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Scouting for Growth

Sabine VdL
Scouting for Growth
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  • Sam White: Redefining Insurance, Leadership, and Innovation
    On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Sam White , CEO of Stella Insurance. Sam is not just a leader in the insurance industry; she’s a trailblazer, entrepreneur, and advocate for creating a fairer, more inclusive world. In today’s conversation, we’ll dive into Sam’s incredible journey as an entrepreneur, her vision for Stella Insurance, and how she’s challenging the status quo in a traditionally male-dominated industry. We’ll also explore her thoughts on leadership, innovation, and the future of insurance. KEY TAKEAWAYS We didn’t realise, when we set Stella up, just how revolutionary it was because we had an entirely female management team all in our 20s and 30s, very spirited and high energy, going out and doing business in a very male-dominated marketplace. There are gender differences and I think we come at things with a different perspective, women do business differently, approach things differently, and have different needs and risks that they’re exposed to. What I love about the concept of insurance is the idea that a group of people come together and put money in the pot so that if one of them is vulnerable they can be supported. That community ideology is very appealing. When you look through the lens of women, you see a set of circumstances where my general experience when it works well with a large group of women that are all aligned on the same goal and support each other is magic. In terms of building good relationships, the principles apply. Firstly, you can’t build a good relationship with somebody who hasn’t got a good relationship with themselves and isn’t prepared to accept, acknowledge or work on that. My first business was launched from my sister’s conservatory where I picked up the phone to brokers and asked if they’d let me handle their claims. The benefit of that is that you don’t need to get funding and you can do it your own way, you’re learning on the job and experiencing direct feedback. The downside is that the foundations you’re building on may not be ideal. BEST MOMENTS ‘I was diagnosed with dyslexia as a kid and I think that creates a different type of mindset in terms of problem solving as well as resilience.’ ‘I like complicated problems, and insurance is one hell of a complicated problem!’ ‘Imposter syndrome is much higher in women than men, they second guess themselves continually. Most women are educated to not back themselves from the age of 7-8 and societally we also questions women far more than men.’ ‘The irony is; the process of the ‘do’ is the thing that gives you the confidence to keep on doing the doing. But, you have to do the first thing and make it through your first really big challenge.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Sam White is a dynamic and visionary entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in building and scaling successful businesses. As the CEO of Stella Insurance, Sam is a trailblazer in the insurance industry, known for her innovative approach and commitment to creating meaningful change. Under her leadership, Stella Insurance has become a trusted and award-winning brand, recognized for its customer-centric ethos and dedication to empowering women in a traditionally male-dominated sector. 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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  • Amélie Breitburd: How Coopetition Could Double Europe’s Insurance Market
    On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Amélie Breitburd, the former CEO of Lloyd’s Europe, and a leading voice in the movement to rethink how we insure against tomorrow’s biggest shocks – from climate and cyber to the long-tail risks the industry still avoids. In today’s conversation, we’ll unpack her journey to Lloyd’s, explore the institution’s evolving role in a risk-saturated world, and dig deep into the bold ideas behind her latest work. KEY TAKEAWAYS Every day people should focus on their specification and should be reminded of it. When I see syndicates doing business only in the US, they could do business in Europe almost for free because, from a capital perspective, diversification helps. We’re here to help people. People wouldn’t do anything: Take a bike, drive a car, fly to Mars without insurance. It’s a key enabler. As leaders in the insurance industry I believe we can show a great sense of purpose. There was a period during which companies were mainly looking at buying, and this was killing teams. I think now we’re definitely in the partnership era which is great for startups because they can work for different companies which increases diversity and has people learn from each other. Insurers have a lot of data but it’s a bit outdated. Risk is evolving because the automotive industry, for example, is moving towards autonomous cars, now data about car behaviour is not as important as it used to be, now the software and batteries that will be in cars is more important so we must build another set of data. Then there are things like flying to Mars and carbon capture where there is no data because we don’t know how we’re going to be doing it. BEST MOMENTS ‘Risk is at the heart of what insurers do and risk is about diversification.’ ‘The statistical aspect is that when you are together you’re taking risks together and lowering the cost of capital.’ ‘the journey today is like moving from paper to pdf, but the next change perspective is moving to more digitalised exchanges between various parts of the company.’ ‘Coopetition is the idea that if we work together as competitors we can access a market which is currently inaccessible because it’s not affordable, we can price the risks differently to make them more accessible.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Amélie Breitburd is a strategic powerhouse in Europe’s insurance and risk management ecosystem, driving a bold agenda to double the size of the continent’s insurable market. With a sharp eye on the protection gap, Amélie brings an unflinching perspective on how to future-proof European economies—through syndication, public-private partnerships, and radical coopetition. A thought leader who thinks beyond tradition, Amélie fuses financial acumen with game theory principles to challenge how we scale solutions to climate risk, cyber threats, and long-tail systemic exposures. Her work on the Digital Insurance Exchange Market (Euro DIEM) envisions a next-gen insurance infrastructure—anchored in data access, distributed underwriting, and multi-layer diversification. 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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  • The CamCom x ERGO Story: Scaling AI from Vision to Value
    On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Geetha Sham, MD and President of CamCom in Europe, and Sathes Singam, innovation scout and programme manager at ERGO Group. In this episode we will explore how ERGO’s Venture Client model turned a promising pilot into a production with great capability, then we will investigate what it really takes to deploy AI in regulated multi-market environments, and how governance – if used right – can become a growth accelerator not a roadblock. KEY TAKEAWAYS During initial discussions with our first insurance customer, we realised the process of inspection was time consuming, human heavy, subject to human fatigue resulting in expensive, long cycles and inconsistency. This gap is now filled by our AI model which provides a machine vision eye, using a mobile device accurately capturing images of vehicles which leads to damage assessments, reducing false positives. We want to democratise image capture, hence we have built our product in such a way that it can operate on any type of forum, and mobile devices made since 2016. That makes us a leader in our own area, staying focussed without scattering in the name of trying to do everything ourselves. There has been global adoption of AI – although what it does and how it is used varies – because every industry is seeing the value add. The standard way of implementing it is simple: It has to be aligned to the businesses and should not hamper the existing business or processes that exist within the industry/group. Edge cases must be addresses in a different way and modified so they are not completely controlled by the standard feedback learning. BEST MOMENTS ‘Startup collaboration, in my experience, should become top of management agenda.’ ‘It’s crucial to have someone locally who knows the culture in their particular country, and knows the people that need to be addressed.’ ‘It’s all about involving all relevant stakeholders in clear and transparent communication.’ ‘Each country has local laws, so there’s not only customisation, there’s also localisation that has to addressed. That’s where the governance model comes in handy.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Geetha Sham is MD and President of CamCom in Europe. She is a seasoned technologist and scale-up strategist who has held senior roles at Oracle and Mindtree and is now building out CamCom’s European footprint from Dusseldorf. Sathes Singam is an innovation scout and programme manager at ERGO Group. He is the lynchpin behind ERGO’s deployment of CamCOm across the Baltics, Europe’s first testbed of this solution. 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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  • Joel Agard: Driving into Zurich Insurance’s Venture Client Engine
    On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Joel Agard, Group Head of Innovation at Zurich Insurance, who has been driving bold, transformative startup collaborations across 40+ markets. His work has reshaped the way a global insurance giant works with startups, proving that innovation isn’t just about flashy tech – it’s about building real, meaningful partnerships that deliver results. From navigating the early days of Zurich’s Innovation Championship back in 2018 to scaling the program during a global pandemic – and now leading the charge into the future – Joel brings passion, strategy, and a touch of risk-taking to every conversation. KEY TAKEAWAYS The football World Cup in 2018 inspired us to piggyback on the concept of a competition to try and raise awareness of corporate/startup partnerships. Back then, working with startups in our industry wasn’t the norm, we were working with big technology companies. We asked ourselves; how can we show the art of the possible and show that working with startups can really work? This is when we invented the Zurich Innovation World Championship. In the beginning the pace that startups wanted to – and could – go didn’t always resonate with the pace Zurich wanted to go. We had to align expectations and create a safe environment where we could test fast and where it was OK to fail. I’ve fallen in love with cool technologies so many times, and I still do: I’m a geek. But, we had to learn that if these shiny, amazing technologies don’t really solve a problem for our customers or internal stakeholders, it’s not fit for purpose for us. It might be that it’s too early or is not a good fit for us. BEST MOMENTS ‘We at Zurich bring our reputation, brand, and insurance expertise from 150 years. Startups bring agility and speed because they are born in a digital world.’ ‘Failing in a big corporate often doesn’t have a good image. We’ve proved that failing fast and cheap is something we can achieve and is beneficial for the startups. It’s now a normal part of our process.’ ‘The Covid pandemic accelerated digital transformations, there were a lot of opportunities out there to accelerate our initiatives, so increased the number of startups, pilots.’ ‘It’s crucial to understand the gaps and problems you want to solve because we’d be wasting each other’s time otherwise.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Joel Agard is Group Head of Innovation at Zurich Insurance. With a career dedicated to fostering groundbreaking solutions, Joel spearheads Zurich's Venture Client Startup Engine, a program that drives innovation across 40+ markets worldwide. His work focuses on bridging the gap between startups and corporate needs, enabling Zurich to leverage cutting-edge technologies and solutions to stay ahead in the ever-evolving insurance landscape. LinkedIn Zurich Innovation Championship 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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  • Gregor Gimmy: Pioneer of the Venture Client Model
    On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Gregor Gimmy, founder of 27pilots, a company dedicated to helping companies build and scale Venture Client units and allows them to benefit from startup innovations faster at large scale and significantly lower cost and risk than traditional corporate venturing methods. On this episode we will explore how this Venture Client model is shaping corporate innovation, the strategic benefits it offers, and how companies can adopt this game-changing approach to stay ahead in a competitive world. KEY TAKEAWAYS When I joined BMW in 2012 I was surprised to find out the small number of startups that it was leveraging to improve its technology landscape across its value chain. I told them that CVCs were investing in 2.8 startups per year. This is not nearly the number needed to solve all the technology challenges that we have, we need more like 100. My initial idea was not to invent a new model but to improve the current one. I was told that if they invested in 50 startups per year they would have around 250 startups in 5 years whose equity state we would have to manage, which is impossible. I concluded that VC isn’t scalable, but it didn’t solve the problem BMW had either, which was accessing, adopting, and transferring cutting edge technology fast because it’s about investment not technology transfer. These are two totally different business processes. We needed to look for a new approach: becoming a Venture Client. Accelerators and CVCs are indirect models – like using a third party’s battery technology in the cars you produce – you first make the investment and then do the adoption of the technology. The different in the Venture Client model is cutting out the middleman. If you want to be good at something you need a dedicated unit. If you do it part time it will only work partly. If you make it a department you can have more time you can dedicate to it, you can have a dedicated budget, you have a more solid KPI structure. BEST MOMENTS ‘More than getting into the world of Venture Client Modelling, I invented the world.’ ‘A Venture Client is a company that adopts startup technologies through procurement and M&A.’ ‘A corporate cannot compete against a good startup like Palantir or Oracle when they were startups.’ ‘The Venture Client model will displace Corporate Venture Capital to become the standard of corporate venturing.’ ABOUT THE GUEST As captain of the 27pilots endeavour, and the visionary behind the Venture Client model, Gregor GImmy focuses on advancing Venture Client knowledge and growing the global community through 27pilots’ corporate clients and academic allies. Gregor is deeply engaged in researching, publishing, and lecturing on the Venture Client model through leading business schools and top business engagements. Gregor is also a frequent speaker at startup-relevant conferences such as Slush, Web Summit, 4YFN and DLD. 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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About Scouting for Growth

Over 170,000 FinTech ventures are out there, including FinTechs, InsurTechs, HealthTechs, and WealthTechs. And the number keeps on changing every month. One statistic remains the same: 25% of these ventures have received investment and support from the financing world. 75% of these businesses still seek financing support from institutional and corporate investors alongside value-creating commercial partnership opportunities with Global Fortune 500 companies. Through this podcast series, I would like to demystify the world of corporate venturing, including how corporations collaborate with growth ventures, how venture capitalists and corporate venture capitalists make investment and collaboration choices in ventures and give tech founders and entrepreneurs, the strategies, tactics, tools, and techniques to build, grow and scale their business by understanding how those with financing power think. So, listen in, share and comment as you see fit.
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