barbara brings a wealth of experience as a business consultant and go-to-market strategist. Her expertise lies in helping business owners solve their most pressing challenges and scale their operations efficiently. As a speaker and startup scout for ABC Accelerator, Barbara is deeply embedded in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, constantly seeking innovative solutions to the evolving landscape of work. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Sri Ramaswamy, the founder and CEO of Charlee.ai, with over 22 years of experience in advanced analytics and artificial intelligence. Sri has emerged as a formidable leader in the insurance technology landscape. But Sri's story goes beyond her professional accomplishments. As a thought leader and mentor in the InsurTech community, she is breaking barriers in our traditionally male-dominated industry, championing diversity, and inspiring the next generation of female entrepreneurs.  Join us as we delve into Sri's remarkable journey, exploring the challenges she faced, the triumphs she achieved, and her unwavering vision for Charlee.ai's future and the broader tech landscape. KEY TAKEAWAYS One of the constant things I heard from claims managers was their inability to access many data points within the claim files because much of it was in unstructured formats, making financial decisions difficult for them. I wanted to create a platform not only to collect exposures easily but also to convert them into a common denominator that could be measured, predicted, and queried – long before ChatGPT. Claims processes start with a very human experience because somebody has had a loss, and you’re dealing with them in the most sensitive and vulnerable position. When you think about how the process is carried out from receiving the claim until it’s resolved, there are a lot of nuances, such as being empathetic and empirical. That is key to understanding all the problems that can arise; data lets you ask the right questions to get the details. Charlee's vision is also behind how to get to these exposures and the risk intelligence, and how this leads to avoiding attorneys from getting involved in litigation, so a better settlement can be agreed with the claimant. But it doesn’t stop there; the real vision of Charlee is to connect those data points with actuarial, underwriting, product marketing, and even your agent. All these people are stakeholders in how exposures are calculated, priced, and offered in your product. One of the biggest things we’re seeing is a lack of proper documentation. How you arrive at a financial settlement is based on the facts of laws. If you don’t document your facts of laws or ask the right questions, you’re not going to get those facts of laws based on which you need to make objective decision points, which are very important for you to present in a court during litigation. BEST MOMENTS ‘I owe my career in the technology space to data.’ ‘Claims are the promise of the insurance contract. It’s here you get to know how the exposures you priced at the beginning are performing at the end.’ ‘Some exposures that are beyond your control, like the weather and climate, but the exposures and severity behind that are huge.’ ‘Attorneys being brought into the process are third parties that nobody benefits from.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Sri Ramaswamy: Over 22+ years of experience in advanced analytics and artificial intelligence. Founder and CEO of Charlee.ai, the insurance industry's first NLP-based predictive analytics solution. What makes Charlee unique is our patented, proprietary, and pre-trained claim language model. It adds context to the predictions, provides deep, insight-based alerts, reveals patterns and prior trends, and prioritises claim lists for enhanced claim workflows.  As a certified associate in risk management, I have a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities in the P&C insurance sector, and I am passionate about leveraging unstructured data to drive financial outcomes and innovation. I have architected and launched data analytics solutions for underwriting and claims, and have patented Charlee.ai's AI, NLP, and ML-based technology that can extract and analyse data from all sources, including documents, files, third-party data, and social media. Charlee.ai helps insurers lower claim costs, manage reserves efficiently, and improve risk selection through individual claim insights and an aggregate claims analytics dashboard. I am a thought leader and speaker on operational use of unstructured data, and a mentor for the InsurTech community. I also enjoy learning about astronomy, hiking, and yoga. Read the article on Claims Litigation Management  ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Amrit Santhirasenan, Co-founder and CEO of hyperexponential (hx). With a unique blend of actuarial expertise and software engineering, Amrit has spent over a decade in the Lloyd’s of London market, shaping the future of insurance analytics. We'll delve into the world of insurance pricing for complex risk decisions and explore the transformative potential of decision intelligence.  Amrit will share insights on how hx Renew is revolutionising how pricing models are built and deployed, offering an unparalleled user experience. KEY TAKEAWAYS I was one of the few idiots who graduated at the time of the dot com bubble bursting in software engineering and thought it would be a bad time to be a software engineer. I found myself in insurance and I’m a huge maths nerd as well as a technology nerd, so people said I should become an actuary, and I found that I loved it. I love insurance, I’m an insurance nerd, I think insurance is a huge societal pillar; There are no rockets launched, large buildings built, planes taking off without insurance. Without the mechanisms by which we can absorb risk, we can’t take it. When we take risks we reap the rewards of those risks and society moves on. Insurance is a fascinating sector that intersects technology, mathematics and human judgement in a way that’s very unusual. You have people that are tasked with working out how risky something is. By definition, if it’s perfectly predictable, it’s not risky. You analyse risk in lots of different way with tools and techniques and it’s a wonderful place for people who love solving hard problems in a variety of different ways. The essence of ‘decision intelligence’ has been around for a really long time. It’s important to distinguish between decision intelligence as a mindset and a way of solving a problem, and the technology side. The area in which hx has been novel is in crafting a technology solution around obtaining or applying decision intelligence to the problems that you’re solving. BEST MOMENTS ‘I tell everyone who comes to work at hx that they have to love insurance: Come for the fun opportunities, stay for the insurance.’ ‘We’ve crafted the technology to take away the boring database manipulation or building algorithm container and webforms to let our clients focus on the problem they actually care about.’ ‘The past isn’t meaningfully a guide to the future for emerging risks in the same way that it has been for more established risks, like fire.’ ‘In a competitive landscape, the best thing you can do is increase the amount of information to make the decision, that’ how markets become fairer, more effective, and more efficient.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Amrit Santhirasenan is the Co-founder and CEO of hyperexponential (hx), a pioneering analytical technology firm revolutionizing decision-making within the financial sector, particularly in specialty insurance pricing.  With a background as a qualified actuary and computer science graduate, Amrit brings extensive expertise in reserving and capital modelling, specialising in pricing and integrating modern techniques and technology to create practical, impactful pricing systems.  Amrit remains deeply engaged with the insurance community, addressing the broader challenges of developing superior pricing solutions in an increasingly data-centric, technology-driven landscape. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Eveline Ruehlin, a true visionary in the realm of fashion technology and emerging trends. As a champion of advancements in digital health, artificial intelligence, and fashion technology, she brings a unique perspective on how Gen Z is revolutionizing the fashion industry. In today's episode, Eveline will take us on a journey through the eyes of Gen Z, exploring how this tech-savvy generation is reshaping fashion trends with their sustainability-driven preferences and digital-first mindset. We'll delve into the exciting world where AI becomes a fashion statement and discuss how emerging technologies are transforming not just what we wear, but how we interact with fashion itself. KEY TAKEAWAYS AI is immolating the brain. I decided I need to be influential in both neuroscience and fashion. I’ve always been interested in smart textiles; functional textiles were always a big thing in Switzerland.  When designing my own clothes with a designer from Project Runway, I saw the beautiful craft of patternmaking – an art that should never be lost. But with e-commerce, I saw the integration of technology, and my university was right at the forefront of teaching this. Especially with AI or quantum computing on the horizon, we will find many cures. AI has influenced, sped up, replaced, and helped so many doctors, especially during the pandemic. Surgeries can be performed online with a doctor in another country; the industry's digitisation is phenomenal. I was trained as a ‘nose’ while studying in Geneva; olfaction is a big deal for me, and I love how it influences your wellbeing. Digital health is picking up on that; perfumeries are working with health experts to support mental health. The senses can change a person’s well-being and attitude. BEST MOMENTS ‘In-bound social media traffic can improve how quickly you can sell and get recognition.’ ‘Brain-computer interfaces, near-eye computer interfaces, moving into spatial computing, all this is coming.’ ‘The best quality is still handmade in my opinion.’ ‘AI is trying to emulate the brain, but I don’t think it ever will because there are new studies coming out every day about consciousness, where memories are stored, etc.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Eveline Ruehlin is a dynamic, multilingual innovator at the forefront of emerging global technology. With a remarkable career as a top influencer and brand ambassador, Eveline champions advancements in digital health, artificial intelligence, fashion technology, and sustainability. Her extensive experience with international organizations equips her to deliver unparalleled value to enterprises navigating the complexities of global trade and diplomacy. Passionate about fostering a sustainable and circular economy, Eveline is a staunch advocate for smart city design and digital twin architecture. As a continuous learner, she delves into cutting-edge fields, including machine learning, blockchain, quantum computing, and cybersecurity, always with an eye on the digital transformation heralded by the 4th and 5th industrial revolutions. A fervent supporter of mentoring the next generation, Eveline is committed to sharing her knowledge, positive mindset, and leadership skills with young professionals entering the tech industry. Her personal interests in skiing, hiking, and outdoor activities mirror her professional ethos of resilience and exploration. Eveline's thought leadership extends to fashion tech, where she explores how AI and emerging technologies are reshaping the industry. She is particularly interested in how Gen Z and Gen Alpha influence fashion trends through their tech-savvy perspectives and sustainability-driven preferences. Eveline’s insights into the integration of AI as fashion statements continue to drive conversations about the intersection of technology and lifestyle. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Emanuel Rose, CEO of Strategic eMarketing, who has led numerous successful marketing campaigns for companies through authentic storytelling and direct-response advertising. On today’s episode, Emanuel will share insights on differentiation and humanisation strategies for startups. Scaleups and captive insurance companies. We’ll explore best practices around targeting, testing messaging, and scaling for growth. We also talk about why startup founders must focus on becoming social CEOs. Emanuel will also discuss key lessons from his book on how solitude in nature can benefit mental health, leadership, and creativity. KEY TAKEAWAYS                                                                                                            AI is a marketing tool and, like all tools, it has to be deployed correctly, aligned with the campaign's intent and the brand's focus. It’s complicated to use, but I think it’s amazing. I love it; it’s forever changed my marketing. At this point, it still takes a human to drive it, though that might change over time. As marketers, we’re taking and identifying a problem and from that we come up with a solution, which is what we’re selling, and maybe agitating it a little bit, triggering people, and offering a call to action. I like to make it as frictionless as possible, which I think has gotten lost in digital marketing. Since the internet, we’re back to pop-ups and interruptions trying to get email addresses and phone numbers. I think that’s a huge mistake that doesn’t build long-term brand value and makes everything transactional rather than client-based. The downside of AI is that there’s a lot of “spray and pray” instead of starting with your ideal client profile, finding people who fit it, understanding their needs, and developing a conversation to qualify them for your service/product and yourself to them. The relationship is what people are missing with this inauthentic rubbish. I want to encourage people to use tools that are organised around getting a lot of information from the prospects that they’re talking to, so that there is publicly known personal information from social profiles/blogs/other content they’ve written or participated in. This should be part of every AI tool you use, but then you need to do your own research. When people are interested, take a few minutes to see how that individual aligns with your ideal client profile. BEST MOMENTS ‘The difference between a client and a customer is that you care about the client and their concerns, whereas you’re just doing business with a customer, it’s just a transaction.’ ‘Interruption marketing has got to go away again because it’s counterproductive.’ ‘We’ve forgotten that our job, as a service provider, is to serve our clients.’ ‘Make sure that you talk to people. If you’re in a marketing department, get on sales calls and hear the answers for yourself, understand what the pain points are, and how you can feed better information into the model you’re using.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Emanuel Rose is an accomplished marketing expert and author based in Reno, Nevada. With over 30 years of industry experience, Emanuel specializes in direct-response advertising, content marketing, and branding strategies. As the CEO of his digital marketing agency, Strategic eMarketing, Emanuel has worked with numerous clients and helped them achieve business success through authentic storytelling. His unique approach to marketing has delivered outstanding results for many companies. Beyond his profession, Emanuel is an avid outdoorsman with a deep passion for nature. His latest book, "The 7 Principles of The Magic Rock," explores the profound connection between spending time outdoors and mental health. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Magda Ramada, Senior Director and InsurTech Innovation Leader at WTW's Insurance Consulting and Technology, where she spearheads the company's engagement with InsurTech startups and blockchain initiatives worldwide. With over two decades of experience, she has become a prominent voice in digital transformation, advanced analytics, and emerging risks within the insurance industry. Today, we'll be exploring Magdalena's journey in InsurTech, her views on the challenges and opportunities in the industry, and her vision for the future of insurance technology. KEY TAKEAWAYS I got into insurance and technology by chance. 10 years ago I took on a project for a large insurance company whose CEO wanted to look at lobbying risks and macro-economic risks, which I was an expert on. I felt self-conscious talking about risk to the CEO, so I studied like I’d never studied before, and it was a great experience. After that, everything I did was around insurance which led me to blockchain technology, and I realised this was going to change the way we can neutralise risks. I don’t think I’ll ever leave. Technology is an enabler. It doesn’t need to be AI-based or shiny or a startup, as long as it’s the right kind of solution to transform the industry. In insurance, the applications of technology and the needs and functionality are very different from personal lines to motor, home or pet insurance. It’s a world with a lot of complexity.  What are the tools that enable me to use and analyse more data, leverage the data we already have, and how that data can travel from very different functions and allow a very different target operating model where the technical functions converge to work as one. There are a number of specialisms around that that go deep, like generative AI, natural language processing, OCR, where you become an expert in a niche and you don’t need to know insurance. The first thing you need to understand is how a technology is going to affect what you are doing. Then there’s the augmentation with everyone in the value chain (the claims handler, underwriter, customer, online customer, agent), these all need different interfaces and types of insight for the different personas to enable timely, better decision making. Not every technology will enable you to do that. BEST MOMENTS ‘Every time I had the choice of choosing insurance economics as an elective, I chose something else!’ ‘I like being on stage, it’s the closest I can get to teaching.’ ‘One of the things that makes us different from other species is our ability to imagine how things can change and be radically different. Technology can help us with that.’ ‘What is my insurer client going to need in 5 years? What is going to be critical? What is going to allow them to compete with others, to outperform and become front runners?’ ABOUT THE GUEST Magdalena Ramada Sarasola, PhD, is a trailblazer in the global InsurTech landscape. As Senior Director and InsurTech Innovation Leader at WTW's Insurance Consulting and Technology, she drives the company's engagement with InsurTech startups and blockchain initiatives worldwide. Dr Ramada Sarasola's expertise spans from microinsurance and financial inclusion to emerging markets and multinational enterprise strategies. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Nicole Peck, president of ITC Vegas, to dive deep into the highly anticipated ITC Vegas 2024 conference, taking place from October 15-17. In this episode, we'll explore the groundbreaking themes of ITC Vegas 2024, including tackling climate change and the ethical use of GenAI and data. We will also talk about the new ITC Vegas format, which includes the neighbourhood to create smaller communities within a larger conference setting. Nicole also shares her insights and strategies for navigating these changes and preparing for a future reshaped by innovation. KEY TAKEAWAYS                                                                                                            I joined ITC last September, just before ITC 2023, to help guide the team to the next evolution of growth and opportunity. This event has been a rocket ship since it started, and now we’ve moved into our ‘teenage’ growth years, and we need to focus to ensure we’re delivering the best possible event for the community that we serve. This will be the 3rd year we’ve tackled climate tech. 3 years ago, we were probably too early to the party, and people weren’t ready to talk about it or use the terminology. Last year, it really picked up steam, and we’re starting to see traction on both what our audience has identified as topics of interest and on our sponsors' interest in learning more about it. We have set out to create an event this year that has evolved and is different from years passed, because we recognise we’re in a ‘growing-up’ phase where we can do more for our community. We took a hard look at the feedback from last year's event and found that it had become too big and difficult to find the right people or topics. To address this, we’ve created more neighbourhoods on the show floor and made it easier to navigate. We also changed how our content and agenda were displayed on the website with clear tagging. I’ve been in events for the majority of my career, and most have a very clear buyer/seller relationship. It’s not clear at ITC. ITC is a “supermatrix” event. We distil the people that attend our event into 3 cohorts: Industry incumbents (carriers/reinsurers), Investor community, and innovators (startups/entrepreneurs). Those 3 are constantly in flux from year to year. Industry incumbents are strongest right now, but nuances at the event speak to each of them. BEST MOMENTS ‘I was brought onto ITC to bring some of my New York City energy into the event and the team.’ ‘It’s important for me, as a parent, to leave the planet in a better place than when I lived in it.’ ‘The Founder’s House is invite-only, and where VCs can meet with the startup community.’ ‘Our objective is to facilitate as many meetings and connectionsas  we can for the carriers.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Nicole Peck is an innovative business leader with more than 27 years of experience driving commercial success through strategic B2B marketing and sales initiatives. She is a results-oriented executive who combines process efficiency with a relentless focus on customer outcomes. A master of forging powerful partnerships, Nicole excels at uniting diverse stakeholders to achieve shared goals. Her leadership style is both decisive and inclusive, knowing when to lead from the front and when to immerse herself in the details. Her calm demeanour under pressure and talent for fostering collaboration make her a sought-after partner, both within her organization and externally. Her unique strength lies in her ability to activate and inspire those around her, empowering teams to excel and achieve their highest potential. Nicole serves as an advisor to event technology startups and is a respected speaker on leadership, team building, and digital innovation. Her insights into emerging event trends are widely recognized and valued. She resides in New York City with her son. Today, she is leading ITC Vegas, a global conference activating 9K delegates. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Jeff Abbott, former CEO of Ivanti, who, alongside his global team, brings insights to shape the future of work. As the leader of a company dedicated to providing innovative IT and security solutions, Jeff brings a wealth of experience and insight to the discussion of the evolving workplace landscape.  Today, Jeff will share key findings from Ivanti's 2024 Everywhere Work Report – a comprehensive study exploring the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities in the distributed work environment. KEY TAKEAWAYS If you think about where some of the most successful platforms are, Salesforce.com has brought an amazing platform to sales and marketing, and Workday is an amazing platform for HR. CIO's and CISOs have not had that. Our quest at Avanti is to bring that platform to the global business community at large, and in this transition we're in right now, I believe it's the most important evolution in contemporary business we've seen in the last 25 years. It's going to be the basis for our economic well-being for the next 50 years, if we get this right. It makes sense for leadership teams to take active steps to dig a little deeper into this divide. With remote work becoming more prevalent, surveying your employees, I believe, is more and more important, this idea of remote leadership and keeping up with the ‘vibe’ of the company in this remote world to understand the experiences and challenges of employees and the executive suite with different mode of work. Over 90% of leaders we surveyed say that employees have the tools to be productive in a remote or hybrid work environment. But, of those employees, just 57% say they need better tools and better access, and don't have the smoothest experience from a digital culture perspective.  What we're observing is that IT teams aren't fully bought into the value of DEX (digital experience platform). IT teams are less likely than leadership to say that improving the digital employee experience positively affects productivity, retention, and satisfaction. Additionally, those IT professionals don't always get to experience the benefits of the digital employee experience that they actually help power. As a result, they don't buy into it simply because they haven't had a positive experience themselves. Applying the promise of DEX should really start with IT, because they're the ones enabling it. BEST MOMENTS ‘The biggest challenge is engaging in the Everwork policy and technical adjustments in the safest and most secure way. You can't rush this. You got to get it right. Just can't wing it.’ ‘Threats from bad actors or cyber terrorists are as bad as they've ever been. It's getting worse. These days, it's a persistent threat, they don't just come and knock on the door with phishing, it's a campaign, it’s nonstop. Vigilance is so important.’ ‘Both the CIO and the CISO have to lock arms and enable IT to understand how they can truly impact productivity with the DEX platform by having transparency and visibility across the landscape of the company.’ ‘Ultimately, where we’re headed is no longer operating IT over here, security over here, we see these organisations starting to converge. That's why this platform is so important for the future.’ ABOUT THE GUEST As former CEO of Ivanti, Jeff Abbott oversaw all aspects of the company’s growth strategy and direction. Before becoming CEO of Ivanti in October 2021, Jeff was Ivanti’s President since January 2020. Jeff has over 25 years of experience working for enterprise software and services companies, including Accenture, Oracle, and Infor. Jeff holds degrees from the University of Tennessee and Georgia State University. He sits on the National Alumni Board at the University of Tennessee and has previously held board positions with the Georgia Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the Posse Foundation. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Nick Telson-Sillett, a renowned entrepreneur, angel investor, and public speaker based in London. He has an impressive track record in the startup ecosystem and has made significant contributions to the industry. Today, we will dive deep into Nick's journey as a startup founder and angel investor, and explore his latest project, Trumpet. We'll discuss his strategies for evaluating investment opportunities, his advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, and gain his insights on the current startup landscape. KEY TAKEAWAYS If you just look at the reservation market, you’d think you find an open table at a restaurant, reserve the table, etc. We drilled in a bit further and found the niche of bars that you couldn’t book into in 2012. We went to the industry and pitched the idea of an app like OpenTable that worked for bars, they and the customer base were positive about it, and we went and built the software and signed up all of the best bars in the UK because there was no other app out there that was catering to them at the time. Because we’d built such a flexible booking system for bars, there was a boom in casual dining, which didn’t exist back in the day for experiential, different types of restaurants that needed the flexibility. We then made a play for that niche. Early start-ups: Don’t get distracted. Focus is so important; everyone promises you the world, but partnerships and sponsorships only add noise. Surround yourself with the work; 3 hours in front of my laptop is more worthwhile than going to a founders' event. Becoming a founder has become a fashionable sport; people forget that being a founder is really hard work, building your business, and putting your head down. I love the start-up world. I was mentoring founders, so Angel Investing was an obvious route because I could help financially and mentor the companies I’m financially invested in. A lot of founders I’ve met aren’t investor-ready, and the first thing I say to founders is, " Have you thought about what you want out of your business? If it’s just you and you don’t need to raise money, and if £3m is life-changing to you, you can build a business worth £3m, and you hold 100% of the equity, and then you can sell it. BEST MOMENTS ‘You can’t please everyone: If you build a product and you’re at the whim of your customers, you’ll never have clarity or be able to build strategically, you’ll always be chasing your tail.’ ‘We were the first app to introduce putting your card down or paying a deposit because we found no-shows were a big problem.’ ‘Sales is going to be the new engineering, finding great sales people that know what they’re doing is tough, determine your ICP (ideal customer profile) and go after them specifically.’ ‘Learning to say no to people doesn’t have to be rude; it’s about preserving your time to drive your business forward.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Sillett is a London-based entrepreneur, investor, and public speaker. He is known for co-founding DesignMyNight, a B2C platform that attracted over 8 million views per month and a B2B platform with over 5,000 clients. DesignMyNight was acquired by The Access Group in November 2017 for $30 million.  After DesignMyNight's successful exit, Nick Telson-Sillett continued his entrepreneurial journey and co-founded Trumpet, a buyer enablement software solution. He is also the founder of Horseplay Ventures, a venture arm that invests in startups, and has invested in over 55 startups as an angel investor. Nick Telson-Sillett is actively involved in the startup community and has hosted his own podcast called Pitch Deck, where startup founders pitch their businesses to him and guest angel investors/mentors. They discuss the pitch, the business itself, and the investment opportunity. YouTube ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Richard Gunn, Chief Revenue Officer at hyperexponential, who is at the forefront of revolutionising the insurance industry through advanced pricing decision intelligence and driving the adoption of hx Renew, a cutting-edge Pricing Decision Intelligence platform designed specifically for commercial insurers in Europe and beyond. On this episode we'll explore how hyperexponential is changing the pricing paradigm for insurers, the importance of advanced pricing decision intelligence in today's rapidly evolving market, and Richard's vision for the future of the insurance industry. KEY TAKEAWAYS Advanced pricing decision intelligence refers to the use of advanced algorithms, data analysis, and technology to gather, analyse, and interpret pricing data for the purpose of making informed spricing decisions. It involves monitoring and tracking the prices of products or services, analysing market trends, and understanding competitor pricing strategies Advanced pricing decision intelligence is important for businesses because it allows them to make data-driven pricing decisions, remain competitive, optimise profitability, and react In real-time. Advanced pricing decision intelligence involves the use of advanced algorithms, machine learning models, and software tools to gather, analyse, and interpret pricing data. These tools leverage technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics to provide deeper insights into pricing strategies and market dynamics. Some common techniques used in advanced pricing decision intelligence include: data gathering, data analysis, machine learning models, and automation. Advanced pricing decision intelligence involves the use of advanced algorithms, data analysis, and technology to gather, analyse, and interpret pricing data for the purpose of making informed pricing decisions. It is important for businesses to remain competitive, optimize profitability, and react in real-time to market dynamics and competitor actions. BEST MOMENTS ‘The benefits of advanced pricing decision intelligence include: improved decision-making, increased competitiveness, optimised profitability, and real-time insights.’ ‘hx Renew offers a value proposition to insurers by providing insurance pricing software and a pricing decision intelligence platform.’ ‘By leveraging hx Renew, insurers can eliminate the manual data collection process, saving substantial time and resources. This can result in annual savings of up to and beyond $100,000.’ ‘hx Renew provides insurance professionals with a dynamic environment for real-time rate change monitoring and decision-making. This allows insurers to transition from relying on outdated information to making informed decisions based on up-to-date data.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Richard Gunn is the Chief Revenue Officer at hyperexponential, a company known for creating hx Renew, a Pricing Decision Intelligence platform specifically designed for the insurance industry. In his role, he is responsible for driving revenue growth and ensuring the company's financial success. With a deep understanding of the insurance market and a passion for leveraging technology to solve complex problems, Richard is instrumental in helping insurance companies make informed pricing decisions through hx Renew. His leadership and strategic vision continue to propel hyperexponential, forward in the competitive insurtech landscape. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

In this episode, Sabine talks to Karrie Sullivan, a change management expert with a keen interest in psychology and the development and leveraging of AI. Karrie talks in depth about why AI is disrupting the world of change management and the innovation it is creating, including her work with AI personality assessment. They also discuss the broader adoption of new technology and how to recognise resilience and innovation among leaders and individuals. KEY TAKEAWAYS Self-knowledge and introspection are both key components to personal development, which is essential when trying to promote change within and outside of ourselves. Whilst parts of our core personalities may be ‘fixed’, our ability as individuals to develop and evolve is dynamic; this is where we can create the change we want to see. Karrie frequently works at the intersection of small start-ups and larger enterprises to find the right people and innovation to create the best-practice framework for all. Find the 7% of people who can turn chaos into opportunity and remain resilient under pressure. There is value in trying various new technologies and then adapting them to what suits your business; not all technology will be the right fit. BEST MOMENTS ‘We’re finding pockets of results and resilience, so we and our customers, our clients can do a really good job of adoption and transformation.” “How do we help ourselves become better humans?” “We work with those result drivers who can solve problems very fast, to adopt something new, so what they’re doing is creating best practices.” “It’s actually a very small amount of people able to manage the change.” “They want to see a culture, they believe in culture, and they’re looking for other resilient mindsets to surround themselves with.” ABOUT THE GUEST Karrie Sullivan is a seasoned expert in change management and organization design, with a keen focus on leveraging AI personality assessments to drive successful transformations.  With a background in large-scale transformations, Karrie has honed her skills to specifically address change management and organization design challenges.  She is adept at helping organizations adopt new technologies, such as Microsoft Copilot, by hyper-targeting adoption efforts based on employees' mindsets and resilience levels.  Karrie's innovative approach to hacking the change curve has significantly reduced the time it takes for organizations to become high-performing after undergoing transformation.  You can discover more about Karrie's company below.  https://culminatestrategy.com/ ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Sean Languedoc, a seasoned tech entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience building & scaling companies across borders. Sean shares lessons from scaling five companies, how Outforce.ai is transforming outsourcing, when startups should consider leveraging external teams, and his thoughts on how emerging technologies like generative AI and quantum computing are accelerating development cycles. He also offers advice for non-technical founders looking to build MVPs in a capital-efficient way. KEY TAKEAWAYS Each business started not because of a technology that I wanted to build, but because of a problem I saw in an industry that I needed to solve, & I was enabled by technology to solve it. You can’t just walk into an industry like InsurTech & disrupt it with technology, technology changes a lot faster than behaviour & infrastructure. The lesson there was if things go wrong, the agency is blamed & I’d be fired. It’s nothing to do with technology; it’s all about people. Across all businesses, you have to look at who you are disrupting & how influential they are in the decision-making process. Who wins & who loses, & who can you embrace for your winning approach & get momentum behind?  BEST MOMENTS ‘Everyone will tell you you have a great idea until you ask them to pay for it, or until you understand the culture of the industry itself.’ ‘For good operators who were really interested in optimising, we got a lot of momentum, but for the companies that were horse-trading favours, not so much.’ ‘The industry standard is 39% of projects that go to outsourcing don’t work out. I’d say another 20% on top of those end up working out only because of brute force, relentless effort by the client to teach the outsourcing agency how to do it.’ ‘You can’t afford to take the risk of getting it wrong, you need to go in with data & research & get it right.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Sean Languedoc is a seasoned tech entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience building & scaling companies. He has founded five tech ventures across various domains, successfully taking two of them "south" from Canada to the US. Currently, Sean is the CEO of Outforce.ai, a company that transforms outsourcing from a daunting task into a strategic asset for venture-backed startups. Outforce.ai aims to be the catalyst that propels tech ventures to their next phase of growth by connecting them with the right engineering teams globally. Beyond his role at Outforce.ai, Sean is deeply involved in the startup ecosystem as a mentor, guiding entrepreneurs through the complex landscape. He serves as a board member at A100 & a Charter Member at C100, underscoring his commitment to fostering tech innovation and entrepreneurship in Canada & beyond. With his extensive expertise in international collaboration, recruiting, & navigating cultural nuances, Sean brings valuable insights on scaling teams, leveraging outsourcing effectively, and adapting to the rapidly evolving tech landscape.  His unique perspective, shaped by building companies across borders, makes him an insightful guest to discuss growth strategies for startups and the future of work in an AI-driven world. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Edward Brawer, co-founder and CEO of PodcastAI, a groundbreaking SaaS platform that's revolutionising the podcasting industry. In this episode, we'll explore: Edward's entrepreneurial journey and the origin of PodcastAI, how AI is transforming the podcasting landscape, the future of content creation and distribution in the digital age, strategies for entrepreneurs looking to leverage podcasting for growth, & the challenges and opportunities in the rapidly evolving podcasting market. KEY TAKEAWAYS Our previous startup was with a video platform, and we looked at what we could do with AI & the models were pretty expensive. It could take the titles of YouTube videos & it would give you new titles, which isn’t super useful. The real Aha moment for everybody was ChatGPT, because it wasn’t a technological development; it was realizing how to use it. It was at that time I realised that there was no limit to what you could build with this which led me to start PodcastAI. In February, I started playing around with AI voice models & I realised that I could create a parody of an episode of the All In Podcast. I posted it on Twitter & it was reposted by them & went viral, hitting 600,000 views. We did 6 in total & people wanted to know if it was real, if AI had produced the podcast, they asked for the code and GitHub repository. That’s when we knew we could do it & we now have a product called ‘The Magic Pod’ that creates a podcast for people who aren’t comfortable being in front of a microphone. It generates a podcast completely automatically from blog posts and news sites, in your voice. Podcasting can be as simple or complicated as you want it to be. At its simplest, you can record a Zoom session and share it. PodcastAI can level up your production quality by automating all the post-production, distribution & promotion. At the higher end, it’s more like a scripted TV show. Everybody is able to do this. A100 years ago, the percentage of the population engaged in farming was easily double digits; maybe 1% was engaged in farming because there were tractors, etc. Not everybody became unemployed; they went on to do even greater things, raised the standard of living for everyone, and earned higher wages. BEST MOMENTS ‘For most podcasters the interview is the fun part and the rest is less fun (pre- & post-production, editing, promotion & distribution, website CMS), Podcast AI makes podcasting effortless.’ ‘Magic Pod is a whole new game. You don’t even have to do the recording part, just give it a 3-minute sample of your voice, upload it into our system & it automatically goes out on the day & time you want.’ ‘Today, podcasting is a $28billion market. In 5 years it’s going to be $100billion.’ ‘You’ll have more throughput, higher quality overall outcomes of the work produced & agencies are going to be able to scale in a way they haven’t been able to; it’s going to become an enabling technology.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Edward Brawer is the co-founder and CEO of PodcastAI, a cutting-edge SaaS platform revolutionising the podcasting industry through AI-powered automation. Launched in 2023, PodcastAI offers a comprehensive suite of tools for podcast creation, post-production, & distribution. Under Edward's leadership, PodcastAI has secured venture backing, with Jason Calacanis' Launch fund as the lead investor. The platform offers innovative features such as AI-generated ad reads, fully automated podcast episodes, & comprehensive post-production services, positioning itself at the forefront of the rapidly growing podcasting market. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Jeannette Linfoot, a distinguished corporate CEO turned entrepreneur, board advisor, mentor, & investor, renowned for her ability to guide business leaders, C-suite executives, & entrepreneurs through complex business challenges & towards scalable growth, whose career is marked by her 'Brave, Bold, Brilliant' ethos, which she has successfully translated into a top-tier podcast that reaches audiences in over 120 countries. On this episode, she shares insights from her extensive career, her transition to a portfolio career, & her passion for personal development & growth. KEY TAKEAWAYS In my mid- to late-40s, I took stock of where I was, I loved my corporate career, but I wanted to have more freedom, choice & flexibility in my life. Now, having a portfolio career gives me more choice around being able to travel more & ultimately, I call the shots. When scaling up, what got you to where you’re at now won’t necessarily get you where you want to get to in the next phase. Having a clear, differentiated position in the market is really important when you scaling, otherwise you’re just competing on price against your competitors. Be clear on your proposition to the customer & know where you want to take the business. There are only 24 hours in a day & you’re only one person, your success in whatever field you’re in will often be dictated by the talent around you. As you scale you may find there are certain functions that you didn’t need before that you do now, or a combined role may now be at a scale where it needs to be separated & more resources need to be brought into the business. In any business it’s great to have a mix of talent, experience, some of which is age related: the older you are the more experience you’re going to have. But, the younger generation will have fresh thoughts & more energy. Everyone contributes to a team. With Gen Z, it’s important to understand their motivations in terms of flexibility, they tend to be more values- and purpose-led & they’re choosing who they want to work with on how they align with their morals & values BEST MOMENTS ‘There’s never an easy time to scale a business, there will always be something that will challenge you, so really get clear on why you’re scaling up, start with the end in mind & work backwards.’ ‘If your systems, processes, the boring stuff is not solid you won’t be able to scale, it will fall over at some point. Map them out now & understand which areas you need to strengthen.’ ‘Don’t feel you have to scale up, it might not be right for you, you’ve got to want to do it yourself because it’s a hard thing to do. Prepare before you start on the journey of growth.’ ‘The formula for success is: belief + purpose + action = results.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Jeannette Linfoot is a distinguished corporate CEO turned entrepreneur, board advisor, mentor, & investor, renowned for her ability to guide business leaders, C-suite executives, & entrepreneurs through complex business challenges & towards scalable growth. Transitioning from a full-time corporate CEO to a portfolio entrepreneur, Jeannette now manages three businesses: a property investment business, an advisory business for corporate clients & business owners, & a one-to-one mentoring business. Jeannette's podcast, "Brave, Bold, Brilliant" has evolved into a comprehensive brand & framework for executive leadership development & strategy, focusing on leading oneself, leading the business, & leading teams. Facebook Instagram TikTok Podcast: YouTube, Spotify, Apple ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Bessem Ayari, Head of Innovation Strategy & Scouting at ERGO Group AG, where he leads transformative initiatives that shape the future of the insurance industry. With a dynamic career dedicated to fostering innovation and collaboration, Bessem is a pivotal force in the InsurTech landscape. Bessem shares insights on how the Ergo ScaleHub is redefining the innovation ecosystem & helping bold entrepreneurs scale new heights in the insurance sector. KEY TAKEAWAYS                                                                                                            In these times of rapid change & digital transformation, the insurance industry is compared to any other industry, everyone expects the same service & speed as Amazon, Netflix, etc. That’s what drives me. Innovation strategy is about a culture that we need to shape & create to be on a good path but also to provide the means & tools to do so. We have a very broad & on point innovation portfolio where we are very near to the core, really trying to solve today’s challenges. Innovation is about delivering valuable impact & we can only do so by tackling the challenges we have today. In our portfolio we also have the ability to look into the future at the trends in the business & technology side so we can see very early where the market is evolving & where we should dig deeper. We’re pretty good when it comes to tech incubation, we have scaled RA process mining, AI and GPT initiatives as well as metaverse, VR, etc. We’ve created competency centres internally for these. I truly believe in physical collaboration, having physical touchpoints really helps to get a better understanding, to understand Ergo, the processes, the people behind it. At the end of the day it’s a people’s business & you need to build trust. Trust is built by having a proper conversation face-to-face or having dinner together, getting into a boardroom & cluttering the whole space with ideas and concepts to be worked out.   BEST MOMENTS ‘I’m passionate about innovation, driving meaningful impact at work & giving something back to our customers & employees.’ ‘Innovation is about delivering valuable impact.’ ‘You don’t learn a technology from Power Point, you need to get your hands dirty, try it out, make it tangible, test it & derive a decision out of it quickly.’ ‘Getting direct connections to corporates is super valuable,  as a startup you need to understand how the corporate functions.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Bessem Ayari is a dynamic leader specializing in innovation strategy & scouting. As the Head of Innovation Strategy & Scouting at ERGO Group AG, he leverages his extensive experience to drive forward-thinking initiatives & foster collaboration between startups & the corporate sector. His passion for mentorship & a keen eye for identifying emerging trends in InsurTech position him as a pivotal force in shaping the industry's future. Known for his strategic vision, exceptional leadership, & commitment to nurturing innovative ideas, Bessem has consistently brought tangible value to his organization. His expertise spans innovation management, strategic leadership, & startup mentorship, making him an accomplished innovation strategist with a proven track record in fostering innovation & collaboration. At ERGO Group AG, he leads the innovation strategy & scouting efforts, identifying & integrating cutting-edge solutions to maintain the company’s competitive edge. Make sure to check the ScaleHub site for more details. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Andrei Mincov, founder and CEO of Trademark Factory, a company that specialises in trademark registration & protection. In this episode, Mincov shares his insights & experiences on the importance of trademarks for entrepreneurs and businesses, as well as the common mistakes and misconceptions people have about the trademarking process. He will also explores the role of IP in business growth & success, & the strategies &best practices for protecting & leveraging your ideas & brands. KEY TAKEAWAYS My dad was a famous composer in Russia. A radio station that stole a song he wrote & turned it into an ad for Samsung without his permission, at the time I was attending law school & he asked me for help. I didn’t know anything about IP but in 1996 nobody in Russia had any idea about IP because Russia had just changed from Soviet law into free market law, so I gave it a shot & as part of that journey I became passionate about helping people who created something to protect it from others who want to steal it from them. Trademarking is mostly the same around the world, there are small differences here & there & you need to understand them to be successful in those countries. But, this isn’t something I think entrepreneurs should care about, that’s why providers exists who can navigate them through this. What you should know are the basics, it’s not as complex as you might think: What is trademarking? What are you protecting? What do you need to show to the government to prove it's a brand & not a cute name or image? The biggest misconceptions I see with trademarks is that you don’t own the word or the image you own the mental association between that work, phrase or image & specific products & services that you sell. Why trademark? If you plan to be in business for several/many years, the brand will become the most valuable asset of your business. It makes it easier t=for you to attract better talent, attract better leads at a lower cost to advertise at lesser cost. Even if you file your trademark a day before someone else does, you’re good. The problem is you don’t know when someone else will file for a trademark, so you should do it early or else someone else will do it and you won’t be protected, even if you came up with the name first.  BEST MOMENTS ‘The trademarking process takes a long time & I’ve seen a lot of entrepreneurs being taken advantage of by unscrupulous firms that claim to be able to trademark their brand for $49.’ ‘The success rate of your trademark application is directly related to your willingness to understand the basics.’ ‘On a general level, what trademarks protect is the brand, whether it’s the name, tagline, logo, or some combination.’ ‘Trademarks is the only type of IP that you can own, in theory, forever. Copyrights, patents, industrial right expire, if you renew your trademark every 10 years you can own it forever.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Andrei Mincov, the founder and CEO of Trademark Factory, is a renowned expert in intellectual property law. With a career that began with a fight to protect his father's music, Mincov has since written multiple books on the subject, including an international bestseller, & has helped thousands of entrepreneurs and companies protect their IP. His passion for ensuring that hardworking entrepreneurs are not taken advantage of led him to found Trademark Factory, the only firm in the world that offers trademark registration services with a guaranteed result for a guaranteed budget. When he's not helping secure trademarks, Mincov enjoys living in Dubai with his wife & 3 kids & playing his one-of-a-kind DrumDesk. YouTube Email: andrei@mincov.com  ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Nick Pester, founder of Beyond Legal, who is on a mission to revolutionise the way startups access legal support. But Nick's impact goes far beyond just providing legal advice. Throughout his career, Nick has been a trusted mentor and advisor to countless early-stage businesses. From navigating the challenges of international expansion to securing major funding rounds, he has been in the trenches with founders, helping them scale their ventures to new heights. KEY TAKEAWAYS You have to balance the need of competitive advantage, moving quickly, & first mover advantage, which is super important and which I always try to support with the businesses I work with, against the harsh reality of doing something wrong or making sure you’re not being unnecessarily exposed and that you’re keeping yourself in a structure that’s attractive to investors. If you compare 2021, when capital was much more freely available, and people could be faster and looser with how they did things, to where we are now, where capital has dried up, and VCs are focused on existing portfolios, you need to be tighter and more organised in terms of your structure & corporate admin has become much more important. The best lawyers I’ve ever worked with are the ones who, alongside their very good technical legal knowledge, have the ability to see what the business is trying to achieve & marry the legal requirements with the business's objectives. Getting those types of people involved at the outset, even if it’s just a sense check, is so valuable.  Collaboration is key; we need to get away from the mindset that 2 opposing parties are adversaries. It’s a partnership  & the best lawyers are the ones who recognise that the horse trade isn’t just “you give us A, and we’ll give you B”, it’s figuring out where the value lies for each individual party & marrying them together in a way that’s fair & respectful of each party’s interests. BEST MOMENTS ‘There’s a tendency for startups to chase the shiny ball, it’s easy to get distracted by spin-offs of what you could do, businesses that succeed in the long term are those that have patience, dedication & control.’ ‘Founders & business have a tendency to view lawyers as naysayers or box-tickers, people underestimate the value of a good commercial lawyer.’ ‘If you’ve got a good commercial lawyer in your team, empower them, give them the chance to lead on things & you’ll see the value they can bring beyond the legal side of things.’ ‘When selecting a lawyer to work with, find an individual that works for you, don’t just go on simple recommendations by name.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Nick Pester is a seasoned legal professional with over 20 years of experience, specialising in FinTech & high-growth technology companies.  His passion for supporting the growth of innovative companies led him to found Beyond Legal, a venture that leverages his extensive experience to provide high-growth technology businesses with an alternative to traditional legal services. Beyond Legal's primary offering is fully flexible, on-demand, fractional GC Services, which allows companies to access top-tier legal support without the commitment of a full-time hire or the high costs associated with external law firms.  ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Colin Sanburg, a seasoned entrepreneur & the Founder of FinElevate, an innovative strategic finance firm that is changing the game for small businesses. On this episode, we dive into Colin's entrepreneurial journey, explore the challenges faced by small business owners, & learn how FinElevate is revolutionising small business finance. KEY TAKEAWAYS If there were 10 things that could kill a company, the very first business I got involved with was doing 9 of them! It was in really rough shape. But from the hardships of figuring out how to make it less bad & eventually get better, I became obsessed with finance & how to build a better business. Now there are many more entrepreneurial groups & masterminds, but earlier in my career, I went years without knowing any other entrepreneurs. They were the hardest years when I was trying to figure things out. Luckily, I got turned on to a couple of books. After I got through that & connected to other entrepreneurs, the second stage of my career began. When people hear “fractional CFO,” they think of a really experienced person who is C-Suite level who’s going to give them a complicated 12-page plan of all the things they should be doing that they don’t have the time to do. That doesn’t work for entrepreneurs; entrepreneurs want freedom, their business to do better than ever & live a better lifestyle. It’s hard to do that, but we get into your business to help improve it The reality is, most businesses need to do some of the same things. We can train your team & get into your business &, instead of giving you a 12-page plan, we can say for the next quarter we’re going to focus on these areas based on your goals, thus making progress.  BEST MOMENTS ‘You can get trapped in a bubble of small business & limited mindset, but once you break out of that & work with other entrepreneurs, it’s so exciting.’ ‘We’re training your leadership team. The fear when you ask them to make more profit is that the team hears: “Make me more money.” When we come in, we teach them how to grow their career as well as the company.’ ‘The goal is not to do 450 things at once, it’s to have 450 things mapped out so that we know the next thing to focus on.’ ‘You need to understand how your business makes money & you can describe that on a napkin.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Colin Sanburg is the Founder & CEO of FinElevate, an innovative strategic finance firm that helps small business owners leverage their financial data to drive profitability & growth. With an MBA & extensive experience as an owner & CEO of manufacturing, distribution, & service businesses, Colin has developed a passion for demystifying small business finance & empowering entrepreneurs to achieve their dreams. Colin's passion for connecting with & supporting fellow entrepreneurs led him to start several mastermind groups, where he became the go-to person for financial strategy & advice. He pursued an executive MBA to further enhance his skills & knowledge. Through his experiences, Colin has gained invaluable insights into the financial challenges faced by small business owners & is dedicated to helping them navigate the complexities of business finance to achieve long-term success. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Brian Childress, a seasoned technology executive & fractional CTO with over 15 years of experience helping businesses in healthcare, finance, education & more develop and scale their technology solutions. In this episode, we dive into Brian's journey to becoming a fractional CTO, the most common technology challenges businesses face, his advice for non-technical founders, and his predictions for the game-changing technologies of the future. We'll also explore topics such as mitigating the risks of outsourcing development work, best practices for application security & scalability, strategies for closing the tech talent gap through global hiring, & the importance of collecting the right data to leverage AI effectively. KEY TAKEAWAYS Fractionality is a trend in which you seek access to high-level expertise even though you may not have the work or capital to employ them full-time. If we’re honest with ourselves, there’s not 40 hours' worth of work to do in a lot of organisations or in a number of roles, so if I can come in & make high impact in an organisation for a fraction of the cost, that’s really valuable. One of the biggest things that’s helped me is that day-to-day I do software engineering work, but through most of my career I’ve been freelancing & moonlighting on the side, so I’ve doubled the amount of exposure & experience I’ve been able to gain in my career by working with a number of different organisations, teams, projects & technologies. I’m drawing on every single one of those experiences to help & support the teams I work with. One of the biggest challenges I see for non-technical founders is determining which advice to follow. Technology can be a black box that’s really hard to understand, & for non-technical founders, there are a lot of people who look & sound like they understand technology, but unfortunately, they could be giving bad advice.  We make things too complex too early. Many of us think we have the next great idea & it’s going to be huge right out of the gate, so we need to build so we can support millions of customers from day 1. That’s never the case. But a lot of the guidance that’s out there comes from the Googles and the Netflixes of the world, and we build our architecture around these organisations. But we forget that they have thousands of people supporting those architectures & their complexity, & millions of users to support.  BEST MOMENTS ‘It’s a fraction of the cost, not the expertise.’ ‘Don’t follow the advice of the first person to come to you, it puts a lot of founders and companies in bad positions.’ ‘Building in complexity from the outset hurts us all the way through the growth of our business.’ ‘What is the simplest set of technologies & solutions that we can put together that solves a real business need? A lot of those boring technologies can be scaled up to support millions of users & billions of requests, we just have to be smart about the way we do it.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Brian Childress is a seasoned technology executive & fractional CTO with over 15 years of experience helping businesses in healthcare, finance, education, and more develop and scale their technology solutions.  As a technical advisor with a strong background in software engineering, cloud computing, & cybersecurity, Brian is experienced in helping CTOs & CEOs make the right technical decisions for their organisations. Summit Labs ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Scott Ritzheimer, the co-founder of Scale Architects and author of "The Founder's Evolution". In this episode, Scott will share his wisdom on breaking through the common challenges founders face, wanting to grow faster despite constraints, overcoming the limitations of being the bottleneck to scaling, and building an organization that can thrive beyond the founder's direct involvement. KEY TAKEAWAYS Business is hard; there are challenges that come up, of course, but at one point, while the company was growing really fast, the challenges started popping up faster than we could fix them. It felt like it got really hard again, which didn’t make sense because we were doing the same things that had spurred phenomenal growth over the last 5 years. The year-end financials have been declining for two years in a row despite cutbacks. We had no idea how to fix it because there wasn’t one obvious reason for it. Every organisation goes through a stage called ‘whitewater’, where the complexity of the business causes us to cause problems; there’s no one problem to fix, it’s the complexity of everything that has built up, and it’s exceeding our ability to manage, lead, and deliver consistent quality for our customers. That gave me hope when my business felt like we were flailing. There are things you need to do organisationally, but you also need to change how you show up personally as a founder, CEO, and leader, and how you build, structure, and architect your organisation. You have to do both. By doing this, my company tripled its bottom line in a single year & went on to open 2 multi-million dollar business units & increased profit margins by 5% for the next 2 years. For founders/entrepreneurs/CEOs/leaders, there’s so much more on the line than just us. When we get it wrong, it’s not just about my profit margins, it’s about my life, my family’s life, my leaders’ lives, my teams’ lives, it’s about our ability to deliver quality for our customers & their experience. The opportunity we were able to create after achieving predictable success was night and day from the struggle we had in whitewater. BEST MOMENTS ‘If you don’t have profit, you don’t have anything to invest with.’ ‘Folks need to know how & when to hire a coach & what to look for when they do.’ ‘I don’t want any founder out there to not know what their next level is.’ ‘Predictable success is the set of 7 stages that every business goes through, by understanding it we can accurately predict what challenges we’ll be facing & the highest leverage strategies we can implement.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Scott Ritzheimer is a seasoned entrepreneur and co-founder who has helped start nearly 20,000 new businesses and nonprofits. Scott founded Scale Architects to help other founders and CEOs identify and implement the strategies that fast-track their organizations to predictable success. Through his work, Scott identified a universal pattern that consistently created success. He distilled these insights into the Founder's Evolution framework, which outlines the seven stages every founder must navigate. This roadmap equips founders with the clarity to understand their current stage, intentionally plan their growth trajectory, and focus on the critical strategies for each phase. Scott is dedicated to helping founders overcome the common challenges of wanting to grow faster despite constraints, of being the bottleneck to scaling, and of building an organization that can thrive beyond the founder's direct involvement. Scott’s unique blend of entrepreneurial experience and passion for enabling founders' success brings valuable insights to help listeners navigate their growth journeys with greater clarity and confidence. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to John Johansen, a senior technology executive & operational leader with over 25 years of experience in consulting & executive roles. She is also joined by Steven Abel, partner at Oliver Wyman. In this episode, the two guests want to challenge & change current operational mindsets within large enterprises. They dive into the known tech challenges existing within our currently fast-evolving digitalizing insurance space, why an experimentation culture is critical to drive the relevance & resilience business needs today, what are the most effective paths for evolution, reinvention & consideration, & insights on how businesses can leverage tech ecosystems to scale digitally-driven revenue models. KEY TAKEAWAYS          I started creating business applications when I was 13 years old & have been writing software ever since. I’ve been doing this in the insurance world for about 30 years. With Oliver Wyman, we’ve been able to create a team that builds tools at speed that really improve our clients’ businesses. InsurTechs have admirable qualities of being able to run experiments & take them to investors & get feedback even in the early days, then pivot on the back of those results. They can quickly create real, tangible products that people can touch, feel & react to, which creates a new round of experimentation, including more people giving feedback, more experimentation & more changes. We wanted to bring that into a corporate environment that didn’t have that level of agility. The idea of responsible innovation is super important. There’s nothing wrong with the big corporate machine because it does many things well. It protects the risk agenda; it enables bulletproof, very stable technology. We have a very large client we’ve worked with on innovation, and we’re beginning to scale that in the enterprise. We’re not thinking of this in three lanes: The innovation group, the BAU support group, and the enterprise architecture group. One of the things that’s fraught with peril in any IT organisation is the transition from development to beta tests, to launch, to production support. Are we doing those things better? Is there less drama? Thinking through those early experiments & really demonstrating to people that the process is yielding that benefit/business change faster, with less investment, than an 18-month requirement process, an 18-month build & then a 12-month implementation. With the right experiments & stakeholder team, we are seeing those metrics trending in the right direction. BEST MOMENTS ‘We’re still seeing some bureaucracy, which means it’s hard to maintain momentum. We wanted to break the bounds of the culture and progress in weeks, not months.’ ‘There’s a lot that we can do to improve business processes & be responsive to our business users by running small experiments.’ ‘The most important part of measuring success starts with picking the right experiments up front.’ ‘We can begin to measure by throughput: Is this process of experimentation actually getting us to faster, better business results, implementations and hand-offs?’ ABOUT THE GUESTS John Johansen is a seasoned senior technology executive & operational leader with a proven track record of success. Based in Naples, he brings extensive experience in driving growth & innovation within the technology sector. As part of Oliver Wyman, Johansen specializes in helping legacy corporations leverage startup culture to foster agility, accelerate digital transformation, & unlock new opportunities. Steve Abel is a dedicated partner at Oliver Wyman, leveraging his 25+ years of consulting & executive experience to help clients tackle intricate challenges & lead teams in delivering reliable insights. With a strong focus on smart technological implementation, Steve has a proven track record of generating value for organizations. His extensive expertise encompasses program management, operations, shared services, enabling technologies, business process reengineering, finance best practices, insurance products & data, actuarial platforms, machine learning, artificial intelligence, cloud solutions, & business & technical architecture. Steve's passion lies in helping clients achieve their strategic objectives & optimize performance, while cultivating a collaborative, innovative, & high-performing work culture. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Brian McDermott, Chief Information Officer at Victor Insurance. This podcast will be a little bit different. Steven Abel will join us to highlight Oliver Wyman's relationship with Victor Insurance, a Marsh McLennan subsidiary. Indeed, in the complex world of business, speed to value when delivering technology is critical & Victor Insurance has found a critical partner in the Oliver Wyman team. KEY TAKEAWAYS An MGA is a company appointed by the insurer, typically the carrier, to exercise supervision & oversight on specific & targeted insurance programmes. We do everything an insurance company does, but we don’t source the capital; the carrier provides the capital for us, and they manage the risk associated with it. We underwrite the risk on behalf of others & handle a lot of the administration on behalf of the carrier, including claims processing, servicing, transaction processing, connecting with the broker, handling insurance fees, & processing any financial aspects. We operate in 8 countries. The majority of the revenues & premiums derive from the US, around 80% left-side of the globe, 20% right-side. But we do see immense opportunity on the right side of the globe, as it’s an untapped market for products & service offerings we can provide. That’s a key strategic focus as we proceed. Typically, InsurTechs’ challenges include having a great product but limited premium running through the platform because of the leverage they have with their carriers to bring those products onto the platform.  We differ from Marsh McLennan in that we’re a full, front-to-back insurance company: we place products through our digital portal experiences, provide policy servicing, process claims, report data, perform analytics, & underwriting. Marsh McLennan is a re-insurance broker; they don’t typically do underwriting. Our technology environments differ in that they’re built for different scales – we’re low-premium, high-volume; March McLennan operates in a different market segment: enterprise and high-end businesses; we operate in a small/micro market. We have to build scalable, fast products, whereas Marsh is more of a heavy-touch, relationship-based business with their clients. So it’s difficult to align with them completely, but there are a number of areas around complementary services. BEST MOMENTS ‘We’re trying to become the Amazon for brokers in the small, commercial & speciality marketplace.’ ‘One of the key challenges I have is to make sure that we can modernise while we integrate as we go on our journey towards the future.’ ‘We sit in the middle of the value chain with the broker on the left-hand side, supporting the insured, & the carrier on the right, they provide the capital to us.’ ‘We need to make sure that we harvest the data insights that we have: historical claims & underwriting data - & augment it with tools like machine learning, AI, data ingestion & enrichment.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Brian McDermott was the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Victor Insurance, a leading global provider of specialty insurance programs & a subsidiary of Marsh McLennan. Brian brings a wealth of experience to his role, with a career spanning more than 30 years in diverse industries such as retail, insurance, finance, & government. Known for his disruptive thinking and innovation within the IT field, Brian is constantly exploring new ways to leverage contemporary technology & drive digital transformation within the insurance industry. In his role as CIO, Brian is keen to embrace modern technologies & help drive the agenda within the broader Marsh McLennan corporation. His unique perspective, stemming from Victor Insurance's position as a high-volume, high-transaction business, enables him to provide valuable input on the digital connection between the market & the brokers & clients he works with. As a partner at Oliver Wyman, Steve Abel helps clients solve complex problems & lead teams to deliver insights that you can trust. Steve acquired over 25 years of experience in consulting & executive roles, delivering value to organizations via smart technological deployment. Steve’s specialties include program management, operations, shared services, enabling technologies, business process reengineering, finance-leading practices, insurance products & data, actuarial platforms, machine learning, AI, cloud solutions, and business & technical architecture.  Steve is passionate about helping clients achieve their strategic goals & optimize their performance, while fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, & excellence. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Steve Abel, Partner at Oliver Wyman. In this episode, they dive into the insurtech world & determine how to reinvent the InsurTech space by Leveraging Commoditized Tech for a Competitive Edge. On this episode, they discuss: The common mistake InsurTech startups make when investing in technology components is failing to develop well-thought-out architectures. How InsurTech startups can leverage commoditized technology to focus on building unique value propositions. The strategies for effectively orchestrating & assembling tech components into a symbiotic whole for faster go-to-market. How InsurTech startups can focus on monetizing their algorithms rather than building the full tech stack. The changing concept of differentiation in the InsurTech sector & how startups can leverage this to their advantage. Useful links: Cyber Security and Captive Insurance Self-insured actuarial services Capital modelling KEY TAKEAWAYS There are a couple of errors that founders make. The first is that you need to hire technologists to build everything for you in an undifferentiated way. Most of what you’re bringing to the market is not proprietary or unique.  It’s a drag on money, speed & you may lose focus on what’s important to your business model. You don’t need to hire them; with the pace of tech change, a year from now you’ll need different talent because the tech will be different. Rent tech talent at the beginning. Most innovation that occurs in the InsurTech space is from founders & companies that you may be innovating or own, you’re the force of innovation in this sector. That’s important for your investors because they want a return on their investment. It’s important for the sector because the huge advancements in the distribution & carrier space, to your customers are because of you. Critically assess what technical talent is absolutely necessary to be core to your vision; it’s as important as thinking about your architecture & tooling in terms of what is generically available & what’s going to be part of your secret sauce. InsurTech’s burn through time & capital fast, how can you assemble your solution in a way that you can test a market as quickly as feasibly possible? A lot of founders lose time tripping over boring, platform tech. BEST MOMENTS ‘Modern tooling, especially cloud-based, already scales. The idea that you need to buy a specialised infrastructure or server is no longer important as it once was.’ ‘Getting something in your customer’s hands as fast as possible to find out what they’re going to find valuable & pay for.’ ‘If you’re a founder with a great idea, everything that’s core to that great idea you need to own.’ ‘In order to make money, it’s important to understand how your product is going to be used & sold. These are not the same thing & that can be a very costly mistake.’ ABOUT THE GUEST As a partner at Oliver Wyman, Steve Abel helps clients solve complex problems and lead teams to deliver insights that you can trust. Steve acquired over 25 years of experience in consulting & executive roles, delivering value to organizations via smart technological deployment. Steve’s specialties include program management, operations, shared services, enabling technologies, business process reengineering, finance-leading practices, insurance products & data, actuarial platforms, machine learning, AI, cloud solutions, and business & technical architecture.  Steve is passionate about helping clients achieve their strategic goals & optimize their performance, while fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, & excellence. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Steve Abel, Partner at Oliver Wyman. In this episode, they dive into the challenges & solutions related to legacy debt & system modernization for incumbent insurers. KEY TAKEAWAYS A few decades ago, there weren’t as many or as complex systems in the insurance landscape. Generally, there was 1 or several admin systems that did everything. The cost & complexity of IT were relatively low compared to now. The proliferation of systems that solve business problems, the complexity of those systems has increased exponentially in part because of the sheer number of systems, but also because the landscape has evolved to accept that implementing a claims/administration/finance system should take years or months. A lot of carriers have made successful bets in the past; they’ve bought a system, customised it & to a large extent, historically, they have fulfilled their promise to the business. Perhaps they were a little expensive or hard to implement, but at the end of the day, the stakeholders got what they wanted.  Take a hard look at your technology. A lot of these programmes fail – between 30% and 60%, depending on who you ask. Ask yourself: Is it worth the investment for my business? If you have a generic business, the cost of customisation might be very low, but if your business customises a lot & you’re done, you end up with a lot of spreadsheets, maybe that’s not a great idea. BEST MOMENTS ‘There’s an emerging opportunity for insurance carriers to leverage a new ecosystem of tooling & providers that isn’t as monolithic & doesn’t require so many months & so much cost to implement.’ ‘In modern (mostly) cloud-based technology, it’s possible to think of data as an enterprise/ecosystem asset, so you can keep that data in a structure that works for multiple business processes/calculations.’ ‘Speed is now more important than ever in thinking about technology in an ecosystem. It used to be that you could pace your development choices in years, now technology is moving so much faster – years and months instead of decades.’ ABOUT THE GUEST As a partner at Oliver Wyman, Steve Abel helps clients solve complex problems & lead teams to deliver insights that you can trust. Steve acquired over 25 years of experience in consulting & executive roles, delivering value to organizations via smart technological deployment. Steve’s specialties include program management, operations, shared services, enabling technologies, business process reengineering, finance-leading practices, insurance products & data, actuarial platforms, machine learning, AI, cloud solutions, and business & technical architecture.  Steve is passionate about helping clients achieve their strategic goals & optimize their performance, while fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, & excellence. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL introduces the a series of podcasts featuring Steve Abel, Partner at Oliver Wyman, Brian McDermott, Chief Technology Officer at Victor Insurance and Esther Becker, Partner and Captive Actuarial Leader at Oliver Wyman. The objectives of the following four episodes are to: create an all-rounded viewpoint of what is happening in insurance  demonstrate how an insurance managing general agent has grown its business to over 3 billion dollars in Direct Written Premiums (DWP) and how the world of captive insurance is evolving when emerging risks are so present in our day-to-day lives. KEY TAKEAWAYS Legacy system optimization is crucial for insurance companies to not only reduce costs but also to enhance the value of existing investments. By addressing historical oversights and implementing effective strategies, insurance companies and carriers worldwide can unlock comprehensive value from their legacy systems. Insurers out there… You've made substantial investments in your core systems, but it's possible that some of our decisions weren't aligned with the best long-term outcomes for your business or enterprise. Revisit past decisions critically to assess whether they still serve your company's current and future needs. Look for signs that you've been locked into proprietary solutions, which may hinder adaptability or interoperability in the long term. I have talked about those with many insurers, and this is certainly an area of concern today. Implement APIs that enable more flexible interaction with your core systems, and introduce modular upgrades that add new capabilities without a complete system overhaul. These targeted improvements can significantly increase value and extend the lifespan of your core systems, helping you stay competitive in a rapidly evolving insurance market. Finally, I wanted to dive into the world of captives, and self-insurance programs offer a strategic approach to managing emergent non-insurable risks. A captive’s ability to navigate complex technological challenges and optimize technology choices is crucial to reinforcing the relevance and efficiency of its operations. BEST MOMENTS ‘To unlock the value from your core systems, adopt a three-pronged approach: Simplify. Innovate. Collaborate.’ ‘When you invest in technology startups, scaleups and growth ventures… recognizing the common missteps is going to be essential to avoid them.’ ‘In leveraging commoditized technology, your goal should be to build more relevant applications. Utilizing established technologies allows you to focus on innovation without reinventing the wheel.’ ‘By proactively shaping your approach to these areas of advancement, you're preparing to meet the demands of 2030 and propel the insurance and insurtech sectors forward.’ ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Romaney O’Malley, Group CTO at bolttech, an InsurTech unicorn that is quite literally electrifying the InsurTech space, now spearheading solutions in 35 markets across three continents. In today’s episode, we explore a multitude of topics, including: The Journey to the Top: What were the critical turning points in Romaney's impressive career? Master Strategist: How does Romany approach challenging strategic decisions at bolttech? Industry Titans: What's the inner fabric of companies like Bolltech, as well as traditional companies such as AIG, Swiss Re, and GE Insurance? KEY TAKEAWAYS In 2008, my husband and I decided to move to Johannesburg so he could take an opportunity with a bank in South Africa. That was a big deal to move away from London & a great job with SwissRe, but this was a really unique opportunity that ended up being one of the best decisions we’ve made for both of our careers. It exposed me to very different markets across Africa, which was invaluable to the rest of my career. Taking risks is important. One of the fascinating things about emerging markets is that they can leapfrog the steps that have shaped mature industries. The use of mobile technology & telcos in banking in many parts of Africa is far more advanced than we see in developed countries, because they have skipped many of the evolutionary steps that some older economies have taken. Those markets & consumers are at the sharp end of innovation. You can’t approach things as 1 decision. Your leadership team/board is never going to make 1 linear series of decisions; the complexity comes from multiple decisions & how they interact with each other. You should approach these problems as multi-dimensional & you’re always going to be balancing different things. Strategic decisions are about trade-offs & maximising the point at which you ensure you’re delivering a range of things to different stakeholders without getting out of balance. BEST MOMENTS ‘Moving to London from Sydney on secondment gave me the opportunity to see the scale & the size of the opportunity in the rest of the world.’ ‘I always knew the future of insurance was technology-based.’ ‘Play to your strengths but surround yourself with a team of people that are really good at the things that you’re not so good at.’ ‘The stronger we can build an ecosystem across the opportunity in InsurTech, the more effective insurance industry we’re going to have.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Romaney O’Malley, Group CFO at bolttech, an international insurtech company that is revolutionizing the way we think about insurance and technology. Her unique blend of leadership skills and financial acumen is drawn from a 25+ year-career at the apex of the insurance industry. Romaney's depth of experience is not limited to the insurance field; she has also ventured into reinsurance, finance, and consulting. When the numbers are crunched and the strategies laid down, Romaney finds her escape in the great outdoors. Whether planning her next exciting travel adventure or unwinding through the meditative art of yoga, she's a perpetual explorer—of landscapes, of limits, and of life. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Anika Jackson, who wears many hats with enviable finesse. Currently, Anika is professor, a VP of operations for Full Capacity Marketing, a full-service agency dedicated to uplifting workforce development and educational institutions. Today, Anika will share with us her insights about growth, drawing from her multi-faceted experiences and achievements. KEY TAKEAWAYS          Everything changes every day with digital. AI has been around for 20 years, but only last year its popularity rose for everyone to understand what the technology is & start utilising it for marketing or efficiencies in our systems & processes. We have to keep on top of everything. My students range from 20s-60s & they want to learn how to manage everything that’s happening. Podcasting is the only omni-channel marketing that we have nowadays; you have video content, audio content, you can create blog posts, thought-leadership pieces, hundreds of pieces of content for social media. There are so many ways to utilise each episode. Not only that, it’s business development, every time I’m on a podcast or have a guest on my podcast not only do I learn something new from them but that’s another person I can now call on in my network. I’ve leaned into learning more about a lot of different things so I can better advise people on how to make the best use of their dollars. Especially for small businesses, it’s not easy to get financing unless you have someone already backing you – most small businesses don’t. We at the Intuit Small Business Council are going to speak to Congress in a couple of weeks about AI & small businesses & making sure they have access to tools – digital equity. A lot of people don’t want to use their own voice, but in this day & time everybody wants to know who are you? I’m buying into you as a person & a founder. Yes, you have the product that’s going to solve something, but I want to know about the person, the authenticity factor. You have to believe in the person & that their solution is really going to solve your problem. Don’t think about it as ‘you’, think about it as you’ve got something people need to hear because what you have to offer & the solution you’re providing is going to help revolutionise things, help with access to something, or change somebody’s life that’s really important to them at this time. Take the ego out of it. BEST MOMENTS ‘Who are you & what are you doing here? That needs to infuse everything that you do. It helps people decide if they take a job, can work with you, if you’re aligned with them. ’ ‘I’m learning as much as I’m teaching.’ ‘This is a world where you have to think omni-channel, you have to be integrated, & you can’t be siloed, you have to work together, that’s the world we live in.’ ‘Reserve all of the names across the socials but don’t scatter your attention, really be focused and niche down.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Anika Jackson is a mother, community volunteer, philanthropist, marketing and communications professional, podcast host, and graduate adjunct professor at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. As a marketer, she has done it all, including experiential marketing/event production, launch marketing, public relations, digital, and influencer marketing throughout her multiple-decade career. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Nektarios Liolios, a true FinTech trailblazer, a passionate entrepreneur, and a dedicated mental health advocate. In this episode, we'll dive into Nektarios' wealth of experience and insights on the evolution of FinTech, building thriving startup communities, investing in early-stage ventures, and fostering a more inclusive and mentally healthy entrepreneurial landscape. KEY TAKEAWAYS          When I started the accelerators, we were riding the first wave of glorified entrepreneurship in 2011-13. Startups were cool, & we created artificial pressure around building things faster than in the wild. There were glimpses of people struggling, but I really didn’t take them too seriously. The real understanding of how bad people's mental health was affected in the early stages of building a business wasn’t something I was fully aware of. But it became clearer to me as we progressed with building these programmes. In 2018, I lost my Dad the day after I finished work at the accelerator. I had to deal with the mess that comes with leaving behind a big chunk of my identity. I thought, perhaps there’s room to do something about this & I joined a woman I knew who had started Founder Anonymous within the VC fund she worked with to give founders the space to talk about how hard it actually is. There’s a bag of things: identity, loneliness, imposter syndrome, and co-founder conflict. There are so many things that naturally happen in life, concentrated in the world of building a startup, & these people are completely left to their own devices to deal with these challenges. I got into entrepreneurship in my mid-40s, so I already feel I was a little better prepared for these things than younger entrepreneurs who haven’t had much life experience. But I wasn’t expecting my identity to be so messed up. The challenges faced by someone working in the corporate world and someone working in the entrepreneurial world are different, especially for founders. You don’t have the same support system. In the corporate world, you can take some time off and talk to HR; there may even be support initiatives. But founders are very specific kinds of animals; it takes a particular type of makeup to become one in the first place. Research shows that entrepreneurs are more likely to have anxiety, depression, and neurodiversity manifestations (ADHD, bipolar) in their family history. BEST MOMENTS ‘The outside picture is that startups are cool & the hustle is cool & you need to ruin yourself because the potential returns of a successful startup aren’t comparable to corporate life, I want to demystify that.’ ‘We were part of the problem; we cared about the business, we didn’t care about the people behind the business.’ ‘We want to build a business where we don’t want to kill ourselves. That doesn’t mean we’re not working hard; it means being allowed to say I’m struggling. Authenticity is important.’ ‘There’s a link between wanting to be your own boss & experiencing certain mental health issues.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Nektarios Liolios is a visionary FinTech entrepreneur, investor, ecosystem builder, and mental health advocate, passionate about driving positive change. His work has taken him around the globe, where he has closely collaborated with hundreds of entrepreneurs and early-stage businesses in London, New York, Singapore, Dubai, Amsterdam, and Melbourne. His dedication to entrepreneurship, collaboration, and improving lives has earned him recognition as a FinTech veteran and a spot on the Pride in FinTech Powerlist 2023. LinkedIn Innovate Finance The Future Farm ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Nicky Billou, who shares his expertise on how startup CEOs can leverage thought leadership to accelerate business growth, stand out in competitive markets, & create lasting impact in their industries. KEY TAKEAWAYS My parents took us from a legacy of tyranny, in Iran, to a legacy of freedom in Canada. This is a very profound & important thing for an entrepreneur to understand: Entrepreneurship is only possible where you have free enterprise, free enterprise is only possible where you have free expression, free expression is only possible where you have freedom. The bedrock foundation for the success of any entrepreneurs in an environment that allows for freedom. We are living in an era where for you to really make an impact, for you to have your brand/organisation to be known, you can’t do things the way they’ve always been done. People are smart now, they can see when you’re being disingenuous. What all people crave, everywhere, is authenticity, being real, being honest, coming from the heart. As a founder/CEO you need to understand that & it must be first & foremost in your mind. Elon Musk is somebody who has taken the time to create for himself a persona, a brand. Everyone knows Elon Musk. Why? Because Elon Musk stands for something more than “I want to sell more cars.” He got into Tesla because he wanted to change the world. DO you want to be the unknown CEO of your company or the Elon Musk of your industry? Being a guest on a podcast is like doing a TED Talk; you’ve got 18 minutes, you can’t waste 1 word, & you need to know what you are & aren’t going to say. Podcast guesting is an important tool in thought leadership. You also need a team to put out your content in the form of videos, written quotes & longer-form posts. CEOs should also have their own podcast but it shouldn’t be about your business, it should be about you so you raise your profile. Finally, you need to write a book (you could hire someone to co-author it with you). BEST MOMENTS ‘It takes an immigrant to show people the value of freedom. There are a lot of people in the West that don’t appreciate how precious & wonderful freedom is & how it doesn’t exist everywhere.’ ‘Life is about people, even business is about people, not money. The purpose of business is to solve problem for people for a profit.’ ‘My superpower is I’m a professional believer, I believe in people, I pour into people, I Love people.’ ‘If you want to sell more, have the best employees working for you, have access to investment funds to grow & scale, thought leadership is the accelerator that will get you there faster than anything else.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Nicky Billou is an author, thought leadership expert, & host of the Thought Leader Revolution podcast. Over the past decade, Nicky has established himself as a leading authority on personal branding & business growth strategies. As the founder of eCircle Academy, Nicky runs a year-long mastermind & educational program, working with entrepreneurs from various industries to position them as authorities in their niches.  His insights have helped numerous entrepreneurs add 7-9 figures to their businesses & build powerful personal brands. With a passion for helping startup founders & CEOs become thought leaders in their industries, Nicky draws inspiration from visionary leaders like Elon Musk. He believes that by developing a solid personal brand, entrepreneurs can attract more investors, customers, & top talent to their ventures. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Yannick Even, a visionary at the intersection of AI, analytics and Generative AI. With over two decades of experience in transforming global organizations into data-driven powerhouses, Yannick's journey has taken him from the corridors of management consulting across Europe and Asia to pioneering roles at Swiss Re, where he led the charge in integrating innovative tech and data insurance products into the market. KEY TAKEAWAYS Insurance is very traditional. Even 15 years ago there were a lot of forms, paper, very siloed. Nobody could really track a customer throughout their journey, everyone was very focused on their part of the journey. This is also true in terms of technology and data. It created a lot of misunderstanding for the customers & even the brokers about the future of insurance & how to leverage technology & data. This resulted in a lot of data gaps in the core of the system, from CRM to data management. It’s taken until recently for the industry to realize we need to do much better. In the last 5 years at Swiss Re, I’ve witnessed & been part of a transformation to a data-driven company. We built a common data foundation where we agreed on even the common definition of data, built a catalog of data and assigned data custodians. On top of this foundation, we built the governance layer & tried to take out the silos making data available to everyone, not stuck behind barriers. The most important layer was the cultural layer, around the people, we upskilled them around data and AI literacy. You need to really understand the market, I've seen too many people build fancy solutions with the latest technology available, but not spending enough time checking the product is what the customer needs. BEST MOMENTS ‘Customer expectations are used now to have a much more engaging, personalized digital interaction with banks, retail, restaurant, any service which is at their fingertips.’ ‘Data transformation is the base to start the journey in AI enablement. If your data isn't in the right shape, you can't leverage the value AI can bring.’ 'We look at where tech & data can augment & bring value at scale into the way we do business.’ ‘Not every problem will be solved by GenAI, there are a lot of problems that traditional AI will solve. It's also important to understand which problem will be solved by which technology & make it efficient across all the different parameters.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Yannick Even is a distinguished expert with over two decades of experience in transforming global organizations into data-driven powerhouses, emphasizing the responsible use of Data & AI. His journey in management consulting spanned 18 years across Europe and Asia, including a 5-year tenure at KPMG China. Recognized as a thought leader in Insurtech, Generative AI (GenAI), & Responsible AI solutions, Yannick has garnered a following of over 12,000 innovators worldwide. Currently based in Zurich, he is leveraging his vast expertise in dual endeavors. He is at the forefront of developing top-tier Generative AI upskilling programs for corporates, including The Digital Insurer Global GenAI Explorer program supported by Microsoft. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Simon Guest, formerly CCO at The CareVoice and now Global Head of Business Development - Life Protection at Zurich Insurance, who has been instrumental in pioneering a differentiated approach to growth in the healthcare sector. Under his guidance, The CareVoice will focus on creating multifaceted platforms that benefit from the network effect, where each new user or partner amplifies the ecosystem's cumulative value and utility. Join us as we dive into the intricacies of orchestrating growth ecosystems for market differentiation, the power of behavioural science in healthcare, and the innovative strategies that have positioned The CareVoice as a leader in personalized health engagement. Simon's insights promise to be invaluable for anyone looking to understand the future of healthcare and the role of digital ecosystems in driving sustainable value creation. KEY TAKEAWAYS I’ve spent more than 20 years working in life & health insurance in various roles & countries. On the one hand, you become a bit frustrated that some of the problems remain the same, but the advancement of technology & the macroclimate's focus on health & wellness create opportunities for life & health insurers. They need to fundamentally rethink their proposition as digital health and wellness, not only for brand & marketing purposes, but also to change the relationship with their clients & impact their results. What’s important, in our experience, is that you find someone who has an open ecosystem approach, offers the best services you can find in the market & will constantly evolve them. We think that we’re playing that role between build & buy, but in the end, the end consumer gets the best & most critical experience. BEST MOMENTS ‘Life & health insurance companies have to move to a situation where they are offering end-to-end prevention & digital health care services in one orchestrated way & then provide the insurance behind that if their client needs it.’ ‘There are not that many products where you ask people to pay a lot of money for 20 years in the hope that they never use that product. Fundamentally, we have to change the value proposition for customers in this industry.’ ‘When it comes to health, you can’t make any mistakes.' ABOUT THE GUEST Simon Guest is the Global Head of Business Development - Life Protection at Zurich Insurance. Before then, he was the CCO of Carevoice, which provides Digital Health & Wellness Solutions for Insurers. Simon's journey in the insurance industry is marked by significant achievements & a deep understanding of Life and Health Insurance. His tenure at global giants like Generali & AXA has endowed him with unparalleled expertise in leading Global Protection & Health Business lines. This experience has not only honed his skills in driving strategy & commercial results but also provided him with a comprehensive view of insurance markets worldwide. Between 2014 and 2022, Simon served as CEO of Generali Engagement Solutions, where he was instrumental in forging and leading a groundbreaking partnership with Discovery. This collaboration brought the Vitality shared-value wellness proposition to 7 European markets, showcasing Simon's ability to leverage innovation, partnerships, & ecosystems. His 'start-up' mentality has been key to delivering exceptional customer propositions and setting new industry benchmarks. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Denzil Eden, founder & CEO of Smarty, an AI-powered productivity assistant. With degrees in computer science & AI from MIT & an MBA from Harvard, Denzil has been at the frontier of harnessing AI's potential to transform work. She has held roles in engineering & product management and is now the founder & CEO of Smarty. The pair discusses her founder journey as a solo technical female, how to provide advice for startups navigating economic uncertainty, insights on how she sees AI continuing to shape the future of work over the next decade, & practical tips for founders & professionals to help them start implementing today to enhance productivity. KEY TAKEAWAYS I started coding at 8 years old & fell in love with building. That passion stayed with me & I enrolled at MIT, where my passion thrived. I got a degree in computer science & did a Master's in human-computer interactions, building an app like Slack for classrooms. I thought that being a founder wasn’t for me, that I wanted more stability & I’m not sure where that mindset came from. I explored a lot of different careers & eventually went to business school to round out my education, while there, the idea for Smarty came to me. This is the time to develop your AI literacy, to play around with AI tools, to understand how they think, work & how they can make your life better, how they can augment the work that you’re doing. We’re in such an early period of what technologies & tools are going to come out with AI, but the faster you start immersing yourself in that world, the sooner you’ll be able to understand how to prompt/talk to/leverage an AI tool. There’s a lot that goes into responsible & ethical AI. We should attribute the source of the data for these AI tools, the original artists should get credit, and there should be a system to track the original creator of a piece of work. On the other hand, many artists stand on the shoulders of giants who came before them, inspired by what came before & trying to create something new from it. I think AI tools can help speed up the process of experimenting with their own work. I’ve learned so much on my founder's path & specifically about being a woman in AI, because AI is so heavily based on the data it’s been fed. It’s really important to provide AI tools with diverse sources of data. What I’m seeing right now in the AI space is that there are no female speakers at events. Not just gender, but the sources of information need to be diverse in terms of race, culture, and socio-economic class; diversity is fundamental to how AI works. BEST MOMENTS ‘I was overwhelmed in most areas of my life & I realised that the majority of the things I was doing & had on my plate could be easily automated with existing technology, so I started building Smarty for myself.’ ‘I use the same pitch I started with in 2018, but the appetite for the pitch is so different today. It shows you that timing is everything. Don’t be dissuaded, have internal drive over external validation.’ ‘I think AI is going to be a transformational tool in every industry, every job from tech to farming to music. It’s such a magical time & I’m very excited to be part of that movement.’ ‘You don’t have to understand the ‘black box’ of an AI tool & how it works, you just have to learn how to use it & in 5-10 years’ time you’ll be the expert.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Denzil Eden is the founder & CEO of Smarty, an AI-powered productivity assistant that helps professionals plan their days & automate mundane tasks. A trailblazer as a solo female technical founder, Denzil earned degrees in computer science & AI from MIT before getting her MBA from Harvard. Denzil has an extensive background in technology and entrepreneurship. She started coding at age eight & has worked as a software engineer, product manager, & now founder and CEO.  Denzil has been at the forefront of harnessing AI to transform everyday work life for over 5 years through Smarty. Backed by Pear VC and other investors, Smarty has helped thousands achieve peak productivity by creating structured routines, automating administrative tasks, & maximizing time efficiency. When she's not using technology to make people's lives easier, you can find Denzil playing piano, writing sci-fi stories, or searching for the perfect cup of tea. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Rich Edwards, CEO of Mindspan & former product leader for IBM Watson. He has a knack for demystifying complex topics like machine learning & getting to the heart of how companies can drive real business value. In our conversation, he shares a contrarian view — the biggest differentiation won’t come from algorithms but rather a company’s first-party data assets. KEY TAKEAWAYS Seeing where AI & machine learning was going, it wasn’t quite a mainstream adopted technology in 2017, but it clearly was going to be. Where was the interesting part of that to look at? A lot of the value was going to come from data, particularly first party data, that even now is sitting untapped. Eventually that search led me to the company I’m at now, Mindspan, which is a small business which I eventually bought. The information that they’re entrusted with (when used correctly) can be very, very valuable & allow them to provide very high value services to their customers. The trick is making that come together with the compliance element required in the banking and insurance sector. A lot of the organisations that we work with don’t have the technical skills to build it up which is where a lot of the differentiated value comes from. AI isn’t one thing. Science fiction has portrayed it as a monolithic thing that’s all knowing. In reality it doesn’t work like that, it’s component pieces that work together in a pipeline/flow handling things. It’s more like the summer intern, the person that comes to you from university who is diligent, eager, literate, can follow instructions, can write but doesn’t know anything about your business or background, & has no context or experience to base it from, but can answer simple questions. An important issue that we as a society are stumbling into with AI is similar to healthcare or the extension of credit: Areas where there’s a lot of personally identifiable information that’s out there that businesses have about the people they work with that could be misused or exploited. There’s a lot of regulation around healthcare information in the US that states clearly who’s allowed to possess that information & what they’re allowed to do with it. There’s a lot of stuff we haven’t even thought of yet with AI, for example facial recognition. Data is a valuable asset & requires a level of care around it that isn’t just protection but governance. BEST MOMENTS ‘I had no business being around AI, based on my background, but I was the guy that had been around IBM long enough & knew how to get things done. That afforded me the ability to be at the forefront of this.’ ‘For many use cases with generative AI, the differentiation between the providers is getting less & less & less. It’ll be a thing that you buy, but it won’t be a thing that’s going to make you stand out. ‘Anything we can do today is machine learning, anything we can’t do yet is AI, but the line between the 2 is blurry.’ ‘AI is a superpower that you can give to people that are most responsible for an interaction/experience that your customers have.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Rich Edwards is a veteran technology leader with over 20 years of experience working at the intersection of data, AI, and business strategy. As former product management lead for IBM Watson, Rich helped global banks and financial institutions leverage artificial intelligence to uncover growth opportunities and gain a competitive edge. He currently serves as CEO of Mindspan, a firm focused on helping community banks and credit unions transform through data-driven technologies. Under Rich's leadership, Mindspan turns client data into an operating asset to boost differentiation, create personalized customer experiences, and future-proof their business. With his extensive background in regulated industries like finance and healthcare, Rich understands the importance of building trust and maintaining rigorous data governance. He offers a unique perspective on AI ethics, data privacy, and the responsible use of generative models like ChatGPT. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Chris Miles, an unconventional financial advisor who has an incredible backstory; he left the industry disillusioned in his 20s to become a passive real estate investor, achieving financial independence and retiring by age 28. Since then, he has taught hundreds of entrepreneurs his formula for generating enough passive income to be "work optional" and then positioned to work by choice not necessity. During this conversation, Chris shares his incredible personal story, lessons learned, overcoming major financial setbacks during the Great Recession when he found himself over $1 million in debt, alternative investment strategies beyond just real estate to generate passive income, and actionable advice to start taking control of your financial future. KEY TAKEAWAYS I realised that when I was in the financial advisor industry that I was just a salesman in a suit; I was selling people financial products, but I wasn’t really helping people become financially free. It became my mission to debunk that, to get people to go a different route that’s been proven to work. Don’t deal with financial advisors because they suck! After quitting being a financial advisor in 2006, I looked at a friend who I trained to become a financial advisor who had gone to do real estate investing. So, I started going into the alternative investment route. Later that year, at almost 29, I was able to retire because I had enough passive cashflow coming in to pay my bills. That blew my mind because the financial advice world teaches you to accumulate/save all this money to live on less than the interest in retirement.  I don’t want to invest in apartments right now. I might wait 6-12 months before I start investing there again. But, residential real estate (depending on where in the US) is still cash flowing, there are still good, solid returns. Not only owning real estate, but investing without owning the property by lending to people who are renovating/flipping/renting out properties & make a financial return of 10%+. I could send the rest of my life relaxing, but I believe that god puts you on this planet, gives you certain gifts & abilities that you can develop here to use to bless others’ lives. I really felt it was a responsibility of mine to bless lives. That’s why my company is called Money Ripples. BEST MOMENTS ‘I was always taught that there wasn’t enough money. I wanted a different life that wasn’t just paying bills & then dying.’ ‘My clients couldn’t retire early off my advice, I couldn’t & even experienced financial advisors could retire early off their own advice after 30-40 years.’ ‘When the student is ready, the teacher appears.’ ‘I have friends in real estate who say the last couple of years have been the worst years financially, even worse than 2008. But the key is, they’re talking about commercial real estate, not residential.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Chris Miles is a leading authority on helping entrepreneurs & professionals get their money working for them today. He earned the nicknames "Cash Flow Expert" & "Anti-Financial Advisor" thanks to his contrarian perspectives & proven track record. Chris hosts the popular Money Ripples Podcast, sharing unconventional money tips & insights. He's also the founder of Money Ripples, a firm dedicated to helping clients maximise cash flow. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Sally Gimon, an absolute superstar in the world of real estate investing and financial education. After getting hit with a $79,000 tax bill from her wholesale real estate activities, Sally uncovered an incredible secret used by the mega-rich to save BIG on taxes. What she found led her down the rabbit hole into the realm of Spend thrift Trusts, which have been tucked away in the tax code for over 100 years & used by families like the Rockefellers to shield assets and minimise taxes legally. KEY TAKEAWAYS I help US business owners save at least 90% on their Federal income taxes legally, year after year, generation after generation. In 43 states where there’s state or personal income taxes, I help them save money too. That’s money that can be used to pay off the mortgage, help a family member out, go on vacation, save for retirement, or give to charity.  The Rockefellers’ trust is called The Office, they hire 26 CPAs (they can afford it), & it goes from generation to generation, it’s complex, it’s discretionary – meaning the trustee can make the rules for the beneficiary, someone who is not a beneficiary can sign up for the trust & the become a trustee for 5 minutes – someone at a law firm or myself can do this for them for free. It’s has been in front of the Supreme Court twice & both times has been honoured. This is in the IRS tax code, it’s legal but not many people know about it. The Rockefellers, DuPonts, Carnegies, OJ Simpson, Robin Williams, they all have a Spendthrift Trust meaning Robin Willimas’ 3 grown children will pay no royalties for his TV shows, movies, comedy acts. If they can do this, everybody should do this. This comes from England hundreds of years ago, though it has a different name.  With the Spendthrift beneficial trust, if the average person joining my real estate group is a 56 year old man who is wholesaling or fixing & flipping a house & makes $50,000 on that deal & are on 24% filing jointly (1 of 7 tax bracket in the US), they will save over $12,000 on that first property. If they do 2 properties in one year, they pay for that trust for generation after generations. On the business trust side, I recommend someone who is making at least $80,000 gross, you will save about $17,000 a year or more depending on the state. BEST MOMENTS 'If the Rockefellers can do it, why can’t Sally?!’ ‘Since November, 5 of my businesspeople who have the business trust have started the beneficial trust because they were saving so much money that they wanted to start lending money to real estate investors.’ ‘This is not taught in schools and universities. There are 1 million active attorneys, only 4% are trust attorneys who work for very well-healed people, I’m just trying to help the average person.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Sally Gimon, a seasoned Medicare broker turned real estate investor, epitomises the transformative power of financial literacy. Her journey began in late 2018, amidst personal challenges, when she pivoted to real estate investing to secure her future. Sally's acumen shone through as she wholesaled seven properties in 2019, erasing her debts & earning acclaim within her real estate community. However, a staggering tax bill in 2020 was a wake-up call that led her to a profound discovery: the Spendthrift Trust.  Sally delved into the strategies of the affluent, uncovering how such trusts could shield investors from hefty capital gains and other taxes while maintaining privacy & asset protection. Find out more about the Spendthrift Trusts framework and approach, and reach out to Sally. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Steve Selengut, who has over 40 years of direct investment management experience & is one of the few investing book authors who has actually managed client money for decades. Steve is here to share the fundamental principles behind "income-focused investing" laid out in his book “Retirement Money Secrets.” His approach can help investors confidently replace their paycheques with portfolio income streams that grow regardless of market conditions or interest rates. KEY TAKEAWAYS 25% of my money was always in the bond market, which included closed-in funds, mortgages, real estate, notes, loans, short-term, long-term, in the country, out of the country, a great, diverse portfolio. I stuck with stocks individually for a longer period of time & they all paid dividends, which became an income stream over time. In the first 5 weeks of 2024, my own personal accounts have generated over $20,000 in income. I’m not bragging about it; this is the possibility. Not only is it throwing out dividends every month, but the capital gains are like getting a cheque in the mail from your rich uncle & having something more to reinvest. After learning the foundational rules of investing, people should focus on the income generated by shares, bonds, etc., rather than their market values. You can’t spend the market value, you can’t spend a gold brick, you can't spend cotton futures, but you can spend cash. The companies are giving you cash because they appreciate your value as an owner. Utilities companies were always very good at this. But most companies, especially in the tech sector, want to grow. Mutual funds were developed & began to get popular after the crash in the 20s, the great depression, because everybody was afraid of the stock market at that point. Mutual funds gave people a diversified portfolio, you could own part of all the companies & participate in the growth of the economy again, without the fear of 100% loss if a company goes bust. That bought a lot of money back into the marketplace. There isn’t an investment advisor out there that would deny the fact that diversification is the key element of risk minimisation that you can employ.  BEST MOMENTS ‘Big companies influence advisors, it’s not just economics, there’s a lot of politics in there too.’ ‘Bonds are a much safer investment than stocks by their nature, & they pay income.’ ‘If you see a $100 bill on the sidewalk, do you walk by it hoping it’ll be $150 tomorrow? Pick it up & reinvest it, it’s new capital.’ ‘I’ve been through too many crashes to take for granted that every great company is going to continue to be a great success.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Steve Selengut is a veteran investment manager & advisor specialising in income investing. Over his career, he directly managed over $110 million in individual investment portfolios in the US and abroad. Steve has now distilled his experience into the book ‘Retirement Money Secrets’, which explains the principles behind income investing. He also provides coaching services to both individual investors & financial advisors on implementing income investing using customised security selection. His goal is to get people to a sustainable, growing income level that makes market volatility & interest rate hikes a benefit rather than a problem. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Lisa Wardlaw, a trailblazer in the insurance sector, a digital strategist, & an innovation enthusiast. She's a global leader with a knack for creating sustainable revenue streams & reinventing business strategies through technology & abstract thinking. The pair talk about Lisa’s career in insurance & technology as well as their new programme, the “Authentic Identity Masterminds”, that they devised alongside their colleague Jessica Ewart. This programme is all about empowering professionals to craft and communicate their authentic professional narratives. KEY TAKEAWAYS          My best experiences are these moments of zen that you probably didn’t realise in the moment. You feel energised. For me, it was when I was when no one confined me to a box & I didn’t care about my title. I got to sit in an amazing time of transformation, above all that, figuring out how to drive business forward using algorithms and AI, 5 years before generative AI became a thing. As all good ideas do, the idea for Authentic Identity Masterminds happened serendipitously. You, me & Jess were sitting around discussing the misunderstanding that the more experienced you are in your career, the less guidance you need, you’ve got it all figured out. I was 45 when I had to reinvent myself completely. I felt that if you work hard & pay your dues, you earn it. I’d earned my title, job & income, but in those days I was so into the work I didn’t own my own identity, the one thing that was mine & mine alone. When my favourite role was eliminated, I looked at the clock, trying not to cry & it took less than 3 minutes for my phone, emails, contacts – my whole work identity – to be eliminated. I went to a career coach who asked me how many followers I had on LinkedIn, & I didn’t know. I didn’t go on a wild “connect with me” session, but I started building authentic connections with people who shared my interests. We’re not here to tell you how to be on social media. Who you are is not your title or your role; who you are, what you show up for, your purpose & mission are something deeply intrinsic. I like to use all my experience, curiosity & conceptual ability to solve problems that others can’t at scale. I’m a breaker of the status quo; my purpose is to show people that the impossible is possible. BEST MOMENTS ‘Early on I would work 80 hours, 23 hours a day, & I’m not glamourising that, the body needs rest.’ ‘I’m much more of a spoken person than a written person, which is where I came up with the Insurance Unplugged Podcast.’ ‘Don’t think this can’t happen to you, it can.’ ‘You don’t get to be, discover or emulate who you are & how you show up has to connect to that.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Lisa Wardlaw stands at the forefront of digital innovation in the insurance sector, wielding her expertise to forge new, sustainable revenue streams that bolster competitive advantage. As a seasoned executive, Lisa's mission is to revolutionise business strategies through the power of technology & creative thinking. In an era where digital customer interaction is paramount, Lisa champions proactive engagement to drive digital customer conversion. She believes the financial services industry is ripe for genuine transformation, advocating that leaders with bold visions embrace the tools of tomorrow for radical change. Lisa's passion lies in crafting groundbreaking business strategies that defy convention, utilising emerging technologies such as AI, blockchain, & machine learning to redefine business models. Her liberal arts background fuels her commitment to lifelong learning and continuous improvement, challenging the status quo with a curious mind & innovative approach. Authentic Identity Mastermind London ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks about the world of authentic personal & corporate/business branding and their synergies to drive authenticity. In this episode, she discusses the importance of authenticity in personal branding & how it can make or break your reputation, the role of storytelling in crafting a compelling personal brand narrative, the power of emotional intelligence in shaping your personal brand & fostering meaningful connections, the impact of digital presence on your personal brand & how to manage it effectively, and the art of reinvention & how to evolve your personal brand as you grow & change. KEY TAKEAWAYS As businesses evolve to meet the expectations of the digital era, they look for individuals whose personal brands resonate with their ethos & market positioning. Therefore, it is essential for you to craft a personal brand that not only demonstrates your unique value but also complements the corporate branding you are aligned with. This synergy is increasingly expected by companies as they navigate the complexities of authenticity vs. authentication, ensuring that their employees' digital identities enhance their brand's integrity & public perception. Authenticity is the currency of trust in the digital environment. In an era where digitization has penetrated every aspect of life, your genuine self is what distinguishes you in a sea of curated personas. When you prioritize authenticity, you align your digital presence with your true values and beliefs. This alignment not only helps you navigate the digital world more effectively but also ensures that your brand resonates with your audience on a deeper level. Your personal brand identity needs to resonate with your professional ethos, even in a remote work environment. To do this effectively, focus on the consistency of your online interactions, messages, & visual presence across digital engagement or platforms. Essentially, the experiences you create for others through your digital communications should align with those you create in person. This requires a keen understanding of user experience principles to ensure that your personal brand is both approachable & authentic. Bring your networking to the 21st century by engaging through social media platforms where industry conversations are happening. Engage & post regularly to ensure your presence grows alongside your brand. Utilize networking to your advantage by joining & fostering growth ecosystems.  BEST MOMENTS ‘Your digital identity is not just a by-product of online interactions but a carefully curated persona that stands for your values, skills, & character. Authenticity in this context means being true to oneself while adapting to the digital modes of expression.’ ‘In the wake of digitization & digitalization, aligning your personal brand with a corporate brand has become more intricate yet crucial.’ ‘Your digital identity is now a cornerstone of personal & professional interactions.’ ‘The virtual landscape heavily influences how you are perceived in both social & professional circles. So, remember to key both of those very much aligned.’ ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Leandro DalleMule, who brings a dynamic perspective shaped by nearly 30 years of driving growth through data and AI. Today, Global Head of AI and Data at Deloitte(but at the time at Planck), Leandro, spearheads the most sophisticated generative AI platform serving commercial insurers across four continents. Through the "Scouting for Growth" podcast, Leandro will unveil his playbook for activating cross-industry partnerships and investments to future-proof success. His globetrotting career stands as a testament to the power of bridging geographic and sector divides to drive innovation. KEY TAKEAWAYS We’ve been using large language models since the beginning of the company; they just weren’t very popular because ChatGPT hadn’t launched yet. But now we can open the black box. It’s very addictive once you start asking the chat part questions. There are two major pain points we solve with technology: Efficiency is super important for underwriters, as margins are very thin in any line. Accuracy is also important; how precisely are you finding the correct information rather than misleading or wrong data? The beauty of the technology is that it can work from multiple sources, bring it all together & make sense of that information.  Before I give an overview of large language models, I always ask: “How many of you have heard of ChatGPT, generative AI?” It’s about 50% in traditional carriers (higher in the digital NGA space), surprisingly, or not – insurance isn’t a very innovative space. Then I ask how many have used it & the number drops to about 30%. There’s much more room to grow. Generative AI is the future, it’s coming from all directions, not just insurance, we’ll be seeing more and more natural interaction with technology rather than it being distanced from us.  BEST MOMENTS ‘We went from being a data provider, at the very early stages years ago, to providing a risk & underwriting insights workbench with an AI co-pilot to help underwriters be more productive.’ ‘For anyone that’s used ChatGPT once, it’s impressive, it’s surprising the amount of investment in such a short period of time & the adoption, which surpassed the launch of any other product, ever.’ ‘Once people start using AI, they understand the power of it.' ‘Talk to your kids, they’ll know.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Leandro DalleMule has nearly 30 years of experience helping businesses in the retail, energy, manufacturing, telecom, and financial services industries achieve sustained increased profitability through data and analytics. Leandro is a leading artificial intelligence data platform for commercial insurers. Previously, he spent 6 years as AIG's chief data officer. Prior to AIG, he held several senior leadership positions, including senior director of big data analytics at Citibank and head of marketing analytics at BlackRock. Today, he returned to lead AI and Data at Deloitte's advanced analytics practice. Leandro holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of São Paulo, Brazil, a magna cum laude MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and a graduate certificate in applied mathematics from Columbia University.  He has published several articles on analytics, risk, and economics, the most recent ones for the Harvard Business Review on data strategy and analytics. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Alex Taylor, Global Head of Emerging Technology, QBE Ventures at QBE Insurance, who firmly believes that the next decade will expose the insurance industry to the greatest upheaval it has seen since the establishment of Lloyd's of London. In this episode, topics discussed include: the key trends in Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) for 2024, QBE Ventures' approach to scouting for growth, the role of technology in QBE Ventures' growth strategy, & the challenges and opportunities in the insurtech space. KEY TAKEAWAYS I've always been a technologist as far back as I can remember. And it's interesting that when you look at the context behind the applications of technology to a multitude of industries, you start to realise that it's not about the technology, it's about what we can do with the technology. 2023 has been a tough year. And talking to a lot of younger companies, it's a bit of a bloodbath out there. What we're going to see as we go into 2024 is the survivors of that time, the ones that did manage to demonstrate the value that they offer, start to see the light of day. More & more, organisations are emerging that specialise in products tailored to the risk a particular organisation represents. The risk we run here is that if we specialise & personalise too much, we're essentially not going to be in an environment where we can cover a risk we know with almost certainty will result in a loss. We need to balance what needs to be created between the ability to utilise data insurance lines & the need to preserve what makes insurance special, which I strongly believe enables the economic environment we operate in. Without insurance, people can't take risks in any arena. Your exposure to ransomware is directly related to the backups you have as an organisation. So you cannot have your access to your data removed if you have an air-gap backup that runs hourly. If you do get hit as an organisation, you can simply restore from your backup.  BEST MOMENTS ‘Technology doesn't matter unless it has an application to what you're working on, to something that's meaningful, to something that can deliver results, not just to an organization, but to the customers as well.’ ‘The whole point of an insurance product is to protect against a risk that you can't mitigate directly. We're starting to see a partnership between the identification of a risk, an insurance product, & the resilience against that risk through remediation.’ ‘There's a lot of blank space that can be exploited in looking at ways to grow products through simplification.’ ‘As climate change starts to take hold, as our understanding of the historically static nature of physical risk starts to become a lot more dynamic, the value of understanding what may be is starting to become a lot more relevant.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Alex Taylor is a futurist & innovation specialist with over two decades of experience in the insurance and technology industries. As the Global Head of Emerging Technology at QBE Ventures, Alex focuses on identifying disruptors & leading investments in companies reshaping the insurance landscape. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Antony Elliott, Global Lead for Digital R&D at Zurich Insurance, who is pivotal in driving the exploration, exploitation, analysis, & early-stage adoption of disruptive technologies, shaping Zurich's digital transformation journey. In this episode, they talk about his role at Zurich, the company’s strategic themes for 2024, the future of InsurTech, the challenges of adopting disruptive technologies, & his advice for young ventures looking to collaborate with Zurich or break into the InsurTech space. KEY TAKEAWAYS I fell into the insurance industry in 1999 & I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I saw a stat that around 80% of British CEOs were former accountants, so I thought that seemed like a good qualification to have and applied to the Big 5 & ended up getting a job at PwC, thinking I was going to be rich. But when I got there, they told me I’d be working in insurance. I realised there were lots of things in insurance that needed fixing & could be improved, which is why I ended up staying in it & why I’m still trying to do so. We’re using computer vision to monitor and assess the 5 million commercial buildings we insure worldwide to reduce our carbon footprint. We also use it in physiotherapy to make sure people are doing it correctly & to help them be physically well, either with posture & core strength or to recover from injury quickly. We start by identifying either the problem or the opportunity & we involve a lot of stakeholders, from the most senior down so we can see a consolidated view across the group that this will solve challenges that they care about. We then use our network to find the best startups in those spaces & that they know about out Innovation Championship to apply for it. We select the top 10-12 and put them through a validation phase to demonstrate how they can create business value for Zurich & the startup.  I see huge potential in the Internet of Things for insurance; we haven’t quite reached the tipping point for its value yet. I’d like to see startups working in that space, whether it’s in commercial insurance or more personalised insurance. Taking sensor data to understand the thing we’re insuring & to offer risk insights to the customer & to us as underwriters to prevent a claim or detect it early is an area with huge potential. BEST MOMENTS ‘I like insurance because I think it plays a really important role in society.’ ‘I focus on innovation, how new technologies & ideas can create value for Zurich.’ ‘I expect we’ll see generative AI native startups coming through this year which will create amazing value.’ ‘Be very clear& concise on what your value proposition is and that it’s a major part of your elevator pitch. You can have the best technology in the world, but if you can’t articulate it in a short period of time, it’s very difficult for people to understand that.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Antony Elliott, a seasoned professional with over two decades of experience in the insurance industry, currently serves as the Global Head for Digital R&D at Zurich Insurance. His role is pivotal in driving the exploration, analysis, & early-stage adoption of disruptive technologies, with a focus on their desirability, feasibility, & viability.  ZIC - Zurich Innovation Championship ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL dives into her top trends to watch for in 2024. Staying ahead of the curve necessitates a keen understanding of these anticipated trends & Identifying them early will enable us all to strategically plan the year, maximise opportunities for growth & business value. KEY TAKEAWAYS As we approach 2024, I'm noticing specific technologies gaining traction that have the potential to revolutionize industries & create new opportunities for growth. For example, advancements in generative AI, new paradigms in cloud computing, cybersecurity in the age of AI, & sustainability tech trends, these trends are reshaping the landscape of digital innovation. As we look towards 2024, 3 key areas stand out in the changing market dynamics: the continued growth in E-commerce, cutting-edge advancements in healthcare technology, and the significant transformations within the education sector. These areas are critical for businesses seeking expansion and better value in the approaching year. A In 2024, the landscape of work is reshaping significantly, influenced heavily by evolving work models (hybrid & remote working and technologies), technology advancements, and the growing emphasis on employee experience. My focus here is to unpack these core aspects of Workplace Transformation. In 2024, I recognize that to drive growth & business value, one must focus resolutely on the customer. Customer-centric strategies are key, involving enhancements in customer experience & innovative approaches to personalization in marketing. BEST MOMENTS ‘From the integration of generative AI to the importance of customer-centric strategies, the trajectory of market dynamics promises a landscape ripe for innovation and competitive advantage.’ ‘Anticipating market shifts is crucial in developing customer-centric strategies that drive value.’ ‘Flexible operational models and technological advancements offer new avenues for growth.’ ‘Staying current with upcoming trends enables focused strategic planning.’ ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Tom Kereszti, a seasoned leader with a wealth of experience in starting and scaling companies. Tom has been instrumental in numerous M&A activities, helping startups structure their operations for successful exits. He has also navigated the unique challenges of starting a company independently, as well as within large organizations. His insights will be invaluable for YOU, whether you're an entrepreneur, investor, or corporate leader. KEY TAKEAWAYS Any individual should be able to answer these 3 questions: Who are you? What are you passionate about? What are you good at? If you have clarity on those, you can live your calling instead of having a job or a career. I’m a servant leader and I’m passionate about making companies and people better and I’m pretty good at leading and mentoring. A series of doors open and close through your life. Any time one does you should look at it with discernment and prayer and ask: Is this an opportunity that makes sense? Is it something I should pursue, if I do, what happens in 3-4 years? Leadership is not having a title or a corner office, leadership is your ability to influence others about what you’re representing, that perhaps you have a better idea and other people follow you. The 4 keys that help you influence other people and help them buy in to you are: Who are you? Have a great vision. Have a strategic growth plan. Who’s in your inner circle – you become who your friends are, so surround yourself with people that are uplifting, there to support you, and you should always support them, it’s not a one way street. When you’re in a workforce you have to have relationships. We’re human beings not human doings, but a lot of us get caught up in the human doing stuff and relationships take a back seat. I made the mistake of separating work and weekend life with different sets of friends, as I went along I realised that you have to have relationships at work where you care for them and their families. It creates empathy.  BEST MOMENTS ‘When talking about work life balance, balance is a point in time where nothing moves. When you achieve perfect balance you become stagnant. I’m not sure that’s healthy.’ ‘Success means different things to different folks… and if you know what that is then you can start working towards it.’ ‘If I have clarity on who you are and what you stand for, I won’t necessarily follow you, but there’s a change I will because I buy in to you.’ ‘A team of 10 is manageable. I always find a banker and a lawyer.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Tom Kereszti is a seasoned industry influencer, author, coach, speaker, educator, and mentor with extensive international experience. Tom's expertise spans various sectors, including Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A), where he has been involved in numerous activities, buying companies on behalf of larger organizations. He has also started companies on his own, providing him with a unique perspective on the differences and challenges of starting a company independently versus within a larger organization. Discover Tom's Leadership Principles here ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Ari Katz, Managing Partner at BEA Ventures and Co-Founder of bolt, now known as bolttech, which metamorphosed into the powerhouse bolttech. On this episode, they discuss strategic vision and market positioning, startup acceleration and value creation, data and technology, future outlook and collaborations, and much more. KEY TAKEAWAYS The unique angles we provide include identifying the companies we want to look at and validating the market acceptance of their ideas/solutions. We have hundreds of customers/prospects/partners that we can tap into to see if it’s of interest to them and help take it to the next step.   Areas we’ve seen with a lot of action or potential include data creation and insights, and how we can embed them into our offerings. Another is personal cyber. We are very big in device protection and distribution across 35 countries around the globe. There are similarities between device and cyber protection, and awareness of cyber is growing.  There are cases where people don’t want to buy data because they’ve been offered data so many times, they paid for it, but didn’t see any returns for 1000s of reasons. There may be cases where you can offer it as a profit share rather than a service, or change what you offer, even though the product remains the same.  Insurance is a data business and has been gathering/analysing/learning from data forever. A successful company is one that leverages its data and does proper underwriting, pricing, etc. What we are seeing are all kinds of data companies of all sizes that are not necessarily adapting to new changes and capabilities. We bring all data capabilities into one place, enabling carriers on our platform to leverage the ones they need or want. BEST MOMENTS ‘Typically, young companies need more fundraising (Seed A) and more handholding to improve. This is where our thought of creating an external VC came into play.’ ‘It’s rare to see a company that hits the right product market fit from the start.’ ‘We want to help companies to avoid making the same mistakes we did when we were starting out.’ In Asia, insurance is part of larger ecosystems, whereas in Europe and the US, it is not. Big brands have distribution and sell insurance as part of it. I think this will be an area of growth in 2024 in Europe and the US.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Ari Katz is a seasoned entrepreneur with 30 years of experience founding and managing software companies with several successful exits. His track record includes over 20 years of creating pioneering insurance solutions that have revolutionized the insurance landscape, designed to meet consumer demands whilst offering a competitive advantage and sustainable commercial growth. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Franklin Manchester, Global Insurance Strategic Advisor at SAS, who empowers and inspires insurers in 75 countries, including 90% of the Fortune 500 insurers, to make data-driven decisions. On this episode, they discuss insurance trends for 2024, the role of technology, particularly generative AI, in shaping the future of the insurance industry, and how to navigate the talent gap. KEY TAKEAWAYS I see the enormous potential for SAS and other technology providers, curators of AI, to remake, reimagine, reinvent the insurance industry. Insurance exists because a loss happens and indemnification is that promise. I believe there is a different promise: Prevention, pivoting from indemnification to a value proposition where we can help you before the loss occurs, and that will change the world. Even though I work at a technology corporation, I’m an insurance underwriter. When you’re going through your knowledge building phase to become an underwriter, you realise that the art of what we do is more important than the science. That starts with curiosity, asking the question and imagining the possibilities. You can’t be an underwriter if you’re not curious about the things that matter most. I get to have a lot of conversations with people in the global insurance industry about things that are going on. For example, what telematics can do to prevent incidents of distracted driving. The assumption is that teenage and inexperienced drivers are most likely to get distracted while driving, but the vast majority of those of us who need help with distracted drivers are not teenagers. One company experienced a 10% reduction in distracted driving when they recommended silencing your phone while driving for ‘x’ reasons. That’s a result, and an enriching discovery. BEST MOMENTS ‘I got my start in insurance because I was in a car accident… I found the process incredibly interesting’ ‘I believe in the promise that the industry provides; we come at the moment when people need us the most.’ ‘The journey is more important than the destination.’ ‘I feel like I’m an explorer and every day is a new discovery.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Franklin Manchester is a dynamic and passionate leader in the insurance industry, currently serving as the Global Insurance Strategic Advisor at SAS. Known as an "Insurance Super Nerd," Franklin leads the Market Strategy and Engagement for Insurance within the Global Financial Services Industry Marketing team at SAS. Franklin holds a BS in Finance and Banking, Risk and Insurance, and a BA in French. His journey in the insurance industry spans nearly two decades, including a significant tenure at Nationwide. Franklin is not just an insurance expert but also a thought leader, regularly sharing insights on industry trends and early-career tips. He has been a guest speaker at various industry events, including the Gamma Iota Sigma Rho's Fall Speaker Series. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to George Morris, a lifelong entrepreneur and business coach who has not only weathered the storms of the entrepreneurial journey but has emerged as a guiding light for others on their path to success. KEY TAKEAWAYS My biggest mistake was abdicating responsibility when I should have delegated responsibility. Towards the later stage of one of my companies I was going through a divorce. I thought that everything was good & didn’t see myself as integral in the company anymore, so I turned everything over to my business development lead & the team while I checked out to deal with my personal problems. About 18 months later I didn’t know what decisions had been made & what direction the company had gone. I couldn’t blame them, I was accountable. I should have taken the time to delegate and clarify all the things that needed to be done and check in on people. If I come across an owner or CEO that’s frustrated or overwhelmed, I have them create 3 columns: Love, Loathe, Indifferent. I get them to write down everything about their business into these columns and get them to focus on the ‘indifferent column to figure out how committed they are to do these things to help the organisation and get them to get help for the things they aren’t committed to so they get done. Startups tend to want to look for unicorns, the person who is an expert in a particular skillset, hiring for talent rather than fit – the ability to trust or even have conflict with each other. All these talented individuals butt heads, don’t see eye-to-eye, aren’t committed to the same outcomes. For me it’s a bout the team, getting the right people in the right seats and getting things right. This is the first things companies should do. I am equally as excited about AI as I am terrified of it. It’s going to impact every single job in the next few years. To what degree, I don’t really know, but if we can get to a point of AGI (artificial general intelligence) that will be game-changing because it will be very human-like. It’s tool that we need to incorporate, bring into our skillset and adapt to it but right now we can’t quite see where it’s going to go, in terms of strategy & how it’s going to impact our companies. But, it would be remiss of us to ignore it.  BEST MOMENTS ‘I go into companies and give them a framework to work with that they adapt & make their own & we build it from there so that they have a system that they can run on.’ ‘Richard Branson is very good at figuring out what he’s great at, delegating everything else & letting people do what they can go do, he doesn’t seem like a micro-managing leader.’ ‘Make sure you’re developing the rich culture in your team & getting the right ethos in your culture.’ ‘I use AI to help teams accelerate different elements within their companies.’ ABOUT THE GUEST George Morris is a lifelong entrepreneur and business coach, known for his unwavering commitment to helping individuals and organizations reach their full potential. As a single father of two, he embodies dedication and perseverance in both his personal and professional life.  ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Kamran Hedjri, CEO, Chairman, Advisory board member, Entrepreneur in FinTech and Payments at PXP Financial. KEY TAKEAWAYS I started my journey in payments in 1994, I never wanted to be in this industry, it was just something that happened. I was working in IT and programming, was in a couple of startups at the start of ecommerce. There was a lot of new and cool technology being developed and it was the best 5-6 years of my career for learning. AI is being used to automate processes and get a better, smoother, & more intelligent way of dealing with finance activities including customer service, onboarding, KYC & all those processes to get to a point where you can assess a customer. It took us a few years to get a unified way of approaching and understanding different sectors. There are differences between the verticals and the approached that we need to apply & we should not try to unify too much, you need to have the specifics for each sector & add your special nuances for all of those sectors in the language those sectors understand. Don’t be afraid of failing. Fail a lot and early and try to learn from them quickly & work harder.  BEST MOMENTS ‘One of the good things about open banking & finance is that the APIs are getting more & more slim-lined.’ ‘Intelligence should be in front of you making things more intuitive & less complicated & burdensome.’ ‘The journey’s always ongoing, you’re always learning, building new technology & adapting it.’ ‘It’s our job to simplify complexity in a way that can be used in an easy & cost-efficient way.’ ABOUT THE GUEST CEO, Chairman, Advisory board member, Entrepreneur in FinTech and Payments. Kamran Hedjri has 20+ years of experience in holding C-level roles in the fintech & payments industry. He has built companies across the payment value chain in Europe, North and South America, and is currently on the board of PXP Financial Group and C2D Payment Solution. He has always been focused on driving innovation, accelerating growth, and building a great customer experience. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Monica Eaton, who embodies resilience and strategic foresight. This conversation covers: origin stories and multifaceted skills, tackling ecommerce pitfalls, business strategies and ethical practices, and predicting the future and human capital. KEY TAKEAWAYS Part of being an entrepreneur is deciding who you want to be and who you want to affect, and it becomes a journey of constant trial and error, but the dots never connect in the way you anticipate. My vision with Chargebacks911 was to be the next eBay, and I failed my way to success in international business. I became an expert at chargebacks, not because I loved it, but because it was unavoidable. I started getting calls from the merchant providers that we did business with, even the ones that closed down my account because I had too many chargebacks. They asked me for advice on the challenges they were facing. So, I set up a website to consult. I believe in exposing people from all walks of life to technology, whether they like it or not. I had no interest in computer programming at school. But one of the high schools I attended didn’t offer any arts subjects, so I was forced to take 2 computer programming courses. I found I had an aptitude for it, and I fell in love with it. Any problem you’re solving in business is a combination of reorganising what currently is, creating an environment that encourages looking outside the box, and figuring out the formula for success. BEST MOMENTS ‘It was either lose my business or figure out what the source of the problem was and solve it.’ ‘It feels good to be on the other side and rant at someone about the problems you’re having, but it feels even better to actually help someone.’ ‘Solving problems is a form of art, it’s creative.’ ‘With technology, the impossible is possible; it just takes a little bit longer.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Monica Eaton, a successful entrepreneur since her teenage years, exited her first business before turning 20. This marked the beginning of a multifaceted career, and she is now a key leader in transformative business initiatives. In 2011, she founded Chargebacks911 to address a market gap, and it has since evolved into a high-impact solution for online merchants. Today, Chargebacks911 is an industry frontrunner, known for delivering accountable outcomes. Monica also launched Fi911, providing tech-centric solutions for chargebacks and merchant lifecycle management, aligning with her vision for a seamless and scalable payments industry. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Terence Bennett, CEO of DreamFactory Software, who brings with him a decade's worth of insights into cybersecurity, adversarial simulations, and API advancements. He's a veteran, both in serving his country and in protecting digital domains. Today, we're delving deep into Terence's illustrious career, the current cyber threat landscape, and the role of emerging technologies in shaping our digital future. KEY TAKEAWAYS If you spend enough time with computers I think you just figure out there’s a whole other world in this application of computing and technology. I spent a lot of time in hacking forums online in the early 2000s, through that I got into early web development and learning the different ways to use the internet in ways it wasn’t intended. 10 years later I came back around to cybersecurity as a professional. BEST MOMENTS ‘RedTeaming is about simulating an adversary as they go about the process of trying to get into a network, computer, or facility.’ ‘As cybersecurity, as a field, has matured you’ll find very specific signatures to different kinds of attackers in the way the actually go about doing that.’ ‘The challenges are, first and foremost, having enough people with the right skills to actually build APIs. Public facing APIs account for 14% of the total number of APIs that teams are buildings, and in some cases they account for 50-75% of a company’s revenue.’ ‘Ransomware attacks are the 800lb gorilla in the room when it comes to threats… as we see organisations accelerating through digitisation/monetisation strategies, they’re connecting more and more data and systems that used to be offline and you can’t avoid that.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Terence Bennett is the CEO of DreamFactory Software, a leader in API code automation based in Northern California. He has over 10 years of experience in cybersecurity, REST APIs, operations, and leadership. Previously, Bennett was the COO of Integrate.io and a member of Google's offensive security "RedTeam".  At Google, he helped craft realistic cybersecurity exercises to test the company's defences. He has deep expertise in cybersecurity, penetration testing, and adversarial simulation. Bennett served in the U.S. Navy for over 8 years as a Naval Intelligence Officer and Surface Warfare Officer.  He was deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and worked at the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics from the U.S. Naval Academy and a Master's degree from the U.S. Naval War College.  Bennett is passionate about giving back through public service. He serves on the Board of Directors for the American Red Cross - Northern California Coastal Region and on the Board of Advisors for Shields & Stripes, which assists veterans with PTSD. As a leader in API automation, Bennett frequently speaks on how code automation is changing software development. He aims to simplify complex integration challenges and help companies go to market faster. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Roi Agababa, CEO of Novidea. From brokers and agents to MGAs and corporate risk management operations. Novidea is setting new standards in how insurance professionals leverage technology for growth, efficiency, and compliance. On this episode, the pair digs deep into the workings of Novidea's platform to look at how it navigates the maze of challenges that insurance professionals encounter daily, what role it plays in enhancing the distribution journey and the customer experience, and how it adapts to various levels of digital readiness while ensuring data security and compliance. KEY TAKEAWAYS I started my path in technology in software development, primarily focused on data and metadata analysis. When we started Novidea, we looked for an industry that is flooded with data and has data technology requirements and gaps. This is how we came up with the idea to focus on insurance and the insurance distribution market specifically. We have one platform that can serve multiple geographies, compliance, and regulations, offering insurance companies that operate globally a consistent technology stack rather than a fragmented one. Novidea is a platform that covers everything in one technology stack. What we offer our customers to increase operational efficiency is automation and business process management across all 3 pillars, all in one streamlined process. Novidea has implemented layers and protocols to segregate data across multiple legal entities that use the platform. We have all the governance and controls in place to safeguard that information. BEST MOMENTS ‘We have a data driven approach: Everything in our platform allows us to measure and improve, we offer our customers the ability, in real time, to get a hold of and understand the data and transforming that into knowledge.’ ‘Our platform is futureproof; it’s updated and upgraded continuously.’ ‘No longer do you have to go to a data warehouse to get an understanding of what’s happening and the trends, you’re getting access to information in real time so you’re making better and more educated decisions.’ ‘We see Novidea as the core platform to manage the entire insurance journey, from the prospect all the way to the renewal and all the financial transactions.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Insurance technology entrepreneur Roi Agababa is the founder and CEO of Novidea, a provider of data-driven and SaaS technologies and best practices to insurance distribution professionals and their customers. The company serves global brokerages, agencies, bancassurance, and corporate risk management operations servicing more than 10M policies worldwide. Want to know more. Well, book a meeting with Roi's team ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine talks to John Rossman, a pioneering force in the digital era and the mastermind behind Amazon's Marketplace. His time at Amazon has deeply ingrained in him a unique set of leadership principles that he now shares with the world through his best-selling book, "The Amazon Way”. John's mission is to empower others to make their own 'big bets' and achieve lasting impact in their respective fields. His work is a treasure trove of insights for anyone looking to understand and navigate the complexities of the digital era. So, get ready for an engaging conversation as we dive deep into the world of 'big bets,' digital transformation, and leadership the Amazon way. KEY TAKEAWAYS I’m an engineer, a problem solver, and that’s what I love to do with my businesses, my clients, and with leaders. I was an early leader at Amazon (2002-5), where I oversaw the launch of the Amazon Marketplace. When I left there, I started working with clients on strategy, problem-solving, digital capabilities, and models. I’ve now written 4 books about how to insert Amazon thinking into your business to compete and win in the digital era. There are 16 leadership principles at Amazon that really make a difference: The first is Customer obsession – leaders start with the customer and work backwards, they work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. If we’re truly going to solve hard problems, innovate, be agile, and test things out, we have to be able to push against and persecute ideas early.  BEST MOMENTS ‘Sometimes the idea is just not quite the right idea, and so you learn, adjust, and move forward.’ ‘The Amazon Way translates Amazon's unique culture and management practices into insights and opportunities.’ ‘Amazon believes in internal competition. It's very Darwinian.’ ‘Simplifying processes, procedures, requirements, jobs, technology, projects, everything is super hard work and it’s super critical if you want to scale. Delete, delete, delete is the mantra I impose with clients to take away the calcification of things that build up.’ ABOUT THE GUEST John Rossman is a renowned thought leader and expert in digital strategy, known for an audacious decision-making style he calls 'big bets.' His approach has been instrumental in shaping the careers of industry titans like Jeff Bezos and Satya Nadella. John's expertise stems from his time as an executive at Amazon, where he was instrumental in launching the marketplace business model. John is a prolific author. His book, "The Amazon Way," is a deep dive into leadership principles that drive Amazon's success. He is a sought-after consultant, helping businesses transform strategies to thrive in the digital age. He is a popular keynote speaker, sharing insights with audiences worldwide. John's mission is to empower others to make their own 'big bets' and achieve lasting impact in their fields. His upcoming book, "Big Bet Leadership," will be available for free on Kindle. John is a catalyst for change, inspiring others to make audacious decisions and come out winners in the hyper-digital era. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Alex Shevelenko, the CEO and Co-Founder of Relayto, who brings to the table a compelling narrative of how transforming mundane PDFs and presentations into interactive web experiences is not just an upgrade but a necessity. Today, we will weave through Alex's entrepreneurial voyage, his insights on leadership, the genesis and trajectory of Relayto, and a glance into the future of digital content experiences. Alex’s perspectives on our dialogue will bring both foresight and actionable intelligence on harnessing interactive content management platforms like Relayto. We unmask the potential of interactive AI-led content management platforms to reshape enterprise communication and how leaders can leverage this technology to foster better engagement in a world of digitalization. KEY TAKEAWAYS At my first job, an internship at Microsoft Office in 1997, I discovered that PDF was taking over PowerPoint and Word as the primary format customers wanted.  The medium we’re advocating is consumer-centric. They start with the end recipient in mind and, in the process, make that vision a reality by using AI and no-code software. The more valuable the idea for progression, the worse it’s communicated. The more trivial ideas have a ton of clickbait ads that try to get you to buy stuff that you don’t need and solve problems you don’t really have. BEST MOMENTS ‘Entrepreneurship tends to call on you.’ ‘Fundamentally, it’s about the consumer of your content… what do they want to do? Increasingly, they want a conversation rather than be pummelled with information, they want to be engaged and make the interaction their own.’ ‘It’s a privilege and a joy to work on something you really believe in.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Alex Shevelenko is the CEO and Co-Founder of Relayto, a document experience platform that turns conventional PDFs and presentations into interactive web experiences. With over 20 years of experience in the technology industry, Alex has worn many hats across global organizations such as Microsoft, Salesforce, SAP SuccessFactors, and Oliver Wyman Consulting. His career reflects his passion for innovation and his innate ability to lead and inspire teams. Alex holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania. He has also completed executive education at Harvard Business School. As a serial entrepreneur, Alex founded the management consulting firm Glocal Partners, where he advised international companies on growth strategies and innovation.  This experience laid the foundation for his current venture, Relayto. Since co-founding Relayto in 2017, Alex has rapidly grown the company. Relayto has raised $500K in funding to date and hit $1.6M in revenue in 2022. Under Alex's leadership, Relayto transforms how enterprises communicate and engage with digital documents.  When he's not building Relayto, Alex is an avid reader and movie buff. He also loves to travel the world, having been to over 29 countries across 6 continents. Alex brings a unique blend of leadership, innovation, and global perspective.  ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

Sabine VdL talks to Pravina Ladva, Group Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Swiss Re. Pravina’s career reads like a playbook for digital transformation, offering answers that could redefine how we view insurance economics. This conversation is not just timely, it’s urgently needed in a world where data is the new oil and AI is the new electricity. Pravina tells us about why Swiss Re is taking the lead with its groundbreaking Sigma Research Report from the Swiss Re Institute, what we, as an industry, stand to gain or lose, uncovering the blueprints for the future of insurance, digital risk, and how technology could either be the ladder or the snake in this high-stakes game of digital transformation. KEY TAKEAWAYS          Today, you can’t turn a corner without talking about AI, tech, and data. This means there’s a huge untapped opportunity. There are a whole load of new business models that we haven’t even dreamed of yet.  Digitisation is taking the analogue world and putting it into a digital system so that it can be transmitted around the world, both in terms of data and conversation, in a digital context rather than a paper one. Digitalisation is about taking that information and applying it to your business processes. Many organisations deal with some kind of legacy technology, you need to be aware of your digital environment and work within that as well as what the opportunities are to change it and where some of it is OK, because not all legacy is bad.  BEST MOMENTS ‘If you type digitisation and digitalisation the come up together on autocorrect, it shows we really have a mixed view on what they both are and mean.’ ‘Every one of my peers that I speak to is all facing the same challenge: There is a war for talent because we all want the same kind of people to come and do similar kinds of things.’ ‘No organisation on its own can achieve what it wants to achieve, you need to be very open-minded about who you’re partnering with, whether that’s InsurTechs, large global service providers, whoever it is in the end-to-end ecosystem to really bring the value in the right way.’ ‘It’s not about your core technology, it’s about what you do with it and how you operate it that makes a difference.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Pravina Ladva started her career at Abbey National/Santander, gaining experience in the financial technology sector, with responsibility for strategy, delivery, and financial results across various areas. She joined Barclaycard in 2008 and held various roles, including COO of the Digital Marketplace and CIO of Barclaycard Business Solutions. During this time, she led B2B and B2B2C technology and change teams, as well as the build and launch of a digital marketplace platform in the UK. Pravina Ladva joined Swiss Re in 2017 as Chief Technology and Operations Officer for iptiQ, Swiss Re's digital white-label provider of property & casualty and life & health insurance, and in July 2020, assumed the role of Swiss Re Group Digital Transformation Officer. Pravina Ladva was appointed Group Chief Digital & Technology Officer and member of the Group Executive Committee as of 1 January 2022. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Jonathan Green, an AI maven and the mastermind behind ChatGPT Profits. Jonathan Green's story is one of radical transformation, resilience, and the relentless pursuit of excellence. From once being fired during a blizzard to becoming a bestselling author with over 300 books under his belt, Jonathan has not only recovered but soared to new heights. In this episode, we'll delve deep into the world of AI and business acceleration. Jonathan will share insights on how to leverage ChatGPT for immediate revenue generation, the role of AI in building mailing lists, and how ChatGPT enables a remote island lifestyle while running a thriving online business. KEY TAKEAWAYS          There are a couple of reasons to start your own business: financial freedom,  decision-making freedom, and locational freedom. When we were kids, using a calculator in math class was cheating; since then, calculators have become mandatory. How long before AI becomes mandatory? If you give a computer bad data, you’re going to get a bad result. If we say “Chat GPT, do this…”, the AI will obey us precisely, even if given a bad command. Instead, ask the AI what information it needs you to provide, based on your end goal. BEST MOMENTS ‘Whenever I meet someone who’s travelled, I can always tell because they have a stronger sense of self, ego, more self-confidence, they’ve been in tough situations and survived them. There’s a lot of growth that comes from meeting people from different cultures and having different experiences.’ ‘Most people who wait to learn to use AI are going to go out of business; people who learn to use Chat GPT are 40% more efficient. That’s a huge differential, an insurmountable edge.’ ‘The more tasks that I can push down to my AI tools, the more I can accomplish every day.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Jonathan Green is no stranger to radical transformations. Once fired during a blizzard, he didn't just recover; he soared. Now, he's the bestselling author of over 300 books and the maestro behind ChatGPT Profits. From his serene island base in the South Pacific, Jonathan masterminds AI-driven solutions through platforms like MidJourney, Claude, and Leonardo.ai. With a robust mailing list of 100k+ subscribers and a podcast showcasing 250+ episodes, he’s an indisputable authority in leveraging AI to catapult online businesses into success stories. His initiatives, AI Freedom and Fractional AIO, are not mere training programs but transformative experiences, designed to generate quick revenue for startups and optimize businesses. No, you won’t find a 9-5 mindset here. Jonathan teaches you to replace that limitation with scalable, high-ticket offers and automated revenue streams. Passionate about democratizing AI, Jonathan also uses his expertise as a celebrity ghost-writer to guide entrepreneurs in storytelling that not only sells but turns them into industry heroes. He’s not just in the business of building revenue. He's in the business of building legacies. For Jonathan, it’s more than just business—it’s a revolution. A revolution you can join to change your life exponentially. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Dr Andrée Bates, neuroscientist and founder of Eularis, an AI-centric company that serves as a catalyst for innovation in healthcare. The pair delves into the pivot points that drive innovation, the ethical implications of widespread AI adoption, and the tangible ways in which artificial intelligence is reshaping healthcare as we know it. KEY TAKEAWAYS          Eularis was created to examine mathematics in commercial activities within the pharmaceutical industry. Generative AI takes elements of real data, looks at the database on which it’s been trained, makes new connections, and generates something new. We’re going to have to get to a point where we have some kind of digital certificate in our voice, our video, images, that authenticates whether it’s actually us or not, almost like a digital fingerprint BEST MOMENTS ‘AI is a broad term; there are so many different types of techniques which are classified as artificial intelligence, and under each one, there are different types.’ ‘We can use AI to repurpose existing drugs – and this happened with Covid.’ ‘I’ve recently come across AI that is predicting with very high accuracy whether a drug will be successful or not in the long term. That’s set to revolutionise the industry.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Dr Andrée Bates stands at the intersection of artificial intelligence, healthcare, and entrepreneurship. A seasoned neuroscientist and a disruptive tech innovator, she has trailblazed the healthcare industry since the early '90s. Dr Bates founded Eularis, a vanguard firm leveraging AI to address healthcare's most pressing challenges, back in 2003. Under her leadership, Eularis has catalysed growth for all the top 50 pharmaceutical giants, driving profits and expanding market share through AI-empowered projects in clinical trials, R&D, and medical affairs. After launching her career in academia, Dr. Bates made a seamless transition into the corporate sphere, where she continued her legacy of firsts. She is credited with establishing the world's first digital health company in the 1990s, followed by the pioneering of commercial AI applications in healthcare. This entrepreneurial spirit has positioned her as a go-to advisor for an impressive roster of healthcare CEOs. Her influence extends to both academia and industry circles. Dr. Bates is a sought-after guest lecturer in prestigious MBA programs, including INSEAD Business School and Fordham University, where she instills the next generation with a nuanced understanding of healthcare innovation and AI. A prolific author, her work has appeared in peer-reviewed journals and industry reports. Her international speaking engagements span continents, ranging from Europe and North America to Asia. Never one to limit her impact, Dr Bates actively champions female entrepreneurs worldwide. She serves as a mentor through Thrive Mentoring, contributes to the programming committee of the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association (HBA), and is a founding member of Chief, a network designed for women leaders. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Emily Tsitrian, a fintech powerhouse, seasoned leader, and the author of 'Make Me The Boss,' a transformative guide and toolkit for millennial managers navigating the new complexities of leadership in our current social climate. A world defined by Covid, #BLM, and #MeToo. KEY TAKEAWAYS I think a lot of people in my generation have had an experience where, in their early 20s, they're interested in doing big political/social things, and the way to actually change things is to work in technology. Overnight, you can make an app and see how thousands, millions of people change how they work, live, and exist due to technology. Payment technology has largely been considered to be a commodity because almost every business needs to accept payments. In the past 10-15 years, the payments layer of the entire Fintech stack, from payments to accounting, to accounts receivable, to reconciliation, to tax, has ultimately become more of a strategy rather than something that is an afterthought.  The dynamic in the American workplace has shifted significantly, changing how we work. Do I want to be doing 9-5 work if there are things like climate change and social upheaval that feel more real and present to me? The worst thing that can happen is that you fail. Failing at a company isn't a big deal; it’s OK if it doesn't work. BEST MOMENTS ‘At a fundamental level, it’s all about risk, and managing risk. I think there’s going to be a lot of crossover over the next decade or so.’ ‘What you set up in the early days can become very entangled with your downstream systems and it can be hard to disentangle as you scale, it’s something you want to put a little bit of thought and strategy into as you’re starting out on your entrepreneurial journey.’ ‘If somebody had told me I was going to be an entrepreneur, I would have laughed, even a year ago. I always loved working in really big companies doing really big things. And rubbing shoulders with VPs and executives, and very much saw myself climbing that corporate ladder. It’s funny how life works.’ ‘I never want to be laid off again ever, and the only way to truly ensure that is to become an entrepreneur.’ ABOUT THE GUEST In a Fintech universe often viewed through the traditional lens, Emily Tsitrian is the game-changing asterisk. A seasoned leader with over 7 years in tech management, Emily has captained teams across diverse terrain—from established public companies to explosive unicorn start-ups, including almost 2 years at the Fintech behemoth Stripe. As the co-founder of Yeeld, a consulting firm specializing in payment implementations, she's not just navigating the complex fintech landscape; she's helping redraw the map. But her expertise isn't confined to fintech. She's a professional services manager who doesn’t just manage, but leads—guiding teams with strategic insights that go beyond spreadsheets and quarterly reports. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode, Sabine VdL talks to Mark Fidelman, founder of SmartBlocks.Agency, and a globally recognised thought leader with over two decades of tech-fuelled wisdom. Whether you’re a CEO pondering your next strategic move, a CTO looking to harness emerging technologies, or a CDO keen on transformative solutions, buckle up! We’re about to deep-dive into a world where the token is mightier than the sword. KEY TAKEAWAYS It's always more fun to join up and coming companies before big businesses come in and take over, but I quickly realised I wasn't building anything by doing this. The crypto I tend to focus on is the tokenisation/fractionalisation of assets where you break up real estate or something really valuable and you allow the democratisation of that asset to anyone that wants to invest in it. Tokenisation is much safer than crypto. There’s no such thing as ‘hacked wallets’ because everything’s white listed, it’s attached to you, so if somebody steals those tokens out of your wallet you can go back to the issuer and say “cancel those and reissue mine”, you can’t do that with crypto. To me crypto is Monopoly money, what I’m doing is real, with real money. If you were to invest £1,000 every single month in one of the projects that are paying 10-15%, in 10 years you’d have a £30,000 per month income for life – some of that is because the real estate was sold, but on average it works out this way.  BEST MOMENTS ‘For young entrepreneurs the top 5 areas are AI, engineering (like SpaceX), cryptocurrency (find a niche), Ecommerce, and tools and technologies (SaaS-based products that solve a really nuanced problem that no one else is solving).’ ‘I chose tokens when I fractionalise businesses because it’s a lot easier to set up, then you have a blockchain that does all the management, you’re not working with the stock exchange or have expensive systems in place.’ ‘It’s the future, if you look at Black Rock, Bank of America, Citi, they’re all saying the same thing: everything’s going to be fractionalised. They’ve already tokenised billions of dollars of bands because you can then trade that anywhere in the world, you’re not subject to local laws.’ ‘95% of crypto is just a scam, they’re worthless, they’re not backed by anything, they’re just a big ponzi scheme. Though there are 5% that will change the future, we just need to better educate people on what’s what.’ ABOUT THE GUEST As the founder of SmartBlocks.Agency, Mark Fidelman is a pivotal player in crypto and e-commerce with a career spanning two decades. He's not just a veteran; he’s an industry influencer—endorsed by Forbes and celebrated as a Top 50 Social CEO by Huffington Post. Mark is a growth catalyst, having spearheaded initiatives for NFT trailblazers like WAX.io. His credentials go beyond mere business acumen; he's a respected keynote speaker, a Forbes contributor, and the mastermind behind the YouTube channel, Cryptonized!, where he dissects the hottest trends in crypto. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Jerry Fetta, who is on a mission to demystify wealth management, making it accessible and relatable for everyone. As the brains behind Wealth DynamX, Jerry's fingerprints are on numerous success stories across the US, helping countless individuals lay the foundation for solid financial futures. Beyond his role as a financial expert, Jerry has penned three books. In the latest, he lays bare the trials and tribulations he faced, both personally and professionally, and how he overcame these, showcasing a resilience that's nothing short of inspiring. KEY TAKEAWAYS I grew up in a lower-income household; my parents didn’t have much money. When I was 8 years old, my parents got divorced, we lost our house, the car got repossessed, and both my parents became homeless. I didn’t have many examples of people succeeding with money or as entrepreneurs. Sometimes, there’s an advantage to growing up without money. It instilled in me a work ethic, and as an entrepreneur, I’m much more comfortable with risk because I’ve come from a place where I had nothing and am not afraid to go back there if I need to. As a culture, we believe that if we go to school to get the grades, college to get the degree, get the job, then we save up for retirement, try to pay off the house and build up a nest-egg, then at 60-65 years old, we can finally enjoy what we’ve put together. My Mom was my first client, and we did all that. At 60, she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and she passed away 6 months later. As a son, it was a shocker, but as a financial professional, I saw the plan unravel, and I didn’t want to have that client experience again or experience personally. I want to enjoy life now. As CEO, my day-to-day is mostly about observing; I shadow my staff members and attend their calls and meetings. I spend several hours a day reading and studying business and administration, and how to be a better business executive. BEST MOMENTS ‘Wealth DynamX helps families, individuals, and entrepreneurs in North America achieve greater financial education, stability, and freedom in the future.’ ‘I became a bodybuilder and thought I’d do that forever, but I started to get into the financial industry at 18, got all my licences, and the rest has been a natural progression of evolving and growing and putting my vision into reality over the last 11 years.’ ‘School is necessary, we need to learn the basics, but I think it does a really poor job on two things, and an area where we can simply improve is telling people the purpose of school. It’s a very long period of our lives where we don’t really know why we’re there.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Jerry Fetta is a beacon in the world of finance, with a mission to simplify wealth management and make it relatable to everyone. As the visionary Founder and CEO of Wealth DynamX, Jerry has dedicated his career to helping numerous clients across the U.S. build a solid financial foundation. Jerry's unique approach, rooted in authenticity and applicability, has set him apart in the industry. Get access to Jerry's free book "The Blueprint to Financial Freedom." https://jerryfetta.com/b2fpromo ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Megan Bingham-Walker, Co-founder and CEO of Anansi, a cutting-edge company on a mission to revolutionise the goods-in-transit insurance industry. Today, we will dive deep into Megan's journey as an entrepreneur, her vision for the future of goods-in-transit insurance, and the unique approaches and strategies that have propelled Anansi to success. KEY TAKEAWAYS I spent a few years working with the Government, 5 years in venture capital, specialising in CleanTech investing in early-stage startups. I really wanted to found a business in the areas of machine learning and data, and how to solve problems using them. At Anans,i we built a platform to essentially automate the process for goods-in-transit insurance. The problem retailers face at the moment is that they may not even know an item is lost or damaged until a customer tells them, so even early identification of that is a big step up. Insurance is about information; we are an information industry. The new aspect of what we’re doing is bringing this transactional data, so we have a very quick turnaround: 60 days max between when an item is shipped and when we process the claim, and the contract is completed. BEST MOMENTS ‘The biggest problem we’re solving for the retailers is admin.’ "We've all experienced something going missing or getting damaged-in-transit, it’s the number 1 cause of customer complaints and never purchasing again. Having a bad purchase experience is a real decision point for consumers.’ ‘Anansi is a West-African folklore character – I have some family connections to West-Africa and the Caribbean – it’s a spider character which is the keeper of knowledge.’ ‘What’s exciting about the insurance industry is that there is so much opportunity for innovation and there are still so many areas where you can bring new data and processes, particularly on the claims side, to improve things that I think it’s a very rewarding industry to be part of.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Megan Bingham-Walker is an award-winning entrepreneur, co-founder, and CEO of Anansi – a company on a mission to make goods-in-transit insurance faster, fairer, and more flexible for retailers who thrive on bringing innovative new technologies to market. She is also an Ambassador of the charity PumpAid, which empowers communities and transforms lives, with a mission to end water poverty in Malawi by 2030. In her spare time, she loves weightlifting, Formula One, dancing, hiking, and skiing. About Anansi: Goods-in-transit insurance platform Anansi creates tailored, embedded, and low-admin insurance products for retailers, logistics providers, and marketplaces. Its open API and web app solution digitise manual processes, including claims, with parametric claim triggers that automate repetitive tasks. Its integrated platform uses Open Banking to allow customers to pay for cover and receive claims payments directly and instantaneously into their accounts. It is the only automated solution in a $33 billion market to offer data-powered signup, parametrically triggered claims and pay-outs when a parcel is lost or delayed, and a simple damage submission process. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Jacqueline Legrand, a name that resonates with transformative leadership in the global insurance industry. From orchestrating the radical transformation of Brokerslink to co-founding Maptycs, an InsurTech firm that is redefining how we perceive weather risk analysis and risk exposures, Jacqueline's legacy is nothing short of extraordinary. With her finger firmly on the pulse of digital transformation, she advocates for a harmonious marriage between technology and insurance. We're about to delve into a narrative riddled with transformative milestones, insights into the potential of geospatial analytics, and the challenges and triumphs of revolutionising an industry steeped in tradition. KEY TAKEAWAYS I started my career in corporate with IBM. After 8 years, I moved into insurance, fell in love, and spent a big chunk of my career as a broker working on complex property programmes, where the idea for Maptycs (mapping and analytics) was born. I really believe that independent broker networks have a compelling proposition today in the global brokerage industry, as local brokers are deeply rooted in their local industry and culture. The big thing I’ve learned and will always use is: What is the vision and the value proposition for each and every stakeholder? What is the business model? What is the execution plan? What is the road map? We saw an acceleration in natural disasters driven by climate change, alongside an explosion of high-quality location intelligence data. Timing is key in any startup company. The challenge was with all these claims and losses, and with the data that could be used to make better assessments, pricing, and risk mitigation. This is what we do at Maptycs: integrate our clients' portfolios alongside à la carte external data.  BEST MOMENTS ‘Make sure, as a global broker, you build programmes for your client/global reach manager that are not only in line with their strategy, but also align with the local market practices and regulations.’ ‘Your colleagues on the ground play a critical role, and you need them whether it is to negotiate local coverage or to work on a claim with the local expert or adjuster.’ ‘We really enable corporate insurance brokers to have a good assessment of their product risk exposure because now they can see either one location at a time or accumulation across their portfolio, and they can mix and match their data with risk data.’ ABOUT THE GUEST With a footprint that stretches over 30 years across the global insurance tapestry, Jacqueline Legrand stands as a testament to transformative leadership in the industry. From the bustling markets of the US to the dynamic terrains of Brazil, France, and Portugal, her journey in C-suite and Board-level roles has solidified her as a luminary in insurance. As the CEO and co-founder of the groundbreaking InsurTech firm, Maptycs, Jacqueline is at the forefront of revolutionising property risk exposures. Through the lens of advanced geospatial analytics, she's reshaping the way commercial insurance providers approach weather risk analysis. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

Sabine talks to Michele Cimmino, CEO of Lasting Dynamics, which, far from being a generic software firm, epitomises precision and coding tailored to partners' distinct needs to ensure an exclusive synergy for mutual growth. Michael discusses visionary leadership at Lasting Dynamics, championing quality and innovation, ensuring diverse tech mastery, and building a global force in the startup ecosystem. KEY TAKEAWAYS Lasting Dynamics was founded in 2013 to deliver quality to the IT market. Large enterprises usually target a span of 12 months to deliver an MVP (minimum viable product), but by the time an MVP is delivered to market in 12 months, it’s already too late. When you have engineers who truly understand cybersecurity, it's easier to comply with policies. When you build something from the ground up or start integrating components into a digital product with a forward-looking mindset, you will not waste months on additional testing. This is an engineering mindset called “bottom-up”. BEST MOMENTS ‘Quality assurance is also about analysing the requirements; it’s not only about executing some tests, but it’s also about understanding what will be needed and how this can be provided.’ ‘The most important part of the game is to be transparent and loyal to your partner or customer. That always pays back.’ ‘I like the idea that the most important goal and value for everyone on a project should be the final result of the product, and everyone should sacrifice a bit of personal interest towards that goal.’ ABOUT THE GUEST In the dynamic world of software engineering, few names resonate as powerfully as Michele Cimmino. As a master of full-stack web and mobile development, Michele's leadership at Lasting Dynamics has carved a niche in the tech spaces of Spain, Italy, and Norway. Dive deeper at Lasting Dynamics, and you'll discover a hub where innovation meets commitment. A champion of quality, Michele's passion drives him and his adept team to consistently re-evaluate and refine their methodologies. They are agile, experimental, and always ahead of the curve, drawing insights from the latest in automation, innovation, and QA processes. His current explorations into Agile, OKRs, SCRUM, TDD, and the principles of Shu Ha Ri demonstrate a ceaseless thirst for knowledge. Lasting Dynamics, Michele's brainchild, isn't just any software company; it's a boutique that meticulously crafts code to fit partners' unique needs. This exclusivity ensures mutual growth, as they partner with only a select few each year. But there's more: The Academy, another feather in Michele’s cap, streamlines the onboarding process, a testament to his visionary approach. Moreover, under his guidance, the launch of SaaS platforms like Roundrush for workflow management and VetrinaLive for e-commerce adds to his impressive portfolio. With a tech stack that's as expansive as it is impressive, ranging from Node.js to Python, React to Vue.js, and PostgreSQL to AWS integrations, Michele's proficiency is unquestionable. He's been at the helm of AI-driven mobile apps since 2015, dabbled in blockchain and cryptocurrency from 2017, and, since 2019, has steered Lasting Dynamics towards Growth Hacking. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Sara St. John, someone whose unique entrepreneurial journey embodies the essence of growth and innovation. As the brain behind several startups, Sara has used her experiences to pen books, run a blog, and most notably, host the well-regarded podcast 'The Frugalpreneur.' Through these mediums, she’s been inspiring and equipping individuals with the knowledge and tools to kickstart and maintain their online businesses even under tight financial constraints. KEY TAKEAWAYS Her entrepreneurship journey started in 2008. I’d had 6 different jobs that year and realised that working for other people wasn’t my thing, so I decided to start a photography business doing weddings and portraits, but it was expensive to maintain equipment and software, so I started an online business model and tried several different things because I didn’t know what I wanted to do. This led me to write ‘Frugal Entrepreneur’, which was about the different ways to make money online and how to do it on a budget. I launched the podcast to promote the book, but gained more leverage through it. I’ve kept it going for a few years now and have started a podcast production agency. I’m all in on podcasting now, but it took me 10 years to get there. One misconception that people have about building a great podcast is that it’s expensive. I started with a $60-80 USB mic that plugs straight into your computer, and you can record in Zoom for free. Then all you need is a podcast host to distribute your files to the platforms, which costs as little as $5-20 a month. It’s the best way to get more exposure. Everyone should have a website. People think that having a social media page is enough – and you should have social media too – but you need to have your own site, because you never know what’s going to happen with social media. You should also use an email service provider like SendFox, which will automatically create a newsletter and send it to your email list every time you publish content.  Shiny object syndrome is a big problem for many entrepreneurs, whether it’s having a million different business ideas and always moving onto the next one, which takes up a lot of time and money. It could also be new gadgets and tools. You need to recognise that you have shiny object syndrome and reign it in. Try using free tools and all-in-one systems like Systeme.io or Clixlo, which offer everything you need for one price in one place. BEST MOMENTS ‘Whether you have your own podcast or not, you should guest on other people’s podcasts because you’re basically leveraging and getting access to their audience who might come and check out your podcast or become a client.’ ‘A lot of people assume their podcast is going to take off right away. If you’re a celebrity already, it probably will; if you’re a regular person, it’s going to take a while.’ ‘When you’re starting out, try to go the free route with software as long as you can, and then only pay as you need to. AppSumo has a one-time payment for various software.’ ‘I try to keep my budget to under $100 per month for software and the basic maintenance of an online business. It might go a little more if I’m running an ad, but even then, I try not to spend more than $100 per month. But everybody has their own amount.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Sara St. John is a seasoned entrepreneur, prolific author, avid animal lover, and ardent globetrotter. With an entrepreneurial career spanning over a decade, Sara has birthed and nurtured several successful startups, honing her expertise in budget-friendly business management. Her journey has imbued her with a wealth of insights and strategies, which she generously shares through her podcast, The Frugalpreneur. As the host of The Frugalpreneur, Sara brings a fusion of rich business acumen and an infectious passion for budget-conscious entrepreneurship.  Sara's mission extends beyond practical advice. She is a passionate advocate for the power of podcasting as a business tool, and she relishes every opportunity to delve into this topic on her show.  If you want to know more about Sara, check her LinkedIn profile and her “preneur” series here. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Frank Mendoza, a revered figure in data analytics and AI strategy. His contributions to Fortune 500 companies such as Nike, Kellogg's, Keurig Dr Pepper, and Jim Beam, as the founder of Catalytics, have revolutionised how these organisations leverage big data, artificial intelligence, and advanced analytics. Frank offers practical recommendations for implementing AI, making this seemingly daunting technology accessible and actionable, demystifying AI, shares his strategic insights, and helps us scout for growth in this exciting field. KEY TAKEAWAYS Over the last 8 years, I’ve worked with some of the top brands to introduce analytics concepts such as machine learning and chatbots. The hype has really gotten big in the last few months around what’s called generative AI, which is a little bit different from what we’ve historically called AI or machine learning, but in a nutshell, it’s got people really excited, and companies really want to take advantage and be able to demonstrate a competitive advantage to some of their competitors. It’s a really exciting time to be in this space. One of the challenges/constraints all companies face, large or small, is time. Big companies can throw money at it; small companies don’t have that luxury, but they really need to focus their attention. When I approach a company to discuss leveraging AI, I want to focus on where they’ll use it and ensure there’s a direct tie to business value. There are so many tools thrown onto the market that it’s causing a lot of analysis paralysis, and businesses are struggling to figure out which tools they should use, where, why, and who should use them. You really need a strategic approach to leveraging these technologies to ensure you’re getting the biggest bang for the buck. Customers have given you the privilege of providing you with information about themselves that’s very important to them, but for you as well to grow your business. How you use that information, where you provide that information to models, all those things are very vital to ensure that you’re doing the things necessary to protect that information. OpenAI and ChatGPT can retrain on the questions you’re asking – that's when you really want to provide guardrails/guidelines to your organisation about what you’re allowing them to put in there. Generative AI solutions have been trained on publicly available data, such as images. Our society is moving  - I believe – in a positive direction, but it has not moved all the way to where it needs to move. The net result of that is that there is a lot of information out there that’s still filled with biases, hate, etc. You want to make sure that when you’re leveraging these tools, you take into account these biases and the inherent challenges of using these models, and ensure you have a level of human judgment in the loop. BEST MOMENTS ‘We’re now shifting the paradigm from inventing with tools to tools inventing. There are things the tools are doing that are creating something that hasn’t existed before.’ ‘One thing that no organisation can waste is resources and time.’ ‘Every organisation is unique, and the applications of AI are going to be unique to those as well.’ ‘The ability for you to execute AI is predicated upon the quality of your information. I encourage organisations to start looking at that and take advantage of “data enablement” to enable businesses to move forward. It’s a daunting task but you don’t want to boil the ocean, that’s where I help organisations understand where exactly they should put their focus, energy and effort.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Frank Mendoza is a highly respected and award-winning analytics leader with over 20 years of experience in Strategy, Customer Experience, and Data Science. He is the founder of Catalytics, a service company that helps Fortune 500 companies like Nike, Kellogg's, Keurig Dr Pepper, and Jim Beam to execute actionable AI and Data Analytics strategies to solve their toughest business challenges. Frank shares that 2023 is the year of AI and that it is becoming more prevalent across industries. However, many companies are still intimidated or confused by its use and capabilities. Frank is there to help implement AI across any business and identify the best approaches to do so, offering practical recommendations, as AI should be a tool that augments and empowers companies to grow and innovate. Frank can be found here. And you can also reach him at Improving ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Benjamin Friedman, who, over a 20+ year career, has navigated the perilous waters of startup finance and operations, riding the bumpy waves of startup growth and guiding his companies through successful M&A transactions, equity raises, and debt financing. To cap it all, Benjamin is a firm advocate for values such as collaboration, optimism, and open communication, and has consistently strived to connect company goals, team initiatives, and individual performance in his roles. KEY TAKEAWAYS At graduate school I’d studied nonprofit management and worked at a nonprofit for a few years and found it was very process driven, we kept talking about what to do but never actually trying things. I’m much more results oriented, so I moved into an e-commerce company which doubled every year and it was an amazing ride. I became addicted to the startup journey. A lot of startups have a unique journey, every founder is an individual, but there are some common themes. Successful startups have founders that are clear on who they are and what they’re trying to accomplish. That might seem easy, but it’s actually very hard work to regularly check in with yourself. The other application is around vision and values; those will remain constant even as the business pivots, evolves, changes and challenges occurring. The final piece is feedback loops, successful founders are constantly seeking advice from advisors, investors, other founders and their team, they’re constantly seeking feedback – they may not act on it every time – new ideas and how to get things done. Align outcomes, results and activities. A lot of people get worked up by working really hard and spending a lot of time and effort but activity alone won’t generate the outcomes that you’re looking for, you have to see what results are coming from that activity and then you have to see if those are affecting the outcomes that you desire. Are you looking at it through industry metrics, internal metrics? You need to be constantly running experiments to see if ‘x’ improves your quality, your efficiency for you or your customers. You have to constantly evaluate your process but aligning your activity results and outcomes is really critical. Bringing in fractional experts can do a number of things; they can help you look holistically across the business and make connections between different functions, how do sales, marketing, finance and product all connect and what are the ways to optimise them collaboratively to grow your business. How have things been done in the past and how can they be applied to your business in order to grow as fast as possible? Cost and risk are considerations as well, by looking at fractional resources you’re mitigating both; you pay people who come in much less than someone doing the job full-time, especially if you don’t know how they’re going to work and how they’ll fit with your team. BEST MOMENTS ‘Being open to other people’s opinions is going to make you stronger on your journey.’ ‘It’s very important to balance strategy and implementation.’ ‘We often think about productivity as running fast, but if you’re not sure of what direction you want to be running, it doesn’t matter how fast you’re going, you're going to be heading in the wrong direction.’ ‘Unsuccessful founders keep doing the same thing their customer needs, successful ones ask “what is it you need now?” and they’ll provide that.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Benjamin Friedman, the mind behind We Build Scale Grow Inc., is a seasoned entrepreneur with over 20 years of leadership in finance and operations. Throughout his career, he's skillfully navigated the entrepreneurial landscape, leading successful M&A transactions for five companies in the last decade. As the founder of Build Scale Grow, Benjamin is committed to helping startups overcome challenges and scale quickly, offering solutions to resolve immediate problems while installing long-term, scalable systems. His work is steeped in experiences from diverse roles, including Chief Operations Officer and Chief Financial Officer, extending to areas such as sales, marketing, people operations, legal, technology, and product. LinkedIn: Benjamin Friedman The company: Build Scale Grow The Book: Scale: Reach Your Peak ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Saagar Govil, Chairman and CEO of Cemtrex Incorporated. With a tenacious spirit and an unwavering focus, Saagar has led Cemtrex from its initial days of making under $3M in revenues to a thriving powerhouse raking in over $100M, with over 350 employees in 6 offices worldwide. Under Saagar's vision and leadership, Cemtrex is a diversified technology company relentlessly driving innovation across sectors, including smart technology, virtual and augmented realities, advanced electronic systems, industrial solutions, and, most intriguingly, intelligent security systems powered by AI. In this episode, they dive into the world of AI and security and explore Saagar's inspiring journey, mission, and passion for technologies, from IoT to space tech. KEY TAKEAWAYS Cemtrex started out as a small family business, and over the last 10 years, we’ve focused on driving growth. We started out as a small environmental technology company, and we struggled to grow in that industry because market appetite for it only emerged recently. I figured out the best way to grow was through the acquisition of businesses with greater potential, because you get a bigger reward for the hard work you put in. We’re seeing a transformation of the security industry as we adopt and implement AI systems. The unique thing about what’s happening today is that for the first time ever, computers can now see better than humans. What that allows is for companies to use and leverage technologies in ways never before possible to drive better security outcomes. That could be from preventing incidents from happening to responding to them more effectively in real time, and to more accurately apprehend suspects after an event occurs. In the past, CCTV cameras with advanced features were triggered by motion and would trigger events, alarms, etc. The challenge is that if a tree is swaying in the background, it can trigger these alarms, which is frustrating for operators. With the advent of AI, you can track specific objects more accurately and clearly, so that if a certain asset in the frame is moved, then send an alert. That solution is really easy to implement out of the box today. Unfortunately, the world is becoming increasingly dangerous. 90-95% of schools have CCTV, and yet we’re still hearing about mass shootings taking place all the time, and it’s a tragedy. This tells me that a) the basic tools are already installed and b) they are actually not that effective. The ways we can implement AI today to drive better outcomes is apparent in that we can do better with identity management using facial recognition, we can track who should be at school at a certain time, we can send out the right alerts if there is a disgruntled person on the premises or tap into sex offender databases to alert the authorities that they’re on the perimeter. BEST MOMENTS ‘Sometimes it’s not about how hard you work, it’s about where you’re spending your time and your effort.’ ‘AI is definitely going to make businesses and specific assets safer.’ ‘When you have a security co-pilot that can understand what’s going on on the video feeds, you can start to interact with that GPT/co-pilot, you can manage security needs much faster or in real time, that’s where we’re going to see the industry moving in the next couple of years.’ ‘There are ways to build these types of technologies that maximise people’s privacy but also ensure the safety of those that are occupying the space at any given point in time.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Saagar Govil is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cemtrex Inc., a company that owns and operates multiple businesses building industrial solutions and intelligent security systems. Saagar is a serial entrepreneur interested in IoT, Wearables, Robotics, Advanced electronics, and Space Tech. In his leisure time, he enjoys watching the Knicks, golfing, travelling, and sailing.   ABOUT CEMTREX Cemtrex, Inc. is a diversified technology company that's driving innovation in a wide range of sectors, including smart technology, virtual and augmented realities, advanced electronic systems, industrial solutions, and intelligent security systems. Cemtrex Inc. owns and operates multiple businesses, including those that build industrial solutions and intelligent security systems. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Dr Melissa Sassi, CEO and Co-Founder of Skills Hustle, a pre-seed edtech company committed to closing the skills gap and transforming learners into earners. Skills Hustle's platform takes an innovative approach, offering gamified, interactive, and practical modules that engage learners more deeply. With a focus on community building, the platform provides access to thought leaders, networking opportunities, and real-world challenges such as innovation challenges and hackathons, enabling learners to develop practical skills and solve real business challenges. In this episode, Melissa shares her insights, experiences, and innovative ideas in leveraging technology and education to drive social impact and foster sustainable growth. KEY TAKEAWAYS I’ve spent the last 10 years of my career working between Microsoft and IBM, and I’ve always created my own jobs; I’ve never followed through the ‘right’ career progression plan. I ran startup accelerators; at Microsoft, it was all about building internet and energy access solutions around the world and bringing digital skills to connect them. At IBM, I focused on data protection, privacy, and security across heavily regulated industries such as FinTech, HealthTech, and InsurTech. I’ve also had a couple of stints on Wall Street and founded a nonprofit that taught tens of thousands of kids to code in 12 countries. Currently, I run a venture studio with my partner. One day, my daughter, who was living in Tunisia with her father at the time, said she didn’t have access to a computer in her classroom. They had one shared across 40 kids. I realized there’s no way that she’s going to be prepared for the future of work and the digital economy. I could get her devices for home use, but what about the other kids in her classroom? So I went on a mission to get computers for the class. But as I did this, I realized the bigger picture: access to tech, skills, the internet, and the role they play – including affordability – in driving outcomes in healthcare, education, economics, and getting a job. Everything we have and do centres around tech. I realised half the world isn’t connected to the internet, and I looked at what I could do to change that. My partner and I are still working on how to demystify what a venture studio is or what a venture builder does versus a VC, an accelerator, and an incubator. We combine all those things together. In the future, I’d love to see situations where my founders raise a shit-ton of money, come up with amazing solutions that power the world, change things that make the world a better place, and make money at the same time. I believe in doing well while doing good.  BEST MOMENTS ‘Everyone is a FinTech these days, including Timbaland.’ ‘I had it ingrained in my soul that I needed to work, to be productive, independent, to be able to take care of myself. From hard work come outcomes in life that are financial in nature; it may be experiences, but you’ve got to work to achieve.’ ‘I was part of a broken system, and I perpetuated a broken system without knowing it.’ ‘We focus on growth from 3 perspectives: Technical enablement, thinking about what the business model is, and access to partnerships.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Dr Melissa Sassi has dedicated her career to the intersection of technology, education, economic development, social impact, startups, and sustainability. With extensive global experience, including visits to 60 countries, she brings first-hand knowledge of the challenges and opportunities in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Melissa's doctoral thesis focused on the transformative role of digital inclusion in solving the SDGs. As the CEO and Co-Founder of Skills Hustle, a pre-seed edtech company, Melissa aims to bridge the skills gap and empower learners to become learners. Skills Hustle offers an interactive, practical learning platform focused on gamification and real-world application. Through live sessions, mentors, innovation challenges, and hackathons, learners acquire valuable skills while solving authentic business problems. The platform also features a community portal for ongoing engagement, networking, and access to thought leaders and opportunities. Core content areas include digital skills, habits and attitudes, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Brenden Kumarasamy, founder of Master Talk, a platform dedicated to nurturing top-tier communicators in diverse industries. Breneden has honed his craft by coaching executives and entrepreneurs, helping them ascend to the top 1% of communicators in their fields. Brenden also runs the popular Master Talk YouTube channel, where he has democratised access to his communication tools. In this episode, we dissect Brenden’s journey, his philosophies, the art and science of effective communication, and his vision to transform the way we communicate. KEY TAKEAWAYS My journey started in college, where I studied accounting and created presentations focused on numbers. Somebody told me that if I wanted to work for one of the Big Four accounting firms, I needed to participate in these things called ‘case competitions’, which are essentially competitive presentations where you pitch to executives, and the best people get jobs. I started coaching the other students on how to communicate (mostly for free) to help them win competitions, and I accidentally developed a gift for speaking. While working for IBM, I made videos in my basement for fun, just a hobby. But that hobby turned into something much bigger than I initially thought it would be. After two and a half years, I made the difficult decision to quit my job and do Master Talk full-time.  YouTube is the hardest one out of all the platforms to grow, but it’s also the most beneficial one if you stay in it the longest. The 5/20 rule: If I post 1 really good long-form piece of content every week for the next 10 years, I’ll be successful on YouTube. I’ve already written all my content for 2024 that I’ll film with my production team in the next 3 months. That’s how forward-thinking I think the brand is. Never miss a week. There are parts of education, consulting, and helping people transform industries that AI will improve. For example, search queries, so I might not need as many people on a research team. But what AI cannot automate is education. No one is going to spend $2,000 to fly out to a conference to watch an AI speak; the human is really important in this situation. BEST MOMENTS ‘I did not want to be an entrepreneur; I wanted to be an executive. ’ ‘A big mistake a lot of content creators make is when they think about personal branding, they focus a lot on what’s hot: LinkedIn, TikTok, etc. I always thought about my personal brand in decades, not days. Who do I want to be in 10 years?’ ‘People focus way too much on having 1000 followers, not 1000 conversations. If I do 10,000 podcast interviews, it’s impossible for me not have 100,000 followers. Luckily, I didn’t need to do 10,000; it took 500.’ ‘If you 10 years from now had the chance to look back at your life right now, what would they disagree with you on? Oftentimes it’s not information, it’s implementation that’s missing.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Brenden Kumarasamy: It all begins with impact. Despite all the presentations I’ve given over my life, I still remember to this day how scared I was to post my first YouTube video. I didn’t look like anything in my workshops or presentations, but I went ahead with this project for one reason: Impact. A wise friend once told me that I couldn’t possibly coach every human being on Earth with the limited time I had in my life, so I needed to go on video to share my message with the world. I got over my fear, practised 100’s of times on camera until I was finally able to say that I was “YouTube Ready”. All’s to say that when you care about others and only want to add value, you’ll be able to overcome any fear/obstacle in the service of others. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Brandon Leibowitz, the mastermind behind SEO Optimizers, a dynamic company that's been helping small- to medium-sized businesses get noticed online. Brandon’s passion for growth and his unwavering belief in the power of digital marketing are why we invited him today. In this episode, the pair explores the steps businesses, big and small, must consider to enhance their digital marketing efforts, from defining clear goals and understanding their target audience to optimizing their website, creating valuable content, leveraging social media, utilizing paid advertising, and measuring their campaigns' success. KEY TAKEAWAYS          Digital marketing today is characterized by constant evolution and changes in the algorithms and ranking factors that search engines use to determine website rankings. This makes it challenging for businesses to keep up with the latest trends and adapt their strategies accordingly. Additionally, there is significant competition in the digital space, making it difficult for businesses to stand out and reach their target audience effectively. To become better at digital marketing, both large and small businesses can take the following steps: define clear goals, understand your target audience, optimise your website, create valuable content, leverage social media, utilise paid advertising, measure and analyse, stay up to date, and seek professional help. Every few months, Google will have a big update, and that’s where you have to find out what they want because they don’t really tell you what they’re looking for, so that you spend money on paid ads, they don’t want you master SEO. You’ve got to stay ahead of things one day at a time. Who knew ChatGPT was going to cause such a disruption in the market a couple of years ago? It’s tough to predict what’s going to happen, just stay up to date, read different blogs and forums, listen to podcasts, watch YouTube videos, and stay in the weeds as much as possible, learning as much as possible from other people, and figure out what might happen in the future. There’s no real way to stay ahead. BEST MOMENTS ‘I have been involved with digital marketing since 2007 and want to share my knowledge about SEO, Social Media Marketing, and Google Ads.’ ‘Identify what you want to achieve with your digital marketing efforts. This could include increasing website traffic, generating leads, improving brand awareness, or increasing sales.’ ‘Consider partnering with a reputable digital marketing agency or consultant to help you develop and execute effective digital marketing strategies that achieve your goals.’ ‘Key words are so important. You can build a website, but if you don’t market it it’s going to be hard for people to find it. I make sure that when people search on Google, your website pops up.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Brandon Leibowitz runs and operates SEO Optimizers, a young company that supports small and medium-sized businesses in getting more online traffic and becoming visible to their target audience, which in turn converts into clients, sales, and leads. Brandon started in digital marketing in 2007 after graduating from college with a degree in Business Marketing. In my first job, I handled marketing for an e-commerce website. He helped companies rank at the top of Google by using search engine optimization and driving traffic through social media and paid ads. In 2008, Brandon realized that most businesses would need a website to stay competitive in the future. Having a website is only one piece of the puzzle. Ultimately, these companies need someone to help market their websites to drive traffic that will, in turn, convert into clients. Since then, Brandon decided to stick with digital marketing and started his own company, SEO Optimizers. One of Brandon’s stories: a friend built a website for him in exchange for doing SEO for his insurance website. Brandon ranked him above government websites for all his essential business keywords. If you want to know more, check Brandon’s free gift below: https://seooptimizers.com/gift ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Clemens Behrend, an entrepreneur with a rich background in building customer-facing support solutions in Web3. Clemens spent over 5 years building Bitpanda's customer community department from scratch and scaling it from pre-seed to unicorn status. And it is important to understand that the power of Web3 is in building unique communities. During their deep dive, Clemens and Sabine talk about his interest in Web3, Bitcoin, and Crypto, why he believes those 3 components are key to building unique communities, and Clemens shares a few tips for those of us interested in learning and trialling such technologies. KEY TAKEAWAYS          From 2017 to 2022, I led and set up customer support at Bitpanda, the first Unicorn in Austria and a neo-broker that offers all asset classes from cryptocurrencies, stocks, and commodities to almost four million customers 24/7, 365. In my youth, I played a lot of computer games and realised you could earn money by selling items. So I launched my first business, an online shop for virtual items. Though this I discovered my passion for customer support and keeping my 1,000-2,000 clients happy. The biggest mistake I made was relying on 1 payment method. Then a friend of mine showed me BitCoin and that was the solution to my problem. After that, I focused solely on cryptocurrency. The most important thing that people need to realise when building a unicorn, especially in the crypto industry: Crypto is 24/7, it’s not like the stock market that closes on a Friday afternoon, it’s also on the weekends. Our key success factor was being based in Austria, and we had an impressum, which is not that typical in the crypto industry; people never knew where their funds were, but this gave us transparency and also trust from our clients. It meant we were always reachable with 24/7 support. Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency, and I would say the only really decent one; all the others are copies because Bitcoin's source code is open, and anyone can publish and own their own cryptocurrency. They symbolise companies, so investing in Bitcoin and in cryptocurrencies are two very different things and have different risks. People need to do research before investing. BEST MOMENTS ‘Last century private currencies had been predicted, so the concept behind Bitcoin is not that new, it’s just beautiful to see how it’s now come into practice.’ ‘In Web2, you log in to a page, and there’s a Google SSO with just a username and an email; in Web3, you connect with your wallet, and you can transfer financial data on the blockchain.’ ‘Bitcoin’s uptime is still amazing: Over 99.9% with only a few outages of a few hours or so, the last of which was 10 years ago. Compared to traditional payment methods like Visa, Mastercard, or SWIFT, Bitcoin is doing well. ’ ‘Make it as easy as possible for your customers to complain, because the biggest issue for any business in Web3 is when you have people who silently quit and don’t tell you why. When you receive a complaint, see it as a last chance to convince the person to stay.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Clemens holds a BSc degree in Economics and has a rich background in building customer-facing support solutions in Web 3. He spent over five years building Bitpanda's customer support/community department from scratch and scaling it from pre-seed to unicorn. His knowledge in the field is extensive, and he is known for his strong analytical and managerial skills. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Per Axberg, CEO of Legly – a revolutionary platform that leverages the power of artificial intelligence to provide critical insights on B2B contracts, both before and after signing. This helps sellers, purchasers, and lawyers conduct efficient, accurate contract review, thereby saving precious time. During the discussion, they dive deep into three fascinating topics: learning about Per's journey and the inspiration that led to the creation of Legly, and what spurred him to set up this AI-driven platform for B2B contracts. Explore why SaaS platforms for legal contracts are not just an added convenience but an essential tool for today's entrepreneurs, and how they play a role in supporting and streamlining business operations. Delve into the three most crucial best practices that entrepreneurs and legal departments can adopt to make the most of those platforms, particularly when scaling their enterprise. KEY TAKEAWAYS We built a platform that lets you match lawyers and use their spare capacity. We can buy the time they haven’t sold yet; they spend less time selling themselves, and they still make a profit. We can also sell their time to startups for less money. Global companies started using this service; they needed lawyers to check incoming contracts – bulk, boring tasks – to identify risks, check for anything that breaches their preferences and guidelines, etc.  Technology has started to get better and AI has started to be able to do things for commercial purposes, at the same time we met with the head of law at one of these big companies who made a WILD (warranties, indemnity, limitation liability and delay) card for his sales people, he said if we focus on these four things we’ll get rid of most of the risks. This was the beginning of Legly; it’s much, much more than that. Legly is a robot that acts pretty much as a lawyer would. You can upload one contract for free to try it, and you will get the document back in a minute or so with highlights in different colours and comments on the side telling you what to focus on, what is important. You could also tailor that to the breaches of your guidelines, and so on. It helps companies check contracts before signature. We can also use this machine to apply it to law firm contract portfolios, to check legal due diligence when you’re buying or selling a company, and to look for specific items in the documents. Legly helps you find many things in documents and go through contracts much faster. Particularly it helps lawyers to find things in the contract before signing that they may not be used to checking for, to be able to find breaches to the preferences before involving the rest of the organisation, before waiting fort some weeks for the legal team to come back with feedback and so on, and thereby be able to handle much more of the contract process. BEST MOMENTS ‘Before, you had to read through the documents, and there could be thousands of them, but now you just drag and drop, pretty much, and you get a list directly.’ Usually, salespeople are the ones who see their customers' documents and know the deal, the business, who the customers are, and their relationships. They are much more suited to check these documents, as far as they can.’ ‘We’re not replacing any lawyers. Rather than them having to check the whole document, they might just get 2 or 3 questions. That’s much more efficient.’ ‘You have to start testing these tools and gaining an understanding of it so that you can structure your work in a better way that suits these kinds of technologies because they will become a ‘hygene factor’ in the future.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Per Axberg is the CEO and co-founder of Legly. Legly has developed a contract review automation tool that uses AI and ML to review and provide feedback on B-2-B contracts before signing. Legly is a great example of how legal tech not just makes legal counsels sleep better, but also can increase the capacity of non-legal experts such as co-workers on sales and purchase teams. Legly uses artificial intelligence to review and provide feedback on B2B contracts before signing. This way, sellers, purchasers, and lawyers can do a better contract review in less time. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Cyrille Godinot, an industry titan whose career spans over 32 years across Marketing, Sales, Business Development, and Service Operations. Currently, Cyrille is contributing to the tech powerhouse, Schneider Electric, where he has spent nearly 11 years. His significant role involves developing solutions and services, directly impacting the digital transformation of the electronic, insurance, and Inspection ecosystems. His responsibility also lies in leading marketing deployment activities for strategic accounts to leverage Schneider's EcoStruxure IoT solutions, ensuring they deliver safe, efficient, available, and cyber-secure electrical infrastructure. On this episode, they discuss: Cyrille's illustrious career, his insights into evolving market trends, especially regarding the adoption of new technologies and the influence of digital transformation and IoT on the B2B services sector, Schneider Electric's EcoStruxure IoT solutions, and Cyrille's vision for the future of the industry. KEY TAKEAWAYS I’ve been boots on the ground, directly with customers, involved in service operations, and I have come to realise that the best way to build a long-term relationship with customers is to deliver their expectations. You need to listen a lot, that’s how I moved into marketing. When you are going through digital transformation, you have to consider all the impact that it raises. If you start with historical products, they now need to include sensors and must be able to communicate with an upper layer that understands them. You have to agree on a data model for collecting the data and on how that data is represented. Then you need to define how you’ll leverage that data to deliver value in asset management, performance, sustainability, safety, availability, and all the other areas you want to deliver to your customer. Transformation is very much about aligning everybody around a single structure for the right data to go to the right place. At the same time, our partners’ ecosystems need to evolve to tackle the new complexity of digitisation. One of the major challenges right now is unifying the data model. Electrical current can be measured in amps, milliamperes, or kiloamperes. Which unit you use may vary depending on the device, so at some level you need to be able to represent the same data with exactly the same unit; otherwise, it will be confusing when you go to analytics to compare them. Ecostruxure is opening opportunities in leveraging data from new business models. In this, we see a tree domain that is very interesting, related to risk management and insurance. When you collect a lot of data on a property, you’re going to have something that is a proxy of telematics in car insurance. This could be used for risk prevention, underwriting scoring, looking at track records about claims and operations, most of which will be leveraged by anyone who has a use case for that data, to improve the relationship with the end client, for example, where messages can be sent when a discrepancy arises to alert them. I could leverage that data myself and build analytics, and only propose a risk score, for example. Another model is how to bridge a product to embedded insurance, enabling us to consider new services we can build in partnership with risk management companies. BEST MOMENTS ‘In the digitisation transformation that we’re all going through, there is a huge opportunity to create a new business model to disrupt the existing one, and it all starts with collecting data.’ "We're coming from an industry where historically competitors were not in a mode of aligning, and each one had their own model, but at the end of the day, current remains a current and being able to express a unit that is understandable is inevitable.’ ‘It starts with risk prevention. Because we collect data continuously, we can provide alarms. This is most of the value; this is what differentiates. Live data can give immediate reaction for the site manager, and the insurance can be aware of the situation so that they can take action and mitigate.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Cyrille Godinot has been in Marketing, Sales & Business Development, and Service Operations since 1994 across various industries, achieving rapid growth in Europe, Asia, and the USA. Specialties: Business Development, Strategic Marketing, Partnerships, Deal Closing, Offer Creation, Digitization, Photovoltaics, O&M Services, Sales Management, Outsourcing, Maintenance, B2B Service Operations, Spare Parts Cyrille leads marketing deployment activities for strategic accounts to leverage EcoStruxure IoT solutions and provide them with safe, efficient, available, and cyber-secure electrical infrastructure. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Stephen Lathrope, a seasoned executive and proven business leader who has worked as a partner, CEO, and executive director of private equity-backed financial services and technology businesses. Stephen has also led large teams within a very well-known consulting firm. Today, Stephen leads the insurance practice at ICEYE, a geospatial data provider to the insurance and government sectors. According to a report by MarketsandMarkets, the global geospatial analytics market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 12.2% from $68 billion in 2022 to $120 billion by 2027. One of the main drivers is the increasing demand for location-based services across industries, including transportation, construction, and agriculture, as well as urban planning and management, disaster response, and environmental monitoring. Over the course of the podcast, they explore what geospatial data is used for. How does geospatial inform the future of underwriting and claims? Deep dive into examples as to where geospatial data is best used, and Stephen will give us some advice for insurance companies looking to incorporate geospatial data into their underwriting and claims processes. KEY TAKEAWAYS          ICEYE has been around since 2014 as an organisation that is one of the leaders in new space technologies. The founders miniaturised synthetic aperture radar technology and put it on miniaturised satellites. The first use case for that is for monitoring ice flows in the northern seas for freight planning, hence the ‘ICE’ part of ICEYE. What it does today is build and operate its own constellation of radar-enabled satellites. For insurance, we use them to observe hazards and damage related to natural catastrophes, and we can also monitor assets on the ground. We can measure very small movements in vehicles, buildings, and the Earth's surface. The opportunities for insurers around catastrophic events are really significant. What we can do with new technology is provide much more rapid insight into where the water is and where the high-water mark has been, within an event. We can provide our customers with an initial view of where the water is within a few hours, and we provide very detailed reports on flood depth and water depth with a high degree of accuracy. Our customers associate that with the perimeter of individual buildings, which enables them to very quickly identify which of their customers need assistance most urgently, how much water is likely to be around a property, the extent of the damage, and where to allocate resources on the ground. The data we provide is used to estimate the overall event cost and the potential damage cost for each building. One of the very common challenges we face with our customers is asking, “Do you really know where the properties that you’re insuring are?” It’s a factor of how often we can say the water is at 1 metre depth at a particular latitude and longitude, and the insurer is trying to work out where that is relative to the properties they know are affected by the event. BEST MOMENTS ‘ICEYE is bringing wholly new technology to bear in an industry that has loads of opportunity to do things differently and better for customers and stakeholders using the insights that we can provide from space and with data and analytics.’ ‘The majority of what we’re doing in insurance, and with government, is around natural catastrophe: response, and near-term preparation for events that look like they’re about to happen.’ ‘There’s only going to be more frequent, more severe flooding. As we speak, there’s a fairly major event happening in Mississippi, which we’re capturing images of from our satellites and reporting upon right now.’ ‘We’ve just launched our beta for insurance and wildfire that’s similar. Again, the ability of the radar to see through smoke, cloud, day or night, and report while the fire’s still burning means insurers can have data that’s really detailed, really rapid.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Stephen Lathrope is a proven technology / financial services business leader with 10 years’ experience in CEO and executive director roles on boards of Private Equity-backed, international financial services/technology businesses, and 20 years’ experience in business and technology consulting. Sales/growth specialist, with a track record of delivering sales-driven growth in software/services across the UK and international markets. ABOUT ICEYE ICEYE is a Finnish microsatellite manufacturer. ICEYE was founded in 2014 as a spin-off of Aalto University's University Radio Technology Department, and is based in Espoo. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Gary Garth, an experienced entrepreneur and the author of ‘The Zero to 100 Million Sales Blueprint’, a book for entrepreneurs who want to scale their businesses with a replicable, reusable, and scalable sales methodology. On this episode, the pair discuss how Gary found himself living in Medellín, Colombia, developing the Zero to 100 Million Sales Blueprint, what Elev8 Media is, and when he realised that work pressure may lead to addiction and mental health issues, and Gary’s tips for sustainable growth. Make sure you listen until the end of the episode because Gary has a very nice surprise for you all! KEY TAKEAWAYS          I exited a very successful business in 2020, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do. So, I took a sabbatical year where I travelled around the world, trying everything from plant medicine to figuring out what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wanted to do something different and make a larger impact. Columbia had always been on my mind, and Medellín had a vision of becoming the Silicon Valley of Latin America. So, I went to check it out, and now I’m all in with several offices, an incubator, an accelerator, a marketing agency, and some real estate investments. This is home now. I’m the Viking of Medellín. It’s a hard journey. A lot of entrepreneurs have this fantasy vision of what it takes, and 8 out of 10 cease to exist in year two, and only one of those entrepreneurs makes it beyond $1 million in annual recurring revenue. What’s shocking is that most successful people experience burnout. When you dive into a venture like that, you have to be prepared mentally, physically, spiritually for what’s ahead; the adversity and how to overcome that. A lot of companies that pitch to me often have groundbreaking concepts and great ideas, and they have prepared everything and anything you can consider; they’ve almost gone into analysis paralysis about how the product should be shaped and so forth. But sales are left to the end of the equation. I ask what’s your estimated cost of acquisition, what’s the total addressable market, how are you going to penetrate that, who are your competitors, and how are you going to differentiate from them? They don’t have the answers to any of those questions. I’m giving back through my book where I talk about training thousands of reps over my career, over 200 re-sellers in a previous project, I’ve worked closely with Google’s and Microsoft’s sales teams, so I’ve been able to see what patterns occur, what works and doesn’t work, and what it takes for folks to sell and create a true revenue machine. I’ve also created a planner to combat burnout, where you can focus on gratitude, set goals, build habits, and all the tips and tricks I’ve learned over the years. BEST MOMENTS ‘There are all these social media tips and hacks on how to be the next Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos, but it’s 16-hour days, there’s no shortcut.’ ‘To be successful,l you need to put sales and revenue first. If you don’t have cash, you’re out of business.’ ‘Every entrepreneur has the desire to change and shape the world. The only way to do that is sustainability, to become profitable, that’s how you can grow, reinvest and expand.’ ‘Double down. Don’t back down. Things may seem uncertain and there’s a lot of scepticism in the market, but I think there’s a lot of opportunity. If you’re hesitant about launching, expanding to a new market, if you want to wait for x, y, z scenario changes, don’t wait. Go for it.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Gary Garth is the Founder and CEO of Great Dane Ventures, Elev8 Media, and Accelerator Platform™. He also leverages his resources as a sales leader and angel investor, helping high-potential startups go-to-market, scale, and become profitable through 360-degree sales and marketing support, incubator programs, advisory services, and proprietary technology engineered to empower entrepreneurs. He has been featured in Inc., Forbes, Success, and many other prominent publications. A serial entrepreneur since 2002, Gary has started and successfully exited six companies, including large outbound sales call centres, radio advertising networks, and an award-winning, eight-figure digital marketing agency. Born in Denmark, Gary now lives and works in Medellín, Colombia. ABOUT ELEV8 ELEV8 is a Digital Marketing Agency and Growth Accelerator Program exclusively designed for the Addiction Treatment and Mental Health Center industry. ELEV8 solutions are engineered end-to-end with proven marketing and sales strategies, full transparency, and a meticulously data-driven ROI approach. With ELEV8’s solutions, clients drive admissions at a consistently profitable rate via 360 degrees digital marketing, sales enablement, CRM, and tech stack implementation. With newly founded offices in the heart of Medellín, Colombia, the ELEV8 team is composed of international A-players in the digital agency space, are all working towards one shared vision— to become the world-leading digital marketing agency for Addictions Treatment Centers. Download the book: The Zero to 100 Million Sales Blueprint Check out the site: https://elev8.io/ ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Amy Buchan Siegfried, an experienced founder, CEO, entrepreneur, investor, and speaker. Amy is the Co-Founder of Last Night’s Game, a platform that breaks down sports in an easy-to-understand way, through email and weekly podcasts. She also serves as the company's “on-air talent” and face. From conception to execution, Amy has managed organisations and major initiatives, including fundraising, marketing, program development, and community relations, to empower others with ideas, information, mentorship, and resources. Sports Tech includes over 17,000 startups, 30% of which have raised $35 billion in VC funding, with 11 active unicorns. Business models range from fantasy sports, eSports, and casino games to Fitness and Wellness tech, often used in health insurance. On this episode, the pair discusses Amy the investor, the entrepreneur, and the woman in tech, why Last Night's Game, niche markets yield success, the challenge and the opportunity for women entrepreneurs, and tips and best practices. KEY TAKEAWAYS I love recognising the talent of those who are out there hustling, trying to make things happen, and making connections and making things happen for them. You want to support those with ideas. What’s 15-30 minutes of my time for somebody who’s trying to make their thing happen? Getting things started and taking the first step is the hardest part, if you can give that extra vote of confidence or ideas or connections, that can help them be successful. The ideas to differentiate yourself only come from talking to others because, when you’re the founder, you’re stuck in your own head and don’t see all those other things. Be a sounding board, be available. Last Night’s Game was set up about 20 years ago. I was working as an intern at the Arizona Diamondbacks MLB team, and one of my girlfriends asked why certain things were happening, and I thought she was really missing out on an opportunity to connect with her co-workers. We were working in a male-dominated industry, and sports is a common language that helps level the playing field in the office. So, I thought about how to teach her about sports in an interesting way. My brother and I devised a way to make sports approachable so they could use it in day-to-day interactions, or dates, etc. But it took until 14 years later before we had the time to work on and launch it. I’m successful because of what I learned in the corporate world. It was a good structure for me. So often now the corporate world is depicted as the bad character in a movie, but it’s not; there’s a lot we can learn from it. You learn to work as a team in the corporate environment, and you have to work in someone else’s structure, alongside personalities that are not like you. There’s still a way the corporate world can evolve, and we should all be evolving, no matter how big your business is, so that we don’t end up as a ‘has-been’ company that nobody wants to work with. The foundation of having relationships is still critical today. We’re more connected than ever, but more removed than ever. How do we maximise and humanise that connection? Get out and meet people, build relationships. If you’re not comfortable being the people person, hire someone who is. It’s the same as building a team around you that isn’t like you, doesn’t think like you, doesn’t live on the same block as you. A diverse team brings different perspectives, and everyone has their own talents.  BEST MOMENTS ‘Sports is like food: It’s a common language that we can all speak, everywhere you go, there's a national dish and a national sport, and everyone’s really proud of that.’ ‘How are you making yourself different from everybody else? That is how you get funded, if you’re different, that’s an excellent thing.’ ‘The biggest challenge in investing in businesses, from an angel investor viewpoint, is that everyone wants to be everything to all people. You can’t be, it’s not possible. Identify your target market.’ ‘Our whole goal is short and sweet. We all know we have information overload, but we crank out a lot of content.’ ABOUT THE GUEST After seeing how the ability to talk sports gave her the upper hand as a woman in business, Amy and her brother Scott created Last Night’s Game to give their friends the same advantage. Last Night’s Game empowers its readers to join the sports conversation, even if they don’t know the first thing about sports. Her career has included working for a Major League Baseball team and in other male-dominated industries. A third-generation entrepreneur, Amy once flew around the world in 58 hours and 37 minutes, has lived internationally, and is a master of small talk, bringing people together, and the handwritten note. You can often find this married lady working with the entrepreneurship community nationwide and teaching her toddler about sports, food, and other things he’ll need to make small talk one day. ABOUT LAST NIGHT'S GAME  Empowering you with the latest sports and pop culture news, so you never have to resort to talking about the weather. Last Night’s Game empowers its readers to join the sports conversation, even if they don’t know the first thing about sports. The conversation doesn’t have to be that painful. Having worked in the sports and corporate world, Amy knows how sports can level the playing field and how helpful it is to have a team behind you.  Last Night’s Game goal is to make it easier for you to stand out in the crowd.  Follow updates on the sports and pop culture world so you never have to be left talking about the weather. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Chris Hutchinson, formerly the CEO of Canopy, a company on a mission to revolutionise renting and help people grow, both financially – by creating a better life for themselves – and in terms of financial resilience. Chris is an optimistic, results-oriented senior leader with a clear interest in building highly effective teams. During the podcast, the pair discusses how Chris moved from his CFO role to landing the top seat at Canopy, why financial resilience is such an important topic across markets, and the three most important takeaways from scaling a startup during an economic downturn. KEY TAKEAWAYS          It’s really important to have a background in numbers. Businesses are inherently about delivering products to their end customers. But fundamentally, a business isn’t going to be viable and successful unless it ultimately comes down to numbers. The other key thing to remember is that a lot of the finance people (CFOs, Finance Directors, Head of Finance) are often second in charge to a founder or CEO prior to moving into the CEO position, and as such have a much broader breadth of understanding of a company than most people in an organisation do before they take that hot seat. One of the things I absolutely love about the modern age of business is that it feels like we’ve really moved on from negotiation, win/lose economics, and being taught to get one over on the competition, even in a partnership scenario, into something which is far more prevalent, like a win/win partnership solution where you both benefit. I’m very good at quickly identifying which ideas are worth executing, then executing and delivering on them. I feel this is powerful because it’s a skill often overlooked in startups, where vision is always seen as incredibly valuable, and the founder's passion is undoubtedly one of the most important factors in getting it off the ground. Inherently, the reason most startups fail between the seed and series A stages probably isn’t because they don’t have a great idea; it’s because they are unable to execute on that idea. Canopy is initially trying to shake up the UK rental industry, then broadening to international expansion in the future. Essentially, we’re a tech-driven company that improves the lives of letting agents and tenants by offering a solution that identifies the right tenant for the right property, really quickly, really easily. We then help build a brighter future for renters by building their financial health and resilience and creating equal opportunities for them, regardless of their background or goals. BEST MOMENTS ‘As you grow in your career in finance, you have a relatively unique position where you’re involved in pretty much every area of the business while also sitting on top of big, key, strategic positions and decisions.’ ‘Are you building a team because they’re going to deliver for you and you’re going to demand everything of them and they’re going to need to meet those expectations, or are you hiring people who are really, really good at what they do and they have the expertise that you don’t have?’ ’70-90% of renters aspire to being a homeowner, but lots of them just want to enjoy their lives while living in a property, have a little bit more money in their pocket, to save up for a holiday/car/etc.’ ‘You can definitely do more with less. Whatever you think you can do, you can do more with the same amount, or you can definitely do the same that you’re expecting to do now, but with less. You’re spending too much money, you’re definitely doing stuff that you don’t need to do, you can optimise, you can cut down, focus, prioritise, and deliver more return on investment.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Chris Hutchinson: Results-driven. People focussed. Eternally optimistic. Strategic senior leader with significant experience in the FMCG and Financial Service sectors. A proven track record of success across diverse roles in both Unilever and Bupa Global, now driving start-ups through sustainable growth and funding. Worked Canopy. Advisor Startup CFO Started career with BUPA. ABOUT CANOPY The company is on a mission to revolutionise renting and help people grow, both financially and towards a better life. That means making things faster, easier, and fairer for everyone – renters, agents, and landlords alike. At the heart of our system is the RentPassport, a totally free digital profile that takes the hassle out of house moving. Renters can create a profile in minutes and use it every time they move, and agents and landlords can instantly pre-screen tenants – saving everyone’s time and cash and getting renters moving faster. We believe every new move is a chance to grow. That’s why we help renters grow their credit rating by tracking their rent payments – improving their financial wellbeing, one month at a time. It all adds up to a comprehensive profile that reassures landlords – and turns the house-moving slog into a stroll in the park. Want to join the movement? We’re growing fast and always looking out for the next bright spark to join the team. Check out our job listings below, or just drop us a message and say hi. Canopy, InsureStreet, and Insure Street are trading names of InsureStreet Limited, which is an appointed representative of Resolution Compliance Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 574048) to carry on insurance distribution activities. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Sean Boyce, an expert product builder who helps companies, large and small, realise their vision when developing and owning world-class SaaS products without making the mistakes most product companies make. Sean has successfully scaled his own product companies, including StaffGeek and Podcastchef. Today, though, NxtStep Sean helps B2B SaaS businesses to build the products that matter most for their target audiences. On this episode, the pair discusses FinTech trends, automation and ChatGPT, market challenges, current capital access needs, why it’s essential to democratise access to drive financial inclusion, and Sean will share some thoughts on how to build good SaaS-based B2B product offerings.   KEY TAKEAWAYS          I’ve always been involved with and fascinated by technology, both hardware and software, but I got very excited about the possibilities of software earlier on in my career, particularly automation. It has the potential to put the people in the process in a better position to leverage technology and software to make incredible leaps in progress. I worked in corporate and startups, building companies of my own in tech and finance. I like to spend time diving deep into industries, talking with subject matter experts, and better understanding the progress they’re trying to make and what’s holding them back. Usually, there’s a bottleneck in the process somewhere, and I look to try to figure out what is the fastest, most cost-effective way that I can leverage technology or put a strategy in place that enables them to make considerable progress in a shorter period of time, much more cost-effectively than how they’re trying to solve that problem today. Chat GPT is pretty remarkable and has made its way around the world relatively quickly since they released some of their latest updates. That’s really interesting in terms of what that product is capable of. I think we’re going to see a new ‘gold rush’ leveraging tools like that based on what people have been able to see it’s capable of in order to use as a tool, or a component to build other tools and resources for people to get a lot of value out of. One of the most revolutionary elements of Chat GPT is that it’s a leap forwards in progress in how we access information – or it’s going to be, as it get continually polished – as opposed to most people’s current strategy, which is to leverage a search engine like Google where I’m presented to a list of results after I ask my question, some of which may or may not get what I’m looking for based on how I asked the question and whether or not that information is out there and available yet. You have to update and evolve your strategy for innovation and investment in your company, based on the implications of global changes for your organisation. As money is no longer as accessible or cheap as it once was, fundraising and gaining access to the capital you might need to do what you want will probably be a bit more difficult, which raises the bar for who will receive capital and when, making competition fiercer. Try to make as much progress on your own as you can with the resources you have. It will usually turn out to be advantageous in the future. BEST MOMENTS ‘I’ve always looked to automate the time-consuming but error-prone elements of any processes that we might need to do so that people can leverage the technology in a better and more empowering way, so they can make considerable progress with a lot less resources, much, much faster.’ ‘I’ve seen Chat GPT being used in everything from automating significant, time-consuming elements of content creation and copywriting all the way through to using it to write code for you to build applications and building blocks as opposed to writing anything in a customer fashion.’ ‘Whenever possible, making processes that are really important simpler ultimately makes them more effective.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Sean Boyce helps SaaS businesses realize their vision of owning a world-class software product WITHOUT making the mistakes that typically sink most product companies. Sean has already made those mistakes, having successfully scaled his own product companies (staffgeek.com and podcastchef.com). Sean loves to receive questions on how he can help founders and their products. Just email him at sean@nxtstep.io or booking time to discuss whether it would make sense to work together using the link below. https://nxtstep.io/ ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Jay Weintraub. If there is a term that describes Jay over the past 15 years are the words "event entrepreneur. Jay transformed his early digital marketing domain expertise into an industry-leading event shaper.  Today, Jay’s portfolio consists of: Blueprint (real estate tech), Manifest (logistics tech), Medicarians (age tech), and Cumulus (agri / food tech). He has delivered four exits, and his passion for thoughtfully connecting people – Connectiv – a portfolio of industry-defining events. While events are what the communities seek, Jay wants to serve unique experiences. He shares that success is not measured by the number of attendees or sponsors. Instead, the team at Connectiv judges ourselves by our impact on some of the world's largest, most complex, and necessary global industries.  On this episode, the pair discuss: Jay’s main areas of interest post-InsureTech Connect, why industries? What purpose? How does Jay serve sectors by delivering a highly engaging conference experience and meeting face-to-face? What can we learn from cross-fertilizing learnings from attending other events, from problem-solving to collaboration? KEY TAKEAWAYS The beauty of an event is, oftentimes, you’re trying to capture a movement, you’re trying to find a moment in time where the world is changing, and when that is. There’s so much uncertainty. Simply face-timing with the right people can add immense value. Is the movement in InsureTech about new products, new ways to underwrite, different ways to do claims, or was it back to customer service or engagement? It could be everything. The question is: Which one is right for you? If we can find ways to make things predictable and repeatable, we can scale more and more. That’s one of our goals. For a company like ours that convenes large-scale events, the milestone is about how we touch more lives. For us, touching more lives is connecting more industries in the same way. There’s almost always some company that touches multiple verticals.  No one wants to be first; everyone wants to be first to be second. The hardest part about what we do is that, like everything else, scale matters. It’s really hard to get to a 7,000-10,000 person show starting off at a 300-500 person show. What makes the challenge is that everyone thinks it’s super scalable (like tech), in our type of business, it’s not just about raising a ton of money, getting the biggest sales team with the biggest funnel, it’s not a single widget that you can scale across an infinitely large team. It’s about the one-on-one connections which is more akin to scouting, venturing or startup roles, there a lot of not-so-glamourous work: research and figuring out who’s is relevant. BEST MOMENTS ‘One of the magic things about insurance is that it’s impossible to name something that insurance doesn’t touch.’ ‘We’re trying to get more connected as a whole.’ ‘Data itself is a commodity; you can buy a list of companies. But you’re not going to advance your company by buying that big list and trying to mail that big list. The only way you’re going to do it is by asking: “Is this person relevant?” It’s the personal outreach and understanding of your goal.’ ‘Who do you want to be? Sometimes you have to accept you can’t be everything to everyone. The best companies do this, especially in insurance; there isn’t anyone who’s number one in every line of business.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Jay Weintraub: If there is a term called "event entrepreneur," that certainly best describes my last 15+ years. I transformed my early digital marketing domain expertise into an industry-leading event. Four exits later, and my passion for thoughtful connecting forms the basis for Connectiv – a portfolio of industry-defining events. While events are what the communities we serve experience, our success is not measured by the number of attendees or sponsors. Instead, we judge ourselves on the impact we make on some of the world's largest, most complex, and necessary global industries.  Today, our portfolio consists of Blueprint (real estate tech), Manifest (logistics tech), Medicarians (age tech), and Cumulus (agri/food tech).  I have been fortunate enough to speak across the globe and am an investor in 60+ companies, as well as having been an advisor to a dozen more.  Should you wish to connect, feel free to email jay at connectiv.com. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayweintraub/  ABOUT CONNECTIV Connectiv is a live events studio that, for the past decade, has dedicated itself to creating industry-leading gatherings. Our passion and expertise lie in owning and operating at scale, vertical-specific conferences.  The events we have created attract more than 15,000 people each year. In 2021, we will be bringing to market two new vertical shows, including Manifest - the future of logistics. Where industry transformation is front and center, and change in industries is inevitable, what will never change is our mission to facilitate face-to-face interactions. We believe the in-person experience is the best way to advance conversations and discover disruptive trends that are changing content consumption and consumer behaviour. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Nathan Stuck, an award-winning leader in the B Corp community and the Founder & CEO of Profitable Purpose Consulting, a culture and impact consultancy that helps companies certify as B Corporations. He also founded and chairs B Local Georgia, a non-profit dedicated to growing the number of purpose-driven businesses in the Peach State. Nathan teaches an experiential MBA course on B Corps at the University of Georgia and serves on the board of B Academics, a nonprofit committed to research and experiential B Corp learning opportunities worldwide. As of March 2023, the latest available data indicates that there are over 6,435 B Corporations in over 159 industries and 88 countries worldwide. The number of certified B Corps is steadily increasing, with the largest growth in the US. 48% of all B Corps are publicly traded companies, and B Corps employ half a million workers worldwide. On this episode, the pair discusses: Why Nathan decided to focus his attention on B Corps, what B Corps mean, why the B Corp movement matters, and what it takes to become a B Corp. KEY TAKEAWAYS I always knew I wanted to work in business since high school, and later I got an international business degree. By 2012, my career was going pretty well, but I went through two lay-offs in six months in 2013. Then I tried to figure out what to do next in my early 30s. I was working gig jobs while waiting to start an MBa and saw a lot of other people doing the same while trying to raise families, and there was no hope. It was eye-opening to see what capitalism had become. I discovered B Corps in the second year of my MBA, and the sky opened, the angels started singing, and I realised I’d found my business community of people who believed in using business as a force for good in society. I’d invested so much in myself: late nights, early mornings, things that I didn’t get paid for, but I paid in time, equity, tears, sweat. I was finally starting to see the reward, and I decided it would make a good book. It had to sound like me, I make fun of myself and talk about the stupid things I’ve done in my life, jobs that I took, times when I failed miserably, stretching outside of my comfort zone not well. I didn’t want it to be like every other business book where “I’m the most successful human being ever born”, this is more: “I’m just like you, I’ve had a bunch of jobs that I didn’t like, and here’s how to hopefully come out of all of that prepared for opportunities.” B Corps are for-profit businesses with a certification that is a lot like LEAN for a building – an outside non-profit comes in and looks at the business holistically: How transparent you are, your corporate governance, your workers, what kinds of benefits you offer, your pay multiplier from top to bottom paid employee, what leave you offer for parents and caregivers, your community impact, your environmental footprint, and your policies for your customers. It scores you out of 80 and validates that. As soon as Gen Z and Millennials found their voices, they got together to say business as usual isn’t working for everybody.  They’re fed up with why things aren’t more equitable, why we’ve allowed the status quo to continue when the status quo doesn’t work, and how we can leverage the business community to solve some of society’s biggest problems.  BEST MOMENTS ‘It isn’t necessarily capitalism that’s evil, it’s what we’ve let it become. There’s a whole community of business leaders, owners, and changemakers who are trying to change the world through business.’ ‘It’s fun to see where you’ve come from, and what you’ve faced, and how you overcame it. A lot of times it’s those moments that unlock the opportunity to find happiness and your purpose in life.’ ‘Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job.’ ‘I like Mondays so much that I start working on Sunday.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Nathan is an award-winning leader in the B Corp community and the Founder & CEO of Profitable Purpose Consulting, a culture and impact consultancy that helps companies certify as B Corporations. He also founded and chairs B Local Georgia, a non-profit dedicated to growing the number of purpose-driven businesses in the Peach State.  He has appeared on multiple podcasts, spoken at events across the country, and hosts the Be the Change Georgia podcast.  His first book, Happy Monday: Designing Your Career with Purpose, came out earlier this year. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Tunde Salako, an active entrepreneur within the Africa FinTech, HealthTech, and InsurTech scene. Tunde wants to connect the dots between inclusion, insurance and technology In Africa. Tunde co-founded HealthTech startup, Hadiel, to drive more health inclusion in Africa and is also the managing partner of the Africa InsurTech Lab, a platform aggregating InsurTech entrepreneurs, startups, corporates, enthusiasts, investors sharing trends on how technology is reverse engineering insurance on the continent and between continents. Investment in the African startup ecosystem accelerated over the past two years with over $3 billion when investment opportunities fell for startups across Europe for instance. During their discussion, Sabine and Tunde dive into 1) FinTech and InsurTech in Africa, 2) opportunities and challenges faced by the local market, and 3) drivers behind the $3 billion of investment made within the African market over the past two years. KEY TAKEAWAYS My background was as a medic, I trained as a physician, and for the past 16-17 years I’ve been on the insurance side of the fence despite the fact I remained within the healthcare system as well. In 2019, I started to go deeper into the insurance ecosystem after more interest was being taken in Africa, but there was no documentation or platform pulling it all together. So, we decided to showcase this to the world and build confidence in relevant areas, so Africa is not left behind. 10-15 years ago, if you wanted to build a website, you had to pay a high cost. By 2017 that changed. Now, building a website is something that’s a walk in the park for everyone, and there is a surge of technology hubs around the whole of Africa (over 700 today), which are very bullish on teaching, coding, programming, and building local talent.  The international ecosystem is now looking into what is happening in Africa, particularly regarding FinTech. Despite the fact there was a slowdown globally, it took until quarter 3 of the year before we started to see that kind of slowing down in Africa because the investors and VC ecosystem are bullish about putting out investments into the local ecosystem. That translated financially into by the end of 2021, the total funding in Africa was about $4 billion, out of which about 55% of those funds were to the FinTech ecosystem, and in 2022 that figure rose to $4.8 billion, still with about 55% to FinTech. When you look at the next 3-7 years, we can churn out stellar innovation because of the technology that is now available in the insurance ecosystem. One of the things that is very clear is that now, with the major players in the industry and InsurTechs that are coming up with innovations, there are going to be more opportunities for partnerships and collaborations either by mergers and/or acquisitions. BEST MOMENTS ‘Africa needs to be heard. There's a lot of things going on down here.’ ‘We want to put a spotlight on the growth and the capabilities that have been developed year-on-year in terms of technology on the continent of Africa.’ ‘We now have local talent that can build solutions that are amenable to our environment and the key problems affecting the African ecosystem.’ ‘Incumbents want to focus on how they reduce risk and how to provide value to the customer, while at the same time leaving the technology to the startups.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Tunde Salako is the CEO of Hadiel, manages Africa InsurTech Lab, and is an advisory council member of Founders Factory Africa. You can find out more about Tunde below. If you want to know more, make sure to reach out to Tunde at Africa InsurTech Rising ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Pablo Duarte and Hilario Itriago, founders of The LATAM InsurTech, a fast-growing insurance technology accelerator for startups wanting to enter the Latam market via Miami. Both Pablo and Hilario have been leading insurance innovation in LATAM for years. They both come from industry, and you will discover during our discussion that we are all in the fractional world of tech, where we split our time across those projects that matter most to us. For instance, alongside supporting The LATAM InsurTech, Pablo is also the director of client engagement at Bain and Company, and Hilario is also the president at BOXX Insurance, a leading cybersecurity provider. During the podcast, they discuss the InsurTech ecosystem in LATAM, how they support the incumbent, broker, and startup worlds, InsurTech LATAM in numbers, and their InsurTech portfolio and opportunities across the LATAM market. KEY TAKEAWAYS The insurance space, as we know it, has a phenomenal opportunity with the transformation technology brings. There's clearly a before-and-after technology that came into our world. That technology is now in consumers' hands, and we believe that is a massive change. One of the critical things we want to ensure in our markets is that more people get insurance. We're convinced that the more people get insurance coverage, the better their social and economic development will be. InsurTech can bring insurance products closer to everyday individuals who can benefit from insurance coverage, and do so straightforwardly and efficiently. This opportunity must be leveraged by both incumbents and InsurTechs alike – and they both can do so. As collaborative as insurance has been over the centuries, the opportunities of InsurTech are no different. We believe that incumbents and InsurTechs can collaborate across the entire value chain, and that we can promote and influence this more and more, the better everybody's going to be, from industry insiders to consumers. The InsurTech sector in Latin America remains very active. Unlike what we’ve seen in other markets where valuations plummeted, we haven't seen an effect in the LATAM market. There are over 400 InsurTechs in LATAM. The growth rate is about 20% year-on-year, and about 6% of companies die each year (just like any venture ecosystem). Some of the fastest-growing markets are in Colombia and Brazil, with one-third of the market in Brazil. We saw the early days of InsurTechs focusing on personal distribution, that type of disruption, which typically is the sexy aspect of where people want to go. But over the years, we’ve seen more and more companies tackling the commercial space – whether it's small commercial or more traditional, larger-scale commercial. There's a great deal of opportunity in the sustainability space of commercial insurance. We're starting to see more opportunities there and, therefore, more InsurTechs. That's one of the angles that will drive many of the region's economies to see more solutions and innovations in that space, which could also be taken to other markets. BEST MOMENTS ‘I've been on this InsurTech journey since 2016. Back then, InsurTech was just starting in Latin America, so there wasn’t much activity going on, and sometimes we even wondered if we made the right choice to get into InsurTech then!’ ‘Through InsurTech, we see greater customization and personalization of value propositions. That is key because traditionally, insurance has been very structured and hard to tailor to customers' specific needs.’ ‘Argentina is a country that has been known for innovation way before FinTech and InsurTech, it's a very entrepreneurial country, and precisely because of the economic circumstances, they have a robust pipeline of solutions created and grown in Argentina, but want to go elsewhere for growth.’ ‘In terms of smaller markets that punch above their weight, our first InsurTech unicorn comes from Chile. It's a great balance between large pipelines of InsurTechs coming from big markets and smaller quantities but tremendous quality coming from smaller markets.' ABOUT THE GUESTS Find out about our guest using those links.  Pablo Duarte: https://www.linkedin.com/in/duartepablo/ Hilario Itriago: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hitriago/ InsurLab LATAM: https://www.latam-insurtech.com/ ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

It’s not easy for small and medium-sized businesses to find the right protection, even though many more small business opportunities have emerged since the pandemic.  Today, Sabine taps into the knowledge of two industry veterans: Jeff Shi of InsurTech Groups and Tim Lovett, formerly at The Hartford, now at Three Insurance, and asks them to understand the current situation with small commercials in the US market. KEY TAKEAWAYS The size of the small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) market varies widely by region and industry. Globally, SMEs account for a significant share of the economy, employ a large share of the workforce, and generate substantial economic activity. Estimates suggest that SMEs make up over 90% of businesses in many countries and are often considered the backbone of the economy. However, due to their diversity and dispersed nature, it can be challenging to estimate the exact size of the SME market. Insurers may have pulled back from small commercial coverage over the past two years for various reasons, including changes in regulations, declining profitability, and increased competition, as well as new regulations on data and ethics. The small commercial lines market can present several challenges for insurers, including higher risk, increased competition, complex coverage, limited data availability, and pricing pressures. These challenges can make it difficult for insurers to operate effectively in the small commercial lines market, leading some companies to pull back from this segment. However, despite these challenges, there is still significant demand for insurance coverage among small businesses, and many insurers are finding ways to overcome these challenges and offer competitive products. The products, services, and business opportunities that insurers evaluate today within the small commercial insurance market include technology-enabled solutions, specialized coverage, customized products, bundled products, alternative distribution channels, and risk management services. These products, services, and business opportunities aim to improve the customer experience, increase profitability, and differentiate from the competition in the small commercial insurance market. However, insurers must carefully evaluate each opportunity's viability and potential, as success will depend on factors such as market demand, competition, and the overall regulatory environment. BEST MOMENTS ‘Small businesses often face a higher level of risk than larger businesses, and insurers may have decided that the risk associated with insuring small businesses was too high.' ‘Small businesses often face a higher level of risk than larger businesses, making it more difficult for insurers to assess and price risk accurately.’ ‘Small business owners are often price-sensitive, and insurers may face pressure to offer competitive pricing, which can impact profitability.’ ‘Insurers are exploring alternative distribution channels, such as insurtech start-ups, to reach small businesses and offer more convenient and accessible insurance solutions.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Jeff Shi is the founder of InsurTech Groups, where he connects consumers with top industry partners by leveraging advanced processes and innovative technology. Jeff helps consumers better understand their policies to meet their unique needs. Website: https://www.insurtechgroups.com/  Tim Lovett was at The Hartford Insurance Group when recording this podcast for six years. Tim helps small and medium-sized companies make better choices. He has a background in claims management and distribution, which enables him to educate and assist agents in growing their small commercial portfolios. Website: https://ir.thehartford.com/  ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Aaron Jones, an award-winning entrepreneur working in Artificial Intelligence. Aaron co-founded Yepic AI, a company in the generative AI space, whose flagship product, “vidvoice.ai,” is a state-of-the-art video translation technology that lip-syncs your video in real time. Think about your Star Trek moments when Kirk says, "Scotty, beam us up!" in any language. KEY TAKEAWAYS Before I was an entrepreneur, I was a cameraman at K Productions, producing a TV show for Sky. I was also an assistant vision mixer, adjusting camera lighting. I thought a career in acting was for me when I was younger, but I later realized I wanted to make a difference in the world. Everything I've done since then has been about what I spend my time on. I want it to make an impact and change people's lives. At university, I started an ethical fashion brand, which got me into e-commerce. I don't care much about fashion, but I do care about people. There was a great story about people producing a sustainable, recycled product locally, and I started a foundation in Cambodia to fund education. The idea was that every time you bought a product, you'd fund a child's education, helping parents earn more and children learn to break the cycle of poverty. I did that for several years, was honored by the Queen for my work, and received numerous awards. Like all great ideas, it evolved, and we realized that if we wanted to make an even bigger impact, we needed to create a place for other designers to grow their brands and sell more products, so we could build more schools. That’s how the business evolved into a company called See Fashion, which was a terrible idea. Never work with fashion designers if you want to make money.  We pivoted away from fashion to technology, enabling eCommerce brands with a product and a business to sell more. We did this by connecting all the stores as an intelligence web, using visual search as a hook to encourage users to show us what they were interested in buying by uploading photos to the app/store. It soon became an API business, and we sold APIs to companies like Yves Saint Laurent and huge corporations. The most valuable part of the business was the visual search. We did not own the IP, and because GDPR came in, our sharing network had to shut down, as I had not sold the company when I had the opportunity to be acquired. That journey led me to meet with the Founders Factory team more than three years ago. It started consulting on an e-commerce enablement project using Generative AI to enhance and generate imagery. It blew my mind that researchers generated images from nothing, and I became obsessed. We've probably created the first ‘stable diffusion’ before research papers made the subject popular. Still, ours wasn't very stable and required an extensive dataset to generate the images. This means that, for an e-commerce brand, it wasn’t that feasible. After this, we got into video and formed Yepic AI. BEST MOMENTS ‘Entrepreneurs are a bit of everything. Starting a business in a new and exciting space Is exciting, but it also requires you to wear many hats at the beginning.’ ‘Don’t work with designers, exit and take acquisition offers, do something meaningful.’ ‘A problem that a lot of Generative AI companies are facing is when the hype burns away, to sell it to businesses as a click-through enhancement/ increase to drive more sales, you need to prove that your image drove the sale. So you certainly more than imagery!’ ‘There’s been loads going on in the background for a long time, but the public has suddenly become aware of it, and they’ve realized that Generative AI isn’t just deep fakes, among others. You can create stuff. You can generate images in Canva now. You can edit people out of your photos using AI. The creative possibilities in the eyes of the public have opened up massively.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Aaron Jones is an award-winning entrepreneur working in the field of Artificial Intelligence. Aaron co-founded Yepic AI, a company in the generative AI space, whose flagship product, “vidvoice.ai,” is a state-of-the-art video translation technology that lip-syncs your video in real time. Vid Voice is being used in business meetings, telehealth, live events, and film dubbing. It's the first and only service of its kind, available via Zoom. Aaron was recognized in the Queen's Birthday Honours list, making him the youngest person to receive a British Empire Medal for services to Industry. He was also awarded the Alumni of the Year 2018 by Essex University and was shortlisted for the Forbes 30 Under 30. Check out the Yepic platform here Learn about Aaron here ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Tristan Pelloux, an expert who is passionate about FinTech and Innovation. After several years in Corporate Strategy and Finance at Virgin Money, Tristan decided to launch Strategwhy, an independent management consultancy. He is also the Chief Pencil Officer at Fintech Review, an online media on the Fintech industry. KEY TAKEAWAYS I was producing lots of insights for Virgin Money (where I worked in corporate finance), trying to figure out what was going on in that world, the trends, innovations. I thought it was a shame that the audience within the company was so small, so I set up the media site in 2020 to share my thoughts on what was going on. It’s evolved from a personal site where I wrote blogs to a platform where others share FinTech insights and interviews with business leaders and entrepreneurs in the field. This is my passion work, and I do consulting, which is how I pay the rent, where I work with companies across Europe and help them with their strategy, and help them to scale to reach a new level. I am Mr Organisation, I like to make lists, do tests, I like plans. I tell my clients we’re going to meet twice a week, this is the agenda of the meeting, this is what we’re going to do this week, this is what we’re going to do next week. It’s about maintaining order. This doesn’t mean you can’t be inventive or innovative; you just need to channel things and do it in a very planned way, otherwise your energy is going in too many directions, and you’re losing time. If everybody is aligned, they know what’s going on, there is a clear plan, and you divide the tasks between people, then you achieve much more. Things move faster and can evolve faster in a startup than in a corporate business, where you’ve got access to a lot of experts and resources. It’s super interesting to see how you can do the same project in two different environments; you need much more adaptability in a startup, and the goals are much more about growth, with corporates, there are more structures and restraints where everybody needs to be on the page before you can move forward. One of the challenges in FinTech is that there are too many companies competing for the same customers, and there’s not enough money to be made from retail customers. It’s not enough to make money from interchange. This can be great for the customer to have so much choice, but it’s also confusing because there are so many players and it’s fragmented. Lots of FinTechs are battling to become the ‘super app’, and we’ll see which emerges. Still, so many of them don’t have good business models and are loss-making, so it will be challenging for them with less funding available. But there are opportunities in the B2B space. BEST MOMENTS ‘The environment is very different now than it was two years ago. It wasn’t easy to sell, but funding was easier, and scaling was easier. The challenges are the same for everybody, from startups to big businesses.’ ‘What’s important for businesses right now is strategic focus and execution – instead of going in many directions at the same time, do one thing very well. That’s how I’m helping businesses.’ ‘The next two years are going to be difficult for FinTechs because rounds will be down, and some others will get no funding at all. There may be consolidation, so FinTechs in a good position will be able to scale faster through inorganic growth.’ ‘Some services that were not economically viable to provide to the mass market now are through the use of technology. So, at which point are you going to provide some sort of personalised service when you can do it cheaply?’ ABOUT THE GUEST After over five years in corporate strategy and finance at Virgin Money UK in London, Tristan Pelloux launched Strategwhy, an independent management consulting company, to provide guidance and advice to business leaders and founders of startup and scale-up companies worldwide. https://fintechreview.net/  ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Michael Doyle, a brand and capital-raising guru who founded Brand Iron 20 years ago. Michael combines his branding and market-making experience with his investment reporting analyst strengths to shape a company dedicated to creating congruent brands supported by strong financial and investment stories. With this approach, Michael helped the companies he supported raise over $5 billion in capital. KEY TAKEAWAYS Most people think of branding as how they present themselves and their company. I take branding beyond simply the message into something that produces tangible results. By integrating branding into all areas of the business – Sales, Marketing, Operations, Finance…- you can create a dynamic value proposition that comes alive, generates leads, and drives revenue. We work with companies to identify what’s unique about their brand, how we successfully package and communicate that, and how we put together and take them to market to drive real results and help them achieve their outcomes, whether that’s driving revenue, driving growth, expanding a new product or service into the marketplace, or expanding into new geographies. The formula for raising $5 billion is really about understanding your niche, how and why you’re better, and how to package that into a clear, concise message. That’s the brand story. What most companies really struggle with is telling a compelling financial story. When I start out with most companies, they give me financials and spreadsheets, and my job is to extract that information. The other side is communicating, highlighting, and showcasing the team and their experience to effectively execute this plan and make investors feel comfortable that they know what they’re doing and confident that they’ll deliver and make this a reality. In order to make ‘x’ revenue, we have to get so many people to make buying decisions. To make those buying decisions, we have to drive so much traffic and convert interested visitors into buyers by getting them to click an ad, blog post, or video. It’s a mathematical formula. We need to understand what it’s going to take, what our message needs to be, which mediums are most effective, and what the timing is. All these ingredients have to come together to deliver the results we want.  BEST MOMENTS ‘You need to understand what your ‘holistic brand’ is. It’s not just logos and websites – which are important – you've got to have a good culture and have the team that's going to deliver, communicate, and convey the claims on your website and brand materials.’ 'We don't want our companies to be vaporware. We want them to be real and to do what they say they will do. By doing this, you can produce some great results.’ 'Whether you're a startup, SMB, or a large enterprise, you should always start with the end in mind. What are the end goals you want to achieve?’ ‘Nothing ever works perfectly. The key is starting with assumptions and then adjusting, optimizing, and fine-tuning it to where it's producing your desired outcome and results you're trying to achieve.' ABOUT THE GUEST CEO & Brand Champion of LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine talks to Axel Thibon, founder of Wizest, the next generation of investment trading platforms. With his team, Axel aims to make personal investing more accessible, engaging, and aligned with today's digital platforms and changing consumer behavior. Today, people think that investing is complicated and intimidating. What if there were a platform to pair novice investors with financial experts? Before Wizest, Alex worked in banking for over six years. He led and guided 4 M&A/integration projects for banks ranging from $300M to $15B, and led strategy and transformation initiatives at Renault Nissan Mitsubishi for 9 years and at Sabadell United Bank for 5 years. He has brought all that expertise to Wizest for the last 4 years. Axel has managed and launched a brand new digital bank from scratch.  Sabine and Axel discuss why we need to make investing simple, the challenges with current mass-market wealth management platforms, how Wizest works, and the target market and sources of success. KEY TAKEAWAYS Wizest democratizes access to the stock market through technology so everyone can invest just like the top 1%. A Wizest client has access to a team of financial experts who invest on their behalf, and the client can choose which expert to add to their team with a single click, instantly copying that expert's portfolio.  Axel had an interesting path before doing Wizest. He was a mechanical engineer for the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi group, in charge of developing components for electric vehicles. When attempting to invest for the future, Axel found the process complicated and unsupportive, which inspired him to enter the banking world, gaining experience launching a digital bank from scratch and eventually dedicating his efforts to making investment simpler with Wizest. Wizest solves the problems that limited capital investors face, with minimum investment barriers set by banks, the investor’s lack of experience and knowledge of the stock market, and the reluctance to invest due to the lack of inclusion and transparency on earlier platforms.  When you use Wizest for the first time, you see people. It is very welcoming and personal, with the financial investors sharing their personal profiles first, so you can get to know them before you see their recommended portfolios and understand their investment styles.  Wizest is working to form partnerships with corporations to increase their reach by offering Wizest memberships to their employees. This kind of service is to offer a service in between savings and wealth management or private investment. There is global potential for this kind of financial accessibility solution.  Axel recommends approaching investing as a personal experience. Rather than just approaching a bank and taking the standard route to retirement-type investments, take some time to fully consider your current financial situation and your goals. Stick to your plan and avoid reacting to every financial crisis.  BEST MOMENTS ‘This is a journey that is shared by many of us. When we want to start investing with limited capital, we tend to go with cheap or even free solutions. If you don't have any finance background and don't know what to buy and what to sell, it's tough.’ ‘It's not about the service itself, which is about being able to invest or trade, but how the investing happens. So that's what we decided to change with Wizest, which is different from the others because it's not only making it more convenient and accessible, but it is also changing how it is happening.' ‘From there, the user can choose one or several investors they like to build a team. They can build a team that will work for them. When I say that when you have $2,000, $5,000, and $10,000 to work with in Wizest, you then work with your team. Your experts help you build your real portfolio. The way you manage your portfolio is not by managing your underlying holdings but by managing your team.’  ‘It’s not like setting up a lemonade stand. To be able to launch Wizest, we have to be able to make sure we have a secure solution that is compliant with regulations and that we have the right sort of technical integrations.’ ‘When you put the plan in motion, the most important thing most people forget is sticking to the plan. Don't be affected by what is happening today or tomorrow in the market, or overreact and be scared, because when we look historically over the last hundred years, the markets are always up and down.'    ABOUT THE GUEST With his team, Axel aims to make personal investing more accessible, engaging, and aligned with today's digital platforms and changing consumer behavior. Today, people think that investing is complicated and intimidating. What if there were a platform to pair novice investors with financial experts? Before Wizest, Alex worked in banking for over six years. Led and guided4 M&A/integration projects for banks ranging from $300M to $15B Led strategy/ transformation initiatives Managed a digital Bank and launched a new bank from scratch ABOUT WIZEST Described by Forbes as “far more authentic than Robinhood will ever be," Wizest is the next-generation investment trading platform. Our technology is democratizing access to the stock market so everyone can invest, like the 1%. Build a team of financial experts to invest on your behalf by copying their portfolios in one click. Optimize with performance leaderboards, pick experts you relate to and align with your values, then learn why they make their trades in your news feed. There’s no limit to the expertise at your fingertips! Wizest aims to democratize the stock market and make investing accessible for everyone. The team believes everyone should be able to invest and achieve their financial goals, regardless of their experience or background. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Dennis Kelly, CEO and co-founder of Postalytics, a fast-growing software company that automates direct mail marketing, measures the results from direct mailing activity, and connects such campaigns to CRM and marketing automation systems to accelerate the way online marketing connects with offline marketing.  With expertise in building VC-backed and self-financed businesses, Dennis is a 6-time entrepreneur. He exited 4 of these businesses to larger corporations. Postalytics has grown rapidly with no VC investment, and today is scaling in the US and Canada, with aspirations to expand into Europe. During the podcast, the pair cover 1) Dennis’ lessons on building VC-backed and self-financed businesses, 2) what PLG (Product-led growth) means, 3) why every business needs to learn a little bit about PLG, and 4) Postalytics’ proposition and roadmap to success. KEY TAKEAWAYS I grew up on a farm where my family and I worked very hard and were entrepreneurial in trying to make extra money. I’d reach out to neighbors and community members to offer my services and help with whatever needed to be done. Some of those lessons apply today, such as... not being afraid to knock on someone's door and tell them what you're doing and how you can help them.  Postalytics is a direct mail automation software tool designed to solve three big problems with the direct mail marketing workflow. This legacy marketing channel has been around for many years and remains very useful and successful, but it hasn't received much technological investment. We've taken some of the best practices from digital marketing and combined them into a software tool that enables marketers to deploy direct mail campaigns in minutes rather than weeks. We connect direct mail – a physical channel where a printed piece of paper is sent through the postal service – to the marketing tech stack (CRM, CDP), which drives and accumulates knowledge of what happens in a direct mail marketing campaign through Postalytics. Similar to how all digital marketing channels are driven from central locations. We've created a method of assigning a unique QR code to each recipient of a piece of mail. The opportunity is to use that physical piece of paper that offers you something while holding it, and drive them to your website through the QR code, which everybody is comfortable with now. BEST MOMENTS ‘Each time you participate in the design and launch of a startup, there's always tremendous learning you can take away from that experience.’ ‘One of the challenges with any offline marketing channel is measuring what is successful and who is/isn't responding. We've created some proprietary methods of measuring both the delivery of the mail and who’s responding and where they are going on your website.’ ‘It's impossible for the QR codes to be manipulated by a third party because each one is unique and fully encrypted.’ ‘The cost of creating a highly scalable, high-performance platform in the cloud has plummeted. You can do so without spending a huge amount of money. Our business model allows us to capture customers without a tremendous capital outlay. We didn't need to raise much money to get this business off the ground. Once the business got going, it became self-sustaining.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Denis Kelly is CEO of Postalytics, a fast-growing software company that automates direct mail marketing, measures the results, and connects it to CRM/Marketing Automation.  Postalytics evolved from Boingnet, a software tool used by direct mail service providers and agencies to create landing pages and email campaigns that complement personalized direct mail. I was a co-owner of Wireless City, a chain of 37 Verizon Wireless stores based in Florida, Massachusetts, and Georgia. The company was acquired by Go Wireless in October 2011. Before Wireless City, I was CEO at Adesso Systems, an enterprise mobility software company. Previously, I was the CEO and Co-Founder of Adjoin Solutions, Inc., an early leader in the Web Services Management market. Adjoin was acquired by Computer Associates in July 2003. Before founding Adjoin, I was VP of Web Services at Palm (PALM), leading the Palm.net wireless business, the MyPalm web and mobile portals, and other Palm web properties. Previously, I was COO & Co-Founder of AnyDay.com (sold to Palm) and headed sales at Achieve Healthcare, the largest provider of enterprise software and services to the post-acute healthcare industry. And COO at Genesis Business Systems (sold to Achieve). Dennis holds a BA in economics from Colgate University. I build companies, typically in the technology space. My role typically spans product development, sales, marketing, finance, and HR. I started life as a sales guy, spent time building products and running data centers, have been CEO of venture-backed startups, and have built self-financed businesses. ABOUT POSTALYTICS With automated direct mail marketing, marketers use Postalytics to stand out from their competitors. Drive new leads and sales with personalized direct mail that complements email and digital marketing. Deep integration with HubSpot, Salesforce, and other CRM/Marketing Automation tools enables direct mail to look, act, and feel like a digital marketing channel that also produces trackable postcards and letters. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to James Marshall, managing director of Spinning Fox, a product-led design agency focused on helping large and small businesses solve problems more creatively. James has 11 years of delivery experience and a proven ability to manage super large global accounts, having worked for companies including HSBC, Nike, Unilever, PepsiCo, Adidas, Dyson, Samsung, Barclays, and Ford. He is passionate about creating tech and operational solutions to solve business and consumer problems and drive opportunities much faster than traditional approaches. On the podcast, the pair discuss: 1) James’ journey into the design thinking and user experience world, 2) why operational efficiency is so hot right now, 3) the power of taking an outside-in perspective, and 4) good problem solving requires us all to take calculated risks. KEY TAKEAWAYS I wasn't that good at school; it didn't suit me very well, but things clicked when I went to university to study graphic design. I worked in my early career as a designer, but I had ambitions to own my own company and quickly spotted that I needed to develop more business skills. I moved to London to work in digital agencies and took a sideways step into programme leadership, where I worked with incredible clients. That's where I found I was passionate about delivering digital product solutions. Spinning Fox was created after we witnessed digital product teams trying to deliver digital products and platforms and failing, which was quite common, and through those failures, we learned. We wanted to build a company to create products and use our learnings to solve problems and develop solutions for clients. Underlying that is a love for design and tech and using it to solve problems. At a high level, the approach we try to take is firstly around discovery, immersing ourselves in our client's world. We can fast-track that process by doing some mini-workshops, meeting with stakeholders, and meeting the user, ideally, to understand the opportunity as quickly as possible and then defining things, identifying the user’s needs, pain points, and starting to work out the solution. Then we move into rapid prototyping and a cycle of testing and iteration, getting user feedback as quickly as possible before moving into implementation. We have full end-to-end delivery capabilities with our team of engineers, and QA is baked into our process.  We've had instances where the best solution for the client is something we can't do, but we'll work with them as a partner and find a third party to help deliver it. We're not afraid to say that. We won’t always engineer things to force them into the areas where we have significant expertise and prior knowledge. It’s about being honest and transparent with a client. BEST MOMENTS ‘I learned early that if I wanted something, I had to work for it.’ 'Spinning Fox is a collective of technologists, innovators, strategists, and designers, all with one shared passion: Solving problems. That's how we deliver value to our clients.’ ‘Everything we do puts the customer at the heart of everything throughout the process to validate that we're on the right track.’ ‘There's no time to stand still as a digital product agency. If you do, then you’ll become a dinosaur in five minutes. You have to be very aware of what's happening in the future. Being able to adapt your business model quite quickly is key.’ ABOUT THE GUEST James Marshall is a delivery specialist passionate about creating tech and operational solutions to business and consumer problems or opportunities. He is motivated by working in an environment with like-minded, multidisciplinary teams. With 11 years of delivery experience, James has a proven ability to manage projects with values over £1m for global accounts, including HSBC, Nike, Unilever, PepsiCo, Adidas, Dyson, Samsung, Barclays, and Ford. Programme management of projects including product and service design, experiential, interactive retail, digital within visitor attractions, large-scale web/app builds, end-to-end customer experience strategy, and business transformation. Experience implementing process and operational improvements and training teams to run projects using Agile delivery techniques. Fully certified ScrumMaster and DSDM AgilePM with strong and agile experience. Strong client servicing skills through working as the main client contact across many projects and accounts. Strategic thinker and problem solver with the ability to use knowledge and experience to generate new business opportunities and deliver against client goals for programmes of work. Email: jmarshall@spinningfox.com  ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Guillaume Bonnissent, CEO and co-founder of Quotech, a data provider and technology platform that aims to give access to the very best data to insurance practitioners - from executive decision-makers, brokers, underwriters, actuaries, and even data scientists. Guillaume has 20 years of insurance experience as both an underwriter and a senior executive. Throughout his career, Guillaume encountered one constant issue: the poor quality of data available to decision-makers at all levels, mainly due to legacy constraints. During the podcast, Sabine and Guillaume cover: 1) leveraging 13 years of underwriting expertise to build Quotech, 2) delivering underwriting excellence in the 21st century, 3) growing and scaling Quotech, and finally 4) Guillaume’s roadmap to success. KEY TAKEAWAYS Insurance companies must become better underwriters to remain competitive in the marketplace. Underwriting excellence is essential for an insurer to understand, price, and manage a customer's risk to minimise losses from potential insurance claims. Achieving this balance between insurer profitability and adequate protection for the insured is becoming increasingly difficult due to the complexity of engagements spreading across the insurance market. Our brokers provide clients with quick, insightful risk management advice while helping them complete their application forms. Our underwriters have access to better, richer, and more consistent data and analysis to apply their underwriting judgment. Our actuaries and underwriting managers analyse and review the underwriting judgement, along with all the data and analyses reviewed by the underwriter. Our process includes automated collection and analysis of each business class's most relevant data points, a complete audit trail of the data and decisions made against it, and management of the different authority levels, risk appetites, and rating models. Underwriting excellence in insurance is the process of assessing, pricing, and managing a customer's risk to achieve an optimal balance between the insurer's profitability and the insured's adequate level of protection. The goal is to deliver a product that meets the expectations and needs of both parties while mitigating any potential losses from an insurance claim. BEST MOMENTS ‘Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Digital Insurance Platform, estimated at $102.2 billion in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of $169.2bn by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 9% over the analysis period.’ ‘Insurance companies must become better underwriters to remain competitive.’ ‘Achieving the balance between profitability for the insurer and adequate protection for the insured is becoming increasingly difficult due to the complexity of the insurance market.’ ‘Underwriting excellence involves multiple steps, such as analysing customer data and risk factors, assessing potential losses, and deciding on a fair price for coverage. Experienced underwriters must be able to review relevant information efficiently and accurately make sound decisions about each risk. Building strong relationships with customers is also important.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Guillaume has 20 years of insurance experience as both an underwriter and senior executive.  Throughout his career, Guillaume encountered one constant issue: the poor quality of data available to decision-makers at all levels, mainly due to legacy systems.  I've held various positions in Underwriting and Operations, both in the Lloyd's and Company markets, and have underwritten other lines of business, including Credit Risk Insurance and Property Reinsurance. I am very interested in Data Science with proficiency in R and Artificial Intelligence. ABOUT QUOTECH Quotech is a data provider and technology platform that aims to give access to the best data to all insurance industry practitioners - from brokers, underwriters, actuaries, and data scientists to claims adjusters and business developers, all the way up to the Board of Directors. Quotech wants to help everyone in the insurance distribution chain to make better decisions based on accurate, material, and relevant information. Quotech creates beneficial insurance technology applications, making data-fuelled processes dramatically more efficient for commercial underwriters and brokers. Our founder, Guillaume, is our difference. We're also led by an experienced syndicate builder and MGA underwriter who's also a programmer. His first-hand understanding of re/insurance processes allows Quotech to deliver practical, efficient solutions that enhance and streamline workflows.  ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Sara Simeone, CEO and Co-Founder of Niftyz (formerly Digital Oracles), as well as of her recent initiative, the NoCodeLab, and Co-Chair of Start-up Working Group, Crypto Valley. Sara is a strategist with a commercial mind. She was one of the first to publish a paper in 2018 on how machine learning and blockchain will impact the future of digital marketing. Sara worked with a portfolio of leading global accelerators, incubators, and VC professionals to tackle company maturity and co-develop programmes that both nurture potential and offer innovative capabilities to early-stage ventures. During the course of their discussions, both ladies discussed 1) the Metaverse, NFTs, and Web 3.0, 3) why Sara launched and developed NFTs, 3) where the market for NFTs is going, and 4) what the investment challenges and opportunities are to deliver for the immersive internet in the right way. KEY TAKEAWAYS I’ve been at the forefront of new technologies and developments on the web since the beginning of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. That’s what brought me to where we are today. I researched how machine learning and blockchain will impact the future of data, and in 2017, I got in touch with the Crypto Valley Environment and began building a network in Italy and the UK. Web 2.0, the world we live in now, is dominated by platforms we use to share content and information online. Sometimes, unbeknownst to us, our information is sold online. It’s a business model that Facebook (Meta), Twitter, and many other publishers use to generate revenue. Web 3.0 is a container of new terminology. We’re looking at it as a decentralized web where we decide how our information is used and who we share it with, though there are still significant technical limitations and a significant knowledge gap. Metaverse and NFTs are closely connected. Niftyz sees NFTs as keys that unlock specific content stored either on-chain or off-chain, revealing a wealth of information, data, tools, features, badges, and exciting new things in the metaverse. If we don’t understand NFTs and how to use these new tools, it will be challenging to access the metaverse. We’ve been trained by the web and society to monetize the outputs we create. With Web 3.0 I see another angle, what I call ‘the input economy’ where I can start monetizing at every single step that goes into creating that output. From this perspective, we can see NFTs as empowering the monetization of this value-creation process. For instance, if my brand creates mock-ups of my fashion items, I could create an NFT version of each mock-up and ask my community to vote by purchasing the one they like best. This market research can be used in the future to create a physical item that people want. From here, AMAs with the designer, virtual fashion events for users only, etc. BEST MOMENTS ‘Niftyz is basically a platform that wants to enable businesses and brands of all sizes and industries that want to get into this new world of NFTs.’ ‘Everybody’s trying to get into the Metaverse, and brands are building teams with competencies around this, but it’s more of a PR/marketing play at the moment, whereas in the future, it will give some returns.’ ‘NFTs have a bad reputation. In every phase of the internet, cowboys are trying to get rich quickly. Now, NFTs have begun to be adopted by artists because they’ve found a way to get in touch with a different type of audience.’ ‘Web 3.0 is creating a new value for our know-how. That’s the ethos behind Niftyz, empowering people, businesses, and brands to monetize their know-how in a brand new way.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Sara Simeone is CEO and Co-Founder of Niftyz (formerly Digital Oracles), the NoCodeLab, and Co-Chair of Start-up Working Group of the Crypto Valley. She is also a technology industry mentor, strategist, and growth management specialist with particular strengths in the optimization and commercial development of early-stage, rapid-development tech businesses.  Her ability to predict commercial and technical challenges far ahead of critical milestones is proven. As a respected strategist, she works with a portfolio of leading global Accelerators, Incubators, and VC professionals, tracking companies’ progress and maturity and co-developing programs that both nurture potential and offer 360-degree support to innovative early-stage ventures.  With an ability to decipher complex business concepts and technologies, she creates data and KPI-based go-to-market strategies that really work. Practical experience includes managing and mentoring senior teams, negotiating multi-million-pound contracts, and guiding companies to achieve maximum results without compromising team morale and P&L management.  In 2018, Sara Simeone published her master's thesis on how machine learning and blockchain will impact the future of digital marketing. She was one of the first marketers in the world to publish a piece on the topic. This piece of research gave her access to several professional opportunities: mentoring startups at CV Labs in Crypto Valley (Switzerland); consulting for emerging technology companies in the UK and abroad, and lecturing at Manchester Metropolitan University as an Associate Lecturer of Digital Marketing Strategy. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Dr. Avi Baruch, co-founder and COO of Previsico, and Jonathan Jackson, co-founder and CEO of Previsico. Previsico is a specialist in surface water flood forecasting, enabling people and organisations to minimise the impact of flooding.  Flooding cost the global economy more than $82 billion in 2021, accounting for nearly a third of all losses from natural catastrophes, according to a 2022 study by the Swiss Re Institute. Estimates from Statista show that 29 million people were affected by Flooding in 2021. Flooding is the second-largest weather-related peril after droughts.  During the course of the podcast, Avi, Jonathan, and Sabine discuss: 1) Flooding and the difference between natural hazards and man-made disasters, 2) Previsico’s four step-method to reduce flood risk, 3) build back better and why we ought to protect the small and medium-sized business from flooding, 4) protect, predict, prevent and 5) top tips to reduce the risk of flood. KEY TAKEAWAYS During my PhD, I realized academia wasn’t for me, but I saw so much potential in the technology we were building to monitor floodwater in real time and issue early warnings. I felt the only way to really get it to be used effectively on the ground was to spin out the company. We explored quite a few markets to find which would be best served by it, and that’s where I met Johnathan. To reduce flood risk, we recommend four main steps: Step 1 – Understand your risk. There are a lot of really good risk-monitoring products already out there on the market. Step 2 – Invest in the right risk measures, such as flood defences or non-return valves. Step 3 – Have a flood action plan: know what to do when you’re expecting a flood, move stock, turn off electricity, and identify who’s responsible for the response. Step 4 – Use an early warning system. This is the final part of the jigsaw when building flood resistance. If you take all those steps, you can substantially reduce the risk and hopefully prevent a disaster from ever occurring. Resilience measures are often really simple things, like turning off the gas, electricity, and water. That alone can save a huge amount. Moving your car to a safer place is really simple stuff that makes a huge difference. People in communities like Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire, for example, where back in 2015 they were closed down for months after a flood, are not reopening after three days; it’s a massive change because they understand what to do. Other communities that are not used to floods are more challenging because you’ve got to know what to do with the warning you’ve been given. COP26 made a big play around the fact that the UK government cannot defend the country against floods, the country has to learn to adapt to floods, and adaptation means starting to take responsibility for flood plans and resilience measures. That’s being backed up by the insurance industry making really important moves in terms of ‘build back better’, where a property has been hit by flood, that homeowner will be given up to £10,000 additional funding by a number of insurers to help them put in flood resilience measures to protect against flood going forward. BEST MOMENTS ‘Flood risk is rising, there’s more extreme weather, the weather is more volatile, climate change is causing heavier downpours – particularly in the summer – and longer, wetter winters.’ ‘There’s no such thing as a natural disaster. There are natural hazards and human disasters. If you know where the hazard is going to be and you are able to prepare for it effectively, it doesn’t need to be a disaster.’ ‘If people are used to having to cope with floods, they tend to know what to do. Our solution is a great value-add that we can bring to that situation.’ ‘We shouldn’t be building new developments on floodplains, especially when we haven’t fully addressed the impact that flooding will have on those properties.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Avi Baruch Jonathan Jackson ABOUT PREVISICO Previsico is a surface water flood forecasting specialist enabling people and organisations to minimise the impact of flooding. Backed by Foresight Group and underpinned by two decades of research at Loughborough University, Previsico’s world-leading solution is used by insurers, businesses, and the government to reduce losses. Our mission is to be the leading global provider of cutting-edge flood prediction that saves lives and livelihoods while significantly reducing the cost of flooding. Having launched in January 2019, we have a growing team of ~25 people with offices in Loughborough and London. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Jeff Williams, former Managing Director for Kayrros USA, a technology-focused earth observation analytics company using unconventional geospatial data to bring new insights to the world’s biggest industries, including energy, commodity, and insurance. Jeff has an incredible background in top-5 consultancy and M&A, acquired in the energy sector. He uses these skills every day as he deep dives into the challenge posed by methane's impact on environmental change.  During the course of our conversation, the pair discussed: 1) Kayrros as a series C scaleup focused on delivering solutions using unconventional geospatial data, 2) Kayrros - Off the shelf platform… with white box data analytics and scoring mechanisms to meet the need of today’s underwriters and regulators, and 3) Kayrros, the long-term geospatial partner for the insurance sector looking at solving wildfire and other connected catastrophic events. KEY TAKEAWAYS I got my start, like many Texans who want to get into technology, I started working for a large consulting company at the tip of the spear of energy tech. There, I started working with large energy companies on data and realized that all their data is spatially related. They have assets all over the country, a sensor network that they weren’t leveraging, but more importantly, we were solving problems that were facing challenges of where to go and where not to go. I then started working with geospatial startups and realized there’s a lot of data out there that companies aren’t leveraging effectively. Six months ago, I started working at Kayrros, where they’ve generated real profits in the commodities and energy markets. I fundamentally believe I can leverage the foundation they built to work with the insurance industry and expand it from the commodities and energy industry into insurance. We’ve built our insights to include asset monitoring for energy companies to track climate data and detect emissions. We’ve evolved from just an insights company to a climate data company. We see the cause of methane emissions, and now we want to start tracking the effects, which include wildfires and floods, and the industries that are really going to be affected by those issues are insurance and banking, which is why we’re really starting to focus on those as the following industries to work with. We track pre-risk, we have a risk score, and we’re using several different geospatial datasets – weather and landslide risk. We also provide live monitoring, using satellite data to detect fires with rapid updates we can share with our clients. Also, post-fire, we provide a damage assessment. What we’re focussing on is not one specific thing. We’re affecting several parts of the insurance company, including underwriting, customer communication, and claims. A challenge we see with geospatial data is insufficient refreshes, poor granularity, and a lack of transparency. The lack of transparency has really hurt the geospatial industry over the past couple of years. We don’t view ourselves as a black-box solution. Many of our potential customers just get handed a solution by other companies. What we want to do is work with our customers and provide a white-box solution where they know exactly what all the data inputs are, and we do that together.  BEST MOMENTS ‘Companies like Kayrros really want to provide the right insights, and geospatial data really provides those insights for them.’ ‘Kayrros got its name using satellite data to detect global crude tank levels. We used radar to detect how much crude oil was in tanks.’ ‘Track climate data using satellites, drones, AI, and cell phone data.’ ‘We’re fighting the geospatial fatigue in industries. We’re doing that by positioning Kayrros as a true geospatial partner, not a vendor.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Jeff Williams is the Managing Director of Sales & Business Development for Kayrros, where he is responsible for driving the Kayrros North American growth strategy. Jeff's roots run deep in Houston, as demonstrated by his love for the Astros. Last but not least, his greatest accomplishment is his family, which includes his wife, Lucy, and their two kids, Jake and Lucy Williams. ABOUT KAYRROS:  Kayrros is a technology-focused earth observation analytics firm using unconventional data to bring new insights to the world’s biggest industries. By harnessing the power of satellite imagery, natural language processing, machine learning, and advanced mathematics, the team at Kayrros delivers actionable intelligence on virtually any asset worldwide, in near real-time, to support better decision-making. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Federico Spagnoli, at the time President and Head of Emerging Markets Ecosystems for Prudential Financial LATAM, now Vice President of International Total Wellness Solutions. Federico is well known for his work launching Vitality in South America and providing health services to over 1.5 million South Americans, who can today download an App from their mobile device to get access to a multitude of health services.  During this podcast, Sabine and Federico evaluate 1) Federico’s vision about enhancing people’s physical, mental, and financial wellness, 2) where the world of health insurance is going regarding protection and prevention, 3) relevant strategic distribution approaches by augmenting the broker channel, and 3) tips for those interested in monetization models.   KEY TAKEAWAYS I joined Prudential 6 years ago doing an executive program with SAID within Oxford University focusing on disruption and innovation. Part of the theme of my paper was related to disruption in the insurance industry because we haven’t seen this in the industry in many years. When I started focusing on the critical driver affecting our customers. I realized there were a lot of opportunities there for us to start thinking very differently about how we approach business today. These past six years have been the first time I’ve worked in the life insurance industry. I was asked why life and health insurance companies aren’t doing more to prevent conditions and situations that eventually will become a claim, like high cholesterol, which – in some instances – include a pill that can reduce mortality rates by 50%. That led me to look at the aging population, which, along with global warming, is one of the biggest challenges we’re facing as a society. We need to look at the ability to retire comfortably and the ability to afford rising healthcare costs. This made me think about a lot of new technologies and data capabilities that are coming to market that life insurers could use to start preventing, anticipating, and mitigating bad conditions. Mortality risk is not top of mind for customers because today, we live longer. The problem we face today concerns aging populations and how to reduce the risk of being unhealthy through behavior change. Physical, mental, and financial wellness is the ability to understand your emotions around money and develop healthy feelings and a personal literacy around money and wellness. Physical, mental, and financial wellness topics also encompass the tools and strategies that help you feel secure and in control of your personal life. The insurer can engage directly with the customer through the SuperApp, where behavioral economics and gamification allow for the insurer to influence the customer’s behavior by providing annual physical checks and rewards through coins, integrated into a marketplace with choices for rewards, and continuously bringing fresh and exciting content to the viewer.   BEST MOMENTS ‘If you follow a customer-centric approach, you can't view customers with one lens. Not being able to afford healthcare services could result in mental health issues because one has anxieties, which also affect one's physical health -- all generated by limited financial means. We have to look at them all together and provide a single integrated solution.’ ‘We’re now shifting from life insurance protection to lifetime protection.’ ‘New generations are thinking more about global warming, social impact, financial inclusion, and a more balanced lifestyle. In insurance, we are already connecting with these customer groups over a long period of time because of the nature of the insurance that we sell. We can start introducing several solutions as part of a platform that can address and be much more relevant to our customer’s needs and behaviors and influence them.’ ‘Customers that are using the Prudential platform provide a Net Promoter score that is twice higher than those customers that don’t use the platform. The highest level of satisfaction has a direct impact on renewal rates, and platinum customers show higher life expectancy and lower claims ratios.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Federico Spagnoli is passionate about Ecosystem/Strategy and Innovation. General and Life Insurance professional with international experience. Expertise in re-underwriting insurance portfolios, strategic planning, M&A, and business development.  Over six years in Prudential Financial. PII Regional President of Argentina, Mexico, Chile, and Peru (through the JV with ILC/Habitat AFP). Direct responsibility for Prudential Seguros Argentina and Prudential Seguros México.  Responsible for managing the PII's relationship with AFP Habitat and acting as Europe - Latin America head of strategic business development. Member of the Board of Directors of Prudential Seguros Mexico and AFP Habitat About Prudential Financial:  Prudential Financial (NYSE:PRU) was founded on the belief that financial security should be within reach for everyone. For over 140 years, Prudential has helped our customers reach their potential and tackle life's challenges for now and future generations to come. Today, the group is one of the world’s largest financial services institutions, offering individual and institutional clients a wide array of financial products and services. With operations in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America, Prudential Financial is known for delivering on its promises to its customers and is recognized as a trusted brand and one of the world’s most admired companies.  ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Alexis Cierra Vaughn, the Senior Director of Agency Marketing at Cowbell and the producer and host of the Cowbell Factor, a podcast ranked at the top of its category across several key international markets. Alexis is an outstanding professional and mum, with a passion for business and for enabling the success of others.  Alexis has been in the insurance sector for 13 years and has built a strong expertise in explaining, in simple terms, what Cyber security means AND why one needs to protect oneself against cyber risk. During the course of the podcast, they discuss three main topics: 1) Alexis has been in insurance for 13 years. SO Let’s discover a millennial’s path into insurance, 2) Cowbell's journey to becoming a cyber security risk prevention leader, 3) How the product works and why it is essential to educate the user and... 4) the Cowbell Factor! KEY TAKEAWAYS I started my 13-year career in insurance as an agent, and within my first three years, I made a significant impact by being great at relationship-building. My background was in retail sales. I was asked to get into the insurance industry several times, but I thought it would be boring. I took a leap of faith and studied for a license to see if it interested me… I immediately fell in love with it. It was perfect for me. I then thought: “How do I help other single moms do this?” I didn’t want to keep all the diamonds and jewels to myself. I wanted to ensure I shared the wealth. So, I went independent and started my own agency with 26 single moms, teaching them everything there is to know about success in the insurance industry. I focus on creative approaches and ways to get the message out about the importance of cyber insurance, specifically to the small-and-medium-sized business market – anyone from $0 to $1 billion in revenue. Cyber includes phishing emails, phishing text messages, and how people use QR codes and swap them. In a post-pandemic world, we are all connected to the internet in some type of way. We’re literally in an interconnected environment where we’re always on our phones, iPads, laptops and moving so quickly that we’ll miss tiny things like one letter change in the domain – for example, websites with .co instead of .com. That’s so important. Your first line of defense is always your employees. You want to make sure you have multi-factor authentication in place. It might take an extra 5 minutes to log in, but I’m telling you, it’s so much better to spend that extra 5 minutes rather than fork out $5 million because you’re a victim of a ransomware attack. BEST MOMENTS ‘I took a networking approach, and within the first two years of having my agency, I grew my business from 25 to 1,165 clients off pure networking and building relationships in the community.’ ‘I break everything all the way down and make such a complex product topic, like cyber insurance, become digestible for agents, brokers, and policyholders.’ ‘I believe that the direction cyber insurance is going in should be the life insurance for a small business. If they don’t have cyber insurance and they are a victim of a cyber attack, it could put them out of business.’ ‘As a millennial, our biggest thing is we want to make an impact on our community and globally. We’re constant learners, and the insurance industry really creates a space where there’s always something new on the horizon, every product is ever-changing, and the cyber landscape changes on a daily, if not hourly, basis.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Alexis is a 13-year Award-Winning Insurance Expert and Senior Director of Agency Marketing at leading InsurTech Cowbell, where she oversees all agency engagement efforts for 18,000 producers appointed with Cowbell. Alexis is also the Host & Producer of "The Cowbell Factors" Podcast she created to bridge the gap between the Cybersecurity and Cyber Insurance industries. The show is ranked #28 in the US, #16 in India, #35 in the UK, #20 in Israel, and #100 in Australia on Apple Podcast Business News. The show is now available on iHeartRadio for national distribution after only five months on air and can be found on Spotify and all other streaming platforms. She is also a highly sought-after Cyber Educator in the agency community. Cowbell is a pioneer of Adaptive Cyber Insurance, a leader in providing coverage for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that adapts to today’s and tomorrow’s threats and provides advanced warning of cyber risk exposures. Alexis was recently named by "Insurance Business America" as one of the top 85 trailblazing Elite Women in Insurance for 2022 and, in 2022, as a top "Influencer" on the "Top 100 Insurance Innovators" list. Alexis has over 16 years of experience spearheading sales, fundraising, recruiting, and marketing for companies in the midst of transition uplifts. Alexis has a very diverse background in Insurance, Cloud-based Technology, Benefits & Human Resource Consulting industries. Alexis has also managed Global Business Development Teams in the USA, Canada, and LATAM markets. Alexis has led countless marketing initiatives that increased market awareness, generated leads that have resulted in significant revenue in the Oil, Film & Entertainment, Government, Insurance, Logistics, Human Resources, Retail, Higher Ed, and Technology industries.  ABOUT COWBELL-CYBER Cowbell is the leading provider of cyber insurance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the pioneer of Adaptive Cyber Insurance. Cowbell delivers standalone cyber coverage tailored to each business's unique needs. Our innovative approach relies on AI for continuous risk assessment and underwriting, while delivering policyholders a closed-loop risk management approach with risk prevention, risk mitigation, incident preparedness, and response services.  ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Xavier Gomez, a Fintech Thought Leader and specialist in Investment Banking and Wealth Management with solid expertise in Fintech, Digital Assets, and Private Equity. Xavier writes and speaks about emerging trends in our digital economy, with a sharp lens on what is disrupting finance: financial inclusion and regtech.  Xavier is also the co-chief editor of Invyo Insights, a Global Fintech Intelligence platform powered by Invyo. Xavier and his team partner with the best experts and entrepreneurs in the region to cover the latest trends across Digital Banking, Payments, InsurTech, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Financial Inclusion, and Financial Literacy. Over the course of their discussion, the pair dives into the Digital Economy, FinTech, and WealthTech trends that affect the world of finance today and in the future. KEY TAKEAWAYS I started my career as an investment banker in equity capital, moving between top management positions and trading algorithmic and self-derivatives. I then moved into wealth management, so I have a good understanding of the banking and finance sector, particularly in digitalization. Invyo is a data-driven startup that uses machine learning to help private equity firms and VCs to take investment opportunities to compare the data of the different kinds of investments they can do, and also to detect what is wrong in terms of competition. We provide a solution for everyone, from VCs, principals, and partners, to be driven and empowered by the data, so they don’t waste time collecting the data themselves, as they have all the elements possible. We have had so many opportunities in the last five years with the explosion of startups, business models, etc. It’s a lot of work for investment actors – especially as they’re all a little bit old-fashioned – they invest in technology. Still, they don’t apply the technology to enable it to be augmented by data, as investors and private equity actors do. Being an influencer, or the term "influencing," doesn’t matter. Why? I started by following others who were all very kind to me, gave me advice, and pushed me to publish more. I just want to share my insights and knowledge to educate people about financial literacy. By chance, a lot of people like what I publish. AI will be an up trend for the next ten years. With this kind of upward trend, it is clearly a big top trend for the coming years. AI will also augment nearly every job across industries. It will be used to manage and automate the complex inventory management processes that happen behind the scenes. It’s impressive in terms of customer experience because AI/machine learning can improve their experiences, and more or less, with FinTech solutions, you can have a priceless experience. BEST MOMENTS ‘We use a machine learning element to adapt solutions to the investment cases. Each is a little bit different. The philosophies of the two partners will differ. This is the beauty of machine learning with data.’ ‘I spent many years in London, and I know the French accent is very successful with women 😊 !!’ ‘Artificial intelligence will become real in organizations and enable any business to leverage its power to create more intelligent products and services. We saw this recently with the birth of OpenAI. This is the start. I didn’t expect it to come so far so early.’ ‘The metaverse is a concrete application in the GameFi (gaming finance) industry, where we see a lot of big developments. It's a $300 billion market with a lot of payment activity. I don’t care for the term “metaverse,” but it’s become a shorthand for a more immersive internet. It’s expected to add $5 trillion to the global economy by 2030, and we will see by the end of 2023 an indication of what kind of direction the metaverse will take for the next decade.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Xavier Gomez is a Fintech Thought Leader and specialist in Investment Banking and Wealth Management with solid expertise in Fintech, Digital Assets, and Private Equity. Xavier writes and speaks about emerging trends in our digital economy, with a sharp lens on what is disrupting finance: financial inclusion and regtech.  Xavier is also the co-chief editor of Invyo Insights, a Global Fintech Intelligence platform powered by Invyo. Xavier and his team partner with the best experts and entrepreneurs in the region to cover the latest trends across Digital Banking, Payments, InsurTech, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Financial Inclusion, and Financial Literacy.  ABOUT INVYO INVYO is a leading technology solution provider specializing in data processing and analysis. Venture Capital looking for a new data-driven approach? Discover INVYO's newest solution designed for VC ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Meeri Savolainen, CEO and co-founder of Inzmo, a fast-growing European financial services provider that makes renting a home affordable for everyone.  Inzmo is considered the fourth runner-up in creating a new standard for how people rent their homes. With more than 70,000 customers and over 400% growth in 2022, Inzmo has acquired recognition and investments from several insurers in Europe As an entrepreneur by trade, Meeri is passionate about breaking new ground to lead social change. She shares that the core innovation lies in understanding customer needs, struggles, and their values. "At Inzmo, we design our services around this purpose - this is what makes us authentic. We put the customer first.”  During their discussion, they cover what makes Inzmo a leader in its category across Europe’s rental and cash deposit markets, Meeri’s interest in communication, relationships, and psychology, and Inzmo’s innovation journey across Europe… Opportunities and challenges, and Team Inzmo: What is next to scale? KEY TAKEAWAYS I was a corporate and tax lawyer for quite a few years at Ernst & Young, and I started thinking that I wanted to grow more, take more risks, and become an entrepreneur. When I began Inzmo with my co-founder, we wanted to create a digital disruption in the insurance industry because it was lagging behind in technology. As things progressed, we wanted to build a strong brand in the insurance sector. We wanted to mediate our own products. We didn’t just want to be an IT company or an enabler for insurance companies. Since 2016, we’ve become more consumer-focused. We’re driving innovation in the insurance industry by automating underwriting processes and, first and foremost, the customer experience. We believe future success for insurance companies and InsurTechs relies on customer success and experience. We understand that the majority of our customers are also vendors, and 80% of those customers are living paycheque to paycheque. This means they have a daily financial burden, and 40% of their income goes toward rent, utilities, etc. These are the people we want to help with our different financial and digital solutions. Insurance is a very male-dominated industry, though it is getting better. I’m proud to say that at Inzmo, 50% of the employees are women, and 60% of the C-level/ management staff are female. Being a woman gives us many more opportunities to stand out. It’s also good for PR – especially for a small company like Inzmo, which doesn’t have an unlimited budget – to gain visibility. It does, of course, have its downsides as well. Women struggle more to secure VC funding because they need to prove their success more than men do. After all, there’s still a strong bias, even though the data proves otherwise. BEST MOMENTS ‘We’re always trying to find our niche. We don’t want to be another traditional insurance company or fight with the bigger companies.’ 'Renting rather than home ownership is a growing trend globally because people want a flexible lifestyle. We want to be an enabler in this new lifestyle.’ ‘Inzmo means “insurance” and “mobile,” insurance that is always accessible – it’s instant, it’s always there, and very easy to follow.’ ‘We’ve been focused on the German market so that we could prove we’d done well in one very significant market, but in the next 12-24 months, we’re ready to expand to other European rental markets, the most interesting to us are Spain, Italy, Portugal, and France.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Meeri, also known as Mrs InsurTech, is strongly driven by innovation, focusing on the development of new products, services, and processes in a forward-thinking world.  She specialized in developing innovative, creative, and visionary products and services for the insurance sector. A serial entrepreneur with a passion for breaking new ground to lead social change, with management experience and the ability to lead and build high-performing teams. She is interested in communication and relationship psychology, and is currently also developing her knowledge of Strategic Intervention (also known as SI). SI is dedicated to extracting the most practical and effective forms of strategic action and communication from various disciplines: Ericksonian therapy, Human Needs Psychology, organizational psychology, neurolinguistics, psychology of influence, strategic studies, traditions of diplomacy and negotiation, and others. A practical method for acting strategically to get things done is to fulfill and elevate human needs. ABOUT INZMO Inzmo is a fast-growing financial services provider in Europe, making renting a home affordable for everyone. The team’s aim is to become #1 provider of zero-deposit solutions for EU renters. We believe the core innovation lies in understanding customer needs, struggles, and their values. Inzmo designs services around this purpose - this is what makes the team truly authentic. Inzmo puts the customer first. Always. The team thinks big, takes risks, innovates constantly, hires the best, and strives to earn customers' trust. Inzmo is the fourth runner in creating a new standard for how people rent their homes. With over 70,000 customers and 400% growth in 2022, Inzmo has attracted recognition and investment from several insurers in Europe. In 2017, the company was recognized as the best fintech company in the StartUp Europe Awards by the European Commission, and in 2019, was awarded as the Insurance Shaper of the Year. Inzmo's customers are renters, primarily for mid-term and long-term rental homes. Today, finding a home online might be easy, but the road to moving in is time-consuming, as the EU's 600 billion EUR annual private rental market still operates offline. To finalize a rental agreement, one must provide proof of income, a cash deposit (3 months' rent), home contents, and liability insurance. This takes 1-2 weeks and requires a cash deposit of thousands of euros. Inzmo solves all four pain points with one insurance product you can get online in seconds for a small monthly premium. As Inzmo focuses on covering each customer when they sign up for a rental home, the team sees this as an opportunity to serve them throughout the rental cycle with different insurance products and services. More on Inzmo on their site and LinkedIn profile. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL shares some timely insights from the team at IBM. One of these findings relates to one of IBM’s 2023 strategic themes and to IBM’s new partner program.  KEY TAKEAWAYS Autonomous vehicles are expected to account for about 12% of car registrations, and global car sales of autonomous vehicles are expected to reach some 101 million units by 2030. Autonomous vehicles or companies that are working on self-driving technologies include perception, mapping, and localisation solutions, as well as cybersecurity risk prevention, testing, and fleet management solutions, are doing very well. The autonomous vehicle market raised over $51 billion across 500+ companies, meaning each company received an average of $102 million in funding. Many devices use embedded intelligent systems today, besides car functionalities, like Point-of-Sale terminals, smart TVs, smart metres, video surveillance equipment, traffic light controls, digital signs, and aviation controls. This means we need to understand how embedded intelligence systems operate and how they enable breakthroughs for established and new market players. For years, IBM Research and Centres of Excellence have invested in developing AI capabilities that are embedded in IBM software offerings. IBM's partnership strategy is combined into a single organisation, where all the pieces of the IBM Partner Ecosystem within the sales and distribution organisation operate. It is also consolidated under one single leadership and direction. IBM is making the same capabilities available to its IBMers and to its ecosystem of partners, providing them with a more straightforward path to create AI-powered solutions and access engagement materials to ensure that each ecosystem partner can create bulletproof propositions aligned with IBM’s high standards. BEST MOMENTS ‘Embedded intelligence 'is a term used for a system or program that can analyse and monitor their own operations and then adapt and optimise, consequently, in real-time, its routines with limited human intervention. They enable companies to get more innovative in the way they deploy and use technology, identify market opportunities, and target new markets.’ ‘The global embedded intelligence market is projected to reach a market value of $ 86 billion US dollars in 2032, increasing from $ 25.5 billion dollars in 2022 and expanding at a CAGR of 13% between 2022 and 2032.’ ‘Today, the lack of expertise and skills in Artificial Intelligence remains the biggest barrier to adopting advanced programming techniques by businesses, large and small, while limiting biases and ethical issues.’ ‘It is indeed crucial for data scientists, developers, sellers, and experts, among other types of users, to gain access to cutting-edge capabilities to learn new business development techniques and technological skills regardless of their level of expertise.’ ABOUT THE IBM PARTNER ECOSYSTEM PROGRAM: IBM has worked throughout 2022 to enhance its approach and systems to deliver a unique partner experience, giving partners access to the same capabilities available to IBMers. To find out more, use the two links provided below: Embeddable AI IBM PartnerWorld ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Elizabeth Lumley, an all-around FinTech expert who is currently the deputy Editor at The Banker, a company from the FT. Elizabeth received the State Street UK Press Award for Journalist of the Year in Technology and Digital Finance in 2022. For 20+ years, Elizabeth has been a global specialist commentator on regulations, risk, data, and technology in investment, retail, and global transaction banking. She is recognized internationally as one of the leading voices in FinTech and banking technology innovation, as well as a well-established global conference speaker and conference organizer. During this discussion, Sabine and Elizabeth dive into the trends affecting FinTech in the upcoming year. KEY TAKEAWAYS I’ve been in this industry for about 28 years – kind of by accident. I wanted to be a journalist, specializing in politics. Still, most of what I’ve done in this space has been as a reporter or editor covering how banks and financial insurance firms use data and technology. Now, I’m deputy editor of The Banker magazine as part of the Financial Times. It’s been an exciting journey through this vast and varied industry of banking and financial services. I got on Twitter when it was first starting, and my voice became amplified. I’m full of opinions, and I can’t keep them silent, so I write blogs, do interviews with people, webcasts, and events, and I started posting on Twitter, and people really responded to that. Social media has been perfect for me and my career. This was also when smaller FinTech companies started emerging; it was a perfect storm. A lot of people are talking about where financial services are headed with the metaverse and Web 3.0, and how payments and services will be embedded in that world in the future. That’s an interesting conversation, but right now, it’s very innovative theatre-y, something to talk about on stage, and nothing is actually happening. What’s actually happening right now is that we’ve had so much growth over the years – not just in startups but in banks as well – there is a focus on efficiency, cost-cutting, saving money, and talent retention. It’s not a sexy topic to talk about, but I guarantee you it's what every bank is working on right now. Insurance is one of those sectors where the sexiest part of it is that you don’t know it’s there. We’ve had insurance embedded into things for a very long time, when you buy a car, for example. You only know it’s there when you need it. I think that having that service available to customers when they need it is harder to achieve than people realize. I think the idea of owning the customer so you can sell them more stuff is the mindset of a lot of people in the industry, instead of acknowledging the customer so you can serve them better, which I think would actually make them more profitable customers, actually, in the long run. But that’s not the mindset many people have.  BEST MOMENTS ‘Pick your investors wisely.’ ‘Journalism has changed a lot in the past 30 years. I wanted to be a magazine editor, and I’m glad I didn’t go into that world because I probably wouldn’t have a job. You’ve got to pay for quality, which is why the FT and The Banker are behind paywalls.’ ‘Social media puts you in charge of what you’re putting out into the world and the narrative you’re putting out into the world.’ ‘To me, FinTech is any way of using technology to improve banking and other financial services.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Elizabeth Lumley is an all-around FinTech expert who is currently deputy editor at The Banker, a company from the FT. For 20+ years, she has been a global specialist commentator on services, regulations, risk, data, and technology in investment, retail, and global transaction banking  Elizabeth is internationally recognised as one of the leading voices in FinTech and banking technology innovation, and is a well-established global conference speaker and organiser. Her expertise includes: technology installations and market data usage at global investment banks, retail banks, institutions, and exchanges, as well as the emerging FinTech ecosystem of new entrants and startups. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Steve Abel, a dedicated, results-oriented executive with a proven, hands-on track record and a superior ability to build highly effective teams that deliver success at all levels of an organization. When recording this podcast, Steve was at EPAM, which is one of the best-kept secrets, voted one of the world's leading and fastest-growing information technology companies. EPAM today leads the charge in global digital and physical transformation and digital platform engineering services. The company has over 61,000 employees across 6 continents and 50 countries. In this episode, Sabine and Steve cover three main topics: Changes in the way innovation is delivered today, repairing broken processes with the right engineering mindset, and the requirements for building the business of tomorrow. KEY TAKEAWAYS The way technology solves problems today is through point solutions to point solutions. This is a flawed approach to solving the technology problem and building highly effective business models. Imagine if there were tools that had 95% of what a business needs to operate. You would only buy items available as part of the packages. As an insurer, you would be able to gain benefits as you would need fewer specialists to determine whether to buy, build, or partner. Pull widgets that could be your integration engine. Could be cheaper than what is available, and you could rebuild in a bespoke, unique way. I was in a stable job at KPMG. When the pandemic hit, I worked on a project with no real choice but to deliver tech assets quickly. Then I decided to investigate and discovered EPAM. They loved my idea and then thought about new technology in new ways to solve the client’s problem with purpose. EPAM is multi-sectors, and I sit within the insurance business unit. How do startups grow? One option is to use cloud-based tools that make it easier to create reusable assets. This is a profound change in how people think about technology and business; cloud-based tooling, data mash-up, etc. We can unlock the power of these tools and bring them together as a unified landscape. Insurance carriers are struggling with geospatial data (for instance) because of their legacy systems and the way each carrier integrates data into its systems. Each carrier wants to know if they are getting unique information from you, but they don’t need the dashboard or data very often. They want to process an algorithm that gives them an answer. BEST MOMENTS ‘A lot of commercialized software is not fit for purpose. Still, businesses operate thousands of spreadsheets. This is not right for the employees and gives poor customer service.’ ‘I love to wake up and ensure that customers do every day what they do best with others.’ ‘If you have not thought of how to do so. Hire an expert to think through the problem in a new way for you. You will get to the optimum outcome faster and likely cheaper too.’ ‘Get the right tools and get the approach right. I can assure you, you will be impressed by them.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Steve Abel is a transformation executive with a dedicated, results-oriented executive, a proven hands-on track record, and superior ability to build highly effective teams to deliver success within all levels of an organisation. Specialties: Program Management, Insurance, Operations, Shared Services, Enabling Technologies (Oracle, SAP, Workday, PeopleSoft, HFM, etc.), Business Process Reengineering, Finance Leading Practices (e.g., Procure to Pay, Record to Report), Insurance products and data, actuarial platforms (AXIS, Prophet, MG-Alfa, PolySystems, etc.), digital enablement, machine learning, artificial intelligence, cloud solutions, business, and technical architecture. Steve worked with large companies such as Capco, EY, and KPMG, EPAM and today Oliver Wyman. EPAM: Since 1993, EPAM Systems, Inc. (NYSE: EPAM) has leveraged its advanced software engineering heritage to become the foremost global digital transformation services provider – leading the industry in digital and physical product development and digital platform engineering services. Through its innovative strategy, integrated advisory, consulting, and design capabilities, and unique 'Engineering DNA,' EPAM's globally deployed hybrid teams help make the future real for clients and communities around the world by powering better enterprise, education, and health platforms that connect people, optimise experiences, and improve people's lives.  In 2021, EPAM was added to the S&P 500 and included in the Forbes Global 2000 list.   Selected by Newsweek as a 2021 and 2022 Most Loved Workplace, EPAM's global multi-disciplinary teams serve customers in more than 50 countries across six continents. As a recognized leader, EPAM is listed among the top 15 companies in Information Technology Services on the Fortune 1000 and has been ranked four times as the top IT services company on Fortune's 100 Fastest-Growing Companies list. EPAM is also listed among Ad Age's top 25 World's Largest Agency Companies for three consecutive years, and Consulting Magazine named EPAM Continuum a top 20 Fastest Growing Firm. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Yann Barbarroux, CEO and co-founder of OTONOMI, an InsurTech startup dedicated to mitigating supply chain risk. Yann shares insights into himself, his successes, and the recent USD $3.4 million fundraising round he and his team finalized during very uncertain times. KEY TAKEAWAYS Around 2003 – the onset of the internet bubble in the tech industry – I redirected myself toward financial services. I moved to the US and got a job on Wall Street in New York, and I never left. I’ve spent my entire career in the capital market, risk management, and technology at several financial institutions and brokerage firms. From 2013-2020, I joined CitiGroup in downtown Manhattan doing risk management for structured credits and emerging markets, but more interestingly, in 2017, with the ramp-up of the digital asset era that we encountered, I got involved with emerging tech, deep tech, and blockchain within Citi Ventures' innovation arm and I got incubated as a startup within their innovation lab. I’m not the earliest adopter of blockchain, but 5-6 years of experience in this space feels like decades compared to other industries. Transitioning into entrepreneurship, what became very visible is that a lot of the operations, pricing models, and pricing procedures and processes within financial services became very obsolete and very heavy-handed in terms of regulation, and there was a need for new, fresh products in the space. I was working on those items while I was in the innovation lab at Citigroup Ventures. While I was working there, I also came across deals in InsurTech and FinTech, which were very exciting for me. That’s where I came across the fascinating space of parametric insurance – the equivalent of financial derivatives or other binary products in financial markets, but in the insurance space. What we bring with OTONOMI is a binary event contract for the supply chain space. We fundraised in 2021 for our pre-seed or the first tranche of our seed round. This raise was pre-product, pre-revenue. This year, we expected to struggle tremendously given the market circumstances: rampant inflation, the political climate between Ukraine and Russia, and the East side of the globe. You would expect an early-stage startup to be struggling to raise funding, but our fundraising campaign turned out to be more productive this year, and we managed to close it in 3-4 months. £3.4million raised, and we’re very, very grateful for it. The starting point for us in 2021 was the rippling effect of the global supply chain breaking down. But for us, a few months beforehand, there were two events that were very critical and instrumental. The first was the snowstorm in Texas, a 1-in-100-year event with many climate and weather components that ripple down into transportation. That created such traumatic volatility in the market that it became clear that cargo players, freight, and logistics, while at the forefront of trying to operate as quickly as possible, were constrained by huge financial liabilities they couldn’t recoup under traditional insurance contracts. The second event was a few weeks later in the Suez Canal. Everybody saw it and talked about it. Again, the supply chain couldn’t function properly, and insurance and financial contracts weren't transparent enough to serve those players in a timely manner. What was interesting for us was not just the parametric aspects but also the binary delay of potential supply chain interruptions (which we cover) and the facilitation of operations and payments.  BEST MOMENTS ‘I’m a nerd at heart but a financial engineer by trade.’ ‘The turning point for us was when we actually visited Austin, Texas, in person. We were in touch with several VC teams virtually, but the mere fact that we actually went to this conference, handshaking, having coffee, and having in-person chemistry actually created much more interest for our raise, and the VCs sent us a terms sheet two weeks after. This was a tremendous difference from the previous two years during the pandemic.’ ‘The Insurance sector wants to take the leap of faith now with several projects in the space, us included.’ ‘We believe that if we have the right infrastructure to collect premiums, manage collateral, and settle compensation payments within this very much ring-fenced and consistent infrastructure for digital payments, then essentially we can be creating very streamlined processes.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Yann Barbarroux is CEO and co-founder of OTONOMI, an InsurTech focused on transforming the transportation and cargo insurance industry. He was born and raised in Marseille (France), went to grad school (graduated with an MS in Computer Engineering) in Paris, found his first job on Wall Street back in 2003, and never left NY.  He wants OTONOMI to become the one-stop shop for the operating layer of parametric insurance policies (data-activated insurance smart contracts), with applications in air freight, marine, trucking, weather, and device coverage. First and foremost, alleviating the customer’s pain points of going through the lengthy claim adjudication process: OTONOMI compresses resolution time from 45 days to 45 minutes. OTONOMI aims to be the de facto “detect, active, and pay” infrastructure InsurTech for all data sources that can be used to create parametric products: database server APIs, logistics analytics, and IoT sensors. For that, it works with data partners such as Chainlink, which provides security and integrity to its event triggers. Website: https://www.otonomi.ai/  Email: yann@otonomi.ai  ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast. Sabine talks to Paul Roetzer. Paul Roetzer is the founder and CEO of Marketing AI Institute. He is the author of Marketing Artificial Intelligence, The Marketing Performance Blueprint, and The Marketing Agency Blueprint, and the creator of the Marketing AI Conference (MAICON). In this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine and Paul discuss how Artificial Intelligence will evolve marketing practices. Drawing comparisons to how we use AI in our daily lives through social media and marketing. KEY MOMENTS 'What Does Paul Mean by Traditional Marketing Is All Human?' 'What Are the Obstacles to Artificial Intelligence Adoption' 'How Did the Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute Come About?' 'Paul Talks About the Revolutionization of the Market Today.' 'What Trends Should One Look Out For In Artificial Intelligence Marketing Technology' 'How To Make Artificial Intelligence A Part Of Our Daily Lives.' 'What Is The Gap Between The Business School And Learning Artificial Intelligence' 'What The Next Generation Needs To Have to Lead Them To Success 10.' 'What Are The Metrics We Need To Look At In Artificial Intelligence Marketing?' 'Advantages and Disadvantages of Artificial Intelligence.' 'Five Steps To Implement Artificial Intelligence In The Marketing Environment' 'Tips on Tools To Use For Artificial Intelligence' 'Words Of Wisdom From Paul.   ABOUT THE GUEST Paul Roetzer is the founder and CEO of Marketing AI Institute. He is the author of Marketing Artificial Intelligence (Matt Holt Books, 2022), The Marketing Performance Blueprint (Wiley, 2014), and The Marketing Agency Blueprint (Wiley, 2012); and the creator of the Marketing AI Conference (MAICON). The Marketing Institute - https://www.marketingaiinstitute.com  ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Annap Derebail, IBM’s Global Insurance Industry CTO within IBM’s Global Business Services Unit, now in IBM's payment center. Annap’s focus has always been on delivering impactful business outcomes by re-imagining user experiences. Today, Annap provides trusted advice to drive revenue growth for IBM’s clients by leveraging architectural leadership to transform their businesses through technology innovation. In this conversation, they cover the future of insurance and its implications for operations, how technology is a key enabler of growth today, and how insurers can simplify operations to build resilient business models. KEY TAKEAWAYS          There are many market forces disrupting traditional insurance models. Firstly, around customer expectations. Customers are increasingly looking towards an Amazon- or Google-like experience when dealing with their insurance. The implications for insurers include creating personalised offerings and providing high levels of service and responsiveness. There are two key advantages that incumbent insurers have over new entrants to the market. Certainly, new entrants are developing new business models and approaches to attracting and engaging customers. But I think the advantages for incumbents are their huge existing customer base – keeping a customer is six times easier than acquiring a new one. Secondly, by virtue of having been in business for so long, they are sitting on tons of data and have knowledge of customer transactions/interactions. That’s a rich oasis that can help them develop a better understanding of their customers and what they need. Insurers really need to reinvent how they think about risk and what sort of relationship they want with their customers. Reinventing that risk partnership and helping insurers with new risk experiences that offer personalised advice, and demonstrating a new risk partnership between the insurer and the customer. Being able to harvest the data can be done by taking a fresh look at historically operating processes in the enterprise, critical processes such as underwriting claims, but also all of the support processes like billing, customer support, policy maintenance, etc. Just by paying attention to driving intelligence into those processes using data, we’ve reduced customer churn by 15% by implementing a churn detection model. At the infrastructure level, I see many incumbent insurers still operating legacy IT systems and infrastructure. The immediate opportunity there is to migrate those onto a cloud-based platform. This brings inherent benefits, such as flexibility in scaling up and down in response to demand and market needs. You can access cloud-based services from anywhere in the world. BEST MOMENTS ‘The insurance industry needs to adapt and respond to new disruptors, and this response has to be driven by data and new technologies, and using them to gain a business advantage in the market.’ ‘Less than 10% of insurers have actually been able to meet what we call ‘the data dividend’, effective use of data in order to achieve competitive advantage because of a lack of knowledge of how to access data, how the data is siloed within the infrastructure of the business.’ ‘We can help drive a step change in the core productivity of incumbent insurers. About 60% of their costs go into legacy IT systems. Modernising by having multiple core systems in place and moving to a SaaS model reduces issues.’ ‘The typical underwriting or claims process tends to have heavy human involvement and requires a large number of steps in order to make decisions. The scope there is to effectively use the mountain of data that insurers are sitting on to present the right data to the right decision-makers at the right time – not just raw data, but insights drawn from it. – to improve the process and categorise incoming cases that can either be automated or need human intervention.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Annap Derebail has 20+ years of professional experience in systems and integration architecture, design, development, and management of complex industry solutions.  In his current role, he works with insurance customers worldwide to create innovative solutions for business problems, leveraging microservices and API-driven architecture, distributed, multi-tier systems, application integration architecture, AI/ML, blockchain, IoT, cloud computing, and service-oriented architecture. In the last five years, he has worked with worldwide financial services clients to provide trusted advice on their digital transformation initiatives, while serving as the leader of the global IBM insurance industry architect community.  His work with clients has spanned several application areas: Modernization architectures for insurance and banking, Blockchain applications in insurance, Enterprise architecture for aircraft systems health, Supply chain collaboration in automotive and retail, RFID-based track-and-trace solutions, Product design-to-manufacture integration, and Supply chain optimization.  Over the years, he has been IBM’s technical representative in industry standards bodies, including ACORD, BIAN, PDES Inc, STAR, and AIA.  He holds a PhD in Industrial Engineering/Operations Research from Texas A&M University. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of Scouting For Growth, Sabine VdL talks to Christie Downs Wood. A self-made entrepreneur and problem-solver who founded handdii with her co-founder, Kathryn Wood. After working as an executive in the construction industry, building deep experience and broad industry relationships, Christie saw an opportunity to use technology to improve how customers connect with contractors when making property insurance claims. This is how Handdii was born as a three-way digital platform that combines insurance, construction, and contractors, enabling contractors to easily connect, engage, and promote their businesses. KEY TAKEAWAYS I am a high-energy business leader who loves solving problems and creating exciting solutions that transform people's lives. After working as an executive in the construction industry, building deep experience and broad industry relationships, I saw an opportunity to use technology to improve how customers connect with contractors when making property insurance claims, making it quicker, faster, and cheaper for insurers, clients, and tradespeople. We’re just at the starting line; there’s so much opportunity ahead. I think the early innovation in our sector has been pretty straightforward. How do we buy faster, make things convenient, streamline processes, and save cost? Quite a lot of separate practical solutions. For example, right now, there are many inspection tools and solutions an insurance company would use – virtual inspections, drones, AI, and they might actually use various tools all at once. Our vision is to make small property claims amazing. The industry has a cumbersome process for property claims, involving multiple people and approvals, designed for large losses. This process is not designed to fast-track small claims, and, moreover, the major suppliers to the insurance industry would prefer not to handle them. So, my Co-Founder and I set out to change that! Handdii is a really practical solution to a common problem. Any Claims leader can see the opportunity in their portfolio to improve how small claims are managed. We’re really focused on our niche, and when we partner with an insurer, we make it easy to work with us. Our team has a solid property claims background, reflected in the product and program we have built. This makes it easy for the insurer to work with us because we speak their language and understand their challenges, while having the speed and the money to be an innovative partner, creating solutions for them. BEST MOMENTS ‘My experience also includes being Executive of Carlton Football Club as the General Manager of Business Development, introducing unique revenue streams, the creation of Carlton Respects program against family violence, and Blue Skies program supporting diversity and inclusion in the inaugural year of AFLW.’ ‘I think the future of innovation will become more and more integrated into our lives, activities, and systems. Bringing all of these different solutions together, then once that efficiency is achieved, we’ll look to bring innovation to achieve more purposeful outcomes around sustainability, inclusion, and prosperity.’ ‘COVID has made some things much easier and others more challenging. For example, onboarding contractors via video rather than in person has streamlined how quickly we have expanded our contractor network across multiple states this year. Whereas meeting new insurance companies is more challenging, we are certainly happy that the in-person conferences are kicking off again now.’ ‘When working with large enterprises, be patient, be persistent, be astute commercially – if you’re bringing great value, hold your line on your cost.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Christie (Downs) Wood: I am a high-energy business leader who loves solving problems and creating exciting solutions that transform people's lives and work. After working as an executive in the construction industry, building deep experience and broad industry relationships, I saw an opportunity to use technology to improve how customers connect with contractors when making property insurance claims, making it quicker, faster, and cheaper for insurers, clients, and tradespeople. I made the leap to entrepreneurship in 2018, starting Handdii with Kathryn Wood. Handdii is a three-way platform where contractors can easily connect, engage, and promote their businesses, insurers experience reduced cost, and customers find their property insurance repairs are easier and cheaper to organize with better results. My core career experience of 10 years was as group sales director and board member of the national construction company, Johns Lyng Group, ASX-listed as JLG. I played a lead role in the national expansion and exponential revenue growth of the group, from $12 million in 2004 to $350 million in 2015. During this experience, I saw firsthand the problems people had getting repairs done, often after stressful situations, and I met fantastic contractors who ran great businesses. My experience also includes serving as the Executive of the Carlton Football Club as the General Manager of Business Development, introducing unique revenue streams, creating the Carlton Respects program against family violence, and launching the Blue Skies program supporting diversity and inclusion in the inaugural year of AFLW. I am passionate about contributing to society and was Chair of the Starball Committee Sydney for 3 years, raising more than USD $1 million for Starlight Children’s Foundation. I love to share my experiences and learnings with #public speaking on the value of diversity and inclusion, starting your own venture, and how the insurtech industry is evolving. About handdii: Having worked as a Director of a Construction company in the Insurance industry for 10 years, I know customer satisfaction in property claims is very low. This is because the traditional fulfillment process is complicated and takes an average of 60 days to repair a property. Yet 80% of property claims are small and require only 1 or 2 trades. For this, Handii dramatically improves the customer experience by pairing customers with the trade they need to assist in claim determination and complete work immediately. Cutting claim life from 2 months to 1 week. handdii makes workflow easy for trades through pre-agreed rates, opt-in scheduling, automated processing, and payment. Minimizing these friction points empowers the trades to focus on providing quality work and an awesome customer experience. For insurance companies, handdii can provide claim lodgement and allocation, save 25% in claims cost, and enable digital transformation for property claims. A significant positive impact on customer satisfaction (NPS) will drive new customer acquisition and open up further product opportunities. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

In this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine VdL interviews Mark McLaughlin, a respected figure in IBM and its insurance division, to discuss the future of customer experience within a fast-evolving world. Today he is leading AI, hybrid cloud, and risk innovation engagements with insurance CxOs worldwide for IBM. KEY TAKEAWAYS You must improve how you engage with your customers, whether through distribution channels (e.g., brokers or affinity partnerships) or directly. Your customers are demanding digital frictionless engagements and experiences. They are seeking transparency and optimal convenience in how they access insurance products and services. They also want transparency into how their data is being used. In the end, this is the way you earn customer trust. When data, intelligence, automation, and insights are combined, they augment decision-making among stakeholders but also require changes in skills, processes, technology, and culture. Think about the “reconfiguration” of the internal fabric of the enterprise to deliver the required personalized experiences. InsurTechs are doing well. Over $47 billion has been invested in InsurTechs. Over 30 have become unicorns, and more are expected to become unicorns in the years to come. Today, to realize such a vision and upgrade legacy systems and global delivery presence, IBM works with the top 100 carriers worldwide, bringing capabilities such as blockchain, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and cloud for flexibility and innovation, as well as industry expertise to deliver unique capabilities able to yield differentiated experiences. BEST MOMENT ‘To elevate customer experiences and achieve customer-centricity and unlock new growth opportunities, insurers must identify innovative opportunities internally and through external partnerships to reinvent the core of their business.’ ‘We are in the days of “Risk experiences”.’ ‘If insurers think about repackaging old format analog processes into digitised options, they are going to fail. Customers are asking for more. They want products and services aligned with their needs.’ ‘We know that insurers are better placed at focusing on “risk” (e.g., algorithmic underwriting) while InsurTechs are great at building unique customer experiences (e.g., Lemonade, Hippo, etc.).’ ABOUT THE GUEST Mark McLaughlin is leading AI, hybrid cloud, and risk innovation engagements with insurance CxOs worldwide for IBM. Mark’s teams analyse trends in insurance and technology, develop strategies for insurers, and build IBM insurance solutions to meet insurer needs. He also shares IBM’s point-of-view on insurance with business leaders, regulators, and conference audiences worldwide. Mark is a 25-year veteran of the insurance industry. He has previously led business units in insurance distribution and analytics, technology infrastructure, CRM, and insurance business process. Mark has personally led implementations in strategy, program management, analytics, data warehousing, expert systems, commercial claims, and underwriting for multiple top 20 US insurers. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of Scouting For Growth, Sabine VdL talks to two renowned FinTech Influencers and respected voices in finance and insurance, Danielle Guzman – head of social media at Mercer who is an expert at activating employees and creating business impact on social media, and Theodora Lau - Founder at Unconventional Ventures, author, podcast host and public speaker who advises many startup ventures. KEY TAKEAWAYS Danielle - The future of work is something I’m passionate about, both personally and professionally, and the journey over the past years has been about reinventing myself and how to stay relevant in a world that is changing so radically. The pandemic has only accelerated that journey, not just for me but for everyone to be thinking about this a lot more, using social media channels to connect and make a difference. Theo – I spent the bulk of my career in telecom, not finance and banking, don’t hold that against me! What’s interesting is, when you look at high-tech, telecom, financial service industry, and FinTech and InsurTech startups, a lot of what we do inherently at the end of the day is about people. Technology is a means to an end and allows us to communicate and exchange ideas. As a broader society, we’re starting to realize that self-care isn't self-indulgence. The conversations around mental health and well-being are now becoming what they should be. Health is embedded in every aspect of our lives, but mental health and taking time to invest in our own well-being have always been secondary things. It’s critical that, now, through organizations and leaders, it becomes a very real, daily conversation at the table. I grew up in a generation where you had a career, and now we’re part of a generation where you’re having career experiences. There’s so much that needs to be done for that to become accessible to everyone; there doesn’t seem to be an answer to that right now, but organizations are trying to figure that out. That’s going to be a watershed moment for the future of work and one of the biggest changes that we will probably see in our lifetime and we’re at the beginning of that journey. At the crux of that is the concept of trust.   BEST MOMENTS ‘I like to look at everything as not making big changes all at once, but how we can make small, incremental changes that have a compound return over time.’ ‘The past 18 months have shown that we might be in the same storm, but we’re not in the same boat. We have been very aware of a lot of the challenges and inequalities that exist in our society, but I hope we take away the learning from recent months that there’s a lot we still need to do.’ ‘Longevity is a challenge, but it’s actually an opportunity. Since the early 1900s, we’ve all gained an extra 30 healthy years of life. Living longer allows us to try different things in our careers.’ ‘Are new solutions being created to mimic what we’ve always had in the past, or are they being created to support these new opportunities? Are there enough solutions out there to support small business owners and gig workers? I would say we need more.’ ABOUT THE GUEST As the VP of Social and Distributed Content at Mercer and now Marsh, Danielle uses data to assess the viability of risky campaigns and predict the future of digital content consumption. Since diving headfirst into insights-driven marketing and leadership, Danielle has seen data transform the careers of dozens of marketers—including her own. Theodora (Theo) Lau is a public speaker, writer, and startup advisor, whose work seeks to spark innovation to improve consumer financial well-being. As founder of Unconventional Ventures, she focuses on developing and growing an ecosystem of financial institutions, corporates, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists to better address the unmet needs of consumers (e.g., older adults and gig economy workers), with keen interests in women and minority founders. As part of her work, she regularly mentors and advises FinTech startups. She is recognized as a LinkedIn Top Voice for Economy and Finance, No. 1 Women in Finance by Onalytica, and Top FinTech influencer by various publications, including Onalytica, Retail Banker International, and FinTech Finance. She co-hosts Rhetoriq, a podcast on longevity and fintech innovations, and runs a weekly blog on Irish Tech News. She is also a regular contributor to top industry events, publications, and podcasts, including Harvard Business Review, MIT Technology Review, Money20/20, Finovate, RISE, American Banker, Breaking Banks, Financial Brand, Financial Revolutionist, Irish Tech News, Mercer, and INV Filter. She provides strategic advisory services to a broad set of corporations; she also advises startups and mentors entrepreneurs from different accelerators and incubators across the country. She is an advocate for diversity and inclusion – and frequently writes and speaks about the need for diversity across gender, ethnicity, age, education, and more. Her end goal is to help more financial institutions (incumbents and startups) focus on the needs of the forgotten demographics and build sustainable and inclusive business models. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine VdL talks to Scott Gunther, General Partner at Firemark Ventures, the corporate venture capital fund of IAG, based in Australia. Scott has been at IAG for over 10 years and has been running the Venture fund for over 6 years. With strong expertise in marketing customer experience, among others, Scott wanted to bring something new to the group by opening his doors to the external world to ensure its resilience and relevance for the very long term. During this podcast, the pair discusses Scott’s path to CVC Land, and what IAG Firemark Ventures does to remain on top of its game. They also cover the topic of talent, talent, and talent, and what remote working means for Scott and his team. Finally, they discuss best practices for startups, scaleups, corporate innovators, and investors wanting to build their corporate venturing arm. KEY TAKEAWAYS Everything we hear, see, and experience in the startup world today is not new; it happened way back during the dot-com boom. That’s where I started, and I couldn’t ask for a more impressive grounding, working for one of Australia’s largest companies and trying to set something up – 90-day sprints to try to launch businesses, products, and services, and thinking about the World Wide Web before it became the World Wide Web, eCommerce, and the like. At the time, as a young man coming out of university, I probably had no idea what the future held for me. A fundamental part of why we do what we do is to bring the outside world into our own enterprise and transform how we deliver insurance. That means every day is different because you’re starting to look at global macro trends, different markets to see what’s working, and different parts of the customer journey. We’re working today with business-to-consumer businesses, Agritech, or AI businesses; there are no two days that are the same. The more that you can experience, whether it’s industry or role, function or geography, it really sets you apart from the rest to have this flexibility. Successful CVCs across the world are made up of teams that have really diverse skill sets. CVCs succeed or fail depending on their recognition that they’re part of something bigger and that the corporate HQ sets the primary direction and purpose. At IAG our purpose is to make your world a safer place, we’re there to insure customers, their assets, businesses, livelihoods, and a whole heap of other different risks. But also, if an incident or a claim happened, to be there to help them to recover. Working for an organization that is very purpose-driven gives you something to work backward from and something to aim for, like the North Star. Any CVC has to make sure that they’re not just a little adjunct of a corporation; they’re a really integral part of the business, and as a consequence, you really have to know your business inside and out. When we put our investment thesis together, we had to get razor-sharp on the things that you can and can’t do. You might want to invest in every market, look at startups at different stages, and invest different amounts.  When you first get going you need to give yourself guardrails, like not investing in series c stage scaleups for instance. For instance, our CVC does not lead investment rounds. We do not invest in certain markets. As we evolve, we will adjust, refine, and expand our investment thesis, which will improve over time. BEST MOMENTS ‘I’ve always been a believer in breadth and depth of experiences, and my journey took me to different parts of the business world, but also into very relevant adjacent verticals too.’ ‘Insurance is something you fall into, and if you fall into it, you stay there.’ ‘Those CVCs who are really intrinsically in tune with understanding changing business models, but also the relationships across businesses and our industry, are the ones that are probably more successful.’ ‘Innovation is something that anyone in an organization should aspire to do. If you’re not moving forward, you’re standing still, and if you’re standing still, realistically, you’re going backward.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Scott Gunther is a corporate venture capitalist (CVC) & startup enthusiast. Scott partners with business leaders every day to help them identify and understand strategic opportunities to achieve digital transformation and customer growth. With years of experience designing future state digital-first businesses and delivering transformation programs across multiple industries, Scott possesses the unique skills and experience of both strategy and execution - a differentiator at the board table for both blue chip and emerging businesses. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of Scouting For Growth, Sabine VdL talks to Henrique Volpi, one of the co-founders and the CEO of Kakau, one of the very first InsurTechs in Latin America. Kakau is an InsurTech and tech platform that delivers digital experiences while improving insurance operations and easing the delivery of complex financial services. Kakau's SaaS model is powered by machine learning and robotic process automation. Henrique is a co-author of the InsurTech book and the co-founder and board member of the InsurTech Association of Brazil. During the conversation, Sabine and Henrique discuss InsurTech in Latam and Brazil, selling insurance via the phone, Brazil's regulator approving subscription transaction models, NFT policies, and the future of tech-led business models. KEY TAKEAWAYS Back in the day, people would question whether it was possible to sell insurance digitally. Insurance sales were only done by phone. Indeed, you could start a business via Google Ads and similar platforms. Still, a fully digital experience wasn’t delivered back then. So, we did the contrarian thing and designed a digital-first platform, since we knew this was a global trend. The first thing we did was to discuss the project with a very large legal forum in Brazil and ask for their help, because insurance is a regulated industry, and we knew the importance of having a legal team. We designed one of the first digital MGAs in Brazil. From the beginning, we have spoken to the regulator. This approach was very different from other startups that were afraid to go to Rio and speak to them. We just shot straight and said: “We want to do this. Is that legally OK? Can we move forward?” We took a different approach from the other startups. Over time, the regulator told us that we could not engage with them that much. So, we went back to our legal partner and set up the first Brazilian InsurTech Association to help technology startups gain the insights they needed to build their InsurTech right. We started with 4-5 companies, and now we have more than 20 members. The first thing I believe we need to educate others on is finance and, therefore, insurance, especially in Brazil. This should be the same in South-East Asia, Africa, and Latin America as a whole. Individuals must learn how to make money and take care of their money because many people do not know how. They have to learn how to lend money, how to manage that money, and, hopefully, how to save a little bit. Only later will they think about insurance. Typically, you start with lending and credit cards, then move up the value chain to investments, and finally to insurance. Insurance and InsurTech are probably 5-6 years less mature compared to FinTech in Brazil, which is going very strong.  Don’t be afraid to pivot your business model; you’re going to pivot many, many times along the way, and you have to be aggressive with technology. We’ve seen many, many companies around the world that don’t really have a good tech stack; it’s just a front-end. What’s interesting, though, and I’m excited about this too, is that when a market player realizes it doesn't need to own everything, it can consider licensing. When you license the best capabilities available, you gain a different perspective on how you serve your customers and users.  BEST MOMENTS ‘Even though it was very hard and there was a lot of work to do to prove the content, we proved that one can sell insurance policies digitally. Now it’s something that’s growing very fast in Brazil.’ ‘We may be going through a crisis. Still, what’s happening now is very volatile. So, when growth opportunities return, the launch of digital-first businesses may return faster than a lot of people think.’ ‘I’m very interested in the ramifications of cyber risk within our digital world. I think another trend we need to pay attention to is the monetization of value-added services. Some big carriers in Brazil are setting up services companies that will prevent risks from happening, especially around commercial lines.’ ‘Go for it. The world needs people who have the courage to become entrepreneurs.’ ABOUT THE GUEST is known for having a positive attitude, execution focus, and servant leadership. Committed to making a positive impact, Henrique Volpi is the co-founder of Kakau, one of the first InsurTech startups in Latin America. A technologist for the past 25 years, working in leading tech companies such as ServiceNow, EMC/Dell, and BMC Software. Henrique co-founded and became the president of the Brazilian Insurtech Association. He is a co-author of the Insurtech Book. Kakau Technologies simplifies financial services and insurance operations by leveraging AI. By leveraging ML and RPA Kakau Tech delivers seamless SaaS solutions in Risk Model Management, NLP Claims Management, NFT Policy Management, and Churn Prediction. Kakau's technologies provides a digital platform that uses artificial intelligence technology to deliver more accurate results in the insurance segment. Kakau delivers a fully digital experience seamlessly powered by machine learning across multiple product categories. The platform enables users to get insurance for various products like motorcycles, cell phones, digital devices, and bikes, among others.  ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine VdL talks to Dylan Bourguignon, who was, at the time, the CEO of SO-SURE, which he has since sold. He is on a mission to restore customer trust in insurance. He has set up his digital insurance platform with a unique model that delivers win-win insurance. In this conversation, the pair discusses Dylan's journey setting up SO-SURE, why he moved into insurance, and how useful sales strategies and skills have been to scale the business. KEY TAKEAWAYS Having been an engineer twice over, I went into strategy consulting and then private equity for 10 years, and acquired an MBA on the way. In the latter part of my time in private equity, I focused on insurance and came to understand the entire value chain and the chasm between the consumer experience and the margins the industry was making. As an investor, I was looking for businesses that were addressing the issue; sadly, there weren’t any, so I decided to do it myself. Whenever you try to change the equation for consumers, if you just try to focus on a single element that matters to them, whether it’s distribution, policy admin, or claims, as individual segments of the value chain, you’re only optimizing a sub-optimal point. If you really want a step change in customer experience, you have to take control of the entire value chain and redesign it. That’s what we’ve done.  Our platform delivers a risk pooling model and a network model. Think about it as Mutual 3.0 (the next stage of the John Lewis Partnership model). The idea is that I buy a policy, I’m covered, I can then connect to my friends and family who I trust, and every time I connect to them, I and my friends each get £10 added to each of our reward pots. We can all connect to as many people as we want until my reward pot is worth 80% of the value of my premium. At the end of the year, if I and my friends have not claimed, the money in my pot is paid out to me. My pot is not dependent on my friends' connections, only on those networks of people I connect directly with. Embedded insurance is a bit like "the emperor's new clothes." I feel that it is just like dressing up something that’s been around for a long time. "Dixons" was already selling insurance with laptops in the 90s. The only difference is now the ability to make it part of the consumer experience when you purchase a product, as distribution partners you can also build a better understanding of their customers and you can use some of that information to provide a more relevant and bespoke solution for the customers in terms of the insurance. There are all sorts of charges that the industry needs to be mindful of. Think about the issue of over-insurance. If you insure for loss/ theft/ damage for every single item that you own – a couch for example – is that not covered by your home and content insurance already? The solution that we’re creating for consumers needs to be relevant and we also need to be delivering through an impeccable moment of truth -- a superb claim experience -- that needs to be as seamless as the purchase itself. BEST MOMENTS ‘For us at SO-SURE, we needed to gain control of the customer experience from purchase to claim. What you quickly realize is that there’s no way of fundamentally changing the paradigm for consumers unless you have control over the entire value chain – policy admin, claims, distribution.’ 'Consumers don’t trust the promise that when things go wrong, their back is going to be covered. Unfortunately, this is broken. Nobody has the consumer’s best interests at the heart of what they do. We’ve addressed all those issues in our redesign of the consumer experience. It’s so critical to focus on what the customer’s experience is going to be when they claim, and how it can be a good experience.’ ‘Win-win means amazing if you need us. Our insurance products are incredibly competitive, up to 40% cheaper than our competition, it’s very clear and written for consumers, and when you claim we fulfill the claims within 24-72 hours, 10 times faster than the competition. If you do not claim, you get rewards (95% of people don’t claim on insurance) If so you can get up to 80% of your money back if you and your friends in your pool don’t claim. What’s not to love?' ‘Be yourself and don’t stop believing.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Dylan Bourguignon is on a mission to restore consumer trust in insurance. He has developed a digital Insurer with a unique model that delivers win-win insurance through a social business model that rewards customers for good behavior.  With 10 years of private equity investing and business development experience across a broad spectrum of industries (i.e., consumer, media, industrial, and financial services). With special expertise in business growth, drawing on sales, strategy, negotiation, M&A, financing, and leadership, Dylan has a lens for what makes sense for consumers. Dylan gained analytical and financial skill sets through an MBA and Chartered Engineer status. Worked in Europe with exposure to Asia and USA. Bilingual French-English with conversational Spanish and basic German. Dylan built SO-SURE insurance so that one can have their cake and eat it! SO-SURE makes it fast and easy to claim when a customer needs support. And when the customer does not need SO-SURE, the team rewards them with up to 80% of the premium payback. SO-SURE offers coverage against theft, loss, accidental damage, water damage, and more. It also offers insurance premium reimbursement every year. It offers online claims processing services. It also offers replacement or repair once the claim is approved. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

In this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine VdL interviews Janthana Kaenprakhamroy, co-founder and CEO of Tapoly, an on-demand gig-economy worker InsurTech startup based in the UK. In this interview, Sabine and Janthana discuss business model innovation, target market and customer segmentation, and what building a lifestyle brand in insurance means. They finally cover company culture, talent acquisition, and business founding. KEY TAKEAWAYS Tapoly came about because I was so surprised by how backward we were in offering insurance and in the end-to-end process for gig economy workers and micro-businesses. This was an industry in which I thought I could add value. Tapoly is a timely and much-needed platform because we can operate at a micro-premium level that some traditional players may not be interested in or capable of delivering. Our fully automated process, which uses technology to drive pricing and underwriting, makes it easier for us to achieve economies of scale and save costs, even if the transaction is much smaller than a traditional player would be willing to underwrite. This is needed because someone needs to serve these customers. We differentiate ourselves from our peers through our product differentiation and our approach, which is from the customer angle, looking at their profile and asking ourselves what we need to do to get the relevant insurance to cover our clients’ flexible lifestyles. To cover this, you need to expand your product range and carrier list, which is time-consuming and costly. The next stage is to grow our business. Gig workers could work three jobs, each job with a very different risk profile, so it’s very hard to buy coverage to cover all three risks. Offering an on-demand, usage-based solution relevant to a variety of activities will help the insured and us understand the risks we are taking, rather than getting a surprise when the client claims for something that is obviously not covered by the policy. BEST MOMENT ‘What’s needed in the insurance space is a joined-up system that tracks every single transaction from every single source. That’s why Tapoly has gone from being a reach-out player offering micro-insurances to moving up the chain.’ ‘Our gig workers include either micro-business, sole traders or freelancers that are difficult to make a profit from but need insurance to cover core products like employer liabilities for businesses that everyone must have. There are also professional indemnity, public liability, and other add-ons that may be relevant to their business activity and risk profile.’ ‘I’m a first-time founder as well as being a female, and on top of that, I didn’t have much insurance experience when I started, and the profit margins are small on microinsurance products. A lot of investors would prefer to invest in a company with larger margins and at a more mature stage of development, still, we are hopeful that we can prove to them that we are one of the valuable platforms that they should invest in.’ ‘I chose my co-founder, Sam, based on three aspects: Skill to add value, work ethic, and his ability to financially support the business when needed. We both chose our team based on the talent that we know we needed, and individuals that we could coach and teach so they don’t pick up any bad habits. The experience was not necessary for us. An interest in the business and high work ethics were key.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Janthana Kaenprakhamroy is one of the Top 10 Insurtech Female Influencers as ranked by The Insurance Institute. Founder of Tapoly, the first on-demand insurance platform for the gig economy in Europe, as seen in the Top 100 European Fintech Awards 2017. Chartered accountant and former investment banking professional. Janathana was also one of the co-authors of the InsurTECH Book. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

In this episode of the Scouting for Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Mike Minett, CEO or Chief Ideas Guy at Portabl. Portable is a platform and community that provides insurance, benefits, and savings products for freelance and self-employed professionals. In this podcast, Mike and Sabine cover: Why Mike decided to move from consulting to building an InsurTech focused on the future of work, what Portabl’s focus and core proposition are, what is required to build a gig economy-focused startup, and a little bit of ESG and the Future of Tech. KEY TAKEAWAYS We exploded out of the gate and got some opportunities in the US, which was probably too big for us for where we were at in our journey. So, we decided to come back and technically build and launch again out of London. Then we got a bit of Covid interruption when we were due to close our first round of funding in March 2020, and things fell apart at that point, but interestingly, Portabl and our proposition to serve and support the independent, freelance, and gig world of work continued to be interesting, and Covid accelerated everything. So, on the one hand, we lost time, but actually, I think the timing will work out even better for us as we prepare to finally launch into the market. It’s been a journey! We want to create a portable structure that wraps around the individual and follows them with whatever they’ve got going on, whatever pieces of work they might have on the go, for whichever client they might have on the books, and ultimately, across any geographies that they might be traveling to and working through. The old model no longer fits the way people are choosing to live and work. Building an insurance business has its challenges, especially given regulatory constraints and risk-profiling requirements, which is our secret sauce – ‘frisk’, our freelancer risk. People’s underwriting score and credit score both drop simply because they’ve become independent, yet this is the same person with the same network, the same skills, and experiences, and potentially the same career trajectory. Why should they face biases and penalties just because they are independent? The only reason is that the models are built for the old world. At Portabl, we’re trying to tackle risk profiling through data and analytics, gaining a better understanding of these individuals to present that story back to our insurance and credit partners on their behalf, so they get a better, fairer deal. We try to free up a lot of time and stress for our customers so they can concentrate on their work. Insurance for good is a good thing, but people don’t wake up in the morning and say, “I wish I had more insurance.” They don’t even know what they have, what they don’t have, what they should probably have, and that it’s a lot more affordable than they probably think. A lot of our insurance plans come with really nice features, like access to a virtual GP, counseling and mental health support, physio, etc.  BEST MOMENTS ‘The fear of startups and the whole concept is that you need to be doing more faster and you’re constantly watching the clock.’ ‘By 2023, 50% of the world’s workforce is going to be working independently in some shape or form. Who’s looking after this new 50%? While there are few today, they will become a major part of the working population tomorrow. That was the genesis for the idea of Portabl.’ ‘As an independent, it’s precarious if you lose your health. Your health impacts your ability to earn. And if you lose your ability to earn, this also impacts your health. We really concentrate on the health and well-being piece by trying to keep our members happy, healthy, and productive.’ ‘The laptop and the mobile phone are the most critical business tool for many of us, do you have them insured? You really should, because all your data, your IP address, and your knowledge are likely to be on your phone or laptop. Independent workers don’t have the company to replace the phone or laptop.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Mike Minett is the CEO and founder of PORTABL. co, an all-in-one, data-driven platform providing portable insurance, benefits, and savings products to the world's freelancers and gig economies – nicely wrapped up in a single monthly membership bundle. PORTABL.co does the heavy lifting for these new and typically underserved markets, saving members’ time, money, and stress with easy-to-understand and use risk and financial products. Mike is no stranger to disrupting the market with unique perspectives on the twenty-first-century workplace – driven by a rich understanding of the impact of demographics. After a 20-year consulting and management career across fintech, insurance, and risk management for global investment banks, Mike launched The Positive Ageing Company, a SaaS-based data business focused on addressing the challenges and opportunities of the global aging workforce. That start-up was acquired by MMC Inc. (Mercer) in 2016. PORTABL.co is empowering the world's independent workforce and the future of work. Portabl has built the world’s smartest platform and community, providing flexible financial wellbeing, health benefits, and insurance products to the 50% of the workforce living and working in gig-based economies.  At its heart is our proprietary FRISC Score – set to challenge traditional underwriting and credit scoring of independent workers. Never has our mission to better serve and support the world’s independent workforce been more important and relevant. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

In this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine VdL interviews Naby Mariyam, CEO of Coverhero, an insurance platform that provides coverage for all types of gig-economy hustle. The first product delivered by Coverhero, Hustlecover.com was recently launched to fill the gap of financial insecurity for the growing gig economy and self-employed generation. KEY TAKEAWAYS Before setting up Coverhero, my last two startups were in the gig economy and supply chain, so I have some experience building marketplaces and gig-economy platforms. I launched Australia’s first ride-share platform, Ridehero, and a last-mile delivery platform, ZipMate.  Before transitioning into tech, I was a social scientist in academia for about 15 years.  It’s very humbling to go into a whole different industry where you don’t know how it’s done after being an expert in academia. In my area, I was at the top, and then to go to a completely different industry and start from the bottom was deeply humbling. This is core to my existence, to who I am; I have to fight through these barriers pretty much every single day. I left the Maldives to move to another country and started over. I then decided to get into tech, tick all of the diversity boxes, and fight those biases. And building what we have at Coverhero is a huge accomplishment. There’s no other way for us but to build a customer-centric business. This was truly weird when I first started talking to insurance industry executives who design products around actuaries or loss/expense ratios; it’s very product-centered rather than customer-centric. I then learned how broken the insurance supply chain is, and that got me really excited because I love solving non-sexy, complex supply chain problems. I wanted to find out how we build a product that customers actually want, and how we acquire and retain customers at a lower cost.  Our philosophy is to build a truly valuable piece of software that connects insurers to distribution. A couple of factors led us to take this direction. When we first started, we wanted to go direct to consumers and acquire customers that way, but along the way, we realized that to build a company that can dominate a category, you need to find a gap, then define, refine, and refine it again. The category that we define is "work integrated life cover", which is for someone who has finished university and who decided to go into the workforce as a self-employed. BEST MOMENT ‘I wasn’t really interested in insurance, but I had a life-changing experience where I got really sick, and we had an insurance claim rejected. That process led me to be curious enough to think, “Why is this so difficult? Why can’t it be as simple as booking an Uber?”’ ‘To leave academia to jump into the startup world was an existential crisis, I think.’ ‘I’ve always been passionate about creating equity and opportunity for people that don’t have access to networks, this is something the world needs to do a lot more of.’ ‘The last four years I’ve been in the space, I’ve seen a lot of money being invested into ideas that may or may not work, and the bar that’s being set by the insurance industry is very different from the bar that is set for a startup that is not from the InsurTech industry.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Naby Mariyam says: Graduating with a Master of Philosophy in Management at the age of 22, I have had 18 years of experience in a wide range of industries across senior-level positions spanning Academia (Business studies, Research Methodology and Design), Management Consulting, Documentary production, Travel & Destination Marketing, and Technology. Naby's Research background is in social science, where she deeply studied human behavior in her Academic career. Naby is currently taking a break from her PhD to focus on building technology-driven solutions that solve community problems. Naby shares that she is not a new face in the Australian startup scene, having launched several of her own startups and Business ventures, working closely with founders and catalysts of innovation in the Australian Startup Ecosystem over the last 8 years. Naby advised the United Nations Development Project on building start-up ecosystems and designed accelerator programs to drive innovation in developing Nations. Naby was an Australian delegate at the G20 Young Entrepreneurs conference in Berlin in 2017. Naby is a Keynote speaker, commentator, thought leader, and advocate for diversity of thought in the financial services and technology sector. She loves salsa dancing, poetry, and InsurTech (in that order). When Naby is not exploring her side hustles, she runs Coverhero, an embedded InsurTech startup focusing on revolutionizing insurance services, focusing on the needs of Millennials and Gen Z. Coverhero launched its first product www.hustlecover.com to fill the gap of financial insecurity for the growing Gig Economy and self-employed generation, and its smart home insurance API www.lucci.io in 2021. Website: www.hustlecover.com Email: naby@coverhero.au ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine VdL talks to Iain Wilcox, CEO of GWT Insight, a tech company focused on making cost-effective commercial building data available to their owners, operators, and advisers.  Iain is an entrepreneur, leader, and visionary who successfully launched new businesses from scratch, balancing strategic planning with practical implementation. Over a 30-year period, Iain worked with companies including AT&T and Cognizant, and 5 years ago, he launched GWT Insight. During the conversation, Sabine and Iain discussed four topics: What is GWT Insight from a company, branding, and team perspective? Why both, property and commercial building IoT, are unique markets around which to build a risk mitigation ecosystem. Benefits that are delivered to the property and insurance markets (including preventative maintenance). Lessons learned from moving to the entrepreneurial space after years of working for large companies. KEY TAKEAWAYS I’ve been delivering consulting services to large corporations for 13 years and have witnessed just how difficult it is for them to balance the need to provide structure and control over their investments with ensuring they do not hinder their innovation initiatives. The Tier 1 carriers recognized they needed to start working with startups. I was working with a large India-based IT company, and they recognized that both organizations needed the agility and speed-to-market of a startup. This led to the formation of GWT Insight. When we were formed in 2017-2018, it was in the very early days of people realizing they could save money by how they use and consume energy. Now, with rising utility prices, people are very focused on energy optimization and we see ourselves as not only being able to deliver on the governance part of an ESG model, with the risk management solutions that we develop with our partners, the insurers, and their brokers, but we’re also being able to deliver on commercial property owners’ desire to deliver a better understanding of how their buildings are performing and being able to reduce their costs. Property can account for 20-30% of the overall premium on a portfolio when you’ve got business interruption, public liability, and employee liability. You’ve got an area of the insurance paradigm and the value chain that impacts quite a wide area. We’ve got use cases across a variety of different examples and verticals. We use real-time data from manufacturing units, offices, hotels, schools, hospitals, and central government departments (MoD and local authorities). Some of the use cases and benefits we’re looking at are picking up fire control data, so you know that if there is a problem with the alarm, it helps them to proactively go to their clients and warn them. We’ve also been able to identify loss events with our insurance clients and stop them from happening. BEST MOMENTS ‘When buildings are built, they have a number of IoT sensors built in already. Even though a standard office will have 5,000-10,000 data points, GWT Insight recognized an opportunity to capture that data by listening to the existing in-house building management system. We developed the GWTI Observer to do just this and create a better understanding of risk for our users and customers.’ ‘Risk managers want real-time data because it’s about loss prevention. We’ve still got a little bit of education to go through in the underwriting community; a lot of that community still has a very traditional viewpoint on how to use data and what is out there. With regards to owners, a third of this market is bleeding edge and wants to risk manage their properties, a third is interested but not ready for it, and a third does not manage that data and insight proactively.’ ‘I think the "data" topic will change the way insurance is sold, because when you’ve got the data, you can make better, informed decisions about how you’re managing your property, the risks impacting your property, and how that impacts the rest of your business.’ ‘In every building in every portfolio, there have been areas where we can help improve the operational efficiency of the building and provide a better customer experience for their own customers, employees, and stakeholders.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Iain Wilcox is an entrepreneur, leader, and visionary who has successfully launched new businesses from scratch, including software, IoT hardware, and services companies in the UK and Europe. Primarily worked in the startup development phase, building a unique customer base and revenue streams from the start.  Iain manages the delicate balance between strategic planning and the practical implementation of market entry, business development, and revenue delivery for new and established operations. Iain set up GWT Insight approximately 5 years ago. GWT Insight is a tech company focused on making cost-effective commercial building data available to its owners, operators, and advisers. Whether reducing risk, improving the quality of customer experience, or saving money, access to reliable, real-time, and relevant data is now underpinning new ways to improve business performance. With origins in the insurance industry, GWT Insight has developed technology to address complex data-capture challenges in commercial buildings. GWTI's device is simple to install and works across open protocols and many widely used closed-protocol systems. It is plugged into the building's BMS. Once connected, it listens to building systems, sensors, or business-specific equipment without affecting their operation. Unlimited data can be captured, classified, standardised, compressed, and protected with advanced security protocols. The data then flows via the cloud to client information systems, dashboards, and user interfaces, including tablets, desktops, and mobile phones in near real time. The unique approach to data management and the ability to deliver real-time data on what is happening, and to critically inform ‘why’, make GATTI's solution a highly cost-effective platform to drive material benefits for anyone involved in the performance of commercial property. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

In this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine VdL talks to Henri Winand, co-founder and CEO of AkinovA, an electronic marketplace built to ease the transfer and trading of insurance and insurance risks. During the conversation, Sabine and Henry discuss the importance of strong taxonomy when moving into multi-party electronic placements, tangible and intellectual assets, transition risk, cyber risk, NFTs, and driving liquidity in illiquid markets. KEY TAKEAWAYS The whole objective of building our marketplace is to access a larger portion of the market. The market is there already, and our goal is to help clients or anybody in the value chain feel that we can do a better job of providing transactional transparency. I’ve done that in the world of energy and in the world of transportation. I’m an engineer who likes to solve problems; more to the point, I really love to build teams that can solve big problems in this world. The challenge for FinTechs and InsurTechs is that sometimes you can’t patent things because they fall in the business idea realm. Being able to then keep a trade secret – maybe with some patents around it -- which we are exploring big time by the way for a few of our concepts – is a way to not signal to everyone what you are doing, so you can keep the trade secret for a while. But equally, there are some pieces that I believe, patent attorneys believe too, can be patented. This is quite important because it gives you the ability to have a discourse with very large organizations if they try to replicate your IP. IP = value. It is not about sticking a licensing reminder that tells someone they’re infringing on your IP and that they owe you money; that’s not the point. The point is you arrive at an asset that can be valued by clients and investors, which then allows you to have a value-based conversation with your partners, too. The question is: How do we, as an industry, attract the right talent? Our industry has to be exciting. I got into insurance by accident, and insurance isn’t the first thing you think about when you get up in the morning unless you have to. What do we need to change to be part of the client's journey? If you break down insurance, you have to start with the risk that needs to be reduced and managed. First, I’ve got to make it easier for the person we engage with and who has a problem we can solve.  Second, they need to be able to articulate it clearly to ensure it is well evaluated. I then need to be able to say what it’s worth and how well or badly it could go based on the information gathered. BEST MOMENTS ‘An idea is a cost center until you make money out of it. Once you start making money, that idea can then become a profit center.’ ‘Time is everything, not money or attending meetings. The only commodity we have as human beings is time. So invest your time wisely.’ ‘I’m hoping things won’t change for the worse when we look at the current economy. Still, I think some clear fundamentals have changed. So let's make the best of what we know for now.’ ‘When you’re coming up with an idea, the cleverest people in the room are the ones who question the idea. So, if you want to look clever in a group, don't come up with an idea, come up with critiques.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Henri Winand is a growth- and change-oriented CEO with a passion for scaling businesses across a broad set of technologies, using diverse business models and team-based delivery.  Henry now serves as CEO for AkinovA, an insurance technology company that he co-founded with a specialist in ILS (insurance-linked securities and related insurance products). He is also a City of London-based fund manager.  Prior to this, Henry served as CEO of a British tech company listed on the London Stock Exchange Main Market (Intelligent Energy, a $1bn tech IPO) with in excess of $200m raised from a broad range of sources, leading to strong top-line growth, largely from internationally-based customers. Today, Henry serves on several Boards in the UK, Singapore, India, Japan, and the US in the energy, software services, film content publishing, and automotive sectors.  Henry also served on the Board of an EU-funded PPP valued at €1bn+.  Those also included several advisory bodies to Ministers, Secretaries of State, and Officials in the new energy, automotive, and materials science sectors in the UK, as well as on the Alumni Advisory Board of the Warwick Business School and of the University of Cambridge. Henry owns more than a dozen granted and pending patents and has several papers published in well-known, peer-reviewed scientific journals, covering topics including composite materials, neutron diffraction, and processes to improve industrial product development cycles.  Henry is regularly invited to speak at international conferences and has spoken in the US and French Senates, too. Henry provides advice to selected major global institutional, venture capital, and private equity funds. In addition to meeting several Heads of State, Henry made several appearances on live TV and recorded TV and Radio programs (e.g., Live CNBC TV, Live Bloomberg TV, Live BBC Radio 4 “The Today Programme”, recorded BBC and other programs, provided thought leadership, and quoted articles in broadsheets, e-newspapers, and The Huffington Post.)  Henry is married to Anne. They both have one child called Alexander. AkinovA is building an electronic marketplace for the transfer and trading of (re)insurance risks. By working in collaboration and partnership with the insurance industry, AkinovA helps optimize the risk transfer value chain by providing a capital markets-grade, industry-regulated trading platform and clearing house. AkinovA provides valuable data and analytics to participants and regulators from the aggregated data that passes through the marketplace. AkinovA grows the overall size of the insurance marketplace by enabling new participants to enter and existing participants to transact more business. There is significant pressure from the Capital Markets wanting an appropriate mechanism to access insurance risks that are de-correlated from the bonds and equity markets. Creating an effective secondary market for (re)insurance risks to enable their trading will dramatically increase the volume of business transacted across the marketplace. AkinovA is working with a number of brokers, who act as key channel partners for the existing industry, to kickstart liquidity in the marketplace. AkinovA provides them with a venue to service their clients’ needs in a more efficient and timely manner as well as gives them access to new clients entering the market who would benefit from their advice. AkinovA’s goal is to remain an independent marketplace enabling it to attract and work with all trading parties without undue influence from industry participants. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine VdL talks to Simon Schneider, founding partner of Neoteq Ventures. They cover three areas: Simon’s path in VC Land, Great minds think alike, and Startup tips to engage with large companies while ensuring they don't get side-lined when the corporation’s strategy changes.  KEY TAKEAWAYS It’s a fortunate coincidence that I entered the VC market in 2001. I’d studied to be a lawyer but decided not to become a lawyer because a friend suggested VCs needed someone like me who knew what contracts should look like and who understood people. From the first day of my VC career, I was fascinated by all these founders and their teams with their great game-changing ideas and technologies. Neoteq invests not just in InsurTechs, we concentrate on early-stage investments which are pre-seed, seed, and Series A. We do not have a specific sector focus, but we look for technology-based startups. The most relevant question for us is which customer problem does the startup solve? It sounds like an easy question, but often when you meet founders and you ask them that very question they have difficulty describing their proposition, and if you can’t describe what the customer’s problem is, why would someone be willing to buy your product? Market, team, and technology, these three key parts, are used constantly to perform our due diligence and decide if the startup is an interesting investment target for us. Not every startup in our business is successful. There are always failures. Of course, investors have expectations and you have to fulfill them as a team when you get the trust of your investors, but not everything can be handled by the team, there are some things your team can handle, and some things in the market that you do not have a handle on. You always have to look at why each case wasn’t successful in the end when it looked promising in the beginning. There are a lot of things going on in the world right now that are impacting startups. I expect that access to capital, especially in later-stage financing rounds will be tougher and tougher than in past years which means valuations will go down a little bit. I expect the rounds will get a bit smaller and that has an impact on the M&A market, perhaps exiting will take more time than you’ve been used to, but if you’re an experienced VC you know it takes time (5-7 years or more) until you can exit your companies from your portfolio. The VC scene won’t freeze though. It will continue to find winners to yield high returns. We are financially driven. Each startup, from our point of view, needs to have the potential to pay back our complete fund. If we do not see this potential it’s unlikely we will invest. Strategic returns are often combined with financial returns, at least from my point of view. But of course, CVCs often try to get some kind of extra deals with the teams to get earlier access to the product. This is something I would highly recommend startups not to accept, in the end, it’s always unhelpful, especially when corporations change their strategy – which can happen from one day to another – you are no longer relevant to them and the baseline premise of the engagement is over. Startups that want to cooperate with a CVC need to set up evaluation meetings and workshops where they can really create the goals on which they will want to work on. If you don’t find common grounds then stop the conversations because it won’t be a successful partnership. Alignment is key. BEST MOMENTS ‘Over the last 20 years as a VC, I’ve seen a lot of things. My fascination with the VC business and the chance I have every day to work with special people are still there. I still love my job.’ ‘The fundraising process, especially during Covid was not easy. Meetings are no longer possible and investors have to make choices through Zoom calls as to whether they would want to invest in a venture.’ ‘Companies working on climate tech and sustainability are really interesting and I see a lot of potential in this sector because it’s relevant for all of us and the better the solutions are the more they will help our planet to survive, hopefully.’ ‘Startups that started in previous crises often were more successful than companies that start in normal times. The big question is: Do we have normal times at the moment? I would say, definitely not.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Simon Schneider has more than 15 years of experience as an Investment Professional in sourcing, negotiation, financing, and the support & sale of technology start-ups in the fields of B2B/Cloud-Software, Digital Media, eCommerce, Insurtech & Clean-Tech. Simon has years of M&A experience through the trade sales of several portfolio companies. He also serves as a board member for various companies. Neoteq Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm based in Cologne, Germany, that invests in outstanding teams and exceptional technology-based companies. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

In this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine VdL interviews Kobi Bendelak, a 22-year veteran in insurance. Kobi is the CEO of InsurTech Israel, which he established to promote and lead innovation within the Israeli Insurtech ecosystem. Sabine has known Kobi for over 6 years. He mentored the startups in her European Accelerator and has always been the kindest individual for the startups and her team members to talk to for advice and mentorship. KEY TAKEAWAYS InsurTech Israel has four baseline activities: Investment – We’ve already invested in 10 startups, all of them are Israeli InsurTechs, Consulting – we assist the startups to grow, Media and Events – we hold events and bring big delegation of startups to engage with corporations – Tel Aviv is one of the key capitals for InsurTech startups in the world. Still, there was no accelerator programme in Israel, so we started one with great mentors from all over the world who helped startups learn, grow, and scale.  Building an ecosystem is very hard, but having a success story makes it easier. We have four unicorns that assist us in building and growing the ecosystem and laying the foundation for the InsurTech industry here in Israel. For a good ecosystem, though, you have to have a lot of early-stage startups, not unicorns! It’s hard to build that because you have to find the entrepreneurs, and they need to find you. Israel is very good with engagement and connections. We have a culture of entrepreneurship here. The insurance world is very orthodox; it’s a long journey for startups to form partnerships with incumbent players. Both B2B startups and investors need to be patient because there is no great success in the beginning, unlike B2C, where you can succeed faster. Soon, it will be easier, though, because the entire industry will be digitised. The insurance industry is a very logical industry: yes/no, cover/no cover, something happened/nothing happened, which makes it a great playground for AI. The Israeli army has seen many successes with AI, so the entrepreneurs who are coming up are young and well-experienced. They start looking for ‘ideas’ and for ways to use them to solve real market problems. Israelis are the best at solving problems because we live in a very tough neighbourhood. InsurTech is not just technology. Indeed, it is first about solving problems, evaluating options, and then implementing technology to make it happen. Entrepreneurs with strong AI skills bring that knowledge to the InsurTech industry through better underwriting for planes, fraud detection, and healthcare, to name a few areas. BEST MOMENTS ‘I retired at 45 years old, and after a few months, it started to get boring, so I looked around for opportunities, and the InsurTech space became very interesting to me.’  ‘Coming into work every day with passion is key.’ ‘You need to have mileage and a little money to succeed.’ ‘Every InsurTech startup must have insurance domain expertise in the team if they want to get into insurance because it’s a very complex industry that requires subject matter expertise.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Kobi Bendelak is the CEO of InsurTech Israel that he established to promote and lead the Israeli Insurtech ecosystem. The company has four areas of activity: investments, consulting, media, and acceleration programmes. All those activities make InsurTech Israel the leading and most active accelerator program in the Israeli InsurTech sector.  Previously, Kobi was the founder and CEO of Reshef Insurance Brokers, part of Migdal/ Generali Insurance Group. He has 22 years of experience in the insurance industry and holds a BA in Management and an MA in Law from Bar Ilan University. He was also a Colonel (Reserve) in the IDF. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine VdL interviews Farron Blanc, at the time VP, Brokerage Distribution & Strategy at Legal & General America (L&G America) where he works with an amazing team of innovators to drive growth within life insurance by leveraging emerging technologies to accelerate opportunities within the brokerage channels. Farron is an entrepreneur, too. He started Gerry, a concierge Service platform that used data and licensed Social Workers to help thousands of Americans to navigate requirements and deliver the right support within the long-term senior care space. Farron and his team sold the company in 2021, when he moved to L&G America.  KEY TAKEAWAYS I’ve been at Legal & General for about three months. L&G America is the world’s 11th largest asset manager, but in the US it’s a really nimble business. As a corporation, we’ve invested so much in digital. One of the things I’m really passionate about is helping the underserved get adequate, affordable protection through term life insurance. You have to use technology to reach customers today and empower brokers to do that most effectively. I’m loving it! On the entrepreneurial side, in a venture-backed startup with $4, $10, or $100 million USD, money doesn’t solve anything because – until you’re a big tech like Amazon, Apple, or Google  – that money is an investment in the future, and you will have to raise more capital in 12-18 months to scale. So the default mode is death, as you’ll run out of money at some point because you won't be profitable. Profit is indeed still the rule of the game. Another thing people don’t understand is that when you receive funding or a specific amount of money, it comes with expectations. For some a $1 billion USD (Unicorn level) exit isn’t big enough, even if they’re only writing a $2 million USD cheque, they want to be in markets where companies can do $10 billion USD exits (Decacorn level.) If you can understand those metrics, unit economics, and expectations, you will do well. As an entrepreneur, you need to stay focused and relevant while hitting all the milestones you promised your investors, so you get there. Within a corporation, the main challenge is actually "speed to market". You may have distribution, but you may not have innovation because you’re so efficient (e.g., you have processes, best practice committees, procedures, and meetings to ensure that everything that is done gets super efficient) Tech giants like Amazon, Netflix, Apple, and Google do phenomenally well at attracting talent to be able to attack a problem internally, and then by buying companies externally. At L&G America, we want to cover as many families as possible with affordable protection. The only way to do that is by using technology to digitize processes and personalize engagements and internal processes (i.e., rates, the experience, the journey the policyholder goes through) across product design, underwriting, and claims processing. We’re probably the market leader in the application part of the process. Still, we have so much work to do on the back end. You then have to work with distribution partners to optimize all of this. I’d love to be proved otherwise, particularly in the life insurance or mortality coverage spaces. Let's remember that insurance is sold, not bought. No one wants to talk about death. The best way to sell it is through independent distribution, reaching out to the customer, and engaging with them in the way they want to engage and meet. There’s no one magic bullet. BEST MOMENTS ‘I’ve always been fascinated by problems and what’s the best way to solve them. Sometimes it’s a clean sheet of paper with no rules, and sometimes it’s leveraging a 100-year-old brand with a $40 billion USD balance sheet.’  ‘As long as you’re rapidly learning and re-assessing your challenges and assumptions, that’s the most enriching part.’ ‘Within corporate venturing, you must have a strategic return lens on things. Whereas financial VCs are purely looking at gross IRR or total value paid-in capital and multiples. You have to look beyond the numbers even though they are so important.’ ‘The response to the global financial crisis of 2008 was to print more money to avoid a global depression. I think that worked, but it inflated asset prices, and we were at a 0% interest rate environment for essentially two decades, meaning long-term contracts started to fall apart. What does the value of money mean now? It’s a debt obligation, but the rapid inflation we’re seeing means it’s going to be really interesting to see how we’re going to ride that out. How does being in an era of superabundant capital impact people’s subscriptions?’ ABOUT THE GUEST At the time of this recording, Farron Blanc and his team help L&G America drive growth by leveraging technology throughout the broker channel. Prior to that, as co-founder and CEO of Gerry, Farron raised $3.75M in VC funding to launch the startup, a concierge service that used data and licensed Social Workers to help thousands of Americans navigate long-term senior care. Farron told us that he sold the business in the middle of 2021. Farron was named by Digital Insurance as one of the 20 Insurance Innovators to know, as well as one of the top 35 young executives by Intelligent Insurer in 2017.  Farron is a recovering global reinsurer, corporate VC, life insurance carrier President, BCG Strategy Consultant, and insurance Chief Marketing Officer with deep Asian and North American experience in startups and corporations. Ensure to reach out to Farron; he is such an amazing expert, influencer, and person.  ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

In this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine VdL interviews Kristian Feldborg, founder of Vesuvio Labs, a venture builder dedicated to FinTech startups and the InsurTech space in particular. Vesuvio Labs calls itself the digital rocket fuelling the insurance sector. In this episode, Sabine reviews Kristian’s journey as a FinTech venture builder and how he made the shift from the traditional tech world to the new world of tech. KEY TAKEAWAYS I’ve always been interested in new things, startups, and tech. For most of my career, I’ve traveled, lived in different countries, and worked with entrepreneurs. Eventually, I decided I wanted to turn that into a business and create a lab and ecosystem where we could work with many entrepreneurs and help them execute the great ideas they have.  As a venture builder, what you do is take some degree of risk with the clients and with the projects that you work on. That means someone comes to us very early in their journey and they do not necessarily have a lot of the business there yet, they certainly don’t have the capital, what we try to do at that very early stage is invest in those businesses through our work -- via sweat equity -- until they have launched the very first version of their platform and are starting to raise turnover for their businesses.  We often work on 15 projects at the same time, and there can be a lot of commonalities among them. What we try to do, though, is to develop technology in a way that enables greater reuse across the different ventures we work with. We work hard to create a shared baseline infrastructure that everyone can benefit from, thereby reducing the risk of getting it wrong and the time-to-market. Because we are blessed with working with so many entrepreneurs and businesses, we also see a lot of situations where some great people have come together but haven’t invested the effort into figuring out the right framework to help their business get to the destination they set for themselves or how they’re going to work with others. What happens is that it often doesn’t quite work out. There are many things every business must consider. The structure and the processes are really there to support you when things don’t work out the way they should.  BEST MOMENTS ‘It’s all about finding great people with great ideas that perhaps do not have the technological expertise to execute on those ideas and see if we can partner with them and create great companies together.’  ‘Insurance and financial services know something about their value chain, and they know how they want to change/ improve/ disrupt. We actually can help build the technology infrastructure around that through our technology and the partners we engage with.’ ‘We want to allow people to focus more on the toppings; we provide the base of the pizza, and they decide whether they want to put pepperoni or whatever on top.’ ‘You have to be quite conscious about what companies you select to work with. It would be natural to pick many companies that look a lot alike, but that does not work. The ones that benefit from tech services are those companies that have a strong technology fit, but more importantly, they can cover different aspects of the insurance value chain.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Led by Kristian, the Vesuvio Labs team aims to transform the insurance industry into a faster, cheaper, and more accessible one. And their focus is clearly on technical execution.  ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

In this episode of Scouting For Growth, Sabine VdL talks to Sebastian Pitzler, former managing director of InsurLab Germany, a leading tech accelerator for startups wanting to enter the German market via Cologne. Before moving to the other side of the coin (i.e., becoming an InsurTech startup enabler), Sebastian worked for a very well-known Insurance company, Ergo, a subsidiary of Munich Re. He also has a background in IT strategy; he is a board member and a digital lab development expert. KEY TAKEAWAYS Within our industry, there has been a significant shift in the last 5-6 years. When I was responsible for the Ergo Lab in Berlin, it was hard to talk with the procurement department to secure a contract between a startup and an incumbent. The insurance industry approached it from an IT background focused on programming languages and self-developed software solutions. Then they began using standard software such as Microsoft and SAP, and finally, they were open to working with and collaborating with startups. It’s great to have seen the volume of InsurTech startups increase steadily over the past few years, and that’s because there are a couple of trends coming together: 1) The willingness and acceptance to support startups and corporate management attention that investments are necessary to build and grow these startup ecosystems. 2) The ability to see that startups are able to help and find solutions to major problems in a very short time period, which is something we realised in Germany during the Covid-19 pandemic. We have been able to create many win-win situations and success stories, demonstrating that a startup solution can help overcome, for example, the bottleneck in internal IT capacity. Networking the Insurance Industry is what our InsurLab Germany is about: building a strong, reliable network for all parties, including enthusiasts who want to work on innovation and digitalization. From the beginning, the design of the initiative was that we needed to bring together insurance companies on board as well as startups, IT providers, consultancy companies, and universities, all with different competencies to work on issues and topics like innovation and digitalisation. By setting up the InsureNXT Conference, our goal was clear. We wanted to ensure that the focus was not only on insurance, startups, and tech companies. We also wanted to include the cross-industry and science dimensions because it’s logical that, if you want to develop insurance innovation and digitalization in an ecosystem economy, you need to involve different parties. It’s great to see cross-industry partners joining companies like Garmin, Volvo, and Lufthansa Systems, all collaborating with our startups! BEST MOMENTS ‘I’m not the classical insurance guy, I’m more of a tech enthusiast.’ ‘During the past six months, we have supported 15 startups to develop and grow. We’ve supported them with over 60 mentors from our insurance and expert networks. Those connections helped develop over 40 projects. And some are already up and running as products on the market.’ ‘Corporations want to innovate but avoid risks, and the startups want to grow quickly, but sometimes they speak different languages, and we need to be a translator or build bridges between both those worlds to understand the different needs and perspectives.’ ‘Digitalisation is about more than technology, it’s about mind shift, agility, customer centricity on a new level. That’s why it was so important, from scratch, to build InsurLab Germany as a network of different parties and drivers besides the member network that we have created and our partner network.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Sebastian Pitzler was the Managing Director of InsurLab Germany. He started in March 2018. Previously, he was head of the ERGO Digital Lab in Berlin and was responsible for setting up and expanding this innovation laboratory in the Berlin start-up scene. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode, Sabine VdL interviews Matt Connolly, an entrepreneur and platform builder in the insurance sector. He’s also the CEO of Sønr - the world's #1 InsurTech scouting and open innovation platform. In this episode, Matt talks about himself and his idea to build the Sønr platform. KEY TAKEAWAYS I always knew I wanted to start my own company, but I didn’t know what it would be or what I wanted to invent. The only relevant professional experience I had was working for a digital agency, but my friend and I set up a web design company in 2003 that was going to deliver strategy, creative, and tech for the web. Five years later, the business was very successful and became the number one digital agency in the UK. It was a very unusual position to be in as a 20-something. I always wanted to push, push, and push again. I’m never satisfied. They are terrible traits in somebody, but they are also great traits for an entrepreneur. I hope I’m able to do that with empathy for those around me. Staff retention supports my belief that I can create a strong culture and be a strong leader within my organisation. And, those traits really do drive me forward.  Having control over a company's DNA and shaping its culture is a great responsibility and one of the most important things a successful founder can achieve. Once you have that right, the rest of the business will flow. Fun has to be a large part of that. As a founder, you start off with your feet firmly under the desk. You are involved in shaping the operation of the business, KPIs, growth metrics, and all those kinds of things, and you can forget about having fun; that’s where my co-founder, Matt Ferguson, is great at continuously reminding me and us to remember the fun part of work. He makes sure we are going out, and we talk and connect. You need to set a vision, define a purpose within it, and ensure that vision is brought into, and possibly even co-created by, people within the team. If you have that and everybody buys into it and you set a clear pathway to achieving that – whether you’re ahead of it or behind it – then everybody will rally and do their best to make that happen. I’ve always felt it should be somewhat democratic in a business's culture. Rather than employ people to fulfil specific roles, I’d rather employ exceptional talent, understand where they are best deployed, and allow them to function with that intent. That allows them to do the thing they love the best, and invariably they’re the best at, to create the right resourcing landscape to achieve our vision. BEST MOMENTS ‘Employ people who are more talented than you.’  ‘You will always overestimate what you can or will achieve in one year, but you will always underestimate what you can achieve in 10. I need to remind myself of that, I’m an incredibly impatient man.’ ‘Always check in with each other and have those “high five” moments and check in and look after yourself en route.’ ‘I am much better at encouraging others to have fun than doing it myself. But if you’re not having fun and living another life outside of work, you become a one-dimensional person, and that’s never going to be healthy for you.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Matt is the CEO of Sønr - the world's #1 InsurTech scouting and open innovation platform. Sønr is a subscription-based platform that houses the world’s most comprehensive source of innovation intelligence, designed specifically for the insurance innovator.  It is used by some of the best-known insurance companies globally, including Allianz, Bupa, Generali, Munich Re, and Tokio Marine. Sønr connects its clients to innovation globally – the latest market trends, startups, and scaleups reshaping the insurance market. It provides insight into competitors’ innovation activities too... The critical intelligence needed to compete in today’s changing world. It also has an in-built collaboration toolset that enables teams to work smarter, faster, and be more connected. This results in less duplicated effort and ensures everyone is really on the same page. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode, Sabine VdL interviews Mark Dennis, a seasoned insurance executive with strong expertise in software platforms. Mark was the Global COO and Europe CEO for MunichRe Digital Partners, one of the most renowned InsurTech ecosystem builders, which has now been re-integrated within the core business of the MunichRe group. Today, Mark works with various young ventures and helps them with their scaling strategy. Today, he is supporting the Inshur team.   KEY TAKEAWAYS In my time, we’ve partnered with 25-30 InsurTechs and invested in only a few, so we’re quite selective about where the capital has gone. The examples where we’ve got it really right are where we’ve blended our products well.  In the early years, we were probably more invested in technology, and our assertion at the time was to offer the full tech stack of policy admin. In the middle of that five-year period, we looked at the market and realized there were people out there who could do it far better than we could; there were hundreds of policy administration vendors. You could decide whether to buy rather than build. So we pivoted that model away from building everything to having a network of best-in-class providers that we could connect to our InsurTech customers. Later, we focused more on data infrastructure and collaborating with our InsurTech partners to leverage a data advantage. It’s folly to seek perfect alignment; it’s better to seek out what everybody gets from the partnership, and it’ll vary and move around over time, but as long as everybody gets some kind of upside, then that’s being in a good shape. Seeking perfection is nonsense, really. Insurance has always been data-driven, even 4,000 years ago with the Phoenician traders. They’re always figuring stuff out based on data points (e.g,. When’s the safest time to sail across that ocean to deliver goods?) Now we have the benefit of technology that allows us to process a lot more data, and everybody’s trying to capture data points and gain a data advantage, though sometimes I think we don’t always know what we’re doing; we’re capturing data without necessarily a clear purpose. It’s much more about risk prevention and prediction than about the cure. It’s more a force for good now though I don’t think insurance gets the credit it deserves. In a way, it certainly needs its own PR campaign! BEST MOMENTS ‘The key for me is wanting to be a partnership business, and we try to treat all our InsurTech relationships as partnerships, rather than too transactional.’  ‘Without knowing it – because there wasn’t that much competition in the early days – we built the first InsurTech ecosystems, it wasn’t by design, it was just how it worked.’ ‘It boils down to a few key questions: Is the team the right team? Are they balanced? Do they know the industry or are they being deliberately disruptive? Are they being positive with their disruption?’ ‘You have to respect your insurance partner; they need to get something out of this and create value.’   ABOUT THE GUEST Mark Dennis says: In 2016, I co-founded and built out MunichRe's Digital Partners business from scratch to what is now a large, global operation employing more than 100 brilliant people. With our insurtech and disruptive partners, we have helped build more than 20 insurance businesses. As part of my role, I introduced a flexible working model, with employee wellbeing and care at its heart. For more than 5 years, we have operated a flexible model with meeting-free and wellbeing days, extended breaks, flexibility for working parents, and so on. I am proud to say that some of these ideas have now been adopted more widely in the other MunichRe businesses. I am also passionate about giving people a chance. DP recruits people of all backgrounds and with diverse thinking. I was also an executive sponsor on Munich Re UK's inclusion and diversity programme and for the Re: Connect charitable foundation. I now lead an independent consulting business focused on insurtech scaling, operational resilience, and change management. We also aim to work with more established insurance businesses to develop and execute their innovation ambitions. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode, Sabine VdL interviews Jean-Charles Velge, one of the co-founders of Qover. After spending part of his career in the private equity industry – half in Europe and the other half in Hong Kong – he decided to become an entrepreneur. Jean-Charles started as a consultant at Bain & Company, then joined the largest Benelux fund, NPM Capital, before moving to Redhorse in Hong Kong. Jean-Charles says that he runs the world's first Insurance-As-A-Service platform. KEY TAKEAWAYS There are many different business models and how you can attack the value chain in insurance. Where we tried to be really innovative was in the business model itself and in how you transform the insurance industry through technology. Not just how to distribute a product, or how to use part of the technology stack to enhance the processes of an insurance company, but how to change the industry by applying technology. The model is more valid today than it ever was. Along the way, insurance lost itself. What really makes insurance special is that it will protect you at the moment when you’re most vulnerable. That’s what we need to rebuild and make it possible. Technology is extremely well placed to make it happen at scale and with pinpoint precision.  Tech is no longer a vertical; it is a horizontal that runs through all the verticals of the economy. When you look at all the winners on the tech horizontal, all those companies need insurance, either embedded to enhance their products, to cross-sell insurance, or to up-sell insurance. It needs to be digital and cross-border. What we’ve done is create a platform that is basically a digital-native company without a balance sheet, able to build any non-life insurance product for any of those verticals in any country. The complexity of tech companies working with incumbents, especially in the insurance industry, is doubled. Firstly, insurance companies are not really digital, so it’s difficult for them to build the right tools and stack. Secondly, they’re very much local, traditional insurance companies; they have branches in the UK, France, and Brussels, but they don’t really talk to each other. A company that wants to do cross-border insurance has to rebuild block by block. What we try to do is marry tech and insurance so we’re as much a tech company as we are a legal and insurance company to be a single point of contact for your customer to be able to provide insurance digitally and cross-border, and keep all the complexities under cover to make it simple for the customer. BEST MOMENTS ‘When we started the company, we asked, “How can we hack insurance to make it as efficient and smart as possible?” It’s in the DNA of Qover.’  ‘Our philosophy is to build the best policies possible with the best coverage possible with the best service possible. That’s what the industry needs to build to gain the confidence of the consumers back that may have been lost along the way.’ ‘Well done, insurance can be extremely valuable across the whole value chain of many different industries.’ ‘We’ll be the biggest e-bike insurers in the Western world in the next few years because we’ve built a compelling product for all countries.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Jean-Charles Velge co-founded Qover in 2016 with Quentin Colmant. He spent his entire career in the private equity industry – half in Europe and half in Hong Kong. Jean-Charles started as a consultant at Bain & Company, then joined the largest Benelux fund, NPM Capital, before moving to Redhorse in Hong Kong. He has a Bachelor of Business Administration, a master’s in finance, and an MBA. Jean Charles calls Qover the world's first Insurance-As-A-Service. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode, Sabine VdL interviews Sebastien Gaudin, co-founder and CEO of CareVoice, an embedded HealthTech InsurTech platform that has grown fast to become a leader in their category across Asia through their platform the CareVoiceOS open platform which delivers a modern insurance infrastructure solution to connect and manage multiple health services providers to shape bespoke health engagement journey for micro-customer segments. Sebastien’s mission is to reinvent the healthcare and insurance spaces. Merging the two to deliver tailored experiences for users and payers. Sabine and Sebastien talk about the recent category paper they wrote ‘Embedded Health: The next growth frontier for insurance’,  discussing why embedded health is such an important topic for the health and insurance markets today? What are the winning business models we have seen emerge in recent years? What are the top capabilities needed to build a digital health ecosystem?   KEY TAKEAWAYS I value patient-centred care, looking at the patient from a board perspective with multiple stakeholders. From my experience working in China's digital ecosystem, customer-centred, service-oriented approaches are everywhere and you can create more value and relevance if you aggregate services for people. We opened new distribution channels, new ways for insurers to commercialise products. All our experiences have led us to the category of embedded health. It’s about being able to provide targeted customers a range of relevant digital healthcare services together with insurance in one single integrated customer experience.  Insurers are really making the move to embed health services with their insurance offering and then prevent or influence positively what may happen before a claim. Think about health players who can embed insurance and likely complimentary health insurance services to bring more value and protection to their customers but also all at once with a monetisation interest model for what they offer as a service. Lastly, noon-insurance, non-health players can also think about embedding health and insurance services as complimentary product offerings and revenues. We’ve been looking at how embedded health can really help to acquire customers. We see micro-insurance in the health space could be interesting because you start to see a number of players embedding micro-insurance and this gives new customers access to insurance that they couldn’t access before.    BEST MOMENTS ‘Working with insurers, we helped them to go beyond being a passive payer of claims and take a more proactive role, helping their customers navigate and find the right medical services at the right time.’  ‘With a digital customer journey you can support the individual along the way with easy access to treatments and healthcare professionals.’ ‘The opportunities that have opened up with this wealth of technologies that can impact people’s health. It’s true that digital natives are more suited to embrace this and most of the incumbents have been struggling because of their lack of digital capabilities.’ ‘The past two years have seen a solid acceleration. It’s still difficult to see which model will win, we may have new models emerging, it’s likely there will be multiple winners within different sub-categories. The most important thing is that the needs from both consumers and all stakeholders are strong and the value creation by transforming insurance and improving health is limitless.’   ABOUT THE GUEST Sebastien’s career has been dedicated to healthcare. He is the co-founder and CEO of CareVoice, a leading Asian Health InsurTech expanding globally and dedicated to making insurance more humane, with health at its core. With an academic background in pharmaceuticals and business, Sebastien worked in Corporate Development and Marketing, and served as a business leader across multiple therapeutic and geographic markets in the pharma industry. From a young age, he has been involved in creating and growing several new ventures. Sebastien is also the co-founder and non-executive Chairman of the Board of blüüm, a Chinese tech-driven insurtech MGA that was spun off from CareVoice after graduating from PingAn’s Accelerator program. Sebastien and CareVoice received multiple awards and recognitions, including the Top Insurtech Leader 2021 in the “Digital Business Ecosystem Builders” category by ACORD, a non-profit, industry-owned organisation that enables the success of the global insurance industry.    ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode, Sabine VdL interviews Simon Torrance who is well known across the FinTech and insurance sectors as Mr. Embedded Finance.  In December 2020, Simon wrote a very well-known article, ‘Embedded Insurance, A $3 Trillion Market Opportunity That Could Also Help Close The Protection Gap’. He works with leaders, executives, and board members to create and implement new growth strategies based on corporate venturing techniques focused on the Platform economy and Digital Ecosystems, helping large enterprises transform the business of today to meet the needs of tomorrow. His focus today is on AI risk. KEY TAKEAWAYS The main problem is that digitization, which is happening across every sector, tends to shrink traditional profit pools because of new competitors, new entrants, new regulations, and changing customer expectations. So companies must spend more money to keep up with those emerging expectations. The old models that were absolutely fine in the analog world are coming under increasing pressure. Traditional players are increasingly feeling that pressure and need to do something different. When I was working in telecommunications, I started to think about the why. Why are those digital companies (Google, Facebook) so successful, and what could TelCos learn about them? TelCos have a lot of power in the market, but they tend to focus on what they know best – creating the infrastructure – not so good though at creating services or new types of digital business models. In 2005-6, it was clear that the companies that were succeeding most in a digital world were those that were running ‘platform-based’ business models; they weren’t necessarily creating the end customer products themselves, but they were acting as an intermediary between the customer and the third party that had the solutions. That still is the most powerful business model in the digital world. I wasn’t interested in financial services, I hadn’t done a lot of work in it until about 3 years ago, but it seemed to me that it’s so important for the world, it underpins all our commercial and social activity – we can’t operate without financial services – yet there was something fundamentally broken with that industry and the gap between what people need and what they were being given was incredibly wide – there are so many people who are unprotected and have no insurance around the world – it’s so important for a small business to get a loan. The type of experience I have with my old bank is lightyears away from the new banks that are popping up now, and no one’s really making solutions that look after my financial wellness, to help me understand how I need to save, borrow, plan for the future. I’m just left to access a few quite basic solutions from the incumbents. So, I thought, with these huge gaps and numbers of people excluded or badly served by the industry, there’s got to be some change needed. Embedded finance cuts across all different business models and says: Why don’t we enable other organizations that are much closer to end users and interact with them more frequently than we do? We should do so in order to sell financial services because they have more regular interactions or touch points with the end-users, and they’re often more trusted in certain contexts too. Why don’t we help them not only sell solutions but also embed them – use components that we’ve got to create new types of experiences that make their propositions more attractive. Digital technology has become much more sophisticated; all those capabilities (products, data, underwriting) that were locked away within traditional companies can now be modularised and extracted into software technologies developed by tech companies. They are configured in ways that better suit the customer or are more convenient for end-users through unique experiences. BEST MOMENTS 'The business model is the most fundamental way that a company creates and delivers value for customers, captures value for itself, and increasingly shares value with others. It’s the most fundamental aspect of innovation, and most companies find it very difficult to execute on their business model innovation promise because well-crafted business models address so much more than what is often delivered right now.’ ‘Digital companies have taught us that you do not need to create a platform yourself; you can co-opt developers and third parties to create solutions for your customers, as Apple does with the App Store. In so doing, you drive demand for your core business, in Apple’s case, their phones.’ 'Over 50% of the big publicly traded financial companies were making zero or negative economic profit. There’s something wrong here: the customers aren’t getting what they need, and the majority of those supplying financial products aren’t making any profit either. That suggests there is a fundamental business model problem in finance, which is so important for everybody to live, work, and enjoy the company of others.’ ‘99% of a financial institution’s resources and money go on digitizing, making more efficient, and optimizing the existing business model. It is necessary but insufficient if that business model is going to deliver profits and economic returns to shareholders.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Helping companies transform their business models with digital platforms, ecosystems, and ventures, Simon Torrance works with leaders, executive teams, and boards to create and implement new growth strategies and ventures based on the new disciplines of ‘Platform Strategy’, ‘Digital Ecosystem Management’, and ‘Corporate Venture Building’. Simon is the author/presenter of the New Growth Playbook and co-author of a new book called 'Fightback' (how traditional corporates can win in the digital economy with platforms, ventures, and entrepreneurs). As we enter more deeply into what many are calling the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ – enabled by a fusion of emerging technologies that are blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological worlds – Simon believes that organizations in every sector need to radically rethink their role in the world and how they create and capture value. Working in collaboration with a global network of subject matter experts and tech entrepreneurs, he supports organizations with this transition via a mix of services: Advisory: helping clients develop and implement new strategies that transform their business models into faster-growing, more valuable platform-based models. Digital Ventures: helping incumbent organizations create portfolios of impactful new businesses. Executive Education: training leaders and teams on the topics of 'New Growth Strategies in the Digital Economy' Simon collaborates with many leading institutions, including the World Economic Forum, MIT, London Business School, and Singularity University. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine VdL interviews FinTech and Blockchain Advisor Efi Pylarinou about why sustainable investing is so important, her view on the state of FinTech (and what the insurance industry can learn from it), sustainability in the context of Digital Transformation, what the emerging risks are, and more.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Switzerland is one of the largest hubs for Blockchain in Finance, emerging from Crypto Valley. It’s an example of how an ecosystem works: You need the regulator, the private sector, the capital, and an international outreach for the recipe to work, and that’s what has happened in the crypto sector, but it hasn’t happened in FinTech. Having said that, the crypto sector in Switzerland is more in the RegTech sub-vertical, which is related to data analytics and so on. That’s the high level at which Switzerland stands. There’s something that worries me: an indicator that we’re early, with the insurance industry interested in climate, carbon footprint, and how companies and individuals can reduce their carbon footprint. But we’re seeing many businesses and startups offering services to trade for credits. We need to get over that. A company can get a high ESG ranking on the climate front, but that might be completely negated because they’re doing something on another front in terms of labour practices, for example. The ball has started rolling in the public markets, and BlackRock is leading and making big announcements. But in the public markets, this has to start from the seed, when the company is born: Is the company thinking sustainably, and what does it mean? How do you treat your team? Is your mission completely segregated from society and nature? No, it isn’t, but we don’t think like that yet. Going forward, we’ll see more incumbent banks partnering with sustainable FinTechs to integrate them into their lending practices, corporate finance, and commercial banking processes, for example. BEST MOMENTS ‘Innovation gets adopted, but before that happens, there needs to be a shift in the narrative. This is what is currently happening with sustainability. Still, we’re early in the journey.’ ‘In December 2020, ESG net inflows surpassed £ 1 billion, a record number.’ ‘Corporates still operate and make decisions in silos. Think about your borrowing needs; they are still separate from your investing needs. We haven’t put the whole picture together. Yet, centralized financing has to be part of the new culture, which is why it needs to start from the startups.’ ‘We’re seeing a trend where digital banking and finance apps take advantage of the lifestyle appeals, whether they’re giving rewards to people or gamifying their offerings due to the fact that people care more about the environment.’ ABOUT THE GUEST No.1 independent Global Woman Influencer in Finance & Data, a seasoned Wall Street professional with a Ph.D. in Finance, with over 200,000 followers across channels.  Work at the intersections of Business Development, Marketing, and PR for Brands involved in Digital transformation in various industries. Thought leadership campaigns through strategic collaboration are one of my sweet spots as a B2B domain expert influencer with a passion for innovation.  Domain expertise in financial services; Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence are two main disruptive technologies that I focus on.    Efi's global audience (c. 200,000 across all platforms) values her multimedia daily curation. I am a prolific writer, a host of weekly audio and video content, a creator of weekly visual content, and a passionate speaker.    Efi's passion is creating content that supports her clients' strategic business goals. You can connect with Efi on the platforms below   Medium: https://efipm.medium.com/  YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/EfiPylarinou  Twitter: https://twitter.com/efipm  Website: https://efipylarinou.com/     ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

In this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine VdL interviews Erlijn Sie, a seasoned social entrepreneur, leader, and social business advisor. Erlijn wrote a book on Reimagining Financial Inclusion, a must-read for all corporate business leaders concerned with the future of our planet. In the book, Erlijn discusses the 5 levers that shape our financial system.  Erlijn also talks about ESG, focusing on social innovation and how social innovators support companies in achieving their impact. KEY TAKEAWAYS Maybe over the last few decades, we've become a bit too focused on the monetary side of ESG, and some companies have forgotten their core relevance to society. We’re now all trying to find our way back to the societal value we originally set out to build our organizations on. What makes social innovation (a person, a solution, a product) different from big corporations' purpose is that smaller companies do it in a radically different way, taking an issue they care about, feel passionate about, and want to solve radically. There’s nothing wrong with taking a good business model to support social innovation, but I do feel it should follow a solution and what fits that solution best. You don’t start your business by monetizing social innovation. You start with the issue, analyze its root causes, and consider how others can contribute to solving it. Big, powerful corporations still underestimate the potential change they could bring, especially financial resilience for those who need it most. Our former financial system was built in the last century, when we didn’t have the digital technology we have now. With such technologies and the speed of their development, we can financially include many more disadvantaged individuals and people who are excluded. If big corporations (not just banks and insurers) start to see the power of newer technologies, imagine how powerful they could be in the space financially, including so many more people, we can then start to really transform the system. We are currently dealing with a former financial system that basically serves half of the world’s population. That’s fundamentally wrong, we all know that financial services like being able to save your money in a safe place, getting a loan, insurance, and pensions, all these financial services allow you to live your life to your full potential. If you exclude more than half the world’s population from that system, that’s a waste of talent! We need to reform the financial system so that we include the other half. We can only do that if all companies work with us to tackle those flaws. Most of the flaws built into our former financial system stem from the technologies of the last century not allowing businesses to incorporate them affordably. Nowadays, we can include so many of them if we truly want to. BEST MOMENTS ‘I became a social entrepreneur by accident because I felt I needed more meaning in my day-to-day life, that’s why I founded a micro-finance institution providing very small loans to the most excluded people in the world.’  ‘ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance. I’m mainly focused on the ‘S’, I feel that the ‘Social’ angle goes first.’ ‘Most systemic issues are too big for one of us to solve; the solution needs to be co-created among like-minded experts or people you feel can contribute to solving the issue best.’ ‘Entrepreneurial qualities are much more needed nowadays than they were last century. This has a lot to do with how fast change happens these days. The most important skill for all of us to learn is how to cope with change, how to be resilient, how to be able to constantly adapt to change.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Erlijn is a seasoned social entrepreneur, leader, and social business advisor to both the social and business/corporate sectors. Her background is rooted in business management, and her focus is on social innovation and financial inclusion. She has supported a range of systems that have enabled social entrepreneurs, as well as impacted the corporate sector, to develop new strategies, approaches, and models to drive inclusion in society. Erlijn brings a combination of deep insights, hands-on experience, and the latest trends in social innovations, blended business models, hybrid value chains, and new ways of organizing. She is dedicated to catalyzing impact, in general and specifically in financial inclusion, by connecting innovative and inclusive solutions with the challenges corporations face. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode, Sabine VdL interviews Susanne Chisthi, one of the leading names in the industry. Susanne started her career in finance before becoming an influential voice in FinTech. Susanne is also renowned for her work with investors and FinTech startups through the FINTECH Circle, a platform where startups can access education and angel investment. Susanne is also renowned for the wonderful books that she has written in collaboration with other co-authors and co-editors to educate the FinTech sector. KEY TAKEAWAYS The unique thing about our books is that we crowdsourced the best knowledge, worldwide, because we believe in the power of the community. No single person could ever write such a comprehensive book on FinTech, RegTech, or InsurTech, for example. It would be impossible. But accessing knowledge from 70 authors globally, representing corporations, Tech startups, Tech scaleups, and thought leaders, all contributing their expertise to the projects, makes these books extraordinary. Talking about the lessons we learned from the lack of travel, when you buy products abroad, you can claim the VAT back, sometimes large amounts. I never actually claim my VAT, because I never wanted to queue up at the airport to claim my VAT receipts. So I never claimed these back in my whole life. One of the FinTech companies I’m working with at present is putting all of this online. Imagine the future of VAT claims. This is an example of FinTech addressing a pain point in B2C that millions of customers worldwide face, and we can already see a significant impact when travel returns to normal. Diversity is key for anyone in a large financial institution. The team should be diverse. When we think about the testing and development of AI, business leaders need to be accountable for it too. Particularly, how fair is AI-led decision-making? Who gets accepted or rejected by an AI algorithm for a loan? Remember that those things can be very discriminatory if they’re coded wrongly. It is important for businesses to access a diverse workforce to develop AI-led technologies, consider use cases, how they can go wrong, and protect every individual through ethical AI. An ethical AI board is an important mechanism for ensuring businesses do the right thing in the long term and avoid well-known stereotypes. We have a responsibility as citizens to make things simpler and more transparent. We’ve seen significant movement in the FinTech sector in terms of investment behavior, but the good news is that, in the long term, the FinTech sector will continue to boom, and investors will want to stay in it. Investors will return to invest in ventures and deploy capital from earlier to later stages.  BEST MOMENTS ‘Our goal is to make FinTech a mainstream sector and, at some stage, to replace finance overall – there will be no finance without FinTech.’ ‘Lots of banks are trying to figure out the best way to engage with the FinTech sector. It’s certainly easier said than done. The devil is often in the details. If you acquire a FinTech company, the key thing is to make sure you integrate the company into your organization well so that it still works after the acquisition without destroying its spirit, so both the startup and the corporation can benefit.’ ‘Technology is everybody’s responsibility; it’s mandatory for leaders to understand how technology can shape, empower, and enable what they do from a strategic point of view.’ ‘2020 was a year that shocked us all. I was in China in January of 2020, actually promoting a book. The effect of the current change will be profound. And nobody knows yet what the future will look like. So planning long-term will remain challenging.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Susanne Chishti is the CEO of FINTECH Circle, Europe’s 1st Angel Network focused on fintech opportunities. Susanne is also the founder of the FINTECH Circle Institute, the leading fintech learning platform that offers innovation workshops for C-level executives and online courses. She is also the Co-Editor of the bestselling The FINTECH Book, which has been translated into 10 languages and is sold across 107 countries, as well as The WEALTHTECH Book, The INSURTECH Book, The PAYTECH Book, The AI Book, and The LEGALTECH Book (all published by WILEY). She has also been a FinTech TV Commentator on CNBC. After completing her MBA, Susanne began her career at a FinTech company (before the term “FinTech” was invented in Silicon Valley 20 years ago). She then worked for more than 15 years across a number of financial institutions, including Deutsche Bank, Lloyds Banking Group, Morgan Stanley, and Accenture in London and Hong Kong. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

On this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine VdL interviews Nicole Anderson, Founding Partner at Redsand Ventures, who supported Sabine’s acceleration programs over a 5-year period by providing those startups with proposition design and go-to-market strategic thinking. These two skill sets are crucial for gaining customers and accessing capital. In this episode, they discuss Nicole’s journey from a FinTech venture builder to a sustainable investor. KEY TAKEAWAYS I have sat now, effectively, in almost every seat around the table when it comes to looking at what investible ventures look like, feel like, and what success should and could be. Thankfully, I’ve had to go through the toughest schooling to make venturing successful and break through some of the barriers in financial services. It has always been a big aspiration of mine to break down the barriers of consumerism and finance. The path I’ve been on is a perfect platform for learning how to access capital, because there is money to be allocated in the world. There always will be. Still, it’s only when you’ve taken the journey yourself and been involved at the grassroots that you understand fundamentally what needs to be done. You can immediately see the true impact of the investment. I’ve finally got to the point in my life where I’m bringing it all together. I’m just a do-er, really, and I’ve always done things the hard way. Building ventures is very, very tough, and all the lessons that came out of those eight years prepared me for one thing: The biggest success factor in a venture is firstly knowing your market and not assuming it’s going to remain static. Secondly, thinking ahead of the market and remaining absolutely relevant with your value proposition. This requires a really strong degree of paranoia, which then cascades down into how your business model evolves. Never make any assumptions that things are going to stay the same, or that you know your consumer/customer more than you think you do. Thirdly, everything fails without money. Money will always find a good opportunity, but never underestimate the runway you need to grow and scale. We are not a VC or private equity fund; we’re a private equity structure that uses very innovative project financing techniques to deploy financial instruments across a varied portfolio and absorb quite a lot of risk for that portfolio. By the way, we’ve engineered the allocation of money. We don’t invest at a very early stage, except in very strategic areas, but most of our work is in the growth phase of a venture, and we’ve moved well out of financial services. I identified 5-6 areas – all verticals or industries – that I believe in. My goal is to build a stellar portfolio with one major investment in each one of them in order to make a significant impact in selected countries/regions; that’s the strategy we’ve taken. BEST MOMENTS ‘Like anything in life, the best opportunities come to you rather than you chasing them down. Often, what you think you want is not actually good for you.’ ‘I knew that if I was going to be successful, I needed to sit on the money myself and be master of my own universe. By hook or by crook, I was going to do what it took to find ways in which to build my own investment structure, so I set up a fund.’ ‘The real frustration of many entrepreneurs is that their innovation, which is often in the area of green innovation, was being misunderstood. I wanted to fill that gap.’ ‘We’re in an evolution phase. Anyone in the spectrum of grassroots investing right up to multi-fund structure is in the adoption phase of some kind of strategy linked to sustainability and ESG.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Nicole is a venture builder and investment advisor (corporate venture, VC, family office, and token/digital asset). As a multiple-time technology entrepreneur (CEO & Founder) and an innovation thought leader, she has gained an in-depth knowledge of crypto technologies, blockchain, and green finance. Passionate about technology business models that are challenging the status quo and providing greater inclusion for people globally and having a positive impact on our environment, she has focused her lens on the intersection between emerging technologies and emerging markets, both physical and virtual. Her company Redsand Ventures, works with corporate visionaries and professional investors who are unfaltering in their execution of the green economy. It sits at the intersection of disruptive business models and sustainable real estate as an investment opportunity. Redsand Ventures has built and exited over 10 disruptive financial technology ventures in the last 7 years. Voted Innovator of the Year, 2017 by the South African Chamber of Commerce, Top 100 Women in FinTech 2016 by Innovate Finance, and included in the Power Women of FinTech 2015, 2016, and 2017, Nicole is also active in the London and European start-up acceleration, incubation and growth arena working as an advisor and mentor to Level39, Startupbootcamp FinTech, London Tech Advocates – Women in Tech and FinTech workstreams.  Nicole serves as an industry thought leader and has featured on numerous panels and speaking circuits. She is a contributing author to The FinTech Book, exploring the role of corporate venturing as a catalyst for innovation in FinTech. She is also a co-editor of the InsureTech Book. Both books are published by Wiley. She has an Honours Degree in Information Systems and Economics from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, and graduated from the Institute of New Economic Thinking, Barnard College, Columbia University, New York specializing in the Economics of Money and Banking, and a Green Finance Professional from the Chartered Institute of Bankers. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures