Scouting for Growth

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 in a bank, not making a lot of money and not able to move up the ranks, Facebook came out and became popular. I decided to take out my savings and set up a marketplace for cars, 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 using it which made 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 that 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 learnings 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 in 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 like Sony and the University of California, helping them not just meet but exceed their revenue goals. Website LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Managing Partner of Alchemy Crew a venture lab that accelerates the curation, validation, & commercialization of new tech business models. Sabine is renowned within the insurance sector for building some of the most renowned tech startup accelerators around the world working with over 30 corporate insurers, accelerated over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner. Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Facebook  TikTok Email Website

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 is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Managing Partner of Alchemy Crew a venture lab that accelerates the curation, validation, & commercialization of new tech business models. Sabine is renowned within the insurance sector for building some of the most renowned tech startup accelerators around the world working with over 30 corporate insurers, accelerated over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner. Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Facebook  TikTok Email Website

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 is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Managing Partner of Alchemy Crew a venture lab that accelerates the curation, validation, & commercialization of new tech business models. Sabine is renowned within the insurance sector for building some of the most renowned tech startup accelerators around the world working with over 30 corporate insurers, accelerated over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner. Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Facebook  TikTok Email Website

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’s a lot of risks that you could incur. Ethical risks, compliance and legal issues, intellectual property risks, 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: When it comes to data and analytics investments, organizations are looking to achieve better and faster decisions. Data science/IT teams need to effectively collaborate to quickly prototype and industrialize solutions. Conversations are no longer about what tool or specific technology to use. Expectations are being elevated to increased productivity/cost savings, privacy and security. At SAS, my role as Principal Product Marketing Lead for AI has been instrumental in global marketing strategies, particularly for cutting-edge artificial intelligence solutions like Machine Learning and Generative AI. With an MBA and a Master's in Statistics and AI, I've been able to translate complex technical concepts into strategic marketing initiatives that resonate with our diverse clientele. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Managing Partner of Alchemy Crew a venture lab that accelerates the curation, validation, & commercialization of new tech business models. Sabine is renowned within the insurance sector for building some of the most renowned tech startup accelerators around the world working with over 30 corporate insurers, accelerated over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner. Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Facebook  TikTok Email Website

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 first generation Mexican-American who turned a successful tech-exit 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 corporate innovation lab to the art of securing strategic investments. KEY TAKEAWAYS It was very rare to find an operator/founder that 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 incredible potential success in breaking that black box open and connecting incredible investors that had operational and domain expertise with founders. 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 that 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 in 5 months back to us. For us, DE&I is not just black, brown and female, but also age diversity, veterans, those coming 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. In order to create the best outcomes you cannot be a passive investor, you have to help find customers, investors, help mentor these individuals because they’ve never run a company with 80-100 people before, help them find the talent and the 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’s incredible talents at corporates in rural areas in middle America that no one’s touching that is 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% of 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 which is both Latinx and woman-owned and 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. Website ABOUT THE HOST Sabine is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Managing Partner of Alchemy Crew a venture lab that accelerates the curation, validation, & commercialization of new tech business models. Sabine is renowned within the insurance sector for building some of the most renowned tech startup accelerators around the world working with over 30 corporate insurers, accelerated over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner. Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Facebook  TikTok Email Website

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, her innovative approaches have earned her 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 is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Managing Partner of Alchemy Crew a venture lab that accelerates the curation, validation, & commercialization of new tech business models. Sabine is renowned within the insurance sector for building some of the most renowned tech startup accelerators around the world working with over 30 corporate insurers, accelerated over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner. Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Facebook  TikTok Email Website

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 wellbeing 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 is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Managing Partner of Alchemy Crew a venture lab that accelerates the curation, validation, & commercialization of new tech business models. Sabine is renowned within the insurance sector for building some of the most renowned tech startup accelerators around the world working with over 30 corporate insurers, accelerated over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner. Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Facebook  TikTok Email Website

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 around 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 focussed 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 is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Managing Partner of Alchemy Crew a venture lab that accelerates the curation, validation, & commercialization of new tech business models. Sabine is renowned within the insurance sector for building some of the most renowned tech startup accelerators around the world working with over 30 corporate insurers, accelerated over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner. Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Facebook  TikTok Email Website

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, showcasing expertise across various functional areas, general management, and building 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 is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Managing Partner of Alchemy Crew a venture lab that accelerates the curation, validation, & commercialization of new tech business models. Sabine is renowned within the insurance sector for building some of the most renowned tech startup accelerators around the world working with over 30 corporate insurers, accelerated over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner. Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Email Website

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 the idea of 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 it’s all gone smoothly is the best feeling in the world. The stigma we get from the bad experiences is what damages the image of insurance. The best solutions are ones that people don’t know about, and ones that don’t get in the way and make 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 in parametric insurance is the name, because it 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 pay out is made. This forms the backbone of all parametric contracts. That differs from indemnity because indemnity is a promise to put you back in the same condition you were in before the loss, parametric 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 Ola Jacob is the Business Development Director for the UK & Ireland at Descartes Underwriting, a specialist Parametric Insurance MGA and Insurer covering Natural Catastrophe exposure globally.  With over 12 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 is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Managing Partner of Alchemy Crew a venture lab that accelerates the curation, validation, & commercialization of new tech business models. Sabine is renowned within the insurance sector for building some of the most renowned tech startup accelerators around the world working with over 30 corporate insurers, accelerated over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner. Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Facebook  TikTok Email Website

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. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Managing Partner of Alchemy Crew a venture lab that accelerates the curation, validation, & commercialization of new tech business models. Sabine is renowned within the insurance sector for building some of the most renowned tech startup accelerators around the world working with over 30 corporate insurers, accelerated over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner. Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Facebook TikTok Email Website  

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Sri Ramaswamy, the founder and CEO of Charlee.ai, with a career spanning over 22 years 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 the future of Charlee.ai, and the broader tech landscape. KEY TAKEAWAYS One of the constant things I heard from claims managers was their inability to access a lot of data points within the claim files because a lot of it was in unstructured formats, so making a financial decision wasn’t easy for them. I wanted to create a platform to not only collect exposures easily but also be able 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 allows you to ask the right questions so you can get the details. The vision of Charlee is also behind how to get to these exposures and the risk intelligence, and how this leads to avoiding attorneys getting and litigations so a better settlement can be agreed with the claimant. But, it doesn’t stop there, the real vision of Charlee is to be able to connect those data points with actuary, with underwriting, with product marketing, even with 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 the context to the predictions, provides deep insights-based alerts, reserving patterns, prior trends based prioritised 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 analytic solutions for underwriting and claims, and patented Charlee.ai's AI, NLP, and ML-based technology that can extract and analyse all sources of data, including documents, files, third-party, and social. Charlee.ai helps insurers lower claim costs, manage reserves efficiently, and improve risk selection, through individual claim insights and 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 Ligitigation Management  ABOUT THE HOST Sabine is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Venture Partner of Alchemy Crew, a venture lab that accelerates the curation, validation, & commercialization of new tech business models. Sabine is renowned within the insurance sector for building some of the most renowned tech startup accelerators around the world, working with over 30 corporate insurers and accelerating over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner. Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Facebook  TikTok Email Website

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 the integration of 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 and technological landscape. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Managing Partner of Alchemy Crew a venture lab that accelerates the curation, validation, & commercialization of new tech business models. Sabine is renowned within the insurance sector for building some of the most renowned tech startup accelerators around the world working with over 30 corporate insurers, accelerated over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner. Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Facebook  TikTok Email Website

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 influencing in neuroscience as well as fashion. I’ve always been interested in smart textiles, functional textiles was always a big thing in Switzerland.  When designing my own clothes with a designer from Project Runway, I saw the beautiful craft of pattern making – it’s an art that should never be lost. But with ecommerce, 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 are going to find so many cures. AI has influenced, sped up, replaced and helped so many doctors, especially during the pandemic. Surgeries can be doing online with a doctor in another country, the digitisation of the industry is phenomenal. I was trained as a ‘nose’ when studying in Geneva, olfaction is a very big issue for me and I love how it influences your wellbeing. Digital health is picking up on that, perfumeries are working together with health experts for mental health purposes. The senses can change a person’s wellbeing 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 and multilingual innovator at the forefront of global emerging 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 bring unparalleled value to enterprises seeking to navigate 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 the realm of 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 is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Managing Partner of Alchemy Crew a venture lab that accelerates the curation, validation, & commercialization of new tech business models. Sabine is renowned within the insurance sector for building some of the most renowned tech startup accelerators around the world working with over 30 corporate insurers, accelerated over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner. Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Facebook  TikTok Email Website

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 startups 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 tool of marketing and, like all tools, it has to be deployed correctly and with the intent of the campaign and the focus of the brand. It’s complicated to use, but I think it’s amazing, I love it, it’s forever changed my marketing. At this point in time, it still takes a human to drive it, though that might be different in 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 become lost in digital marketing, since the internet we’re back to pop-ups and interruption 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 negative side of AI is there’s a lot of “spray and pray” happening instead of starting with your ideal client profile, finding some people who fit it, understanding what their needs are, and developing a conversation and qualifying that person to your service/product and yourself to that person. 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’re written or participated in. This should be part of every AI tool you use, but then you need to do your own research, so 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 experience in the industry, 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 resulted in outstanding outcomes 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. Website ABOUT THE HOST Sabine is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Managing Partner of Alchemy Crew a venture lab that accelerates the curation, validation, & commercialization of new tech business models. Sabine is renowned within the insurance sector for building some of the most renowned tech startup accelerators around the world working with over 30 corporate insurers, accelerated over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner.   Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Facebook TikTok Email Website  

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. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Managing Partner of Alchemy Crew a venture lab that accelerates the curation, validation, & commercialization of new tech business models. Sabine is renowned within the insurance sector for building some of the most renowned tech startup accelerators around the world working with over 30 corporate insurers, accelerated over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner. Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Facebook  TikTok Email Website

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 or 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 the topic of 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 that they’re interested in as well as our sponsors being interested 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 the event last year and found that the event had become too big and difficult to find the right people or topics that people were looking for. 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 was displayed on the website with clear tagging. I’ve been on 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 is strongest right now, but there a nuances at the event that speak to each one 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 connections 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. EmailLinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Managing Partner of Alchemy Crew a venture lab that accelerates the curation, validation, & commercialization of new tech business models. Sabine is renowned within the insurance sector for building some of the most renowned tech startup accelerators around the world working with over 30 corporate insurers, accelerated over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner.   Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Facebook TikTok Email Website  

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Jeff Abbott, CEO of Ivanti who, alongside his global team, brings insights 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 be sharing key findings from Ivanti's 2024 Everywhere Work Report – a comprehensive study that explores 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, Workday is an amazing platform for HR. CIO's and CISOs have not had that. Our quest at Avanti is to bring that platform, and in this transition we're in right now, the global business community at large, 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 wellbeing 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 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 is as bad as it's 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 CEO of Ivanti, Jeff oversees 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. Website ABOUT THE HOST Sabine is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Managing Partner of Alchemy Crew a venture lab that accelerates the curation, validation, & commercialization of new tech business models. Sabine is renowned within the insurance sector for building some of the most renowned tech startup accelerators around the world working with over 30 corporate insurers, accelerated over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner. Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram | Email | Website

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, his role as an 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 which you couldn’t book into in 2012. We went to the industry and pitched the idea of an app like Open Table 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 which 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, partnerships, sponsorships, all these things 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 the 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 to go down because I can help financially as well as mentoring or helping the companies that 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 what you want out of your business? If it’s just you and you don’t need to raise money, and if £3m is lifechanging 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 aways be chasing your tail.’ ‘We were the first app to introduce putting your card down or pay a deposit because we found no-shows was 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. LinkedIn YouTube ABOUT THE HOST Sabine is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Managing Partner of Alchemy Crew a venture lab that accelerates the curation, validation, & commercialization of new tech business models. Sabine is renowned within the insurance sector for building some of the most renowned tech startup accelerators around the world working with over 30 corporate insurers, accelerated over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner. Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Facebook  TikTok Email Website

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 the use of hx Renew. His leadership and strategic vision continue to propel hyperexponential forward in the competitive insurtech landscape. Website ABOUT THE HOST Sabine is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Managing Partner of Alchemy Crew a venture lab that accelerates the curation, validation, & commercialization of new tech business models. Sabine is renowned within the insurance sector for building some of the most renowned tech startup accelerators around the world working with over 30 corporate insurers, accelerated over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner. Twitter  LinkedIn Instagram Facebook  TikTok Email Website