Scouting for Growth

Brenden Kumarasamy: Delivering effective board level communication

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Brenden Kumarasamy, founder of Master Talk, a platform dedicated to nurturing top-tier communicators in diverse industries. Breneden has honed his craft by coaching executives and entrepreneurs, helping them ascend to the top 1% of communicators in their fields.Brenden also runs the popular Master Talk YouTube channel, where he has democratised access to his communication tools.In this episode, we dissect Brenden’s journey, his philosophies, the art and science of effective communication, and his vision to transform the way we communicate.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
My journey started in college, where I studied accounting and created presentations focused on numbers. Somebody told me that if I wanted to work for one of the Big Four accounting firms, I needed to participate in these things called ‘case competitions’, which are essentially competitive presentations where you pitch to executives, and the best people get jobs.
I started coaching the other students on how to communicate (mostly for free) to help them win competitions, and I accidentally developed a gift for speaking. While working for IBM, I made videos in my basement for fun, just a hobby. But that hobby turned into something much bigger than I initially thought it would be. After two and a half years, I made the difficult decision to quit my job and do Master Talk full-time. 
YouTube is the hardest one out of all the platforms to grow, but it’s also the most beneficial one if you stay in it the longest. The 5/20 rule: If I post 1 really good long-form piece of content every week for the next 10 years, I’ll be successful on YouTube. I’ve already written all my content for 2024 that I’ll film with my production team in the next 3 months. That’s how forward-thinking I think the brand is. Never miss a week.
There are parts of education, consulting, and helping people transform industries that AI will improve. For example, search queries, so I might not need as many people on a research team. But what AI cannot automate is education. No one is going to spend $2,000 to fly out to a conference to watch an AI speak; the human is really important in this situation.
BEST MOMENTS‘I did not want to be an entrepreneur; I wanted to be an executive. ’‘A big mistake a lot of content creators make is when they think about personal branding, they focus a lot on what’s hot: LinkedIn, TikTok, etc. I always thought about my personal brand in decades, not days. Who do I want to be in 10 years?’‘People focus way too much on having 1000 followers, not 1000 conversations. If I do 10,000 podcast interviews, it’s impossible for me not have 100,000 followers. Luckily, I didn’t need to do 10,000; it took 500.’‘If you 10 years from now had the chance to look back at your life right now, what would they disagree with you on? Oftentimes it’s not information, it’s implementation that’s missing.’
ABOUT THE GUESTBrenden Kumarasamy: It all begins with impact. Despite all the presentations I’ve given over my life, I still remember to this day how scared I was to post my first YouTube video. I didn’t look like anything in my workshops or presentations, but I went ahead with this project for one reason: Impact. A wise friend once told me that I couldn’t possibly coach every human being on Earth with the limited time I had in my life, so I needed to go on video to share my message with the world. I got over my fear, practised 100’s of times on camera until I was finally able to say that I was “YouTube Ready”.All’s to say that when you care about others and only want to add value, you’ll be able to overcome any fear/obstacle in the service of others.
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 hello@alchemycrew.ventures

Brandon Leibowitz: Free Your Outreach With An SEO Strategy

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Brandon Leibowitz, the mastermind behind SEO Optimizers, a dynamic company that's been helping small- to medium-sized businesses get noticed online.
Brandon’s passion for growth and his unwavering belief in the power of digital marketing are why we invited him today. In this episode, the pair explores the steps businesses, big and small, must consider to enhance their digital marketing efforts, from defining clear goals and understanding their target audience to optimizing their website, creating valuable content, leveraging social media, utilizing paid advertising, and measuring their campaigns' success.
KEY TAKEAWAYS         
Digital marketing today is characterized by constant evolution and changes in the algorithms and ranking factors that search engines use to determine website rankings. This makes it challenging for businesses to keep up with the latest trends and adapt their strategies accordingly. Additionally, there is significant competition in the digital space, making it difficult for businesses to stand out and reach their target audience effectively.
To become better at digital marketing, both large and small businesses can take the following steps: define clear goals, understand your target audience, optimise your website, create valuable content, leverage social media, utilise paid advertising, measure and analyse, stay up to date, and seek professional help.
Every few months, Google will have a big update, and that’s where you have to find out what they want because they don’t really tell you what they’re looking for, so that you spend money on paid ads, they don’t want you master SEO.
You’ve got to stay ahead of things one day at a time. Who knew ChatGPT was going to cause such a disruption in the market a couple of years ago? It’s tough to predict what’s going to happen, just stay up to date, read different blogs and forums, listen to podcasts, watch YouTube videos, and stay in the weeds as much as possible, learning as much as possible from other people, and figure out what might happen in the future. There’s no real way to stay ahead.
BEST MOMENTS
‘I have been involved with digital marketing since 2007 and want to share my knowledge about SEO, Social Media Marketing, and Google Ads.’‘Identify what you want to achieve with your digital marketing efforts. This could include increasing website traffic, generating leads, improving brand awareness, or increasing sales.’‘Consider partnering with a reputable digital marketing agency or consultant to help you develop and execute effective digital marketing strategies that achieve your goals.’‘Key words are so important. You can build a website, but if you don’t market it it’s going to be hard for people to find it. I make sure that when people search on Google, your website pops up.’
ABOUT THE GUEST
Brandon Leibowitz runs and operates SEO Optimizers, a young company that supports small and medium-sized businesses in getting more online traffic and becoming visible to their target audience, which in turn converts into clients, sales, and leads.
Brandon started in digital marketing in 2007 after graduating from college with a degree in Business Marketing. In my first job, I handled marketing for an e-commerce website. He helped companies rank at the top of Google by using search engine optimization and driving traffic through social media and paid ads. In 2008, Brandon realized that most businesses would need a website to stay competitive in the future. Having a website is only one piece of the puzzle. Ultimately, these companies need someone to help market their websites to drive traffic that will, in turn, convert into clients.
Since then, Brandon decided to stick with digital marketing and started his own company, SEO Optimizers. One of Brandon’s stories: a friend built a website for him in exchange for doing SEO for his insurance website. Brandon ranked him above government websites for all his essential business keywords.
If you want to know more, check Brandon’s free gift below: https://seooptimizers.com/gift
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 hello@alchemycrew.ventures
 

Clemens Behrend: Web3, Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Clemens Behrend, an entrepreneur with a rich background in building customer-facing support solutions in Web3. Clemens spent over 5 years building Bitpanda's customer community department from scratch and scaling it from pre-seed to unicorn status. And it is important to understand that the power of Web3 is in building unique communities.
During their deep dive, Clemens and Sabine talk about his interest in Web3, Bitcoin, and Crypto, why he believes those 3 components are key to building unique communities, and Clemens shares a few tips for those of us interested in learning and trialling such technologies.
KEY TAKEAWAYS         
From 2017 to 2022, I led and set up customer support at Bitpanda, the first Unicorn in Austria and a neo-broker that offers all asset classes from cryptocurrencies, stocks, and commodities to almost four million customers 24/7, 365.
In my youth, I played a lot of computer games and realised you could earn money by selling items. So I launched my first business, an online shop for virtual items. Though this I discovered my passion for customer support and keeping my 1,000-2,000 clients happy. The biggest mistake I made was relying on 1 payment method. Then a friend of mine showed me BitCoin and that was the solution to my problem. After that, I focused solely on cryptocurrency.
The most important thing that people need to realise when building a unicorn, especially in the crypto industry: Crypto is 24/7, it’s not like the stock market that closes on a Friday afternoon, it’s also on the weekends. Our key success factor was being based in Austria, and we had an impressum, which is not that typical in the crypto industry; people never knew where their funds were, but this gave us transparency and also trust from our clients. It meant we were always reachable with 24/7 support.
Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency, and I would say the only really decent one; all the others are copies because Bitcoin's source code is open, and anyone can publish and own their own cryptocurrency. They symbolise companies, so investing in Bitcoin and in cryptocurrencies are two very different things and have different risks. People need to do research before investing.
BEST MOMENTS
‘Last century private currencies had been predicted, so the concept behind Bitcoin is not that new, it’s just beautiful to see how it’s now come into practice.’‘In Web2, you log in to a page, and there’s a Google SSO with just a username and an email; in Web3, you connect with your wallet, and you can transfer financial data on the blockchain.’‘Bitcoin’s uptime is still amazing: Over 99.9% with only a few outages of a few hours or so, the last of which was 10 years ago. Compared to traditional payment methods like Visa, Mastercard, or SWIFT, Bitcoin is doing well. ’‘Make it as easy as possible for your customers to complain, because the biggest issue for any business in Web3 is when you have people who silently quit and don’t tell you why. When you receive a complaint, see it as a last chance to convince the person to stay.’
ABOUT THE GUEST
Clemens holds a BSc degree in Economics and has a rich background in building customer-facing support solutions in Web 3. He spent over five years building Bitpanda's customer support/community department from scratch and scaling it from pre-seed to unicorn. His knowledge in the field is extensive, and he is known for his strong analytical and managerial skills.
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 hello@alchemycrew.ventures

Per Axberg: AI Driven Legal Contracts

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Per Axberg, CEO of Legly – a revolutionary platform that leverages the power of artificial intelligence to provide critical insights on B2B contracts, both before and after signing. This helps sellers, purchasers, and lawyers conduct efficient, accurate contract review, thereby saving precious time.
During the discussion, they dive deep into three fascinating topics: learning about Per's journey and the inspiration that led to the creation of Legly, and what spurred him to set up this AI-driven platform for B2B contracts. Explore why SaaS platforms for legal contracts are not just an added convenience but an essential tool for today's entrepreneurs, and how they play a role in supporting and streamlining business operations. Delve into the three most crucial best practices that entrepreneurs and legal departments can adopt to make the most of those platforms, particularly when scaling their enterprise.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
We built a platform that lets you match lawyers and use their spare capacity. We can buy the time they haven’t sold yet; they spend less time selling themselves, and they still make a profit. We can also sell their time to startups for less money. Global companies started using this service; they needed lawyers to check incoming contracts – bulk, boring tasks – to identify risks, check for anything that breaches their preferences and guidelines, etc. 
Technology has started to get better and AI has started to be able to do things for commercial purposes, at the same time we met with the head of law at one of these big companies who made a WILD (warranties, indemnity, limitation liability and delay) card for his sales people, he said if we focus on these four things we’ll get rid of most of the risks. This was the beginning of Legly; it’s much, much more than that.
Legly is a robot that acts pretty much as a lawyer would. You can upload one contract for free to try it, and you will get the document back in a minute or so with highlights in different colours and comments on the side telling you what to focus on, what is important. You could also tailor that to the breaches of your guidelines, and so on. It helps companies check contracts before signature. We can also use this machine to apply it to law firm contract portfolios, to check legal due diligence when you’re buying or selling a company, and to look for specific items in the documents.
Legly helps you find many things in documents and go through contracts much faster. Particularly it helps lawyers to find things in the contract before signing that they may not be used to checking for, to be able to find breaches to the preferences before involving the rest of the organisation, before waiting fort some weeks for the legal team to come back with feedback and so on, and thereby be able to handle much more of the contract process.
BEST MOMENTS
‘Before, you had to read through the documents, and there could be thousands of them, but now you just drag and drop, pretty much, and you get a list directly.’Usually, salespeople are the ones who see their customers' documents and know the deal, the business, who the customers are, and their relationships. They are much more suited to check these documents, as far as they can.’‘We’re not replacing any lawyers. Rather than them having to check the whole document, they might just get 2 or 3 questions. That’s much more efficient.’‘You have to start testing these tools and gaining an understanding of it so that you can structure your work in a better way that suits these kinds of technologies because they will become a ‘hygene factor’ in the future.’
ABOUT THE GUEST
Per Axberg is the CEO and co-founder of Legly. Legly has developed a contract review automation tool that uses AI and ML to review and provide feedback on B-2-B contracts before signing. Legly is a great example of how legal tech not just makes legal counsels sleep better, but also can increase the capacity of non-legal experts such as co-workers on sales and purchase teams.
Legly uses artificial intelligence to review and provide feedback on B2B contracts before signing. This way, sellers, purchasers, and lawyers can do a better contract review in less time.
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 hello@alchemycrew.ventures

Cyrille Godinot: Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure Solutions

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Cyrille Godinot, an industry titan whose career spans over 32 years across Marketing, Sales, Business Development, and Service Operations.
Currently, Cyrille is contributing to the tech powerhouse, Schneider Electric, where he has spent nearly 11 years. His significant role involves developing solutions and services, directly impacting the digital transformation of the electronic, insurance, and Inspection ecosystems.
His responsibility also lies in leading marketing deployment activities for strategic accounts to leverage Schneider's EcoStruxure IoT solutions, ensuring they deliver safe, efficient, available, and cyber-secure electrical infrastructure.
On this episode, they discuss: Cyrille's illustrious career, his insights into evolving market trends, especially regarding the adoption of new technologies and the influence of digital transformation and IoT on the B2B services sector, Schneider Electric's EcoStruxure IoT solutions, and Cyrille's vision for the future of the industry.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
I’ve been boots on the ground, directly with customers, involved in service operations, and I have come to realise that the best way to build a long-term relationship with customers is to deliver their expectations. You need to listen a lot, that’s how I moved into marketing.
When you are going through digital transformation, you have to consider all the impact that it raises. If you start with historical products, they now need to include sensors and must be able to communicate with an upper layer that understands them. You have to agree on a data model for collecting the data and on how that data is represented. Then you need to define how you’ll leverage that data to deliver value in asset management, performance, sustainability, safety, availability, and all the other areas you want to deliver to your customer. Transformation is very much about aligning everybody around a single structure for the right data to go to the right place. At the same time, our partners’ ecosystems need to evolve to tackle the new complexity of digitisation.
One of the major challenges right now is unifying the data model. Electrical current can be measured in amps, milliamperes, or kiloamperes. Which unit you use may vary depending on the device, so at some level you need to be able to represent the same data with exactly the same unit; otherwise, it will be confusing when you go to analytics to compare them.
Ecostruxure is opening opportunities in leveraging data from new business models. In this, we see a tree domain that is very interesting, related to risk management and insurance. When you collect a lot of data on a property, you’re going to have something that is a proxy of telematics in car insurance. This could be used for risk prevention, underwriting scoring, looking at track records about claims and operations, most of which will be leveraged by anyone who has a use case for that data, to improve the relationship with the end client, for example, where messages can be sent when a discrepancy arises to alert them. I could leverage that data myself and build analytics, and only propose a risk score, for example. Another model is how to bridge a product to embedded insurance, enabling us to consider new services we can build in partnership with risk management companies.
BEST MOMENTS‘In the digitisation transformation that we’re all going through, there is a huge opportunity to create a new business model to disrupt the existing one, and it all starts with collecting data.’"We're coming from an industry where historically competitors were not in a mode of aligning, and each one had their own model, but at the end of the day, current remains a current and being able to express a unit that is understandable is inevitable.’‘It starts with risk prevention. Because we collect data continuously, we can provide alarms. This is most of the value; this is what differentiates. Live data can give immediate reaction for the site manager, and the insurance can be aware of the situation so that they can take action and mitigate.’
ABOUT THE GUESTCyrille Godinot has been in Marketing, Sales & Business Development, and Service Operations since 1994 across various industries, achieving rapid growth in Europe, Asia, and the USA.Specialties: Business Development, Strategic Marketing, Partnerships, Deal Closing, Offer Creation, Digitization, Photovoltaics, O&M Services, Sales Management, Outsourcing, Maintenance, B2B Service Operations, Spare PartsCyrille leads marketing deployment activities for strategic accounts to leverage EcoStruxure IoT solutions and provide them with safe, efficient, available, and cyber-secure electrical infrastructure.
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 hello@alchemycrew.ventures

Stephen Lathrope: Using Geospatial Data To Drive Dynamic Underwriting

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Stephen Lathrope, a seasoned executive and proven business leader who has worked as a partner, CEO, and executive director of private equity-backed financial services and technology businesses. Stephen has also led large teams within a very well-known consulting firm.
Today, Stephen leads the insurance practice at ICEYE, a geospatial data provider to the insurance and government sectors. According to a report by MarketsandMarkets, the global geospatial analytics market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 12.2% from $68 billion in 2022 to $120 billion by 2027. One of the main drivers is the increasing demand for location-based services across industries, including transportation, construction, and agriculture, as well as urban planning and management, disaster response, and environmental monitoring.
Over the course of the podcast, they explore what geospatial data is used for. How does geospatial inform the future of underwriting and claims? Deep dive into examples as to where geospatial data is best used, and Stephen will give us some advice for insurance companies looking to incorporate geospatial data into their underwriting and claims processes.
KEY TAKEAWAYS         
ICEYE has been around since 2014 as an organisation that is one of the leaders in new space technologies. The founders miniaturised synthetic aperture radar technology and put it on miniaturised satellites. The first use case for that is for monitoring ice flows in the northern seas for freight planning, hence the ‘ICE’ part of ICEYE. What it does today is build and operate its own constellation of radar-enabled satellites. For insurance, we use them to observe hazards and damage related to natural catastrophes, and we can also monitor assets on the ground. We can measure very small movements in vehicles, buildings, and the Earth's surface.
The opportunities for insurers around catastrophic events are really significant. What we can do with new technology is provide much more rapid insight into where the water is and where the high-water mark has been, within an event. We can provide our customers with an initial view of where the water is within a few hours, and we provide very detailed reports on flood depth and water depth with a high degree of accuracy.
Our customers associate that with the perimeter of individual buildings, which enables them to very quickly identify which of their customers need assistance most urgently, how much water is likely to be around a property, the extent of the damage, and where to allocate resources on the ground. The data we provide is used to estimate the overall event cost and the potential damage cost for each building.
One of the very common challenges we face with our customers is asking, “Do you really know where the properties that you’re insuring are?” It’s a factor of how often we can say the water is at 1 metre depth at a particular latitude and longitude, and the insurer is trying to work out where that is relative to the properties they know are affected by the event.
BEST MOMENTS
‘ICEYE is bringing wholly new technology to bear in an industry that has loads of opportunity to do things differently and better for customers and stakeholders using the insights that we can provide from space and with data and analytics.’‘The majority of what we’re doing in insurance, and with government, is around natural catastrophe: response, and near-term preparation for events that look like they’re about to happen.’‘There’s only going to be more frequent, more severe flooding. As we speak, there’s a fairly major event happening in Mississippi, which we’re capturing images of from our satellites and reporting upon right now.’‘We’ve just launched our beta for insurance and wildfire that’s similar. Again, the ability of the radar to see through smoke, cloud, day or night, and report while the fire’s still burning means insurers can have data that’s really detailed, really rapid.’
ABOUT THE GUEST
Stephen Lathrope is a proven technology / financial services business leader with 10 years’ experience in CEO and executive director roles on boards of Private Equity-backed, international financial services/technology businesses, and 20 years’ experience in business and technology consulting.
Sales/growth specialist, with a track record of delivering sales-driven growth in software/services across the UK and international markets.
ABOUT ICEYE
ICEYE is a Finnish microsatellite manufacturer. ICEYE was founded in 2014 as a spin-off of Aalto University's University Radio Technology Department, and is based in Espoo.
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 hello@alchemycrew.ventures
 

Gary Garth: The Zero to 100 Million Sales Blueprint

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Gary Garth, an experienced entrepreneur and the author of ‘The Zero to 100 Million Sales Blueprint’, a book for entrepreneurs who want to scale their businesses with a replicable, reusable, and scalable sales methodology.
On this episode, the pair discuss how Gary found himself living in Medellín, Colombia, developing the Zero to 100 Million Sales Blueprint, what Elev8 Media is, and when he realised that work pressure may lead to addiction and mental health issues, and Gary’s tips for sustainable growth.
Make sure you listen until the end of the episode because Gary has a very nice surprise for you all!
KEY TAKEAWAYS         
I exited a very successful business in 2020, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do. So, I took a sabbatical year where I travelled around the world, trying everything from plant medicine to figuring out what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wanted to do something different and make a larger impact. Columbia had always been on my mind, and Medellín had a vision of becoming the Silicon Valley of Latin America. So, I went to check it out, and now I’m all in with several offices, an incubator, an accelerator, a marketing agency, and some real estate investments. This is home now. I’m the Viking of Medellín.
It’s a hard journey. A lot of entrepreneurs have this fantasy vision of what it takes, and 8 out of 10 cease to exist in year two, and only one of those entrepreneurs makes it beyond $1 million in annual recurring revenue. What’s shocking is that most successful people experience burnout. When you dive into a venture like that, you have to be prepared mentally, physically, spiritually for what’s ahead; the adversity and how to overcome that.
A lot of companies that pitch to me often have groundbreaking concepts and great ideas, and they have prepared everything and anything you can consider; they’ve almost gone into analysis paralysis about how the product should be shaped and so forth. But sales are left to the end of the equation. I ask what’s your estimated cost of acquisition, what’s the total addressable market, how are you going to penetrate that, who are your competitors, and how are you going to differentiate from them? They don’t have the answers to any of those questions.
I’m giving back through my book where I talk about training thousands of reps over my career, over 200 re-sellers in a previous project, I’ve worked closely with Google’s and Microsoft’s sales teams, so I’ve been able to see what patterns occur, what works and doesn’t work, and what it takes for folks to sell and create a true revenue machine. I’ve also created a planner to combat burnout, where you can focus on gratitude, set goals, build habits, and all the tips and tricks I’ve learned over the years.
BEST MOMENTS
‘There are all these social media tips and hacks on how to be the next Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos, but it’s 16-hour days, there’s no shortcut.’‘To be successful,l you need to put sales and revenue first. If you don’t have cash, you’re out of business.’‘Every entrepreneur has the desire to change and shape the world. The only way to do that is sustainability, to become profitable, that’s how you can grow, reinvest and expand.’‘Double down. Don’t back down. Things may seem uncertain and there’s a lot of scepticism in the market, but I think there’s a lot of opportunity. If you’re hesitant about launching, expanding to a new market, if you want to wait for x, y, z scenario changes, don’t wait. Go for it.’
ABOUT THE GUEST
Gary Garth is the Founder and CEO of Great Dane Ventures, Elev8 Media, and Accelerator Platform™.
He also leverages his resources as a sales leader and angel investor, helping high-potential startups go-to-market, scale, and become profitable through 360-degree sales and marketing support, incubator programs, advisory services, and proprietary technology engineered to empower entrepreneurs.
He has been featured in Inc., Forbes, Success, and many other prominent publications. A serial entrepreneur since 2002, Gary has started and successfully exited six companies, including large outbound sales call centres, radio advertising networks, and an award-winning, eight-figure digital marketing agency.
Born in Denmark, Gary now lives and works in Medellín, Colombia.
ABOUT ELEV8
ELEV8 is a Digital Marketing Agency and Growth Accelerator Program exclusively designed for the Addiction Treatment and Mental Health Center industry. ELEV8 solutions are engineered end-to-end with proven marketing and sales strategies, full transparency, and a meticulously data-driven ROI approach. With ELEV8’s solutions, clients drive admissions at a consistently profitable rate via 360 degrees digital marketing, sales enablement, CRM, and tech stack implementation. With newly founded offices in the heart of Medellín, Colombia, the ELEV8 team is composed of international A-players in the digital agency space, are all working towards one shared vision— to become the world-leading digital marketing agency for Addictions Treatment Centers.
Download the book: The Zero to 100 Million Sales Blueprint
Check out the site: https://elev8.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 hello@alchemycrew.ventures

Amy Buchan Siegfried: Last Night’s Game

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Amy Buchan Siegfried, an experienced founder, CEO, entrepreneur, investor, and speaker. Amy is the Co-Founder of Last Night’s Game, a platform that breaks down sports in an easy-to-understand way, through email and weekly podcasts. She also serves as the company's “on-air talent” and face.
From conception to execution, Amy has managed organisations and major initiatives, including fundraising, marketing, program development, and community relations, to empower others with ideas, information, mentorship, and resources.
Sports Tech includes over 17,000 startups, 30% of which have raised $35 billion in VC funding, with 11 active unicorns. Business models range from fantasy sports, eSports, and casino games to Fitness and Wellness tech, often used in health insurance.
On this episode, the pair discusses Amy the investor, the entrepreneur, and the woman in tech, why Last Night's Game, niche markets yield success, the challenge and the opportunity for women entrepreneurs, and tips and best practices.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
I love recognising the talent of those who are out there hustling, trying to make things happen, and making connections and making things happen for them. You want to support those with ideas. What’s 15-30 minutes of my time for somebody who’s trying to make their thing happen? Getting things started and taking the first step is the hardest part, if you can give that extra vote of confidence or ideas or connections, that can help them be successful. The ideas to differentiate yourself only come from talking to others because, when you’re the founder, you’re stuck in your own head and don’t see all those other things. Be a sounding board, be available.
Last Night’s Game was set up about 20 years ago. I was working as an intern at the Arizona Diamondbacks MLB team, and one of my girlfriends asked why certain things were happening, and I thought she was really missing out on an opportunity to connect with her co-workers. We were working in a male-dominated industry, and sports is a common language that helps level the playing field in the office. So, I thought about how to teach her about sports in an interesting way. My brother and I devised a way to make sports approachable so they could use it in day-to-day interactions, or dates, etc. But it took until 14 years later before we had the time to work on and launch it.
I’m successful because of what I learned in the corporate world. It was a good structure for me. So often now the corporate world is depicted as the bad character in a movie, but it’s not; there’s a lot we can learn from it. You learn to work as a team in the corporate environment, and you have to work in someone else’s structure, alongside personalities that are not like you. There’s still a way the corporate world can evolve, and we should all be evolving, no matter how big your business is, so that we don’t end up as a ‘has-been’ company that nobody wants to work with.
The foundation of having relationships is still critical today. We’re more connected than ever, but more removed than ever. How do we maximise and humanise that connection? Get out and meet people, build relationships. If you’re not comfortable being the people person, hire someone who is. It’s the same as building a team around you that isn’t like you, doesn’t think like you, doesn’t live on the same block as you. A diverse team brings different perspectives, and everyone has their own talents. 
BEST MOMENTS‘Sports is like food: It’s a common language that we can all speak, everywhere you go, there's a national dish and a national sport, and everyone’s really proud of that.’‘How are you making yourself different from everybody else? That is how you get funded, if you’re different, that’s an excellent thing.’‘The biggest challenge in investing in businesses, from an angel investor viewpoint, is that everyone wants to be everything to all people. You can’t be, it’s not possible. Identify your target market.’‘Our whole goal is short and sweet. We all know we have information overload, but we crank out a lot of content.’
ABOUT THE GUESTAfter seeing how the ability to talk sports gave her the upper hand as a woman in business, Amy and her brother Scott created Last Night’s Game to give their friends the same advantage. Last Night’s Game empowers its readers to join the sports conversation, even if they don’t know the first thing about sports. Her career has included working for a Major League Baseball team and in other male-dominated industries. A third-generation entrepreneur, Amy once flew around the world in 58 hours and 37 minutes, has lived internationally, and is a master of small talk, bringing people together, and the handwritten note. You can often find this married lady working with the entrepreneurship community nationwide and teaching her toddler about sports, food, and other things he’ll need to make small talk one day.
ABOUT LAST NIGHT'S GAME Empowering you with the latest sports and pop culture news, so you never have to resort to talking about the weather. Last Night’s Game empowers its readers to join the sports conversation, even if they don’t know the first thing about sports. The conversation doesn’t have to be that painful. Having worked in the sports and corporate world, Amy knows how sports can level the playing field and how helpful it is to have a team behind you.  Last Night’s Game goal is to make it easier for you to stand out in the crowd.  Follow updates on the sports and pop culture world so you never have to be left talking about the weather.
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 hello@alchemycrew.ventures

Chris 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 hello@alchemycrew.ventures
 

Sean 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 sean@nxtstep.io 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 hello@alchemycrew.ventures
 

Jay 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 hello@alchemycrew.ventures

Nathan 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 GUESTNathan 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 hello@alchemycrew.ventures