On this episode, Sabine VdL interviews Robin Kiera, the most renowned European FinTech and InsurTech influencer. He set up Digital Scouting in 2017 as a platform that now has 400,000 followers – which is not insignificant in this industry. Robin is a thought leader, an entrepreneur, and a senior leader who has worked in finance for years and gives practical tools and techniques around lessons to learn in the FinTech and InsurTech sectors.

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Life can be ironic. I don’t like marketing agencies guys and I really despise consultants! I started as an insurance sale agent, from the ground up on commission for selling insurance policies on the streets of Hamburg. I always said, between me and the CEO of Allianz are 27 different levels of hierarchy, between me and the one below me was just the street. I saw a huge gap between what insurance can be: helping people, protecting them against risks in our lives, and the reality of selling insurance which didn’t have a lot to do with the desire and the demand of the buyer. 
• At the beginning of the month, we had a list of clients to call, but the lists had nothing about their situations. We were not in the minds of our clients, they were going to banks and building societies. When I founded Digital scouting years later and we were crushing it on social media, we found our clients were standing in line. I remember thinking this is quite a different way to sell than I was doing previously. We started a blog with thought leadership pieces, went to conferences all around the world, and brought ideas back home from entrepreneurial start-ups so we can sell our policies like iPhone or other Apple products.
• We have very good, brilliant people working in the insurance industry. But it seems to me that most insurance ecosystems – in countries like Germany, France, Britain, USA – have nothing in common, no exchange, but there are so many interesting use cases in Britain, France, and the US that I really wanted to get to know what’s going on. I wanted to see the international trends. That’s what made me want to bring these great ideas back to Germany.
• When I announced that I was leaving Allianz to go into an online gaming company that has only been around for 3 years, people were calling the company doctor to see if I was feeling OK. How could I leave that security? Sometimes you lull yourself into a false sense of security. Once I decided to start my own business, I just had to do it because you can still go back to great stable and corporate jobs in this industry or another sector. I don’t want to regret anything when I lay my head on the pillow for the last time.

 

BEST MOMENTS

Everybody says: “We don’t sell products, we consult”. Yeah, alright, let’s talk at the end of the year.’

‘People tell me “Robin, you’re the rebel of the industry”.’

‘I think everybody likes frictionless transactions, not just Generations Y and Z. And their tolerance when it comes to incompetency and friction is certainly getting lower, which I think is just right.’

‘There were no downs in building my business, we always grew organically. Any downs were brought about by my own stupid mistakes, like keeping a bad tax advisor for too long... things like that.’

 

ABOUT THE GUEST

Dr Robin Kiera is the Founder and CEO of Digital Scouting, a consulting and marketing agency based in Germany. Robin is an author, renowned speaker, entrepreneur, and top-ranked insurance, and finance influencer.

He started Digital Scouting as an after-work hobby that exploded positively and became a multimedia B2C, B2B, and B2B2C consulting and marketing agency – supporting entrepreneurs, c-suite executives, and start-ups in their digital transformations, market-entry, hacking the attention of customers and partners through digital media.

Before being recognized as the “Attention Hacker” in the insurance and finance industry he was labeled as the “Rebel of Industry” radically exposing the elephant in the room through targeted topics tackled via his on-stage rants, videos, and blogs. Being genuine with his contributions he was recognized in top industry rankings, supported by more than 140,000 followers when he started generating 16 million of reaches every month.

Digital Scouting: https://www.digitalscouting.de/ 

 

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. 

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