Scouting for Growth

It’s not easy for small and medium-size businesses to find the right protection, even though many more small business opportunities have emerged since the pandemic.  Today, Sabine taps into the knowledge of two industry veterans: Jeff Shi of InsurTech Groups and Tim Lovett of The Hartford, and asks them to understand the current situation with small commercials in the US market. KEY TAKEAWAYS The size of the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) market varies greatly depending on the region and the industry being considered. Globally, SMEs account for a significant portion of the economy, employing a large percentage of the workforce and generating substantial economic activity. Estimates suggest that SMEs make up over 90% of businesses in many countries and are often considered the backbone of the economy. However, due to their diversity and dispersed nature, it can be challenging to estimate the exact size of the SME market. Insurers may have pulled away from small commercial coverage in the past two years for various reasons, including changes in regulations, declining profitability, or shifting business strategies, as well as increased competition, higher risk, new regulations in data and ethics, and shifting business strategies. The small commercial lines market can present several challenges for insurers, including: higher risk, increased competition, complexity of coverage, limited data availability, and pricing pressures. These challenges can make it difficult for insurers to operate effectively in the small commercial lines market, resulting in some companies pulling back from this market segment. However, despite these challenges, there is still significant demand for insurance coverage among small businesses, and many insurers are finding ways to overcome these challenges and offer competitive products. The products, services, and business opportunities that insurers evaluate today within the small commercial insurance market include technology-enabled solutions, specialized coverage, customized products, bundled products, alternative distribution channels, and risk management services. These products, services, and business opportunities aim to improve the customer experience, increase profitability, and differentiate from the competition in the small commercial insurance market. However, insurers must carefully evaluate each opportunity's viability and potential, as success will depend on factors such as market demand, competition, and the overall regulatory environment. BEST MOMENTS ‘Small businesses often face a higher level of risk than larger businesses, and insurers may have decided that the risk associated with insuring small businesses was too high.'‘Small businesses often face a higher level of risk than larger businesses, making it more difficult for insurers to assess and price risk accurately.’‘Small business owners are often price-sensitive, and insurers may face pressure to offer competitive pricing, which can impact profitability.’‘Insurers are exploring alternative distribution channels, such as insurtech start-ups, to reach small businesses and offer more convenient and accessible insurance solutions.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Jeff Shi is the founder of InsurTech Groups, where he connects consumers with top industry partners, using advanced processes leveraging innovative technology. Jeff helps consumers to better understand their policies in an effort to meet each of their unique needs. Website: https://www.insurtechgroups.com/  Tim Lovett has been at The Hartford insurance group for nearly six years. Tim helps small and medium size companies make better choices. He has a background in claims management and distribution, both of which allows him to educate and assist agents in growing their small commercial portfolio. Website: https://ir.thehartford.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: 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 Aaron Jones, an award-winning entrepreneur working in Artificial Intelligence. Aaron co-founded Yepic AI, a company in the generative AI space whose flagship product “vidvoice.ai” is a state-of-the-art video translation technology that dubs your lips in real-time. Think about your Star Trek moments when Kirk says, "Scotty, Beam us up!" in any language. KEY TAKEAWAYS Before I was an entrepreneur, I was a cameraman at K Productions, producing a TV show for Sky. I was also an assistant vision mixer adjusting the lighting on the cameras. I thought a career in acting was for me when I was younger, but then I realized that I wanted to make a difference in the world. Everything I've done since then has been around the idea of whatever I spend my time on. I want it to make an impact and change people's lives. At university, I started an ethical fashion brand which got me into eCommerce. I don't care much about fashion, but I do care about people. There was a great story about people producing a product locally that was sustainable and recycled, and I started a foundation in Cambodia to fund education. The idea was that every time you bought a product, you'd be funding a child's education to get parents to earn more and children to learn to break the cycle of poverty. I did that for several years and received an honor from the Queen for my work and numerous awards. Like all great ideas, they evolve, and we realized that if we wanted to make an even bigger impact, we needed to make a place for other designers to grow their brands and sell more products so we could build more schools. That’s how the business evolved into a company called See Fashion – which was a terrible idea. Never work with fashion designers if you want to make money.  We pivoted away from fashion to technology, enabling eCommerce brands with a product and a business to sell more. We did this by connecting all the stores as an intelligence web, using visual search as a hook to encourage users to show us what they were interested in buying by uploading photos to the app/store. It soon became an API business, and we sold APIs to companies like Yves Saint Laurent and huge corporations. The most valuable part of the business was the visual search. We did not own the IP, and because GDPR came in, our sharing network had to shut down as I had not sold the company when I had the opportunity to be acquired. That journey led me to meet with the Founders Factory team more than three years ago. It started consulting on an eCommerce enablement project using Generative AI to enhance and generate imagery. It blew my mind that researchers generated images from nothing, and I became obsessed. We've since probably created the first ‘stable diffusion’ before research papers made the subject popular. Still, ours wasn't very stable and needed an extensive data set to generate the images. This means that, for an eCommerce brand, it wasn’t that feasible. After this, we got into video and formed Yepic AI. BEST MOMENTS ‘Entrepreneurs are a bit of everything. Starting a business in a new and exciting space Is exciting, but it also requires you to wear many hats at the beginning.’ ‘Don’t work with designers, exit and take acquisition offers, do something meaningful.’ ‘A problem that a lot of Generative AI companies are facing is when the hype burns away, to sell it to businesses as a click-through enhancement/ increase to drive more sales, you need to prove that your image drove the sale. So you certainly more than imagery!’ ‘There’s been loads going on in the background for a long time, but the public has suddenly become aware of it, and they’ve realized that Generative AI isn’t just deep fakes, among others. You can create stuff. You can generate images in Canva now. You can edit people out of your photos using AI. The creative possibilities in the eyes of the public have opened up massively.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Aaron Jones is an award-winning entrepreneur working in Artificial Intelligence. Aaron co-founded Yepic AI, a company in the generative AI space whose flagship product “vidvoice.ai” is a state-of-the-art video translation technology that dubs your lips in real-time. Vid Voice is being used in business meetings, telehealth, live events, and film dubbing. It's the first and only service of its kind, which will be made available via Zoom. Aaron was recognized in the Queen's Birthday Honours list, making him the youngest person to receive a British Empire Medal for services to Industry. He was also awarded Alumni of the Year 2018 by Essex University and shortlisted for Forbes 30 under 30. Check out the Yepic platform here Learn about Aaron 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: 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 Tristan Pelloux, An expert who is passionate about FinTech and Innovation. After several years in Corporate Strategy and Finance at Virgin Money, Tristan decided to launch Strategwhy, an independent management consultancy. He is also the Chief Pencil Officer at Fintech Review, online media on the Fintech industry. KEY TAKEAWAYS I was producing lots of insights for Virgin Money (where I worked in corporate finance) trying to figure out what was going on in that world, the trends, innovations. I thought it was a shame that the audience was so small within the company, so I set up the media site in 2020 to spread my thoughts about what was going on. It’s evolved from a personal site where I wrote blogs to more of a platform with other people sharing FinTech insights and interviews with business leaders and entrepreneurs in the field. This is my passion work and I do consulting, which is how I pay the rent, where I work with companies across Europe and help them with their strategy and helping them to scale to reach a new level. I am Mr Organisation, I like to make lists, do tests, I like plans. I tell my clients we’re going to meet twice a week, this is the agenda of the meeting, this is what we’re going to do this week, this is what we’re going to do next week. It’s about maintaining order. This doesn’t mean you can’t be inventive or innovative, you just need to channel things and do it in a very planned way, otherwise your energy is going in too many directions and you’re losing time. If everybody is aligned, they know what’s going on, there is a clear plan, and you divide the tasks between people then you achieve much more. Things move faster and can evolve faster in a startup than in a corporate business where you’ve got access to a lot of experts and resources. It’s super interesting to see how you can do the same project in two different environments; you need much more adaptability in a startup and the goals are much more about growth, with corporates there are more structures and restraints where everybody needs to be on the page before you can move forward. One of the challenges in FinTech is there are too many companies going after the same customers and there’s not enough money to be made out of retail customers. It’s not enough to be making money out of interchange. This can be great for the customer to have so much choice, but it’s also confusing because there are so many players and it’s fragmented. Lots of FinTech’s are battling to become the ‘super app’, and we’ll see which will emerge. Still, so many of them don’t have good business models and are loss-making, it will be challenging for them with less funding available. But there are opportunities in the B2B space. BEST MOMENTS‘The environment is very different now than it was two years ago. It wasn’t easy to sell but funding was easier, and it was easier to scale. The challenges are the same for everybody from startups to big businesses.’‘What’s important for businesses right now is strategic focus and execution – instead of going in many directions at the same time, do one thing very well. That’s how I’m helping businesses.’‘The next two years are going to be difficult for FinTechs because rounds will be down, some others will get no funding at all. There may be consolidation, so FinTechs in a good position will be able to scale faster through inorganic growth.’‘Some services that were not economically viable to provide to the mass market now are through the use of technology. So, at which point are you going to provide some sort of personalised service when you can do it cheaply?’ ABOUT THE GUESTAfter over five years in corporate strategy and finance at Virgin Money UK in London, Tristan Pelloux launched Strategwhy, an independent management consulting company, to provide independent guidance and advice to business leaders and founders of startup and scaleup companies across the world.https://fintechreview.net/  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 Michael Doyle, a brand and capital raise Guru who founded Brand Iron 20 years ago. Michael combines his branding and market making experience with his investment reporting analyst strengths to shape a company dedicated to creating congruent brands supported by strong financial and investment stories. With this approach Michael helped companies he supported over the years raise over $5 billion of capital. KEY TAKEAWAYS Most people think of branding as how they present themselves and their company. I take branding beyond simply the message into something that produces tangible results. By integrating branding into all areas of business – Sales, Marketing, Operations, Finance… you can create a dynamic value proposition that comes alive, gets leads, and generates revenue. We work with companies to identify what’s unique about their brand, how we successfully package and communicate that, and how we put together and take them to market to drive real results and help them achieve their outcomes, whether that’s driving revenue, driving growth, expansion of a new product of service into the marketplace, or expanding into new geographies. The formula to raising $5 billion is really understanding your niche, how and why you’re better, and how to package that into a really clear and concise message. That’s the brand story. What most companies really have a difficult time with is telling a really sound financial story. When I start out with most companies they give me financials and spreadsheets, my job is to extract that information. The other side is communicating, highlighting and showcasing the team and their experience to effectively execute this plan and make investors feel comfortable that they know what they’re doing and confident that they’ll deliver and make this a reality. In order to make ‘x’ revenue we have to get so many people to make buying decisions. To make those buying decisions we have to drive so much traffic and convert them from interested into buyers by clicking on an ad, a blog or a video. It’s a mathematical formula. We need to understand what it’s going to take, what our message needs to be, what are the most effective mediums, what’s the timing? All these ingredients have to come together to deliver the results we want to deliver.  BEST MOMENTS ‘You need to understand what your ‘holistic brand’ is. It’s not just logos and websites – which are important – you've got to have a good culture and have the team that's going to deliver, communicate, and convey the claims on your website and brand materials.’'We don't want our companies to be vapourware. We want them to be real and do what it says they will do. By doing this, you can produce some great results.’'Whether you're a startup, SMB, or a large enterprise, you should always start with the end in mind. What are the end goals you want to achieve?’‘Nothing ever works perfectly. The key is starting with assumptions and then adjusting and optimizing and fine-tuning it to where it's producing your desired outcome and results you're trying to achieve.' ABOUT THE GUEST CEO & Brand Champion of Brand Iron, a brand consulting & marketing firm that forges brands and drives revenue. Raised over $5 billion for clients. Helped 40 companies get acquired and 20 companies taken public. I'm an advisor to PE firms, RE firms, and Tech companies, especially around capital raise efforts, branding, and positioning companies for acquisition. I also do much work with platform companies that PE firms own and help them grow and scale. I've been a part of 3 successful exits, including selling my own company and being part of an IPO. We own equity positions with top-performing SaaS/Tech and Real Estate companies. We also have helped companies raise over $5 Billion in capital and have been advisors to over 40 acquisitions. https://brandiron.net/process/  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 talks to Axel Thibon, founder of Wizest, the next generation of investment trading platforms. With his team, Axel aims to make personal investing more accessible, more engaging, and more consistent with today's digital platforms and changing consumer behavior. Today, people think that investing is complicated and intimidating. What if there was a platform to pair novice investors with financial experts? Before Wizest, Alex worked in banking for over six years. He led and guided 4 M&A/integration projects for banks ranging from $300M to $15B and led strategy and transformation initiatives in Renault Nissan Mitsubishi for nine years, Sabadell United Bank for five years, and has taken all that expertise to Wizest for the last four years. Axel has managed and launched a brand new digital bank from scratch.  Sabine and Axel discuss why we need to make investing simple, the challenges with the current mass market wealth management platforms, how Wizest works, and the target market and sources of success. KEY TAKEAWAYS Wizest democratizes access to the stock market through technology so everyone can invest just like the top 1%. A Wizest client has access to a team of financial experts who invest on their behalf, and the client gets to choose which expert they have on their team with one simple click, instantaneously copying their portfolios.  Axel had an interesting path before doing Wizest. He was a mechanical engineer for the Renault Nissan Mitsubishi group in charge of developing parts for electrical vehicles. When attempting personal investment for the future, Axel found the process complicated and unsupportive, and this is when he became inspired to enter the banking world, gaining experience from launching a digital bank from scratch, and eventually dedicating his efforts to making investment simpler with Wizest. Wizest solves the problem that limited capital investors have with the minimum investment barriers that banks place on investors, the investor’s lack of experience and knowledge of the stock market, and the reluctance felt by the investor by the lack of inclusion and transparency of earlier platforms.  When you use Wizest for the first time, you see people. It is very welcoming and personal, with the financial investors sharing their personal profiles first, so you can get to know them before you see their recommended portfolios and understand their styles of investment.  Wizest is working to form partnerships with corporations to increase their reach by offering Wizest memberships to their employees. This kind of service is to offer a service in between savings and wealth management or private investment. There is global potential for this kind of financial accessibility solution.  Axel recommends approaching investing as a personal experience. Rather than just approaching a bank and taking the standard road to retirement-type investments, take some time to consider your current financial situation and your goals fully. Stick to your plan and try not to react to every financial crisis.  BEST MOMENTS ‘This is a journey that is shared by many of us. When we want to start investing with limited capital, we tend to go with cheap or even free solutions. If you don't have any finance background and don't know what to buy and what to sell, it's tough.’ ‘It's not about the service itself, which is about being able to invest or trade, but how the investing happens. So that's what we decided to change with Wizest, which is different from the others because it's not only making it more convenient and accessible, but it is also changing how it is happening.' ‘From there, the user can choose one or several investors they like to build a team. They can build a team that is going to work for them. When I say that when you have $2,000, $5,000, and $10,000 to work with in Wizest, you then work with your team. Your experts help you build your real portfolio. The way you manage your portfolio is not by managing your underlying holdings but by managing your team.’  ‘It’s not like setting up a lemonade stand. To be able to launch Wizest, we have to be able to make sure we have a secure solution that is compliant with regulations and that we have the right sort of technical integrations.’ ‘When you put the plan in motion, the most important thing most people forget is sticking to the plan. Don't be affected by what is happening today or tomorrow in the market or overreact and be scared because when we look historically over the last hundred years, the markets are always up and down.'    ABOUT THE GUEST With his team, Axel aims to make personal investing more accessible, more engaging, and more consistent with today's digital platforms and changing consumer behavior. Today, people think that investing is complicated and intimidating. What if there was a platform to pair novice investors with financial experts? Before Wizest, Alex worked in banking for over six years. Led and guided4 M&A/integration projects for banks ranging from $300M to $15B Led strategy/ transformation initiatives Managed a digital Bank and launched a new bank from scratch https://www.linkedin.com/in/axel-thibon/ ABOUT WIZEST Described by Forbes as “far more authentic than Robinhood will ever be," Wizest is the next-generation investment trading platform. Our technology is democratizing access to the stock market so everyone can invest, like the 1%. Build a team of financial experts to invest on your behalf by copying their portfolios in one click. Optimize with performance leaderboards, pick experts you relate to and align with your values, then learn why they make their trades in your news feed. There’s no limit to the expertise at your fingertips! Wizest aims to democratize the stock market and make investing accessible for everyone. The team believes everyone should be able to invest and achieve their financial goals, regardless of their experience or background. Discover more https://www.wizest.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: 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 Dennis Kelly, CEO and co-founder of Postalytics, a fast-growing software company that automates direct mail marketing, measures the results from direct mailing activity and connects such campaigns to CRM and marketing automation systems to accelerate the way online marketing connects with offline marketing.  With expertise building VC-backed businesses and self-financed businesses, Dennis is a 6 times entrepreneur with the companies he built. He exited 4 of these businesses to larger corporations. Postalytics has grown fast with no VC investment and today is scaling in the US and Canada with an aspiration to come to Europe. During the podcast, the pair cover 1) Dennis’ lessons on building VC-backed and self-financed businesses, 2) what PLG (Product-led growth) means, 3) why every business needs to learn a little bit about PLG and 4) Postalytics’ proposition and roadmap to success. KEY TAKEAWAYS I grew up on a farm where my family and I worked very hard and were entrepreneurial in trying to make extra money. I’d reach out to neighbors and people in the community to offer my services and help them with whatever they needed doing. Some of those lessons apply today, such as... not being afraid to knock on someone's door, telling them what you're doing and how you can help them.  Postalytics is a direct mail automation software tool designed to solve three big problems with the direct mail marketing workflow. This legacy marketing channel has been around for many years and is still very useful and successful, but it hasn't had much technology applied. We've taken some of the best practices from digital marketing and combined them into a software tool that enables marketers to deploy direct mail campaigns in minutes rather than weeks rapidly. We connect direct mail – a physical channel where a printed piece of paper is sent through the postal service – to the marketing tech stack (CRM, CDP), which drives and accumulates knowledge of what happens in a direct mail marketing campaign through Postalytics. Similar to how all digital marketing channels are driven from central locations. We've created a method of assigning a unique QR code to each recipient of a piece of mail. The opportunity is to use that physical piece of paper that offers you something while holding it and drive them to your website through the QR code – which everybody is comfortable with now. BEST MOMENTS ‘Each time you participate in the design and launch of a startup, there's always tremendous learnings you can take away from that experience.’‘One of the challenges with any offline marketing channel is measuring what is successful and who is/isn't responding. We've created some proprietary methods of measuring both the delivery of the mail and who’s responding and where they are going on your website.’‘It's impossible for the QR codes to be manipulated by a third party because each one is unique and fully encrypted.’‘The cost of creating a highly scalable, high-performance platform in the cloud has plummeted. You can do so without spending a huge amount of money. Our business model allows us to capture customers without a tremendous capital outlay. We didn't need to raise much money to get this business off the ground. Once the business got going, it became self-sustaining.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Denis Kelly is CEO of Postalytics, a fast-growing software company that automates direct mail marketing, measures the results, and connects it to CRM/Marketing Automation.  Postalytics evolved out of Boingnet, a software tool used by direct mail service providers and agencies to provide landing pages and email campaigns that complement personalized direct mail. I was co-owner of Wireless City - a chain of 37 Verizon Wireless stores based in Florida, Massachusetts, and Georgia. The company was acquired by Go Wireless in October 2011. Before Wireless City, I was CEO at Adesso Systems, an enterprise mobility software company. Previously, I was CEO and Co-Founder of Adjoin Solutions, Inc., an early Web Services Management market leader. Adjoin was acquired by Computer Associates in July 2003. Before founding Adjoin, I was VP of Web Services at Palm (PALM), leading the Palm.net wireless business, the MyPalm web and mobile portals, and other Palm web properties. Previously, I was COO & Co-Founder of AnyDay.com (sold to Palm), headed sales for Achieve Healthcare, the largest provider of enterprise software and services to the post-acute healthcare industry. And COO at Genesis Business Systems (sold to Achieve). Dennis holds a BA in economics from Colgate University. I build companies, typically having something to do with technology. My role typically spans product development, sales, marketing, finance, and HR. I started life as a sales guy, spent time building products, and running data centers, have been CEO of venture-backed startups, and have built self-financed businesses. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dennisjohnkelly/   ABOUT POSTALYTICS With automated direct mail marketing, marketers use Postalytics to stand out from their competitors. Drive new leads and sales with personalized direct mail that complements email and digital marketing. Deep integration with HubSpot, Salesforce, and other CRM/Marketing Automation tools enables direct mail to look, act and feel like a digital marketing channel that happens to produce trackable postcards and letters. Website - https://www.postalytics.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: 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 James Marshall, managing director of Spinning Fox, a product led design agency focused on helping large and small businesses solve problems more creatively. James has 11 years of delivery experience and a proven ability to manage super large global accounts having worked for companies including HSBC, Nike, Unilever, PepsiCo, Adidas, Dyson, Samsung, Barclays and Ford. He is passionate about creating tech and operational solutions to solve business and consumer problems and drive opportunities much faster than traditional approaches. On the podcast, the pair discuss: 1) James’ journey into the design thinking and user experience world, 2) why operational efficiency is so hot right now, 3) the power of taking an outside in perspective, and 4) good problem solving requires for us all to take calculated risk. KEY TAKEAWAYS I wasn't that good at school, it didn't suit me very well, but things clicked when I went to university to study graphic design. I worked in my early career as a designer, but I had ambitions to own my own company, but spotted quite quickly that I needed to develop more business skills. I moved to London to work in digital agencies and took a sidewards step into programme leadership, where I worked with incredible clients. That's where I found I was passionate about delivering digital product solutions. Spinning Fox was created after we witnessed digital product teams trying to deliver digital products and platforms and fail, which was quite common, and through those failures, you get learnings. We wanted to build a company to create products and use our learnings to solve problems and develop solutions for clients. Underlying that is a love for design and tech and using it to solve problems. At a high level, the approach we try to take is firstly around discovery, immersing ourselves in our client's world. We can fast track that process through doing some mini-workshops, meeting with stakeholders, meeting the user, ideally, to understand the opportunity as quickly as possible and then defining things, identifying the user’s needs, pain points, and starting to work out the solution. Then we move into rapid prototyping and getting into a cycle of testing and iterating, getting feedback from the user as quickly as possible before moving into implementation. We have full end-to-end delivery capabilities with our team of engineers and QA baked into our process.  We've had instances where the best solution for the client is something we can't do, but we'll work with them as a partner and find a third party to work with and help support in delivering that. We're not afraid to say that. We won’t always engineer things to force it into the areas where we have significant expertise and prior knowledge. It’s about being honest and transparent with a client. BEST MOMENTS ‘I learned early that if I wanted something, I had to work for it.’‘Spinning Fox is a collective of technologists, innovators, strategists, designers, all with one shared passion: Solving problems. That's how we deliver value to our clients.’‘Everything we do puts the customer at the heart of everything throughout the process to validate that we're on the right track.’‘There's no time to stand still as a digital product agency. If you do, then you’ll become a dinosaur in five minutes. You have to be very aware of what's happening in the future. Being able to adapt your business model quite quickly is key.’ ABOUT THE GUEST James Marshall is a delivery specialist passionate about creating tech and operational solutions to business and consumer problems or opportunities. He is motivated by working in an environment of like-minded multi-disciplinary teams. With 11 years of delivery experience James has a proven ability to manage projects with values over £1m for global accounts including HSBC, Nike, Unilever, PepsiCo, Adidas, Dyson, Samsung, Barclays and Ford. Programme management of projects including product and service design, experiential, interactive retail, digital within visitor attractions, large scale web/app builds, end-to-end customer experience strategy and business transformation. Experience implementing process and operational improvements and training teams to run projects using Agile delivery techniques. Fully certified ScrumMaster and DSDM AgilePM with strong and agile experience. Strong client servicing skills through working as the main client contact across many projects and accounts. Strategic thinker and problem solver with the ability to use knowledge and experience to generate new business opportunities and deliver against client goals for programmes of work. Email: jmarshall@spinningfox.com  Website: https://www.spinningfox.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: 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 Guillaume Bonnissent, CEO and co-founder of Quotech, a data provider and technology platform which aims to give access to the very best data to insurance practitioners - from executive decision-makers, brokers, underwriters, actuaries and even data scientists. Guillaume has twenty years of insurance experience as both -> an underwriter and senior executive. Throughout his career, Guillaume encountered one constant issue: the poor quality of data available to decision-makers at all levels, mainly due to legacy constraints. During the podcast Sabine and Guillaume cover: 1) leveraging 13 years of underwriting expertise to build Quotech, 2) delivering underwriting excellence in the 21st century, and 3) growing and scaling Quotech and finally 4) Guillaume’s roadmap to success. KEY TAKEAWAYS Insurance companies must become better underwriters to remain competitive in the marketplace. Underwriting excellence is essential for an insurer to understand, price, and manage a customer's risk to minimise losses from potential insurance claims. Achieving this balance between profitability for the insurer and adequate protection for the insured is becoming increasingly difficult due to the complexity of engagements spreading across the insurance market. Our brokers give clients quick and insightful risk management advice while helping them fill in their application forms. Our underwriters access better, richer as well as more consistent data and analysis to apply their underwriting judgement. Our actuaries and underwriting managers analyse and review the underwriting judgement and all the data and analyses reviewed by the underwriter. Our process includes automated collection and analysis of each business class's most relevant data points, a complete audit trail of the data and decisions made against it, and management of the different authority levels, risk appetites and rating models. Underwriting excellence in insurance is the process of assessing, pricing and managing a customer's risk to achieve the optimal balance between profitability for the insurer and an adequate level of protection for the insured. The goal is to deliver a product that meets the expectations and needs of both parties while mitigating any potential losses from an insurance claim. BEST MOMENTS ‘Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Digital Insurance Platform estimated at $102.2 billion in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of $169.2bn by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 9% over the analysis period.’‘Insurance companies must become better underwriters to remain competitive.’‘Achieving the balance between profitability for the insurer and adequate protection for the insured is becoming increasingly difficult due to the complexity of the insurance market.’‘Underwriting excellence involves multiple steps, such as analysing customer data and risk factors, assessing potential losses, and deciding on a fair price for coverage. Experienced underwriters must be able to review relevant information efficiently and accurately make sound decisions about each risk. Building strong relationships with customers is also important.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Guillaume has 20 years of insurance experience as both an underwriter and senior executive.  Throughout his career, Guillaume encountered one constant issue: the poor quality of data available to decision-makers at all levels, mainly due to legacy systems.  I've held different positions in Underwriting and Operations, both in the Lloyd's and Company markets, and have underwritten other lines of business, from Credit Risk Insurance to Property Reinsurance. I am very interested in Data Science with proficiency in R and Artificial Intelligence. ABOUT QUOTECH Quotech is a data provider and technology platform which aims to give access to the best data to all insurance industry practitioners - from brokers, underwriters, actuaries and data scientists to claims adjusters and business developers, all the way up to the Board of Directors. Quotech wants to help everyone in the insurance distribution chain to make better decisions based on accurate, material and relevant information. Quotech creates beneficial insurance technology applications, making data-fuelled processes dramatically more efficient for commercial underwriters and brokers. Our founder, Guillaume, is our difference. We're also led by an experienced syndicate builder and MGA underwriter who's also a programmer. His first-hand understanding of re/insurance processes allows Quotech to deliver practical, efficient solutions that enhance and streamline workflows.  Website - https://quotech.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 Sara Simeone, CEO and Co-Founder of Niftyz (formerly Digital Oracles), and Co-Chair of Start-up Working Group, Crypto Valley. Sara is a strategist with a commercial mind, she was one of the first to publish a paper in 2018 on how machine learning and blockchain will have an impact on the future of digital marketing. Sara worked with a portfolio of leading global accelerators, incubators and VC professionals to tackle company maturity and co-develop programmes that both nurture potential and offer innovative capabilities to early stage ventures. During the course of their discussions, both ladies discussed 1) the Metaverse, NFTs and Web 3.0, 3) why Sara launched and developed NFTs and 3) where the market for NFTs is going, and 4) what are the investment challenges and opportunities to deliver for the immersive internet in the right way. KEY TAKEAWAYS I’ve been at the forefront of new technologies and new things happening on the web since the beginning of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. That’s what brought me to where we are today. I researched how machine learning and blockchain will impact the future of data, and in 2017, I got in touch with the Crypto Valley Environment and began to build a network in Italy and the UK. Web 2.0, which is the world we live in now, is dominated by platforms that we use to share content and information online. Sometimes, unbeknownst to us, our information is sold online. It’s a business model that Facebook (meta), Twitter, and many other publishers out there use to leverage to generate money. Web 3.0 in a container of new terminology. We’re looking at it as a decentralized web where we decide how our information is used and who we share it with, though there are still a lot of limitations from a technical point of view as well as a significant knowledge gap. Metaverse and NFT are very much connected. Niftyz looks at NFTs as the keys that unlock specific content that is stored either on-chain or off-chain, unlocking a lot of information, data, tools, features, badges, and exciting new things on the metaverse. If we don’t understand NFTs and how to use these new tools, it will be challenging to get access to the metaverse itself. We’ve been trained by the web, and society that we have to monetize the outputs that we create. With Web 3.0 I see another angle, what I call ‘the input economy’ where I can start monetizing at every single step that goes into creating that output. From this perspective, we can see NFTs as empowering the monetization of this value-creation process. For instance, if my brand creates mock-ups of my fashion items, I could potentially create an NFT version of the mock-up and ask my community to vote by purchasing the one they like the most. This market research can be used in the future to create a physical item that people want. From here, AMAs with the designer, virtual fashion events only for users, etc. BEST MOMENTS ‘Niftyz is basically a platform that wants to enable businesses and brands of all sizes and industries that want to get into this new world of NFTs.’‘Everybody’s trying to get into the Metaverse, and brands are building teams with competencies around this, but it’s more of a PR/marketing play at the moment, whereas in the future, it will give some returns.’‘NFTs have a bad reputation. In every phase of the internet, cowboys are trying to get rich quickly. Now, NFTs have begun to be adopted by artists because they’ve found a way to get in touch with a different type of audience.’‘Web 3.0 is creating a new value for our know-how. That’s the ethos behind Niftyz, empowering people, businesses, and brands to monetize their know-how in a brand new way.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Sara Simeone is CEO and Co-Founder of Niftyz (formerly Digital Oracles) and Co-Chair of Start-up Working Group of the Crypto Valley. She is also a technology industry mentor, strategist, and growth management specialist with particular strengths in the optimization and commercial development of early-stage, rapid-development tech businesses.  Her ability to predict commercial and technical challenges far ahead of critical milestones is proven. As a respected strategist, she works with a portfolio of leading global Accelerators, Incubators, and VC professionals, tracking companies’ progress and maturity and co-developing programs that both nurture potential and offer 360-degree support to innovative early-stage ventures.  With an ability to decipher complex business concepts and technologies, she creates data and KPI-based go-to-market strategies that really work. Practical experience includes managing and mentoring senior teams, negotiating multi-million-pound contracts, guiding companies to achieve maximum results without compromising team morale and P&L management.  In 2018, Sara Simeone published her master's thesis on how machine learning and blockchain will impact the future of digital marketing. She was one of the first marketers in the world to publish a piece on the topic. This piece of research gave her access to several professional opportunities: mentoring startups at CV Labs in Crypto Valley (Switzerland); consulting for emerging technology companies in the UK and abroad, and lecturing at Manchester Metropolitan University as an Associate Lecturer of Digital Marketing Strategy. Sara Simeone: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarasimeone/  Website: https://niftyz.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 Dr. Avi Baruch, co-founder and COO of Previsico, and Jonathan Jackson, co-founder and CEO of Previsico. Previsico is a surface water flood forecasting specialist, enabling people and organisations to minimise the impact of flooding.  Flooding cost the global economy more than $82 billion in 2021, accounting for nearly a third of all losses from natural catastrophes, reports the Swiss Re Institute in a 2022 study. Estimates from Statista show that 29 million people were affected by Flooding in 2021. Flooding is the second largest weather-related peril after droughts.  During the course of the podcast, Avi, Jonathan, and Sabine discuss: 1) Flooding and the difference between natural hazards and man-made disasters, 2) Previsico’s four step-method to reduce flood risk, 3) build back better and why we ought to protect the small and medium-sized business from flooding, 4) protect, predict, prevent and 5) top tips to reduce the risk of flood. KEY TAKEAWAYS During the course of my PhD, I realized that academia wasn’t for me, but saw so much potential in the technology we were building to monitor flood water in real time to give early warnings. I felt the only way to really get it to be used effectively on the ground was to spin-out the company. We explored quite a few different markets to find out which would be served best by it and that’s where I met Johnathan. In order to reduce flood risk, there are four main steps we recommend you take: Step 1 – Understand your risk, there are a lot of really good risk-monitoring products already out there on the market. Step 2 – Invest in the right risk measures, these include flood defences or setting up non-return valves. Step 3 – Have a flood action plan, knowing what to do when you’re expecting a flood, moving stock, turning electricity off, who’s responsible for the response? Step 4 – Use an early warning system, this is the final part of the jigsaw when building flood resistance. If you take all those steps you can substantially reduce the risk and hopefully prevent a disaster from ever occurring. Resilience measures are often really simple things, like turning off the gas, electricity, water. That alone can save a huge amount. Moving your car to a safer place, really simple stuff that makes a huge difference. People in communities like Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire, for example, where back in 2015 they were closed down for months after a flood are not reopening after three days, it’s a massive change because they understand what to do. Other communities that are not used to floods are more challenging because you’ve got to know what to do with the warning you’ve been given. COP26 made a big play around the fact that the UK government cannot defend the country against flood, the country has to learn to adapt to flood, and adaptation means starting to take responsibility for flood plans and resilience measures. That’s being backed up by the insurance industry making really important moves in terms of ‘build back better’, where a property has been hit by flood, that homeowner will be given up to £10,000 additional funding by a number of insurers to help them put in flood resilience measures to protect against flood going forward. BEST MOMENTS ‘Flood risk is rising, there’s more extreme weather, the weather is more volatile, climate change is causing heavier downpours – particularly in the summer – and longer, wetter winters.’‘There’s no such thing as a natural disaster. There’s natural hazards and human disasters. If you know where the hazard is going to be and you are able to prepare for it effectively, it doesn’t need to be a disaster.’‘If people are used to having to cope with floods they tend to know what to do. Our solution is a great value-add that we can bring to that situation.’‘We shouldn’t be building new developments on floodplains, especially when we haven’t fully addressed the impact that flooding will have on those properties.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Avi Baruch LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/avinoam-avi-baruch/  Jonathan Jackson LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-jackson-a393102/  About Previsico Previsico is a surface water flood forecasting specialist enabling people and organisations to minimise the impact of flooding. Backed by Foresight Group and underpinned by two decades of research at Loughborough University, Previsico’s world-leading solution is used by insurers, businesses, and the government to reduce losses. Our mission is to be the leading global provider of cutting-edge flood prediction that saves lives and livelihoods while significantly reducing the cost of flooding. Having launched in January 2019, we have a growing team of ~25 people with offices in Loughborough and London. Website: https://previsico.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: SabineVdL LinkedIn: Sabine VanderLinden Instagram: sabinevdLofficial Facebook: SabineVdLOfficial TikTok: sabinevdlofficial Email: podcast@sabinevdl.com Website: www.sabinevdl.com