Scouting for Growth

Sabine talks to Michele Cimmino, CEO of Lasting Dynamics which, far from being a generic software firm, epitomises precision and coding to partners' distinct needs in order to ensure an exclusive synergy for mutual growth. Michael discusses visionary leadership at Lasting Dynamics, championing quality and innovation, ensuring a diverse tech mastery, and building a global force in the startup ecosystem. KEY TAKEAWAYSLasting Dynamics was started in 2013 to provide the IT market with quality. Large enterprises usually target a span of 12 months to deliver an MVP (minimum viable product), 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 then it's easier to be compliant with policies. When you build something from the ground up, or start integrating the pieces into a digital product, with a forward-looking mindset you will not waste months in 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, it’s 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 GUESTIn 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, meticulously crafting 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, PostgreSQL to AWS integrations, Michele's proficiency is unquestionable. He's been at the helm of AI-driven mobile apps since 2015, dabbled in the realm of blockchain and cryptocurrency from 2017, and from 2019, has steered Lasting Dynamics towards Growth Hacking. 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 & 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: SabineVdLLinkedIn: Sabine VanderLindenInstagram: sabinevdLofficialFacebook: SabineVdLOfficialTikTok: sabinevdlofficialEmail: podcast@sabinevdl.comWebsite: www.sabinevdl.com

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 Amy 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 got more leverage through the podcast and 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 to that point. 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 is 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 get an email service provider like SendFox which every time you publish content it’ll automatically create a newsletter and send it to your email list.  Shiny object syndrome is a big problem that a lot of entrepreneurs have, whether it’s that you have a million different business ideas and you’re 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 to use free tools and all-in-one systems like Systeme.io or Clixlo which will have 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 softwares.’ ‘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 GUESTSara St. John Sara St John is a seasoned entrepreneur, prolific author, avid animal lover, and an 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 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 & 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: SabineVdLLinkedIn: Sabine VanderLindenInstagram: sabinevdLofficialFacebook: SabineVdLOfficialTikTok: sabinevdlofficialEmail: podcast@sabinevdl.comWebsite: www.sabinevdl.comCharitable: https://chrt.fm/track/D19185/

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Frank Mendoza, a revered figure in the realm of data analytics and AI strategy.His contributions to Fortune 500 companies like Nike, Kelloggs, Keurig Dr Pepper, and Jim Beam as the founder of Catalytics have revolutionised the way these organisations leverage big data, artificial intelligence and advanced analysis.Frank offers practical recommendations to implement AI, making this seemingly daunting technology accessible and actionable demystifies 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 really top brands to introduce analytics concepts like machine learning and chatbots. The hype has really got 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 have the ability to 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 talk about the potential of leveraging AI, I want to focus on where exactly they’re going to be using it and making sure there’s a direct tie to business value. There are so many tools that have been thrown out onto the market it’s caused a lot of analysis paralysis and businesses are struggling to figure out which tools they should use, where, why and who should be using them. You really need to have a strategic approach to how you’re leveraging these technologies to make sure 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 Chat GPT have the ability to retrain on the questions that you’re asking – those are situations where you really want to provide guard rails/guidelines to your organisation about what you’re allowing them to put into there. Generative AI solutions have been trained on publicly available data, images, etc. 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 that you take into account these biases and those inherent challenges with leveraging these models and ensuring that you have a level of human judgement 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 your quality of 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 GUESTFrank 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, Kelloggs, 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 AI is becoming more prevalent in various industries. However, many companies are still intimidated or confused by its use and capabilities. Frank is there to help implement AI into any business and helps identify the best approaches to do so via 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 Catalytics 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 & 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: SabineVdLLinkedIn: Sabine VanderLindenInstagram: sabinevdLofficialFacebook: SabineVdLOfficialTikTok: sabinevdlofficialEmail: podcast@sabinevdl.comWebsite: www.sabinevdl.comCharitable: https://chrt.fm/track/D19185/

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 GUESTBenjamin Friedman, the mind behind 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 GrowThe Book: Scale: Reach Your Peak 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 & 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: SabineVdLLinkedIn: Sabine VanderLindenInstagram: sabinevdLofficialFacebook: SabineVdLOfficialTikTok: sabinevdlofficialEmail: podcast@sabinevdl.comWebsite: www.sabinevdl.com

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 that's relentlessly driving innovation in an array of sectors, including smart technology, virtual and augmented realities, advanced electronic systems, industrial solutions, and, most intriguing, 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 focussed on driving growth. We started out as a small environmental technology company and we struggled to grow in that industry because the appetite for that in the market has only come to fruition recently. I figured out the best way to grow was through acquisitions of businesses that had bigger potential, because you get more reward for the hard work you put in. We’re seeing a transformation of the security industry as we look to adopt and implement AI systems into the market. 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 a way that’s never been possible before to drive better security outcomes. That could be from preventing incidents from happening to responding to them better in real time and to more accurately apprehend the suspects after an event occurs. CCTV cameras with advanced features in the past used to be triggered by motion and they would trigger events, alarms, etc. The challenge with that is that if a tree is swaying in the background it could 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 more and more 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 GUESTSaagar 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.CemtrexCemtrex, 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 and they are building industrial solutions and intelligent security systems.Website: www.cemtrex.com 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 & 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: SabineVdLLinkedIn: Sabine VanderLindenInstagram: sabinevdLofficialFacebook: SabineVdLOfficialTikTok: sabinevdlofficialEmail: podcast@sabinevdl.comWebsite: www.sabinevdl.com

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 on a deeper level. 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 flowed 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 it. At IBM I focussed on data protection, privacy and security in heavily regulated industries like FinTech, HealthTech and InsurTech. I’ve also had a couple of stints on Wall Street and had my own nonprofit teaching 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, but what about all 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 that access to tech, skills, the internet and what role they play – including affordability – in driving outcomes in healthcare, education, economics, 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 are powering the world, changing things that make the world a better place but also making 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 comes 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 GUESTDr 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 and practical learning platform, with a focus 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.Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissasassi/ 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 & 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: SabineVdLLinkedIn: Sabine VanderLindenInstagram: sabinevdLofficialFacebook: SabineVdLOfficialTikTok: sabinevdlofficialEmail: podcast@sabinevdl.comWebsite: www.sabinevdl.com

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 coaching executives and entrepreneurs helping them ascend into 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 where I created presentations around 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 present in front of 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 how to speak. While working for IBM I was making videos for fun in my basement, just as a hobby. But that hobby turned into something a lot bigger than I initially thought it was going to. 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 piece of content that’s long form 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 about the brand. Never miss a week. There are parts of education, consulting, helping other people transform industries that AI will make better. 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, Tik Tok, 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 to 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 GUESTBrenden 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.Website: https://www.mastertalk.ca/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendenkumarasamy/ 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 & 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: SabineVdLLinkedIn: Sabine VanderLindenInstagram: sabinevdLofficialFacebook: SabineVdLOfficialTikTok: sabinevdlofficialEmail: podcast@sabinevdl.comWebsite: www.sabinevdl.com

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 assisting small to medium-sized businesses in getting noticed online. Brandon’s passion for growth and his unwavering belief in the power of digital marketing is why we invited him today. In this episode the pair explore the steps businesses, big and small, must consider enhancing their digital marketing efforts, from defining clear goals, understanding your target audience, optimizing your website, and creating valuable content, to leveraging social media, utilizing paid advertising, and measuring your campaigns' success. KEY TAKEAWAYS          Digital marketing today is the constant evolution and changes in 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 a lot of competition in the digital space, and it can be 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, know your target audience, optimise your website, create valuable content, leverage social media, utilise paid advertising, measure and analyse, stay up-to-date, 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 to you master SEO. You’ve got to stay ahead of things one day at a time. Who knew ChatGPT was going to come out and make 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 that your website pops up.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Brandon Leibowitz runs and operates SEO Optimizers, a young company supporting small and medium-sized businesses to get more online traffic and become 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 the marketing aspects of an e-commerce website. He helped companies get ranked at the top of Google by using search engine optimization tactics and bringing in traffic via 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 website to bring in traffic that will, in turn, convert to 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. Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonleibowitz/ If you want to know more, check Brandon’s free gift below: https://seooptimizers.com/gift 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 & 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: SabineVdL LinkedIn: Sabine VanderLinden Instagram: sabinevdLofficial Facebook: SabineVdLOfficial TikTok: sabinevdlofficial Email: podcast@sabinevdl.com Website: www.sabinevdl.com  

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Per Axberg, 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 that those 3 components are key to build 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 that you could earn money because people were 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. This 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 started purely focussing 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. Out key success factor was being based in Austria and we had an impressum, which is not that typical for the crypto industry, people never knew where the location of their finances were, but this gave us a transparency and also trust from our clients. It meant we were always reachable with 24/7 support. Bitcoin was the first of the cryptocurrencies and I would say the only really decent one, all the other cryptocurrencies are copies because the source code of Bitcoin is open source and everybody can publish and own cryptocurrencies. They symbolise companies, so investing into Bitcoin and into 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, 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. When compared to traditional payment methods like Visa, Mastercard or even Swift, Bitcoin is doing great. ’‘Make it as easy as possible for your customers to complain, because the biggest issue to 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 the 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. Website: https://web3cx.io/ 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 & 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: SabineVdL LinkedIn: Sabine VanderLinden Instagram: sabinevdLofficial Facebook: SabineVdLOfficial TikTok: sabinevdlofficial Email: podcast@sabinevdl.com Website: www.sabinevdl.com  

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 engage in efficient and 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 it was that 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 where you can match lawyers and use their spare capacity. We can buy the time that they haven’t sold already, they spend less time selling themselves and they still make a profit from it. We can also sell their time for less money to startups. Global companies started using this service, they needed lawyers to check incoming contracts – bulk, boring tasks – to see if there are risks, if there’s 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, today it’s much, much more than that. Legly is a robot that acts pretty much like 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 what are the breaches of your guidelines and so on. It helps companies to check contracts pre-signature. We can also take this machine and apply it to contract portfolios for law firms checking on legal due diligence when you’re buying or selling a company to look for certain things in the documents. Legly helps you to find lots of things in the documents, helps you to go through contracts much, 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 sales people are the people who see the documents from their customers and they are the ones who know the deal, know the business, knows who the customers are and their relationship. 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 make legal counsels sleep better, but also can increase capacity of non-legal experts such as co-workers at sales and purchase teams. Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/per-axberg/  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. You can discover Legly: https://www.legly.io/  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 & 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: SabineVdL LinkedIn: Sabine VanderLinden Instagram: sabinevdLofficial Facebook: SabineVdLOfficial TikTok: sabinevdlofficial Email: podcast@sabinevdl.com Website: www.sabinevdl.com