Scouting for Growth

By Sabine VanderLindenBusiness Entrepreneurship Technology

Scouting for Growth episodes

May 18, 2023Chris Hutchinson: Delivering Financial Rental Resilience
On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Chris Hutchinson, formerly the CEO of Canopy, a company on a mission to revolutionise renting and help people grow, both financially – by creating a better life for themselves – and in terms of financial resilience.
Chris is an optimistic, results-oriented senior leader with a clear interest in building highly effective teams.
During the podcast, the pair discusses how Chris moved from his CFO role to landing the top seat at Canopy, why financial resilience is such an important topic across markets, and the three most important takeaways from scaling a startup during an economic downturn.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
It’s really important to have a background in numbers. Businesses are inherently about delivering products to their end customers. But fundamentally, a business isn’t going to be viable and successful unless it ultimately comes down to numbers. The other key thing to remember is that a lot of the finance people (CFOs, Finance Directors, Head of Finance) are often second in charge to a founder or CEO prior to moving into the CEO position, and as such have a much broader breadth of understanding of a company than most people in an organisation do before they take that hot seat.
One of the things I absolutely love about the modern age of business is that it feels like we’ve really moved on from negotiation, win/lose economics, and being taught to get one over on the competition, even in a partnership scenario, into something which is far more prevalent, like a win/win partnership solution where you both benefit.
I’m very good at quickly identifying which ideas are worth executing, then executing and delivering on them. I feel this is powerful because it’s a skill often overlooked in startups, where vision is always seen as incredibly valuable, and the founder's passion is undoubtedly one of the most important factors in getting it off the ground. Inherently, the reason most startups fail between the seed and series A stages probably isn’t because they don’t have a great idea; it’s because they are unable to execute on that idea.
Canopy is initially trying to shake up the UK rental industry, then broadening to international expansion in the future. Essentially, we’re a tech-driven company that improves the lives of letting agents and tenants by offering a solution that identifies the right tenant for the right property, really quickly, really easily. We then help build a brighter future for renters by building their financial health and resilience and creating equal opportunities for them, regardless of their background or goals.
BEST MOMENTS
‘As you grow in your career in finance, you have a relatively unique position where you’re involved in pretty much every area of the business while also sitting on top of big, key, strategic positions and decisions.’
‘Are you building a team because they’re going to deliver for you and you’re going to demand everything of them and they’re going to need to meet those expectations, or are you hiring people who are really, really good at what they do and they have the expertise that you don’t have?’
’70-90% of renters aspire to being a homeowner, but lots of them just want to enjoy their lives while living in a property, have a little bit more money in their pocket, to save up for a holiday/car/etc.’
‘You can definitely do more with less. Whatever you think you can do, you can do more with the same amount, or you can definitely do the same that you’re expecting to do now, but with less. You’re spending too much money, you’re definitely doing stuff that you don’t need to do, you can optimise, you can cut down, focus, prioritise, and deliver more return on investment.’
ABOUT THE GUEST
Chris Hutchinson: Results-driven. People focussed. Eternally optimistic.
Strategic senior leader with significant experience in the FMCG and Financial Service sectors.
A proven track record of success across diverse roles in both Unilever and Bupa Global, now driving start-ups through sustainable growth and funding.
Worked Canopy. Advisor
Startup CFO
Started career with BUPA.
ABOUT CANOPY
The company is on a mission to revolutionise renting and help people grow, both financially and towards a better life. That means making things faster, easier, and fairer for everyone – renters, agents, and landlords alike.
At the heart of our system is the RentPassport, a totally free digital profile that takes the hassle out of house moving. Renters can create a profile in minutes and use it every time they move, and agents and landlords can instantly pre-screen tenants – saving everyone’s time and cash and getting renters moving faster. We believe every new move is a chance to grow.
That’s why we help renters grow their credit rating by tracking their rent payments – improving their financial wellbeing, one month at a time. It all adds up to a comprehensive profile that reassures landlords – and turns the house-moving slog into a stroll in the park.
Want to join the movement? We’re growing fast and always looking out for the next bright spark to join the team. Check out our job listings below, or just drop us a message and say hi.
Canopy, InsureStreet, and Insure Street are trading names of InsureStreet Limited, which is an appointed representative of Resolution Compliance Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 574048) to carry on insurance distribution activities.
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]
52 min
May 11, 2023Sean Boyce: From scaling SaaS products to enabling financial inclusion
On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Sean Boyce, an expert product builder who helps companies, large and small, realise their vision when developing and owning world-class SaaS products without making the mistakes most product companies make.
Sean has successfully scaled his own product companies, including StaffGeek and Podcastchef. Today, though, NxtStep Sean helps B2B SaaS businesses to build the products that matter most for their target audiences.
On this episode, the pair discusses FinTech trends, automation and ChatGPT, market challenges, current capital access needs, why it’s essential to democratise access to drive financial inclusion, and Sean will share some thoughts on how to build good SaaS-based B2B product offerings.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
I’ve always been involved with and fascinated by technology, both hardware and software, but I got very excited about the possibilities of software earlier on in my career, particularly automation. It has the potential to put the people in the process in a better position to leverage technology and software to make incredible leaps in progress. I worked in corporate and startups, building companies of my own in tech and finance.
I like to spend time diving deep into industries, talking with subject matter experts, and better understanding the progress they’re trying to make and what’s holding them back. Usually, there’s a bottleneck in the process somewhere, and I look to try to figure out what is the fastest, most cost-effective way that I can leverage technology or put a strategy in place that enables them to make considerable progress in a shorter period of time, much more cost-effectively than how they’re trying to solve that problem today.
Chat GPT is pretty remarkable and has made its way around the world relatively quickly since they released some of their latest updates. That’s really interesting in terms of what that product is capable of. I think we’re going to see a new ‘gold rush’ leveraging tools like that based on what people have been able to see it’s capable of in order to use as a tool, or a component to build other tools and resources for people to get a lot of value out of. One of the most revolutionary elements of Chat GPT is that it’s a leap forwards in progress in how we access information – or it’s going to be, as it get continually polished – as opposed to most people’s current strategy, which is to leverage a search engine like Google where I’m presented to a list of results after I ask my question, some of which may or may not get what I’m looking for based on how I asked the question and whether or not that information is out there and available yet.
You have to update and evolve your strategy for innovation and investment in your company, based on the implications of global changes for your organisation. As money is no longer as accessible or cheap as it once was, fundraising and gaining access to the capital you might need to do what you want will probably be a bit more difficult, which raises the bar for who will receive capital and when, making competition fiercer. Try to make as much progress on your own as you can with the resources you have. It will usually turn out to be advantageous in the future.
BEST MOMENTS
‘I’ve always looked to automate the time-consuming but error-prone elements of any processes that we might need to do so that people can leverage the technology in a better and more empowering way, so they can make considerable progress with a lot less resources, much, much faster.’
‘I’ve seen Chat GPT being used in everything from automating significant, time-consuming elements of content creation and copywriting all the way through to using it to write code for you to build applications and building blocks as opposed to writing anything in a customer fashion.’
‘Whenever possible, making processes that are really important simpler ultimately makes them more effective.’
ABOUT THE GUEST
Sean Boyce helps SaaS businesses realize their vision of owning a world-class software product WITHOUT making the mistakes that typically sink most product companies. Sean has already made those mistakes, having successfully scaled his own product companies (staffgeek.com and podcastchef.com).
Sean loves to receive questions on how he can help founders and their products. Just email him at [email protected] or booking time to discuss whether it would make sense to work together using the link below.
https://nxtstep.io/
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]
31 min
May 03, 2023Jay Weintraub: Connecting Complex Industries With Connectiv
On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Jay Weintraub. If there is a term that describes Jay over the past 15 years are the words "event entrepreneur. Jay transformed his early digital marketing domain expertise into an industry-leading event shaper.
Today, Jay’s portfolio consists of: Blueprint (real estate tech), Manifest (logistics tech), Medicarians (age tech), and Cumulus (agri / food tech). He has delivered four exits, and his passion for thoughtfully connecting people – Connectiv – a portfolio of industry-defining events.
While events are what the communities seek, Jay wants to serve unique experiences. He shares that success is not measured by the number of attendees or sponsors. Instead, the team at Connectiv judges ourselves by our impact on some of the world's largest, most complex, and necessary global industries.
On this episode, the pair discuss: Jay’s main areas of interest post-InsureTech Connect, why industries? What purpose? How does Jay serve sectors by delivering a highly engaging conference experience and meeting face-to-face? What can we learn from cross-fertilizing learnings from attending other events, from problem-solving to collaboration?
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The beauty of an event is, oftentimes, you’re trying to capture a movement, you’re trying to find a moment in time where the world is changing, and when that is. There’s so much uncertainty. Simply face-timing with the right people can add immense value.
Is the movement in InsureTech about new products, new ways to underwrite, different ways to do claims, or was it back to customer service or engagement? It could be everything. The question is: Which one is right for you?
If we can find ways to make things predictable and repeatable, we can scale more and more. That’s one of our goals. For a company like ours that convenes large-scale events, the milestone is about how we touch more lives. For us, touching more lives is connecting more industries in the same way. There’s almost always some company that touches multiple verticals.
No one wants to be first; everyone wants to be first to be second. The hardest part about what we do is that, like everything else, scale matters. It’s really hard to get to a 7,000-10,000 person show starting off at a 300-500 person show. What makes the challenge is that everyone thinks it’s super scalable (like tech), in our type of business, it’s not just about raising a ton of money, getting the biggest sales team with the biggest funnel, it’s not a single widget that you can scale across an infinitely large team. It’s about the one-on-one connections which is more akin to scouting, venturing or startup roles, there a lot of not-so-glamourous work: research and figuring out who’s is relevant.
BEST MOMENTS
‘One of the magic things about insurance is that it’s impossible to name something that insurance doesn’t touch.’
‘We’re trying to get more connected as a whole.’
‘Data itself is a commodity; you can buy a list of companies. But you’re not going to advance your company by buying that big list and trying to mail that big list. The only way you’re going to do it is by asking: “Is this person relevant?” It’s the personal outreach and understanding of your goal.’
‘Who do you want to be? Sometimes you have to accept you can’t be everything to everyone. The best companies do this, especially in insurance; there isn’t anyone who’s number one in every line of business.’
ABOUT THE GUEST
Jay Weintraub: If there is a term called "event entrepreneur," that certainly best describes my last 15+ years. I transformed my early digital marketing domain expertise into an industry-leading event. Four exits later, and my passion for thoughtful connecting forms the basis for Connectiv – a portfolio of industry-defining events.
While events are what the communities we serve experience, our success is not measured by the number of attendees or sponsors. Instead, we judge ourselves on the impact we make on some of the world's largest, most complex, and necessary global industries.
Today, our portfolio consists of Blueprint (real estate tech), Manifest (logistics tech), Medicarians (age tech), and Cumulus (agri/food tech).
I have been fortunate enough to speak across the globe and am an investor in 60+ companies, as well as having been an advisor to a dozen more.
Should you wish to connect, feel free to email jay at connectiv.com.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayweintraub/
ABOUT CONNECTIV
Connectiv is a live events studio that, for the past decade, has dedicated itself to creating industry-leading gatherings. Our passion and expertise lie in owning and operating at scale, vertical-specific conferences.
The events we have created attract more than 15,000 people each year. In 2021, we will be bringing to market two new vertical shows, including Manifest - the future of logistics. Where industry transformation is front and center, and change in industries is inevitable, what will never change is our mission to facilitate face-to-face interactions. We believe the in-person experience is the best way to advance conversations and discover disruptive trends that are changing content consumption and consumer behaviour.
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]
45 min
April 26, 2023Nathan Stuck: What it Takes to Become a ‘B Corp’
On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Nathan Stuck, an award-winning leader in the B Corp community and the Founder & CEO of Profitable Purpose Consulting, a culture and impact consultancy that helps companies certify as B Corporations. He also founded and chairs B Local Georgia, a non-profit dedicated to growing the number of purpose-driven businesses in the Peach State.
Nathan teaches an experiential MBA course on B Corps at the University of Georgia and serves on the board of B Academics, a nonprofit committed to research and experiential B Corp learning opportunities worldwide.
As of March 2023, the latest available data indicates that there are over 6,435 B Corporations in over 159 industries and 88 countries worldwide. The number of certified B Corps is steadily increasing, with the largest growth in the US. 48% of all B Corps are publicly traded companies, and B Corps employ half a million workers worldwide.
On this episode, the pair discusses: Why Nathan decided to focus his attention on B Corps, what B Corps mean, why the B Corp movement matters, and what it takes to become a B Corp.

KEY TAKEAWAYS
I always knew I wanted to work in business since high school, and later I got an international business degree. By 2012, my career was going pretty well, but I went through two lay-offs in six months in 2013. Then I tried to figure out what to do next in my early 30s. I was working gig jobs while waiting to start an MBa and saw a lot of other people doing the same while trying to raise families, and there was no hope. It was eye-opening to see what capitalism had become. I discovered B Corps in the second year of my MBA, and the sky opened, the angels started singing, and I realised I’d found my business community of people who believed in using business as a force for good in society.
I’d invested so much in myself: late nights, early mornings, things that I didn’t get paid for, but I paid in time, equity, tears, sweat. I was finally starting to see the reward, and I decided it would make a good book. It had to sound like me, I make fun of myself and talk about the stupid things I’ve done in my life, jobs that I took, times when I failed miserably, stretching outside of my comfort zone not well. I didn’t want it to be like every other business book where “I’m the most successful human being ever born”, this is more: “I’m just like you, I’ve had a bunch of jobs that I didn’t like, and here’s how to hopefully come out of all of that prepared for opportunities.”
B Corps are for-profit businesses with a certification that is a lot like LEAN for a building – an outside non-profit comes in and looks at the business holistically: How transparent you are, your corporate governance, your workers, what kinds of benefits you offer, your pay multiplier from top to bottom paid employee, what leave you offer for parents and caregivers, your community impact, your environmental footprint, and your policies for your customers. It scores you out of 80 and validates that.
As soon as Gen Z and Millennials found their voices, they got together to say business as usual isn’t working for everybody. They’re fed up with why things aren’t more equitable, why we’ve allowed the status quo to continue when the status quo doesn’t work, and how we can leverage the business community to solve some of society’s biggest problems.
BEST MOMENTS
‘It isn’t necessarily capitalism that’s evil, it’s what we’ve let it become. There’s a whole community of business leaders, owners, and changemakers who are trying to change the world through business.’
‘It’s fun to see where you’ve come from, and what you’ve faced, and how you overcame it. A lot of times it’s those moments that unlock the opportunity to find happiness and your purpose in life.’
‘Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job.’
‘I like Mondays so much that I start working on Sunday.’
ABOUT THE GUEST
Nathan is an award-winning leader in the B Corp community and the Founder & CEO of Profitable Purpose Consulting, a culture and impact consultancy that helps companies certify as B Corporations. He also founded and chairs B Local Georgia, a non-profit dedicated to growing the number of purpose-driven businesses in the Peach State.
He has appeared on multiple podcasts, spoken at events across the country, and hosts the Be the Change Georgia podcast.
His first book, Happy Monday: Designing Your Career with Purpose, came out earlier this year.
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]
47 min
April 19, 2023Tunde Salako: InsurTech Africa
On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Tunde Salako, an active entrepreneur within the Africa FinTech, HealthTech, and InsurTech scene. Tunde wants to connect the dots between inclusion, insurance and technology In Africa.
Tunde co-founded HealthTech startup, Hadiel, to drive more health inclusion in Africa and is also the managing partner of the Africa InsurTech Lab, a platform aggregating InsurTech entrepreneurs, startups, corporates, enthusiasts, investors sharing trends on how technology is reverse engineering insurance on the continent and between continents.
Investment in the African startup ecosystem accelerated over the past two years with over $3 billion when investment opportunities fell for startups across Europe for instance.
During their discussion, Sabine and Tunde dive into 1) FinTech and InsurTech in Africa, 2) opportunities and challenges faced by the local market, and 3) drivers behind the $3 billion of investment made within the African market over the past two years.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
My background was as a medic, I trained as a physician, and for the past 16-17 years I’ve been on the insurance side of the fence despite the fact I remained within the healthcare system as well. In 2019, I started to go deeper into the insurance ecosystem after more interest was being taken in Africa, but there was no documentation or platform pulling it all together. So, we decided to showcase this to the world and build confidence in relevant areas, so Africa is not left behind.
10-15 years ago, if you wanted to build a website, you had to pay a high cost. By 2017 that changed. Now, building a website is something that’s a walk in the park for everyone, and there is a surge of technology hubs around the whole of Africa (over 700 today), which are very bullish on teaching, coding, programming, and building local talent.
The international ecosystem is now looking into what is happening in Africa, particularly regarding FinTech. Despite the fact there was a slowdown globally, it took until quarter 3 of the year before we started to see that kind of slowing down in Africa because the investors and VC ecosystem are bullish about putting out investments into the local ecosystem. That translated financially into by the end of 2021, the total funding in Africa was about $4 billion, out of which about 55% of those funds were to the FinTech ecosystem, and in 2022 that figure rose to $4.8 billion, still with about 55% to FinTech.
When you look at the next 3-7 years, we can churn out stellar innovation because of the technology that is now available in the insurance ecosystem. One of the things that is very clear is that now, with the major players in the industry and InsurTechs that are coming up with innovations, there are going to be more opportunities for partnerships and collaborations either by mergers and/or acquisitions.
BEST MOMENTS
‘Africa needs to be heard. There's a lot of things going on down here.’
‘We want to put a spotlight on the growth and the capabilities that have been developed year-on-year in terms of technology on the continent of Africa.’
‘We now have local talent that can build solutions that are amenable to our environment and the key problems affecting the African ecosystem.’
‘Incumbents want to focus on how they reduce risk and how to provide value to the customer, while at the same time leaving the technology to the startups.’
ABOUT THE GUESTS
Tunde Salako is the CEO of Hadiel, manages Africa InsurTech Lab, and is an advisory council member of Founders Factory Africa. You can find out more about Tunde below. If you want to know more, make sure to reach out to Tunde at Africa InsurTech Rising
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]
41 min
April 12, 2023Pablo Duarte & Hilario Itriago: InsurTech LATAM
On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Pablo Duarte and Hilario Itriago, founders of The LATAM InsurTech, a fast-growing insurance technology accelerator for startups wanting to enter the Latam market via Miami.
Both Pablo and Hilario have been leading insurance innovation in LATAM for years. They both come from industry, and you will discover during our discussion that we are all in the fractional world of tech, where we split our time across those projects that matter most to us. For instance, alongside supporting The LATAM InsurTech, Pablo is also the director of client engagement at Bain and Company, and Hilario is also the president at BOXX Insurance, a leading cybersecurity provider.
During the podcast, they discuss the InsurTech ecosystem in LATAM, how they support the incumbent, broker, and startup worlds, InsurTech LATAM in numbers, and their InsurTech portfolio and opportunities across the LATAM market.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The insurance space, as we know it, has a phenomenal opportunity with the transformation technology brings. There's clearly a before-and-after technology that came into our world. That technology is now in consumers' hands, and we believe that is a massive change. One of the critical things we want to ensure in our markets is that more people get insurance. We're convinced that the more people get insurance coverage, the better their social and economic development will be.
InsurTech can bring insurance products closer to everyday individuals who can benefit from insurance coverage, and do so straightforwardly and efficiently. This opportunity must be leveraged by both incumbents and InsurTechs alike – and they both can do so. As collaborative as insurance has been over the centuries, the opportunities of InsurTech are no different. We believe that incumbents and InsurTechs can collaborate across the entire value chain, and that we can promote and influence this more and more, the better everybody's going to be, from industry insiders to consumers.
The InsurTech sector in Latin America remains very active. Unlike what we’ve seen in other markets where valuations plummeted, we haven't seen an effect in the LATAM market. There are over 400 InsurTechs in LATAM. The growth rate is about 20% year-on-year, and about 6% of companies die each year (just like any venture ecosystem). Some of the fastest-growing markets are in Colombia and Brazil, with one-third of the market in Brazil.
We saw the early days of InsurTechs focusing on personal distribution, that type of disruption, which typically is the sexy aspect of where people want to go. But over the years, we’ve seen more and more companies tackling the commercial space – whether it's small commercial or more traditional, larger-scale commercial. There's a great deal of opportunity in the sustainability space of commercial insurance. We're starting to see more opportunities there and, therefore, more InsurTechs. That's one of the angles that will drive many of the region's economies to see more solutions and innovations in that space, which could also be taken to other markets.
BEST MOMENTS
‘I've been on this InsurTech journey since 2016. Back then, InsurTech was just starting in Latin America, so there wasn’t much activity going on, and sometimes we even wondered if we made the right choice to get into InsurTech then!’
‘Through InsurTech, we see greater customization and personalization of value propositions. That is key because traditionally, insurance has been very structured and hard to tailor to customers' specific needs.’
‘Argentina is a country that has been known for innovation way before FinTech and InsurTech, it's a very entrepreneurial country, and precisely because of the economic circumstances, they have a robust pipeline of solutions created and grown in Argentina, but want to go elsewhere for growth.’
‘In terms of smaller markets that punch above their weight, our first InsurTech unicorn comes from Chile. It's a great balance between large pipelines of InsurTechs coming from big markets and smaller quantities but tremendous quality coming from smaller markets.'
ABOUT THE GUESTS
Find out about our guest using those links.
Pablo Duarte: https://www.linkedin.com/in/duartepablo/
Hilario Itriago: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hitriago/
InsurLab LATAM: https://www.latam-insurtech.com/
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]
43 min
April 05, 2023Tim Lovett & Jeff Shi: Solving for small commercials
It’s not easy for small and medium-sized 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, formerly at The Hartford, now at Three Insurance, 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 widely by region and industry. Globally, SMEs account for a significant share of the economy, employ a large share of the workforce, and generate 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 back from small commercial coverage over the past two years for various reasons, including changes in regulations, declining profitability, and increased competition, as well as new regulations on data and ethics.
The small commercial lines market can present several challenges for insurers, including higher risk, increased competition, complex coverage, limited data availability, and pricing pressures. These challenges can make it difficult for insurers to operate effectively in the small commercial lines market, leading some companies to pull back from this 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 by leveraging advanced processes and innovative technology. Jeff helps consumers better understand their policies to meet their unique needs.
Website: https://www.insurtechgroups.com/
Tim Lovett was at The Hartford Insurance Group when recording this podcast for six years. Tim helps small and medium-sized companies make better choices. He has a background in claims management and distribution, which enables him to educate and assist agents in growing their small commercial portfolios.
Website: https://ir.thehartford.com/
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]
55 min
March 29, 2023Aaron Jones: Why considering Generative AI with Yepic!
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 lip-syncs your video 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 camera lighting. I thought a career in acting was for me when I was younger, but I later realized I wanted to make a difference in the world. Everything I've done since then has been about what 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 e-commerce. I don't care much about fashion, but I do care about people. There was a great story about people producing a sustainable, recycled product locally, and I started a foundation in Cambodia to fund education. The idea was that every time you bought a product, you'd fund a child's education, helping parents earn more and children learn to break the cycle of poverty. I did that for several years, was honored by the Queen for my work, and received numerous awards. Like all great ideas, it evolved, and we realized that if we wanted to make an even bigger impact, we needed to create 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 e-commerce 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 probably created the first ‘stable diffusion’ before research papers made the subject popular. Still, ours wasn't very stable and required an extensive dataset to generate the images. This means that, for an e-commerce 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 the field of 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 lip-syncs your video 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, 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 the Alumni of the Year 2018 by Essex University and was shortlisted for the Forbes 30 Under 30.
Check out the Yepic platform here
Learn about Aaron here
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]
42 min
March 23, 2023Tristan Pelloux: 1-0-1 on Scaling FinTechs
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, an 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 within the company was so small, so I set up the media site in 2020 to share my thoughts on what was going on. It’s evolved from a personal site where I wrote blogs to a platform where others share 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 help 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 that there are too many companies competing for the same customers, and there’s not enough money to be made from retail customers. It’s not enough to make money from 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 FinTechs are battling to become the ‘super app’, and we’ll see which emerges. Still, so many of them don’t have good business models and are loss-making, so 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 scaling was easier. 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, and 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 GUEST
After 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 guidance and advice to business leaders and founders of startup and scale-up companies worldwide.
https://fintechreview.net/
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]
43 min
March 16, 2023Michael Doyle: Raising $5Bn of capital for growth ventures
On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Michael Doyle, a brand and capital-raising 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 the companies he supported raise over $5 billion in 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 the business – Sales, Marketing, Operations, Finance…- you can create a dynamic value proposition that comes alive, generates leads, and drives 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, expanding a new product or service into the marketplace, or expanding into new geographies.
The formula for raising $5 billion is really about understanding your niche, how and why you’re better, and how to package that into a clear, concise message. That’s the brand story. What most companies really struggle with is telling a compelling financial story. When I start out with most companies, they give me financials and spreadsheets, and 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 interested visitors into buyers by getting them to click an ad, blog post, or video. It’s a mathematical formula. We need to understand what it’s going to take, what our message needs to be, which mediums are most effective, and what the timing is. All these ingredients have to come together to deliver the results we want.
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 vaporware. We want them to be real and to do what they say 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, 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 LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.
And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at [email protected]
32 min