Scouting for Growth

Sterling Parker: Why Tech at Work Is Reshaping Flexible Work

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Sterling Parker, Senior Vice President of Global Solutions and Services at Ivanti.
Sterling is a recognised leader in workplace technology and digital transformation, with deep expertise in helping organizations of all sizes – from global enterprises to fast-growing startups – navigate the evolving world of work.
In this episode, we dive into the findings of Ivanti’s latest report, which gives insights into how leaders can build workplaces that are not only more efficient but also more human, flexible, and future-ready.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Ivanti’s latest “Technology at Work” report reveals a striking insight: while 73% of office workers and 83% of IT professionals consider flexible working “high value” or “essential,” only 23% of employees say their current job is highly flexible - highlighting a major flexibility gap that organisations must address to attract and retain top talent. The study also explores the widening flexibility gap, the rise of shadow AI, and the critical balance between optimising technology and empowering people.
Leaders need to hear the feedback from their teams. In terms of what’s preventing them – whether it’s perception or reality – from having flexibility in their day-to-day job. If you’re trying to address something without first hearing what your team demands in terms of flexibility, then you will have a hard time marrying the demand to the business objectives. That’s a delicate balance.
If you’re not defining what success looks like for an individual, how are you going to be able to measure, as you pivot to more flexible work, whether or not that is really leading to the outcomes you need as a business to continue to invest in that flexibility?
To redefine flexibility, it comes down to the mutual benefits involved in how individuals define ‘flexibility’. From what I’ve seen, it happens at a team level, especially when you’re working on different objectives.
BEST MOMENTS
‘Lack of investment from businesses is leading to this 23% feeling like they don’t have any flexibility.’
‘There’s real cost in time spent with family, there’s real cost in the commute, and people weigh those options.’
Since COVID, individuals are more willing to leave businesses for flexibility. Refusing to adapt will increase the likelihood of losing skilled employees, which will cost the business. ’
‘When top talent leaves, or isn’t being attracted, then you’re going to have an innovation stagnation.’
ABOUT THE GUESTS
Sterling Parker is the Senior Vice President of Global Solutions and Services at Ivanti, where he leads the company’s worldwide support, services, and solutions strategy. With a deep background in IT operations and customer experience, Sterling is responsible for ensuring that Ivanti’s clients—ranging from large enterprises to small businesses—can securely and efficiently manage their digital workplaces in an era defined by rapid technological change and evolving workforce expectations.
Discover more about Ivanti’s most recent report here.
ABOUT THE HOST
Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.
If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.
And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

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, visionary entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience 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 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

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 specifications 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, or 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 when companies were mainly focused on buying, which was killing teams. I think we’re definitely in the partnership era now, which is great for startups because they can work for different companies, increasing diversity and helping 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; data about car behaviour is no longer as important as it used to be; the software and batteries that will be in cars are 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’ll be doing them.
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 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

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-grade 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 inspection process was time-consuming, labour-intensive, prone to human fatigue, resulting in long, expensive cycles and inconsistency. This gap is now filled by our AI model, which provides a machine vision eye, enabling a mobile device to accurately capture images of vehicles, leading to damage assessments and reducing false positives.
We want to democratise image capture; hence, we have built our product so it can operate on any type of forum and on mobile devices made since 2016. That makes us a leader in our own area, staying focused without scattering ourselves in the name of doing everything ourselves.
There has been global adoption of AI, though what it does and how it is used varies, as every industry sees the value it adds. The standard way of implementing it is simple: it must align with the business and should not hamper existing business or processes within the industry/group. Edge cases must be addressed differently and modified so they are not completely controlled by standard feedback learning.
BEST MOMENTS
‘Startup collaboration, in my experience, should become top of the 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, but there’s also localisation that has to be 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 Düsseldorf.
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 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

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 2018 football World Cup inspired us to piggyback on the competition concept to 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, they’re not fit for purpose for us. It might be too early or 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 corporation often doesn’t have a good image. We’ve proved that failing fast and cheaply is achievable and beneficial for 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 we increased the number of startups and 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 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

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 a 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 that it was leveraging only a small number of startups 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 enough to solve all the technology challenges 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 BMW's problem either: accessing, adopting, and transferring cutting-edge technology quickly, 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 adopt the technology. The difference in the Venture Client model is cutting out the middleman.
If you want to be good at somethin,g you need a dedicated unit. If you do it part-time, it will only work partly. If you make it a department, you can dedicate more time to it, secure a dedicated budget, and build a more robust 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 corporation 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 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

Let’s Kickoff The Venture Client Series

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL discusses the launch of a new series exploring the Venture Client Model, which is turning corporate innovation on its head.
Instead of merely investing in startups and crossing fingers, big companies buy from startups to drive innovation – today, not years from now.
Imagine a world where a major Fortune 500, an automotive manufacturer, an insurance giant, or a bank can plug in a cutting-edge startup solution as easily as adding a new app to your phone.
The questions Sabine tackles include: What if your company’s next breakthrough isn’t built in-house, but bought from a startup in an early pilot? And what if being a startup’s customer is more powerful than being its investor?
KEY TAKEAWAYS
At its core, a venture client is a corporation that purchases and uses a startup’s solution to gain strategic benefit. No equity stakes, no controlling shares – just buying the solution early, when the startup is still a venture. The company becomes the startup’s client (often the first or an early client), providing the startup with revenue and feedback, while the corporation solves a problem with a cutting-edge product.
Insurance is traditionally conservative – heavy on compliance, cautious with new tech – slow, one might say. But that’s exactly why venture clienting is so powerful here: it creates a safe sandbox for insurers to experiment with startups.
Zurich has no corporate VC arm at the group level, so everything they do with startups ends up as a venture client relationship or partnership. That means all the effort goes into tangible pilots and deployments, not minority stakes in startups that might not align with the business. It’s a bold approach, but clearly paying off.
Imagine car insurance: traditionally, if you buy a policy in many countries, an agent might physically inspect your car, or if you have an accident, an adjuster needs to assess damage. CamCom replaces a lot of that with a DIY solution – the customer can just take a video of the car, and the AI will spot scratches, dents, cracked windshields, you name it, and even estimate repair costs. That means faster claims, smoother policy underwriting, and less hassle.
BEST MOMENTS
‘The Venture Client Model flips the usual script: instead of investing in ten startups and hoping one succeeds, you pay a startup to solve a problem and start benefiting immediately.’
‘This isn’t just theory. It’s happening now.’
‘The model turns the corporation into what I like to call an innovation magnet – attracting the best startups because the word is out: “This company loves to buy new tech”.’
‘By the end of this series, you’ll know the ins and outs of the model, from big-picture strategy down to on-the-ground tips, like why having a one-page startup contract can save you months of headaches, or why “impossible” should be banished from your vocabulary.’
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

Lou Smith: Transforming Insurance with Neuron by WTW

Sabine VdL talks to Lou Smith, a true trailblazer in financial services and insurance.
In today’s episode, we’ll dive into Lou’s incredible journey, explore the vision behind Neuron, and discuss the key takeaways from the latest report that insurance providers need to consider. 
KEY TAKEAWAYS
We all have moments in life where the last thing we want to look at is our credit rating and history, but those things can affect how you access financial services in the future.
Lou was part of the team that delivered the first end-to-end mortgage renewal online, began breaking down investments, and got it into the hands of the many rather than the few.
Everybody says insurance is behind the rest of the financial services industry, and it’s a funny statement. It doesn’t matter. What I’m seeing in insurance over the last 5-6 years is that this conversation has circled around: what do we do? But in the last 12-18 months, I’ve seen a passion for how we now think about using digital distribution models, digital analytics, and AI, and thinking of all of those things together and delivering distribution models that start to move the industry forward.
The challenge is always in leadership, culture, and change adoption. This is because it’s really difficult to step into the unknown and think it’s going to be better than what you’re doing today.
You want to empower people with the data and capabilities so they can do what they’re brilliant at: focusing on the best product and position for their client. Neuron and others enable brokers to do that. You also want to attract a new generation into the brokering sector, but rather than have them focus on the admin, they should be having great conversations with clients. All the work we’re doing enables brokers to do that.
BEST MOMENTS
‘When starting my career, I had a real passion for how to make the services we were offering more successful for clients and customers.’‘We care about the customer and making financial data accessible to you through the narratives we use.’‘I’d love to say this was all planned out, we didn’t call it anything or know what it looked like, we just started to bring data and technologies together to build ‘workflow, " and that’s now cool.’‘We want to be the easiest, most predictable and consistent broker to work with.’
ABOUT THE GUEST
Louise (or Lou) Smith is a trailblazer in the financial services and insurance industries, with a career spanning leadership roles across digital transformation, data, product innovation, distribution, technology, and operations. 
Her journey has been marked by groundbreaking achievements, including delivering the UK's first steps into digital distribution at Barclays, leading the digital transformation of the Royal Bank of Scotland (including NatWest) during its turnaround to profitability, and becoming the first-ever Chief Digital Officer at Lloyd’s of London. 
Currently, Louise is at the helm of Neuron, a transformative initiative aimed at redefining the insurance and financial services landscape. Through Neuron, she is driving innovation, collaboration, and growth, focusing on creating a more connected and customer-centric industry.
WTWCO
LinkedIn
ABOUT THE HOST
Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.
If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.
And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

James Birch: Ki Insurance’s Algorithmic Underwriting Revolution

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to James Birch, Director of Strategic Technology Solutions at Ki Insurance—the first fully algorithmic syndicate in the history of Lloyd’s of London.
In today’s conversation, we’ll explore: James’s journey from VC to algorithmic-underwriting pioneer, what a “director of strategic technology solutions” actually does day-to-day inside a digital syndicate, the partnerships, cloud architecture and data streams that let Ki quote in seconds, the biggest trends shaping Algorithmic Underwriting 2.0—and what they mean for brokers, capacity partners and the wider market, and practical take-aways for anyone who wants to thrive as the next wave of automation rolls through speciality insurance
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Ki is a growth-stage business, not an incumbent; we’re trying to fight our way to win business and ultimately to grow. We have to do something different from everyone else to try to position ourselves differently and find a competitive advantage where we can. That’s something I’ve carried over from the VC space.
We started out looking at what the digital model of the traditional model, where was the toil in the value chain and the broker’s work plan process and how can we simplifying it and make it more efficient using digital capabilities that we saw in the VC space, in FinTech and other financial service industries. 
Lloyd's of London is a heavily regulated market, so we need to abide by all the regulations that apply to any carrier or underwriter in that market. Our approach from day 1 was to engage with the regulator early, explain what we’re trying to do, be transparent, open, and honest about where the gaps are if we haven’t reached a certain level of maturity, and not overstate the algorithm. We take regulation very seriously, which has helped because Lloyds has been highly supportive of us and our growth, and has allowed us to grow alongside the market.
The main cost-saving of the algorithmic underwriting for brokers is that they don’t have to have loads of brokers running around the Lloyds of London building to find 2% on a slip or something; the broker negotiates with the lead underwriter, comes onto the Ki platform for the follow-up, and then spends their time on new business and client opportunities.
BEST MOMENTS
‘Any business should evolve as the market evolves and the marketing dynamics change, you’ve got to react to those and be thinking 2-5 years ahead.’
‘We still trip up on ourselves, even now, because we sometimes try to over-complicate things.’
‘Speak to the customer, hear their problems, understand what’s not working for them, try to make it a simple transaction for them, and then they’ll use your products.’
‘I’m a big advocate of the partner model because if you get 2, 3, or 4 like-minded companies as partners, you can build something great together because you’re all strategically aligned.’
ABOUT THE GUEST
James Birch is the Director of Strategic Technology Solutions at Ki Insurance, the market-leading algorithmic syndicate that’s redefining how Lloyd’s of London does business. 
Blending a venture-capital mindset with hands-on operating rigor, James has spent the past decade helping innovative companies move from bright idea to breakout scale.
Passionate about demystifying insurance for the next generation, James is a sought-after speaker on topics such as data-driven risk selection, the future of algorithmic capacity, and what it really takes to scale a regulated tech business. 
Whether mentoring founders or road-testing the latest ML models with his engineers, he’s driven by one simple goal: use technology to make risk transfer faster, fairer, and radically more efficient.
LinkedIn
ABOUT THE HOST
Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.
If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.
And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

Mark Stern: Transforming Customer Journeys with Physical-Digital Experience Design for Growth

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Mark Stern, founder and CEO of Custom Box Agency, an award-winning boutique specializing in bringing digital offers to life through innovative offline ‘box experiences.’
Today, he’ll share how he made the leap from corporate to startup life, offer practical tips for integrating physical touchpoints into a digital world, and discuss the secret sauce behind building high-impact customer journeys. I can’t wait to dive into his wealth of knowledge.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
When I mixed physical and digital together with my publication called ‘Entrepreneur Elements’ I people started posting unboxing videos, which a digital-only product can do. Everyone who received the product became an ambassador and lots of organic traffic was being created as a result.
During Covid the virtual event game became bloody red, in terms of competition, because everyone became a virtual event expert overnight. But the boxes, and how we were approaching this to get results faster, was an unknown, exciting realm which  I went 100% in on and the business skyrocketed from zero to a million in the first year just by pivoting and focussing on this opportunity.
What we include inside our boxes is a welcome note, a getting started guide – which, for me is the most powerful sales pieces to orient people on the journey that they’re about to start and see your universe, a journey map – a visual depiction of the recipe that’s going to get you the result, then all the tools and resources.
This isn’t SWAG (Stuff Without A Goal), think of it a product development and who we can truly get into your programme and give people the incentive structure to want to take one step at a time. I love data, so I can engineer feedback loops to say, once you’ve hit a certain milestone, how can I get you to provide me with the information I need so 1, I can celebrate you, but 2, it also gives me good intel to make the product you’re making better.
BEST MOMENTS
‘In the online space done beats perfect. I approach the standards of the online realm in a corporate way; the client’s either ready or not ready at all.’
‘If you have a digital product, you have to compliment it with something physical because physical can tap into other modalities and senses that digital can’t.’
‘It’s not about you, it’s truly about your customers and their needs.’
‘Boxes can be a tool to take what you’re already talking about/teaching, or the service you’re providing, making it easier for people to have the breakthrough in a tangible way that a digital-only product just can’t.’
ABOUT THE GUEST
Mark Stern is an accomplished serial entrepreneur and the visionary behind Custom Box Agency, an award-winning experience design firm headquartered in Austin, Texas. Leveraging his background as a top-ranked strategy consultant at Deloitte, Mark has guided major retail and lifestyle brands through transformative growth initiatives. He holds an MBA from Duke University and has been recognized as a Forbes Next 1,000 Entrepreneur, as well as featured in Joey Coleman’s bestselling book Never Lose an Employee Again. Mark’s passion for merging the physical with the digital underpins his signature approach of crafting “offline-meets-online” experiences. By moving beyond standard swag and focusing on strategic box campaigns, Mark’s team has successfully launched 100+ direct mail initiatives—boosting conversions, slashing churn, and extending customer lifetime value. As a mentor at SXSW, sought-after keynote speaker, and champion for innovative entrepreneurship, Mark remains dedicated to helping businesses of all sizes adopt experience design as a powerful lever for growth.
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

Colin Hirdman: LinkedIn Growth Hacks, AI and Ethical Automation (Ethical Automation)

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Colin Hirdman, the antidote to automated mediocrity. As a lifelong entrepreneur and co-founder of Monkey Island Ventures, he has spent two decades scaling SaaS tools, digital agencies, and now Rainmaker – a ‘white-glove’ service that ethically automates LinkedIn outreach to turn connections into revenue.
Colin discusses Rainmaker’s ‘Authentic Engine’ framework: 10-30% connection rates, campaigns tailored to micro-audiences, and why human-driven strategies still dominate AI in B2B growth. As well as why he targets 25 people/day — and how even solo founders can replicate this, the ‘criminal justice grad’ who turned entrepreneur, accidently and sold his first startup days after college, and LinkedIn’s automation guardrails: What’s ‘ethical’ vs. what gets you banned.
KEY TAKEAWAYS         
I’ve done a lot of growth hacking through email and LinkedIn, but I got better results through LinkedIn and ended up building out a software and process for myself. Rainmaker was born through me making it available to other businesses. But, you don’t need me or rainmaker to do any of the things we discuss on this podcast, you can do it manually.
You have to be authentic on LinkedIn, both as yourself as well as the brands you represent. You should also have an educational mindset – no one wants to be sold to on LinkedIn, but almost everyone is willing to be educated – and an experimentation mindset, trying different features and functions of LinkedIn, stack the things that work and set aside the things that don’t. Understand the pains an barriers that you prospects are trying to overcome and know what it is that you can teach them.
Growth hacks: LinkedIn Events – if you have a direct competitor, industry or organisation putting on a LinkedIn Event that your business solves for, if you attend that event you can see everyone else who attended that event and create a prospects list. Use people who are big in your area as proxies – use people’s open connections to see all first connections to her, second connections to you and is in your area, and begin connecting to them
Building out your first connections is critical. I reach out to 15 people per day Monday-Friday during normal working hours. That gives you 500 people per month, which is below LinkedIn’s limits. Typically, you’ll get a 20% connection rate. Within 30 days of sending an invite, and they haven’t connected, withdraw the invite. It’s good hygiene, but after 3 weeks you can reach out to them again. Everything you do after that only gets better and has stronger possibilities as your audience grows.
BEST MOMENTS
‘There are lots of opportunities to engage with your prospects on LinkedIn in ways that are valuable for relationship building and set you up as a thought leader.’‘People undervalue the value of being a first connection, when you’re a first connection you can see all kids of information about them, direct message them, and use other features and functions to engage with them.’‘I typically build my audience through Sales Navigator – a tool within LinkedIn that allows you to hone in on audiences..’‘If you’re using automation that is in any way inauthentic, it won’t work; you wouldn’t immediately set up a meeting with someone you just met. I wish people would stop; it’s lazy.’
ABOUT THE GUEST
Colin Hirdman is a lifelong entrepreneur, startup advocate, and visionary behind Rainmaker, a platform revolutionizing LinkedIn’s growth strategies through its "Authentic Engine." As co-founder of Monkey Island Ventures, a venture studio launched in 2007 with childhood friends, Colin has spent nearly two decades fostering tech innovation and scaling ventures like SaaS tools, digital marketing agencies, and software development firms. His passion lies in unlocking the power of authentic relationship-building, as evidenced by Rainmaker’s mission to help founders, coaches, and sales teams expand their networks, generate leads, and close deals ethically on LinkedIn.
A Minnesota native, Colin’s journey began with selling his first startup (launched just days after college) and evolved into mentoring entrepreneurs through actionable strategies like LinkedIn automation, audience targeting via Sales Navigator, and educational outreach. His philosophy blends authenticity, experimentation, and a focus on solving audience pain points—principles he shares as a board member of MNblockchain and a sought-after voice in B2B growth.
When not advising startups or hosting LinkedIn livestreams, Colin champions the entrepreneurial spirit, proving that even a criminal justice graduate-turned-accidental-founder can redefine 21st-century scaling. Catch his insights on turning connections into revenue—no bots or spam required.
LinkedIn
ABOUT THE HOST
Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.
If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.
And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

Gia Laudi: Why B2B SaaS Leaders Must “Forget The Funnel” and Embrace Customer-Led Growth

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Georgiana ‘Gia’ Laudi, a strategic advisor, keynote speaker, and co-founder of Forget The Funnel, a consultancy focused on helping B2B SaaS companies drive predictable, recurring revenue through a truly customer-led approach.
In this episode, Gia and I will explore why so many companies get stuck throwing “spaghetti at the wall,” instead of researching who their best customers really are. We’ll look at the common pitfalls teams face when relying solely on funnel-based thinking—plus the steps any organization can take to cultivate a thriving, customer-centric culture. Gia will also share highlights from the remarkable work she’s done with various SaaS brands, as well as tips you can put into practice right away.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Two years after drafting up a customer experience map for our company, through the lens of the customer, we grew revenue by 900%. We’d aligned the team and the company, and it facilitated more streamlined conversation, more alignment, more understanding cross-departmentally making things much easier. It gave us a tool and a shared language for operationalising around customer experience.
A big reason for forgetting the funnel and leveraging a more customer-led approach is through the lens of recurring revenue businesses. Even if you don’t have a recurring revenue business model most businesses agree that customer retention, expanding existing accounts vs finding new customers contains a lot of value. This serves all kinds of businesses very well.
Customer research is often equated with long, drawn-out projects that are very costly and leave you with more questions than answers. There’s a lot of resistance when we use the term ‘customer research’, we tend to use the term ‘customer insights’. We use targeted, streamlined and intentional research via ‘jobs to be done’ which reveal meaningful patterns from as little as 10-12 people which can identify what leads people to seek your business out.
Not all customers are created equally, you shouldn’t try to serve every customer, narrow your focus on who really, really cares about the problem that you solve, has a high willingness to pay, deeply understands the value in what you provide and would sing your praises from the mountain tops.
BEST MOMENTS
‘If you orient your operations around the customer experience it becomes easy to make all kinds of decisions.’
‘Existing customers are worth more and are less costly to us as a business vs finding new customers.’
‘Your relationship with your customer does not end with the purchase, it begins with the purchase.’
‘Early stage companies should focus on one customer and do a really good job, later stage companies shouldn’t conflate all customers into a homogenous group but think of segmentation in a meaningful way so you can still provide high-converting and resonating experiences even for multiple segments.’
ABOUT THE GUEST
Georgiana (“Gia”) Laudi is a strategic advisor, keynote speaker, and co-founder of Forget The Funnel, a consultancy specializing in customer-led growth for B2B SaaS companies. With over 20 years of experience in marketing and product strategy, she’s helped high-growth businesses such as Unbounce, Calendly, and Sprout Social deepen customer insights, align teams around customer value, and drive predictable, recurring revenue. As co-author of the book “Forget The Funnel,” Gia advocates a practical, step-by-step approach to uncovering why the best customers buy—and how to ensure more of them succeed post-purchase. 
Based in Montreal, Gia is passionate about turning real customer needs into clear messaging, frictionless onboarding, and expansion strategies that empower businesses to scale sustainably. She joins Scouting for Growth to share her journey, discuss common growth pitfalls, and offer actionable tactics any organization can use to become truly customer-led.
LinkedIn
ABOUT THE HOST
Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.
If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.
And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures