Scouting for Growth

• Sara Mikulski: One Source of Truth, Zero Excuses

  On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Sara Mikulski, CTO at Kingstone Insurance about the moment in her career that convinced her that the claims ecosystem could be rebuilt around a single, trusted data spine. KEY TAKEAWAYS When I started my career success looked like stabilisation: Getting to a point where we all understand what’s happening in which system, where the data is, and just make it work. It wasn’t a long-term scalable solution, but I didn’t want to come into the organisation and disrupt it. It wasn’t ready yet, the first 18 months was about learning what was working and what wasn’t before making a move to address the concerns and questions in a scalable way. Between then and now we’ve changed the entire platform and focussed on ensuring that there were good processes that were understood, good data in the right places so that we could have more automation and potential for AI in the future. This has made our adjustors so happy, as well as us from an IT perspective where it’s easier to maintain, help and administer, etc. A lot of AI initiatives that are large and impact your core systems don’t always go as expected. The biggest learning we’ve had, as an organisation, over the last year was to not run before you can walk. Sometimes you think AI can fix the problem or the process, but when you start to talk it through or dissect it, you find out you could simply tweak the system to be better for the people using it or explore a different way of doing the process. BEST MOMENTS ‘There were less emotional decisions in the first place because we took our time and really thought things through.’ ‘You have to focus on how to make that one place your place – making sure the data that in there is clean, true, what data is there, what data your adjustors need to go outside of the system for and why.’ ‘Efficiency is king right now, which is why AI is getting such a movement behind it; you’re trying to find places where you don’t have to do something manually, or something that takes hours and condensing it to seconds.’ ‘AI will play an enormous role in current and future processes at all insurance carriers, but you still have to go back to the basics and figure out if you’re just trying to put a band aid on the problem or if you’re trying to solve it long-term.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Sara Mikulski is Chief Technology Officer at Kingstone Insurance and is responsible for managing our IT organization and accountable for the company’s systems and data strategy, IT security, infrastructure, development, support, and vendor management. Sara brings 15+ years of experience in the IT arena, leading effective teams and enhancing IT operations. Most recently, she was the Deputy CIO at UPC Insurance, where she was responsible for the delivery of numerous projects aimed at consolidation of platforms and reduction of technical debt. She also held leadership and technical IT positions within the insurance industry at Esurance. Ms. Mikulski also worked at several other companies in various IT-focused roles. LinkedIn 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, accelerated over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner. Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Facebook  TikTok Email Website This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

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• Arvind Sontha How AI Automation Is Transforming Insurance Claims

  On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Arvind Sontha, COE and co-founder of Kyber, an AI startup redefining how carriers handle claims correspondence. The insurance industry is undergoing a seismic shift as carries face mounting pressure to deliver faster, more transparent, and compliant communications to policy holders and clients, so the need for digital claims transformation has never been greater. KEY TAKEAWAYS If you think about insurance and tailoring insurance, the underlying model for risk is effectively a ‘user personal model’. We started with an obscure line of insurance that didn’t exist yet – or did around personal cyber insurance. We wondered what it would look like, rather than SMB or commercial cyber insurance, as individual underwriting and risk modelling. We got lucky finding a great partner in branch insurance very early on. Over the course of our time engaging with them we ended up turning into an extension of their team. We were able to work closely with them, they trusted us to quickly understand their problems and iterate to give them quick solutions, while at the same time they understood that there are going to be quirks with products that aren’t fully fleshed out which they could iron out over time. It was a symbiotic relationship. If an adjustor has to take an hour to put a document together you have to clear a 1.5-hour space in your calendar to do that. Life is hectic, you have meetings and other tasks to do and so that 1.5-hour block keeps getting moved back, same thing happens to managers. If you can take it from 1.5 hours to 30 seconds for a high-quality letter and a one-click process to approve, you can slip that into any part of your calendar. That’s a really underrated part of the process. Some of the things we want to do in the future is include things like managed parameters. We think it’s obtuse for all the carriers to manage all the fraud language individually all the time, for example. Kyber could manage that for you to make sure everything’s automatically compliant and good to go. Statutory language really enables the full organisation to be prepared to catch each other. BEST MOMENTS ‘Kyber is an AI native, document generation and delivery platform made for claims teams, that’s what we do.’ ‘Nobody doubted that I could build the complex AI to underwrite and quantify the risk, what they needed to figure out was could I sell insurance, which is why I got my broker’s licence!’ ‘The results have been better than I expected, we’ve seen 65% faster drafting times, 80% consolidation of their templates across a 50-state operation, and 5x reduction in letter cycle times for documents.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Arvind Sontha is co-founder and CEO of Kyber, an AI startup that is redefining how carriers’ NTPAs handle claims correspondence. Arvind is at the forefront of digital transformation, leading Kyber’s mission to automate and streamline the entire lifecycle of claims forms and letters. Kyber’s clients report the impact of AI automation is undeniable: Claims teams using Kyber have reduced letter drafting time by up to 85%, cut review time by 60%, and achieved a 3x faster outreach to policy holders. LinkedIn 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, accelerated over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner. Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Facebook TikTok Email Website This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

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• Charlie Wendland - How AI and Human Empathy Are Transforming the Future of Claims

  On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Charlie Wendland, chief claims officer at Branch Insurance. The world of claims management is undergoing a seismic shift, with AI at the heart of this transformation. Insurers leveraging AI have reported a 75% reduction in claims handling time and 50% increase in fraud detection accuracy. Cutting claims processing times allows adjustors to focus on complex decisions and customer care. Charlie talks about technology only being part of the story. The future of claims is about continuous transformation, balancing innovation with compliance, and making sure that as we innovate we don’t lose sight of empathy and trust. KEY TAKEAWAYS The combination of investigation, problem solving and, most importantly, being there for people in their worst moments – as a claims adjustor – felt both intellectually engaging and genuinely meaningful. It really drew me to the role. We’re small and can’t afford to build a fully fleshed out claims organisation. So, we made strategic investments to automate those administrative tasks that typically weight down our adjustors and road loos outcomes and also drive expense inefficiencies. We listened to our adjustors; we did a lot of time studies on what’s bogging them down and we proactively sought out those inefficient processes and we looked for technology to improve them. We’ve taken an iterative approach to everything that we’ve built understanding that it’s not going to be perfect when we first launch, but we’re going to be really sensitive to what is not perfect and seek perfection even though we know that’s not possible. BEST MOMENTS ‘Find administrative tasks that weigh down your adjustors, free them of those through technology, and they can spend more time on complex issues and customer care.’ ‘We get adjustor’s opinions on everything that we do, for the most part, which sounds inefficient but it’s really not because we do it in a very thoughtful way.’ ‘70% of our first notice-of-loss now either done electronically or through a voice AI.’ ‘With a startup change is ever present because we’re trying to find a way to do something and we’re able to change quite quickly, but the hurdles are all self-inflicted, so if we’re not communicating effectively that’s on us.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Charlie Wendland has 20+ years of expertise transforming claims operations across commercial and personal lines. As Chief Claims Officer at Branch, he leads an organisation that's reimagining the insurance experience through technology and customer-centric innovation while delivering optimal claim outcomes. Charlie’s leadership philosophy centres on driving operational efficiency that benefits both customers and the business, building collaborative teams that deliver exceptional results, and pioneering approaches that redefine industry standards. Throughout his career, Charlie has consistently delivered growth while enhancing customer satisfaction. I'm passionate about modernizing insurance and mentoring the next generation of industry leaders. LinkedIn 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, accelerated over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner. Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Facebook  TikTok Email Website

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• Barbara Schonhofer & Carmen Powell: Empowerment, Leadership, Inclusion & Future Growth

  On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Barbara Schonhofer and Carmen Powell, two influential voices who have navigated and thrived in the ever-evolving insurance industry. In today’s conversation we explore the sector’s evolution, the future of work and best practices for continuous networking and development. KEY TAKEAWAYS When I started my career in 1972, men didn’t know how to behave as women cam into their own in business and taking frontline roles. It wasn’t so much misogyny that I faced, it was more like old geezers having a laugh, they didn’t know how to welcome women into he workplace because it was less usual. I found my way by having humour and being smarter in my responses to them, so I sidestepped a lot of the banter in my early career. There were only a few predatory men, most just didn’t know how to behave in front of women. I have always celebrated being different. Anything that was an idiosyncrasy was put down to the fact that I was Spanish, and that suited me fine! That served me well because I didn’t have to follow the norms. However, when I interviewed for a very large organisation in the UK the HR director asked my how I was going to cope with men making a pass at me. I said that I was coming here to work and that if anybody crosses the line I knew how to deal with that. BEST MOMENTS ‘The men that were kindest to me didn’t help me and the ones that gave me a tough time did business with me. I learned to keep my friends close and my enemies closer.’ ‘The most wonderful boss I had was a woman, the rest have been men but, like Barbara, they gave me a hard time and pushed my boundaries enough so I knew I was resilient enough.’ ‘With everything you take two steps forward and one step back.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Barbara Schonhofer’s career in financial services covers four decades operating as a business leader and later as an executive search consultant to the insurance markets. When she began her career she set out to better understand the complexities of much needed culture change in insurance. During her years operating in financial services as an executive search consultant, Barbara challenged normal practices and spotted the need to bring together women leaders in the London Market to network. Alongside ISC-Group, Barbara co-founded and co-Chair GAIN, a non-profit membership organisation encouraging better understanding and inclusion of neurodiverse individuals in the insurance industry. She is a Freeman of the City of London and a member of the Worshipful Company of Insurers, where she co-founded its female network, iWIN. LinkedIn Carmen Powell is an experienced international marketing and business development professional whose strategic expertise is linked to a practical and positive approach to deliver challenging goals, including establishing new markets and reversing declining revenues whilst successfully navigating large and complex organisational matrices. Carmen has a passion for building societal prosperity and strengthening ethical behaviour of organisations through making a difference to their bottom-line. Ethics matter. Carmen constantly strives to deliver value in ever changing corporate environments while at the same time making a positive difference in our world. LinkedIn 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, accelerated over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner. Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Facebook  TikTok Email Website

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• Yandy Plasencia: Data Reconciliation for the CFO

  On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Yandy Plasencia, founder and CEO of DataHaven Software. In today’s conversation we talk about Yandy’s journey and vision as well as how mid-sized insurance companies can explore and empower their finance teams, especially their CFOs, by automating data reconciliation and unlocking real-time insights. KEY TAKEAWAYS          For the most part, it all comes down to the basic leger/sub-ledger challenge. The core systems are transactional and have all the information of what took place, what payments were paid out, when a claim came in, what took place and everything to verify a claim has coverage within the rules defined by the policy. If the data isn’t easy to extract so it’s digestible and consumable by the right audience then it will be challenging for that audience to interpret the data, reconcile it and do it in a timely fashion. In smaller sized carriers there will be more technical folks who are not necessarily business folks, there’s always a gap between what the business and technology folks are looking for and, although technology does a very good job of getting the data where it needs to go, it doesn’t always meet the needs of the finance and accounting folks. There an ongoing friction between both departments. You need to build an intelligence layer with well-defined relationships across every single data point as it pertains to financials. If it affects financials you need to have a relationship or ontology or something that tells you how these data points are interrelated. If you don’t have that then it’s only creating a problem for something else that’s going to come up very soon. The main issue with spreadsheets with visualisation tools is that those tools solve the problem short term until they don’t, they are extremely helpful until they become painful and they become a bottleneck for the organisation to grow eventually. The tools don’t have change processes in place as data sets get larger and as organisations grow. They also become a personnel risk because only 1 or 2 people in the company understand it.   BEST MOMENTS ‘Data is a powerful tool, and it’s “make it or break it” for a lot of companies, especially in insurance where the devil is in the details.’‘Being able to trace an expense back to the root system and getting a full transactional detail for that specific number is the most reliable way to do something.’‘It’s only labour intensive if you try to do this completely manually and you don’t leverage artificial intelligence in the right ways, and if you don’t have a defined framework to do this, if you do, it’s much easier.’‘It’s not rocket science… it’s just data science.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Yandy Plasencia is a visionary entrepreneur and software architect with deep expertise in AI, data engineering, insurance technology, and regulatory compliance. At DataHaven, Yandy and his team are creating an insurance-specific intelligence layer that automates reconciliation, accelerates financial analysis, and helps leadership trace changes in loss or expense ratios directly to operational events. LinkedIn 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, accelerated over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner.   Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Facebook TikTok Email Website This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

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