On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Sangha Penesetti, founder and CEO of goZeal, who didn’t just break the glass ceiling—she installed a flexible skylight.

Today we’ll dive into the economics of equity, why flexible work is not a perk but a performance driver, and how insurers can win by rethinking who gets a seat at the table—and how that table is set.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

In my early career, every client meeting I walked into was a room full of men. I was the only woman of colour. When I became a mother in 2010 I felt first-hang how unforgiving the industry was, there was no real flexibility, no empathy around new mums (though that may have just been the company I worked for then), and certainly no system that was designed for working mums.

During Covid I found my own community: Brilliant, highly educated women, especially Indian and Asian mums, step out of the workforce to raise kids and never return. Not because they lacked ambition, but because the system simply wasn’t build for them. That’s the moment I realised it wasn’t an individual struggle but a systemic design flaw, that’s when goZeal was born.

We talk about empowerment a lot, but what is empowerment? It‘s the financial empowerment, the capacity for women to have the money to spend on whatever they want be that a Gucci bag or feeding their kids. The data is clear: When women (and especially women of colour) advance, companies become more innovative and perform better financially. 

BEST MOMENTS 

‘My experience taught me that being included isn’t the same as being empowered.’ 

‘Radical inclusion flips the dynamic. It’s not about representation, it’s about access to meaningful work decision-making authority and economic mobility.’

‘Remote work is not “flexibility.” Flexibility means flexibility of time. I wanted to hire women directly to give them the autonomy of time. Direct impact comes when you are the employer.’

‘True flexibility allows for peak productivity not proximity. When people work at their best insurers benefit from higher quality work, lower burnout, less attrition, stronger retention, all of that good stuff.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Sangha Penesetti is the powerhouse founder and CEO of goZeal, a company rewriting the rules of work by directly hiring skilled women, especially women of colour, for high-impact, flexible roles in insurance and tech. With 18 years of experience in finance and insurance, she’s lived the challenges of being the only woman at the table—and decided to build her own.

Under her leadership, goZeal is more than a talent platform—it’s a movement. One that’s tackling systemic inequity, modernizing legacy operations, and showing insurers that flexible work is not a perk but a strategic edge.

She’s here to talk about the real economics of inclusion, why hybrid isn’t enough, and how insurers can close talent gaps while building a future-ready workforce.

ABOUT THE HOST

Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.

If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.

And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at [email protected]

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Marinela Profi, Global Market Strategy Lead for AI, GenAI and Agentic AI at SAS, about the rise of agentic AI and how we will move from hype to real, reliable AI.

In today’s episode, we’ll discuss: Why LLMs alone don’t solve business problems – and what does, how governance is becoming the new frontier of AI trust, and what leaders should expect by 2026, as enterprises shift from experiments to autonomous, explainable intelligence.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

A generative AI chatbot is really good and answering questions, generating text, or summarising content. But, it typically stops when it comes to conversation. On the other hand, an AI agent goes beyond that, it can take action, it has goals, memory, reasoning capabilities and can orchestrate multi-set workflows using a combination of not just large-language models but also rules, data and analytics. Generative AI talks, and agentic AI does.

The 5-step lifecycle of an agent is a framework I put together to help me and my customers understand what an agent actually does step-by-step in practice. 1. Perception 2. Cognition 3. Decisioning 4. Action, and 5. Learning.

Governance boards in 2026 will act more like digital oversight committees, they will ensure that agents aren’t just smart, but they are safe, explainable and accountable. 

BEST MOMENTS 

‘Post action the agent learns from feedback from a human operative. It’s important to monitor the learning loops, you cannot allow the agent to “self-update” in ways that are uncontrolled.’ 

‘How autonomous should an agent be? 90% of the time it depends on the risk and impact of the task.’

‘Autonomy without accountability is a risk multiplier.’

‘Governance doesn’t stop at deployment, performance must be continuously monitored.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Marinela Profi helps organizations move from AI hype to trusted impact. As Global Market Strategy Lead for AI, GenAI, and Agentic AI at SAS, she works with enterprises in financial services, healthcare, and government to build AI systems that don’t just act fast—but act responsibly.

With an MBA and a Master’s in Statistics and AI, Marinela bridges two worlds: translating complex data science into clear business strategy. Her work focuses on how agentic AI—intelligent systems that perceive, reason, and act autonomously—can deliver governed, explainable decisions instead of black-box predictions.

A frequent keynote speaker at international AI and analytics events, she shares insights on the evolution from generative to agentic AI and the new frontier of AI governance, trust, and human-AI collaboration. Marinela is also an Advisory Board Member for Wake Technical Community College’s Data Science Program, helping shape future-ready curricula that connect classroom learning with real-world AI innovation.

ABOUT THE HOST

Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.

If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.

And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at [email protected]

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Andrei Craciunescu, founder and CEO of RiskCube, about why the next generation of insurance will be built like software: adaptive, transparent, and embedded into every business platform.

They also discuss how AI and data are transforming the broker's role from middleman to intelligent orchestrator, and what the insurance experience of 2030 could look like when protection becomes invisible and trust becomes the new currency.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

What companies want from the insurance market is fast underwriting, not to talk with humans so much anymore, especially startups; they want a quote in minutes, not months. This is how we got into the segment where we offer business insurance for startups – mainly venture-backed startups.

Some providers already offer what we are doing, but there is no comparison. Every founder needs to go to each insurance company separately and ask for a quote, which often varies a lot – sometimes by 40%. They spend a lot of time investigating these quotes, which is expensive and hard to understand. RiskCube is an AI insurance agency for startups where founders can buy and manage insurance online.

We looked at what an agency traditionally does: it has different processes in place, such as insurance applications, renewals, cancellations, and claims. We tried to map out all these processes to see which can be done by AI agents. AI cannot solve the whole insurance value chain, but we see a huge adoption in the claims and applications processes.

Generally, most founders don’t really care which insurance company they’re with; they care that they have somebody who really understands them as a customer. We want startups to come to us because they trust the system, which provides a fast experience that works for them. It’s not very complicated, what we do for them at the beginning, we provide a smooth process where we can say they have high, medium or low risk then evaluate different quotes for them.

BEST MOMENTS 

‘Everybody’s pushing on the AI front, but the insurance market is also evaluating if it’s really necessary; it’s not all in, which is impressive.’ 

‘We build the firm first and then embed the technology inside the firm. This will make us defensible in the future because we will own the data in our agency and use it to train our own model.’

‘People are using a lot of AI nowadays, but nobody really understands where the data is going or hosted.’

‘Insurance companies tend to adapt AI for themselves, not for the whole market. We want to bring them all together in one channel.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Andrei Craciunescu is redefining risk management with RiskCube, an AI-powered platform revolutionising insurance by streamlining risk assessments, accelerating quote processes, and providing real-time insights to help businesses secure coverage faster and smarter.

LinkedIn

ABOUT THE HOST

Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.

If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.

And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at [email protected]

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Rob Schimek, Group CEO at bolttech, about how bolttech’s connector model is redefining global insurance distribution, from telcos to auto makers and beyond.

They also talk about why the future of protection will depend on trust, data and design more than policy documents and premiums, and what leadership really looks like when you are building at the intersection of revelation, innovation, and human impact. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

If you have an hour to solve a problem you should spend 55 minutes on the problem and then 5 minutes on the solution. I’ve spent my career in the problem, the formation of bolttech is the attempt at the solution – it’s the path that I’ve chosen to bring that solution to the marketplace.

Our mission is to work out how to close a multi-billion-dollar protection gap that has existed for years, that’s getting bigger? In order to do that we need to really understand the problem. We think there are 4 basic drivers for this multi-billion-dollar protection gap that and they’re pretty irrefutable.

We’re trying to make a seamless connection between the buyers of protection products (insurers) and the distribution partners who have access to the customers so we can put those solutions into the hands of the customers. bolttech’s here to try to provide tailored, affordable, accessible, and convenience insurance in the hands of the customer on a B2B2C basis, connecting big partners who have lots of customers to the insurance providers.

Without the data there’s a tendency to paint everything with one brush, like it’s all the same. Data is accessible and available on a real-time basis today and it can be available with no intervention, straight from the vehicle telematics about the unique driver.

BEST MOMENTS 

‘We really want to connect people with more ways to protect the things that they value, we want to close the global protection gap.’ 

‘The more we make connections frictionless, the more the connection will happen and the more the protection gap will get closed.’‘

If the mission and the vision are super-well-known then nothing can distract you from solving that problem, regardless of what’s going on in the marketplace around you.’‘

If a customer doesn’t trust the use of AI in their interactions with you then AI won’t be successful in that space because it won’t be accepted in that space. Ultimately it comes back to do we do things the right way and give the customers a reason to trust us?’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Rob Schimek is Group Chief Executive Office at bolttech where he leads the team across its operations globally, overseeing its growth and partnership opportunities.

With more than 30 years of experience in the financial services industry, Rob previously held senior leadership roles, including Managing Director & Group Chief Operating Officer for FWD Group, President and Chief Executive Officer of AIG’s commercial insurance businesses worldwide, and Chief Executive Officer of the Americas for AIG. Prior to that, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of EMEA for AIG, and was the Chief Financial Officer of AIG’s global property and casualty insurance business.

LinkedIn

ABOUT THE HOST

Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.

If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.

And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at [email protected]

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to us about all she’s learned from the numerous guests on the show recently, from startup founders who build AI to simplify the chaotic insurance back office, to innovation leaders in Fortune 500 firms wrestling with ethics, regulation, and talent shortages.

After dozens of conversations here’s what Sabine has learned: AI isn’t just changing our tools. It’s changing our temperament.

This episode is her reflection on those lessons; a guide for leaders and builders trying to navigate this new age of intelligence and unpacks five principles that define successful AI adoption.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

When Branch Insurance introduced AI into its claims process, something unexpected happened. It wasn’t the customers who resisted, it was the adjusters. They were worried, not because AI made mistakes but because it didn’t.

When Lisa Bechtold’s (who led AI governance at Zurich Insurance, now at Nestlé) team started implementing AI, they faced the classic dilemma: Move fast or move right. Lisa said: “We don’t see governance as slowing innovation – we see it as enabling trust at speed.”

ERGO Group worked with CamCom, a startup from India that uses computer vision to detect car damage from photos or drones. The tech was brilliant. The challenge? Integrating it into a multinational insurer’s process. They didn’t just hand over the product, they sat side by side – engineers, adjusters, compliance officers, even lawyers – to make it work. It took nearly a year to get from pilot to production and the result wasn’t just faster claims; it was a new relationship model. The startup learned how corporates think. The corporate learned how startups move. That’s the real win.

After all the talk about data, systems, ethics, and pilots, what really matters is how humans evolve. AI won’t replace people, but people who know how to use AI will replace people who don’t. That’s not a threat, it’s an invitation. AI is already changing what we expect from talent. Claims adjusters now need to interpret AI outputs. Underwriters must question models. Leaders must learn to manage digital teammates.

BEST MOMENTS 

‘Intelligent tool don’t remove human judgment; they reveal it in higher resolution.’ 

‘In this AI era, trust is the new currency.’‘Every AI dream dies in the shadow of bad data.’‘The irony is that the more intelligent our systems become, the more human our leadership must be. Empathy, creativity, ethics aren’t data points, they’re our differentiators.’

ABOUT THE HOST

Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.

If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.

And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at [email protected]

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Stephen Brittain, co-founder of InsurTech Gateway, a pioneering venture builder focused on bringing early-stage startups into the heart of the insurance world – a regulated industry that typically moves at glacial speed.

Over the past decade, Stephen has helped launch and scale ventures inside one of the most regulated, risk-averse business sectors on the planet: the insurance space. He has been the spark for innovation inside large insurance corporates and the strategic partner for founders who wanted to navigate the labyrinth of regulation, procurement and distribution at scale. In other words: he has been solving the archetypal “how to innovate inside a large enterprise” question while keeping the spirit of a startup alive.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

I was a product /service designer, and I found myself – through building bigger and bigger products – coming up against risk, and I saw risk as a constraint. I knew that if I could only understand risk better that I might be able to do bigger and bolder and better projects. That’s how I outgrew product design and moved into insurance.

InsurTech Gateway’s original intention was to find amazing founders and fast-track them into market with enough creative energy to survive, adapt and evolve in an environment where your first idea had to be your fixed idea. Today we give founders greater agility to learn and evolve, because no one ever knows what to do when they first start, it’s a learning journey.

The upside, the enthusiasm, the opportunity framing of entrepreneurialism and venturing gets everybody started, rallies people together. But, an a bad day, the downside view is actually the long-term sustainability of any new category. VCs and insurers have never sat round the table together.

BEST MOMENTS 

‘The opportunity was not to make insurance sexy, it was to look at the secret powers of insurance to create mutual models to work at scale, to unlock lending and put trust into ecosystems that didn’t exist before.’ 

‘One of the biggest challenges in InsurTech is; to get a successful outcome from something that looked great on day 1 but didn’t evolve into the opportunity.’

‘Pattern recognition has never been higher and the cost to entry and experimentation has never been lower. We recognise what works and what doesn’t much better, but can we validate it with an insurer and get them onside? I think we still need to work out the connectivity.’

‘If you can work with innovators, and you understand risk, and you can help unlock that innovation, you can make it sustainable.’

ABOUT THE GUESTS

Stephen Brittain is the Co-Founder of InsurTech Gateway, the world’s first authorised venture builder and fund focused on insurtech. A true pioneer at the intersection of innovation, investment, and impact, Stephen has spent the past decade turning bold ideas into scalable ventures that redefine how insurance and technology collide.

ABOUT THE HOST

Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.

If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.

And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at [email protected]

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Sebastien Denef, CEO and co-founder at AGENTS.inc, a company at the forefront of building intelligent agent platforms for enterprises.

On this episode we explore how agentic AI architectures are reshaping industries, what it takes to scale agentic AI solutions across siloes, and why the winners in this space will be those who master both the technology and collaboration.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

You can give a task to an AI agent – a piece of software – that autonomously handles the task. When compared to previous layers of automation, we can now increase the autonomy level because of the AI models and the increased amounts of data we have. 

It’s underhyped. The impact we can have with today’s technology is very, very big and it will impact all sectors, from education to finding a job, buying a house, buying your groceries, deciding where to go on your weekend where right now we’re only seeing the beginnings of what could happen. 

Almost the entire industry is trying to improve ChatGPT, to make it a little bit better, we actually see that this chat function isn’t really needed. What is needed is having a tireless workforce that tirelessly works for you as AI agents – you don’t necessarily want to converse with all of them because there would be too many messages to handle. You need a control interface to steer these new employees.

RPA allowed us to move a document from A to B. AI agents will allow us to understand what’s inside that document, extract the right stuff, put the right thing into the system, evaluate the information, and so on. All these things were impossible before, that’s the big difference and that is possible today.

BEST MOMENTS 

‘Think of AI agents as computers that work while you are asleep.’ 

‘We will see shifts in entire industries, especially those with large workforces which will no longer be needed, and we will see new stuff coming up because of that.’

‘Companies are only just waking up from the dream that if you use ChatGPT or Microsoft CoPilot you’re “AI-ready”.’

‘More than 70% of the work people do right now can be automated.’

ABOUT THE GUESTS

Sebastien Denef is CEO and co-founder at AGENTS.inc who is inventing the future of human-computer interaction.

LinkedIn

ABOUT THE HOST

Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.

If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.

And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at [email protected]

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Ulrich (Uli) Homann, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft, and Mark Luquire, EY Global Microsoft Alliance Co-innovation Leader, about how to build an agentic AI enterprise that doesn’t just work faster, but works smarter and, most importantly, works for everyone.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

In the past automation has been very task driven and specific, things had to go in a certain order and you needed to know that order ahead of time. While you need some of that with generative AI, we now have a system that can help do some of that thinking, so if things change in the process along the way, you can deal with it. Now you can rethink what processes even need to exist and focus on the outcome and how to get to it in a new way. 

By giving everyone at EY access to generative AI a couple of years ago we learned that people were able to accomplish more more quickly. They used it as a thought-partner, used it as a way to fine tune the product they were working on. Being able to see the evolution of generative AI to now where it’s coding applications on its own almost, seeing the new agent capabilities and tools, and being able to take action on its own with very little prompting, it opens the doors to possibilities and what you’ll be able to do in the future. 

BEST MOMENTS 

‘Focus on where you want to be and then rethink how you’re going to get there, that’s the real key.’

‘It’s not just an assistant to you, providing you with information, it’s actually taking on work it’s actually thinking through and processing those things as well.’

ABOUT THE GUESTS

Ulrich (Uli) Homann is a Corporate Vice President & Distinguished Architect in the Cloud + AI business at Microsoft. As part of the senior engineering leadership team, he’s responsible for the customer-led innovation efforts across the cloud and enterprise platform portfolio. Previously Homann was the Chief Architect for Microsoft worldwide enterprise services, having formerly played a key role in the business’ newly formed Platforms, Technology and Strategy Group. Prior to joining Microsoft in 1991, he worked for several small consulting companies, where he designed and developed distributed systems and has spent most of his career using well-defined applications and architectures to simplify and streamline the development of business applications.

Mark Luquire leads the EY organization’s global efforts to co-develop innovative solutions with Microsoft and clients, driving growth and accelerating technology strategy. He oversees cross-functional teams spanning sectors and service lines, serving as a key liaison to Microsoft’s product and engineering teams.

Previously, Mark headed Platform Adoption for EY Global, leading enterprise-wide AI and cloud enablement, including integrating generative AI tools like EYQ, GitHub Copilot and Microsoft Copilot. He also created the first EY Global DevOps Practice and led cloud transformation efforts, making EY a leader in Microsoft Azure usage. Mark’s career includes leadership roles in large healthcare enterprises and technology startups, where he established scalable operations, spearheaded digital transformation, and built high-performing global teams.

ABOUT THE HOST

Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.

If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.

And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at [email protected]

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Laurna Castillo, Senior Vice President of Product at CSAA Insurance Group, a AAA insurer serving millions of customers across the western United States.

Laurna has become a leading voice in reimagining how the insurance industry – and entire communities – can build resilience in the face of escalating wildfire risk. On this episode, Laurna will share her journey, lessons learned from the frontlines of growth, and actionable insights for listeners eager to drive meaningful impact in their own ventures.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The AAA was originally an automobile association focused on making cars safer, advocating for seatbelts, for example. Without seatbelts, car insurance would be more expensive, making driving less accessible to the average person. It’s the same with wildfire; there are massive quantities of homes being lost every year, and if we don’t have these solutions for fewer homes being burned down by wildfire, it’s going to be less accessible for the average consumer to live in places like California.

Knowing where to start was our biggest challenge, but picking a direction and sticking with it, and recognising all the different facets that need progressing, we leant in when we recognised those.

We’ve learned that people are overwhelmed. There’s so much information out there, if you speak to your neighbour, you might get one thing, if you speak to your local fire chief, you might get another. That was reinforced in our community engagements, as was the fact that trusted voices matter; people are most likely to trust the motivations of people they know rather than insurance companies.

We’ve been leaning into this problem with this mindset for over a decade, and it’s becoming a strategic focus and imperative for us because of the increase in large-scale fires affecting many properties. One of the most important issues is where to start with mitigation. The 0-5-foot ignition zone is the single most important factor. The next is scalability, we need to rally around and give common standards and similar messages, that will help homeowners receive clear, consistent guidance.

BEST MOMENTS 

‘Do the next, best, right thing that’s in front of you. If you keep doing that, eventually it builds up into a system of change and collective progress.’ 

‘I cannot emphasise enough how important partnerships are to this problem. They extend reach.’

‘The easiest way to have a wildfire resilient home is to build one, building one that’s not resilient and trying to retrofit it is less optimal and not as easy.’

‘The single most important thing is clearing flammable material (fences, overhanging trees and bushes) from a 0-5 foot zone from the house.’

ABOUT THE GUESTS

Laurna Castillo is a forward-thinking leader and passionate advocate for innovation and sustainable growth. With a dynamic background spanning entrepreneurship, community development, and strategic leadership, Laurna has dedicated her career to empowering organizations and individuals to unlock their full potential.

LinkedIn

ABOUT THE HOST

Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.

If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.

And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at [email protected]

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Yo Kwon, CEO at Voltaire.Claims.

Together, we pull back the curtain on how enterprise operations (and in particular finance and insurance operations) are being reinvented – not tomorrow, but right now.

KEY TAKEAWAYS          

I was working with my co-founder on Ai technology trying to work out what would be applicable for wider businesses. While we were testing ideas someone was using one of our products to write claims letters.

Adjustors don’t enjoy writing claims letter, especially denials, they lean heavily on templates and cheat sheets to figure out the clauses to cite, so small mistakes and big ones can slip though. Voltaire generates each letter from scratch, it doesn’t take shortcuts which removes the room for error. 

Litigation alone adds an average of $10,718 per claim in loss adjustment expense, we projects Voltaire can reduce litigated claims by 10% or more through more defensible correspondence. Even a conservative 5% improvement in leakage through clearer letters translates to $320,00 in recovered value. 

We include critical guardrails. If an adjustor requests a denial letter but there’s no valid policy exclusion that exists to support the denial, the system returns ‘no relevant policy language was found’. This prevents a wrongful denial or compliance violation before it happens.

BEST MOMENTS 

‘Before I started this company I did not think this would be a problem in 2025, and this is a problem because of the complexities of claims.’ 

‘Whenever productivity is measured, people will choose speed over compliance, I’d go far as to say most adjustors never actually learn the correct way to write a claims letter.’

ABOUT THE GUESTS

Yo Kwon is the Co-Founder and CEO of Voltaire.Claims, where he leads the development of cutting-edge AI solutions that transform insurance correspondence. With deep expertise in artificial intelligence, decentralized systems, and cybersecurity, Yo brings a rigorous technical perspective to one of the industry’s most overlooked but high-impact challenges: claims letter automation. Under his leadership, Voltaire has built a lightweight, API-driven platform that integrates seamlessly with core systems like Guidewire to deliver accurate, regulator-compliant claim letters in seconds.

ABOUT THE HOST

Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.

If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.

And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at [email protected]