Scouting for Growth

Sabine VanderLinden
  • 5.0 (12)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Biweekly

There are over 180,000 FinTech ventures out there today. My team tracks 7.3 million of them across markets every single week. But the number that matters isn't the one that's growing. It's the one that isn't. Only 25% of these ventures have secured funding and meaningful backing. The other 75% aren't just looking for capital. They're looking for access, credibility, and partnerships with the institutions that can turn a great product into real-world impact. This is Scouting for Growth. I'm Sabine VanderLinden. I lead Alchemy Crew Ventures, and I built the Venture-Client Model for regulated industries... the model where a growth venture earns a corporation as its customer before a VC writes the cheque. When that sequence works, it changes the equation for everyone: founders, corporates, and the investors watching from both sides of the table. Each episode, I bring a founder, an operator, or an institutional leader to the table for the conversation that usually happens behind closed doors: about how corporates really think, how capital really flows, and what it actually takes to build, grow, and scale in a world where the boundaries between FinTech, InsurTech, HealthTech, and AI are dissolving by the month. This isn't theory. Our conversations should bring you the strategy, the tactics, and the hard-won clarity from people who control capital and collaboration. If you're navigating this ecosystem — as a founder, an operator, or a leader — this conversation is for you. Listen in. Challenge what you thought you knew. And join us.

  1. 1d ago

    Agentic Distribution: AI Can Find the Customer. Can You Keep Them?

    Discovery is becoming abundant. Customer ownership is not. In this solo episode of Scouting for Growth, I go inside the Distribution Intelligence Layer and examine what happens when AI assistants become a new front door to the market. Customers can increasingly discover products, compare options, generate quotes, and decide what to do next before they ever reach a company website. The strategic question is no longer simply how they find you. It is what happens to the relationship when they arrive. The uncomfortable truth is that AI may not remove the broker. It may remove the search box and relocate the customer's first interaction into an interface the enterprise does not control. As search, comparison, form-filling, and routine administration become cheaper, value moves downstream toward advice, trust, complex judgement, service, and renewal. Walmart shows what this shift looks like when an enterprise treats agentic distribution as an operating model rather than a chatbot. Aviva and Plymouth Rock show the same logic beginning to emerge in insurance, using ChatGPT as part of the discovery and quotation journey while connecting customers back into enterprise systems. The visible assistant is only the shop window. Behind it must sit product data, identity, payments, service, governance, and accountability. I frame the Distribution Intelligence Layer around three essential jobs: be found, be buyable, and be remembered. Product information must be accurate enough for an assistant to understand. Secure connections must allow quotation, purchase, and service. And when the customer moves into the enterprise journey, their details, permissions, context, and choices need to move with them. The hand-off determines whether the organization simply receives a transaction or begins a relationship it can continue through service and renewal. Most importantly, I leave leaders with three practical moves: try to buy your own product through an AI assistant, make one product AI-ready from discovery through service, and map the complete hand-off from the customer's first question to renewal. Because being found creates an introduction. The real commercial advantage lies in receiving the customer, serving them, and earning the right to keep the relationship. KEY TAKEAWAYS I want to challenge the idea that agentic distribution is simply another digital channel. When an AI assistant can understand the customer's problem, narrow the available choices, and send the business a customer with stronger intent, it begins to change where the market starts. Discovery becomes cheaper, and some of the value historically attached to search, comparison, form-filling, and administration moves elsewhere. This is why I do not believe the broker simply disappears. The broker's value moves downstream toward advice, trust, judgement, and ongoing service. This is why I frame the Distribution Intelligence Layer around three jobs: be found, be buyable, and be remembered. Discovery is only the first leg of the journey. The hand-off into the enterprise must carry customer data, identity, permissions, consent, context, and choices while connecting securely to payment, service, auditability, human accountability, and renewal. The distinction is important because customer ownership is not automatically surrendered to the platform. It is shaped by how the journey is designed and by who controls what happens after the introduction. For me, the practical implication is that leaders should stop debating this shift in the abstract and experience the journey themselves. Try to buy your own product through an AI assistant. Make one product AI-ready from discovery through service rather than attempting to transform the entire portfolio at once. Then draw the complete hand-off and identify who owns the data, identity, payment, service, renewal, and next conversation at every stage. For founders, the same test applies: an impressive interface is not enough unless it can connect securely into a real enterprise journey. The strategic prize is not simply access to the transaction. It is continuity of the customer relationship. BEST MOMENTS “That is not simply a new channel. It is a new front door to the market.” – Sabine VanderLinden [00:53] “The broker does not vanish. The broker's value moves downstream.” – Sabine VanderLinden [04:01] “For founders, the clever assistant is no longer enough. The product must connect to real systems, respect permissions, leave an audit trail, and help the client keep the customer.” – Sabine VanderLinden [05:26] “It is important to note that customer ownership is not automatically lost to the platform. It is a design and commercial decision in the end.” – Sabine VanderLinden [09:02] “Think of a relay race. The assistant runs the first leg. Your firm runs the second. The customer data and trust are the baton.” – Sabine VanderLinden [09:54] “Being found is useful. Keeping the customer in the end is the business model.” – Sabine VanderLinden [13:37] 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

  2. Sep 10

    The Enterprise Intelligence Stack: Why Four Excellent Tools Produce Nothing

    Four excellent tools can still produce nothing. Intelligence only creates value when it connects, compounds, and scales. In this solo episode of Scouting for Growth, I introduce the Enterprise Intelligence Stack, a practical framework for understanding why promising agentic pilots stall, why different AI agents can operate with completely different views of the same customer, and why the third pilot can end up costing as much as the first. The uncomfortable truth is that most enterprises are not suffering from a lack of capability. They are suffering from a lack of composition. Data, models, platforms, people, and governance may all exist, but they rarely operate as one coherent system. The result is fragmented intelligence, duplicated infrastructure, weak accountability, and pilots that work beautifully in isolation but struggle to scale. I break the Enterprise Intelligence Stack into four layers and two rails: Data and Judgment; Models and Orchestration; Distribution and Access; Customer and Experience; supported by the People and Trust rails. I then introduce a four-part Composition Test built around one shared source of truth, one registry, one audit trail, and one accountable human. Most importantly, I leave leaders with three practical moves: draw the stack, run the Composition Test, and fund the rails before funding the next layer. Because in the age of agents, the winners will not necessarily be the firms with the most intelligence. They will be the ones whose intelligence connects, compounds, and scales. KEY TAKEAWAYS I want to challenge the way we continue to diagnose enterprise AI problems. We often blame procurement, technology, models, talent, or adoption when an agentic pilot fails to scale. But increasingly, I believe the real constraint is composition. We may already own many of the capabilities we need, but they are not working together as one system. Four excellent tools can still produce nothing if they operate from different data, different logs, different governance models, and different assumptions about the customer. This is why I introduce the Enterprise Intelligence Stack: four layers covering Data and Judgment, Models and Orchestration, Distribution and Access, and Customer and Experience, supported by the People and Trust rails that have to run through the entire system. The distinction is important because layers can be purchased, whereas rails must be designed and governed by the organization itself. The Composition Test then gives us a practical way to challenge every new initiative: is there one shared source of truth, one registry, one audit trail, and one accountable human? For me, the biggest takeaway is that we need to stop asking simply, “What should we buy next?” and start asking, “How will this connect to what we already have?” Whether you are an enterprise leader or an AI venture selling into one, the objective is the same: build intelligence that can connect, compound, and scale. The next move is not necessarily another purchase. It may simply be to draw the stack and understand what you actually own.   BEST MOMENTS “It is not a tooling problem. It is a composition problem.” – Sabine VanderLinden [00:16] “The real failure is that the capabilities we already own don't work together.” – Sabine VanderLinden [00:16] “A firm can use four suppliers and still have one shared spine. It can also use one supplier and end up with four disconnected systems.” – Sabine VanderLinden [08:00] “Enterprise buyers do not need another brilliant soloist. They need a venture that can join the orchestra.” – Sabine VanderLinden [08:00] “A pilot or product integration that can't connect to the wider system is a cost, not an option.” – Sabine VanderLinden [10:00] “Do you have a stack or do you have a shopping list?” – Sabine VanderLinden [14:00]   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

  3. Sep 3

    Kevin Maney: The Category Creation Formula for Winning Markets in the AI Era

    Kevin Maney: The Category Creation Formula for Winning Markets in the AI Era AI is making products easier to build, but meaningful differentiation harder to sustain. A stronger feature set, a faster model, or simply adding an “AI-powered” label may not be enough to convince customers that a new market should exist in the first place. Kevin Maney, bestselling author, technology commentator, and founding partner of Category Design Advisors, joins me to unpack the Category Creation Formula: Context + Missing + Innovation = New Market Category. Developed through nearly a decade of fieldwork with more than 50 companies, the framework offers a practical way to understand when markets are ready to change: identify what has shifted around the customer, uncover the newly urgent need that shift creates, and then design the innovation the market is ready to embrace. Our conversation moves beyond conventional product-market fit toward a more fundamental question: What would market-product fit look like? We explore why being first matters less than establishing the accepted dominant design, why competitors can actually validate rather than weaken a new category, and why successful category creation starts outside the organization, not with the technology already sitting inside it. In an era of AI abundance, compressed innovation cycles, and increasingly crowded markets, this conversation offers a different way to think about growth. It is particularly relevant for CEOs, transformation leaders, investors, and founders asking not simply how to build a better product, but how to create a market that wants it. KEY TAKEAWAYS What I found particularly compelling in this conversation with Kevin is his challenge to one of the most deeply embedded assumptions in innovation: that we should build a product and then find its market. Kevin turns that logic around with the idea of market-product fit. Instead of starting with what our technology can do, we should start by understanding what has changed in the world around our customers, what new problem that change has created, and what innovation could solve it. His Category Creation Formula, Context + Missing + Innovation, gives leaders a simple but powerful way to make that shift. I also loved Kevin’s perspective on category leadership. Being first is not necessarily the objective. The real goal is to establish the dominant design that shapes how customers understand and expect the category to work. And, counterintuitively, competition can help because other players entering the market validate the category in customers’ minds. For me, this is a particularly important lesson in today’s crowded AI landscape. Finally, Kevin makes a distinction I think every leader should consider: using AI to make the existing business more efficient is only one side of the opportunity. The bigger question is what entirely new products, services, and ways of operating become possible because AI has changed the context. As AI itself becomes foundational and ubiquitous, the differentiator will increasingly be what humans do with it, and the ideas they create about what comes next. BEST MOMENTS “Category design is a strategy. And when I think of positioning and marketing, those are things that a company does.” – Kevin Maney [13:52] “Product-market fit has led a lot of people to think we'll build this product and figure out a market to put it into. And we talked about it, saying, like, it's actually market-product fit.” – Kevin Maney [25:00] “Your ultimate goal is to win the dominant design. It's not to be the day one, first mover, be the first one to say, ‘We're creating this category.’” – Kevin Maney [29:57] “Your goal is not to wipe out all competition, your goal is to be the dominant design and make all of your competitors follow you.” – Kevin Maney [29:57] “I actually believe that the big AI models... that's going to become, at some point, as boring as the internet or as electricity. What excites me is what you can do with it.” – Kevin Maney [37:26] “AI is trained on the past, and it's only going to understand the past, and it's going to be the humans that create the future.” – Kevin Maney [49:19]   ABOUT THE GUEST Kevin Maney is a bestselling author, award-winning technology commentator, and founding partner of Category Design Advisors. He is the co-author of The Category Creation Formula and Play Bigger, and spent 22 years as a technology journalist at USA Today. His work has also appeared in publications including Newsweek, Fortune, The Atlantic, and Wired. Kevin helps leadership teams identify, define, and develop new market categories. Through nearly a decade of category-design work with more than 50 companies, his focus has included market-product fit, dominant design, the adjacent possible, strategic points of view, and the leadership alignment required to translate innovation into an understood and adopted market choice.   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

    Kevin Maney: The Category Creation Formula for Winning Markets in the AI Era

  4. Aug 20

    Denise Garth: The Frontier Insurer, One Year In

    Denise Garth: The Frontier Insurer, One Year In Denise Garth returns to Scouting for Growth one year after the Frontier Firm idea began to move from a strategic aspiration into insurer operating models, technology roadmaps, and boardroom priorities. As Chief Strategy Officer at Majesco, Denise offers a sharper test for the Frontier Insurer: Is the organization simply using AI? Is it redesigning selected processes around AI? Or is it rebuilding the enterprise around intelligence, connecting its data, core platforms, people, partners, and decisions? Only the third represents genuine transformation. The uncomfortable truth is that most carriers now have AI enthusiasm, pilots, and isolated productivity gains. Far fewer have the intelligent core, embedded governance, and human-agent operating model required to scale them. Majesco’s research captures the disconnect: 82% of insurance leaders believe AI will define the industry’s future, yet only 14% have integrated it into their operations. Sabine and Denise explore what has changed over the past twelve months, why intelligent orchestration now matters more than another point solution, and how insurers can move from experimentation towards a genuinely redefined operating model. The conversation is for insurance CEOs, COOs, CROs, CDOs, transformation leaders, and technology founders navigating the move from AI experimentation to an intelligent, governable operating model. KEY TAKEAWAYS One year on, I see the conversation around AI in insurance moving from “What is this technology?” to a much more consequential question: “What does this mean for the business?” The 82%-14% gap tells us that the challenge is no longer access to technology. It is leadership. Most insurers are experimenting, but experimentation alone will not create a Frontier Insurer. The real opportunity is to rethink the business around the outcomes we want to create for customers, employees, and shareholders. I also believe we need to stop thinking about AI as something we bolt onto existing workflows. The Frontier Insurer embeds intelligence into its core, connects high-quality, accessible data with workflows and agents, and builds governance and auditability into its architecture. This changes what people actually do. Claims professionals can move from repetitive adjustment towards risk reduction and customer empathy; underwriters can become more focused on portfolio management and judgment; and employees can spend more time on knowledge-based work rather than manual processing. The biggest shift, however, is towards orchestration. I am increasingly convinced that the winners will not be the insurers with the most AI pilots or the biggest AI budgets. They will be the organizations that can bring together intelligence, governance, and core systems into a coherent operating model, while building trust along the way. Becoming a Frontier Insurer means being bold enough to rethink organizational structures, jobs, processes, technology partnerships, and ultimately the economics of insurance. The question is no longer whether AI will change insurance. It is whether leaders are prepared to redesign their businesses around it. BEST MOMENTS “Every insurer in 2026 will tell you that they are doing AI. Ask your harder question. Who has rebuilt the business or operating model around it?” – Sabine VanderLinden [00:16] “The gap isn't a technology story. It is a leadership story.” – Sabine VanderLinden [00:16] “It isn't about cutting people. It's about elevating them.” – Denise Garth [14:49] “It is about a rip and replace of business capabilities and the operating model.” – Denise Garth [43:34] “Somebody else is going to jump ahead of you because they're going to look at it from an orchestration standpoint and rethink.” – Denise Garth [38:19] “Redefined their operating model and embraced AI in a way that accelerated that redefinition of the operating model.” – Denise Garth [95:10]   ABOUT THE GUEST Denise Garth is Chief Strategy Officer at Majesco, where she leads strategy, marketing, industry relations, and innovation in support of the company’s client-centric vision. She works closely with insurers, technology partners and the wider industry ecosystem to identify emerging shifts and translate them into practical priorities for property and casualty, life, annuity and benefits organizations. An internationally recognized insurance and InsurTech thinker, Denise focuses on the forces reshaping the industry—from AI, data, and intelligent core platforms to new operating models, changing customer expectations, and ecosystem-based growth. Her work challenges insurers to move beyond incremental modernization and build organizations capable of learning, adapting, and delivering value continuously.   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

    Denise Garth: The Frontier Insurer, One Year In

  5. Aug 6

    Bárbara Fernández: Human-Agent Collaboration, Agentic AI, and the Rise of the Human Boss

    Bárbara Fernández: Human-Agent Collaboration, Agentic AI, and the Rise of the Human Boss The future of work will not be won by humans who move faster. It will be shaped by humans who know how to orchestrate intelligence. In this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine VanderLinden sits down with Bárbara Fernández, Deputy Director of MAPFRE Open Innovation and Head of insur_space, to explore one of the defining leadership questions of the agentic AI era: what happens when humans stop doing every task and start directing systems of intelligence instead? As AI assistants evolve into autonomous collaborators, work is no longer simply about increasing productivity. It is about preserving judgment, accountability, and human agency while learning how to collaborate with increasingly capable machines. Together, Sabine and Bárbara examine where the line sits between augmentation and abdication, why convenience can quietly erode critical thinking, and how organizations must rethink trust, behavioral design and customer interaction as AI becomes embedded into everyday decision-making. They also explore what insurance looks like when protection becomes predictive, contextual, and continuously present. This conversation is essential listening for insurers, transformation leaders, AI strategists and executives preparing their organizations for the next era of human-agent collaboration. KEY TAKEAWAYS One of the most important lessons from this conversation is that the future of work is not about competing with AI but learning how to direct it responsibly. As intelligent agents become increasingly capable of reasoning, coordinating, and executing tasks, our value shifts from producing outputs ourselves to asking better questions, challenging assumptions, and exercising sound judgment. Critical thinking is becoming one of the most valuable leadership capabilities we can develop. Bárbara also reminded me that the greatest risk is not artificial intelligence itself but our willingness to stop questioning it. Humans naturally gravitate towards convenience, and AI makes it remarkably easy to accept recommendations without scrutiny. If we allow productivity to replace thoughtful decision-making, we risk automating poor judgment rather than improving it. Human oversight must remain an active discipline, not a passive checkpoint. Our discussion also highlighted how customer interaction will fundamentally change as AI agents begin acting on behalf of individuals. Behavioral science, user experience, and trust must evolve beyond designing for human interfaces alone. Organizations will increasingly need to design services that are understandable to both humans and intelligent agents while maintaining transparency and accountability throughout every interaction. Ultimately, this conversation reinforced that technology will not replace what makes us uniquely human. As intelligence becomes abundant and inexpensive, empathy, emotional understanding, curiosity, and ethical judgment become even more valuable. The leaders who thrive will be those who know when to rely on AI—and when human presence is irreplaceable. BEST MOMENTS "We need to really stop and think and evaluate what the machine is saying to us." – Bárbara Fernández  "We need to train critical thinking." – Bárbara Fernández  "If something is making your day easier—I don't know if it's better—but at least easier, you will adopt that." – Bárbara Fernández "The danger is not bad AI. The danger is passive humans." – Sabine VanderLinden  "We need to open our minds, be curious and play with it." – Bárbara Fernández  "You need to keep learning... because if you don't understand what's behind it, you can't challenge assumptions." – Bárbara Fernández  "You cannot design trust. You have to demonstrate it." – Bárbara Fernández  "Trust is something very fragile. It takes a lot of time to build and one second to lose." – Bárbara Fernández  "If we are predictive, we act before. It means insurance becomes a prevention service." – Bárbara Fernández  "When intelligence becomes abundant, presence becomes premium." – Sabine VanderLinden  "We really need to find the proper questions and ask difficult questions." – Bárbara Fernández  "Machines can simulate emotions, but they don't have feelings—and that's something uniquely human." – Bárbara Fernández    ABOUT THE GUEST Bárbara Fernández is Deputy Director of MAPFRE Open Innovation and Head of insur_space, MAPFRE’s insurtech accelerator. She works at the intersection of strategy, innovation, behavioral science, and emerging technology, helping MAPFRE explore how new interaction models, AI assistants, and intelligent agents will reshape business, customer experience, and organizational design.   Her work focuses on how companies adapt to structural shifts in artificial intelligence, human-machine collaboration, decision-making systems, and the future of interaction. Through strategic foresight and behavioral science, Bárbara helps leaders understand not only how technology evolves, but how humans adopt, trust, challenge, and collaborate with it.   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

  6. Jul 30

    Carlos Falcón: Rebuilding the Insurance Core for AI, Venture Scouting and the Frontier Firm

    Carlos Falcón: Rebuilding the Insurance Core for AI, Venture Scouting and the Frontier Firm Insurance does not have an innovation shortage. It has an absorption problem. In this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine VanderLinden sits down with Carlos Cendra Falcón, Scouting and Investment Lead at MAPFRE Open Innovation, to explore one of the most pressing questions facing insurers today: can the core of the institution actually absorb the intelligence, ventures, platforms and partnerships being scouted around the world? Carlos brings a pragmatic perspective from inside one of the world's leading insurance groups. Having helped evaluate more than 2,500 startups and accelerate around forty into enterprise integration, he understands that innovation is not about finding exciting technology—it's about identifying capabilities that solve meaningful business problems and can be embedded into a complex global insurer. As AI reshapes discovery, distribution, underwriting, and customer interaction, insurers face a deeper transformation than digitalization alone can provide. Hybrid distribution models, machine-to-machine commerce, embedded insurance, and intelligent agents are changing how insurance is bought, sold, and delivered. Success will depend less on adding new technologies and more on rebuilding the organizational foundations that allow innovation to scale. This conversation is essential listening for CEOs, COOs, Chief Innovation Officers, venture leaders, product executives and insurance decision-makers navigating the shift from digital experimentation to AI-enabled enterprise transformation. KEY TAKEAWAYS Innovation is no longer the constraint facing insurance. The real challenge is whether our organizations are capable of absorbing innovation in a way that creates lasting value. Carlos reminded me that partnerships alone cannot transform an insurer if the underlying organization lacks the architecture, governance, and operating model needed to integrate them. Before looking outward for the next breakthrough, leaders need to strengthen the institutional core that will allow innovation to scale. I was particularly struck by Carlos' reframing of venture scouting. Rather than acting as a matchmaking exercise between startups and business units, scouting should become a strategic intelligence capability. Its purpose is to detect meaningful market signals, understand emerging technologies, and identify solutions that directly address strategic priorities. The question is never whether a startup is impressive; it is whether it is genuinely useful to the institution and capable of improving the business in measurable ways. Our discussion also reinforced how AI is fundamentally changing the insurance value chain. As customers increasingly rely on AI assistants and autonomous agents to search for, compare, and purchase products, insurers must prepare for a world in which machines—not people—interact with their systems. Discoverability, machine-readable products, and seamless digital connectivity will become as important as customer experience itself. Ultimately, Carlos challenged us to think beyond digitization. The frontier insurer will not simply modernize existing processes—it will redesign itself around risk intelligence, ecosystem collaboration and adaptive execution, while remaining anchored to insurance's enduring purpose: helping people navigate the risks that shape their lives.   BEST MOMENTS "You cannot partner your way out of a weak core." – Sabine VanderLinden (00:01:10) "Some initiatives are truly transformational, and some are simply a consequence of FOMO. You want to stay close to what's happening without necessarily bringing it into the business." – Carlos Cendra Falcón (00:03:32) "Sometimes the best-in-class solution isn't the best fit for your organization." – Carlos Cendra Falcón (00:15:23) "Scouting is not provider matchmaking. It's a strategic approach to solving business problems." – Carlos Cendra Falcón (00:17:08) "You need to tackle one of the lines in your P&L or your balance sheet. Otherwise, you're just there to look nice in the picture." – Carlos Cendra Falcón (00:16:28) "Machines don't care how pretty your website is." – Carlos Cendra Falcón (00:20:50) "You need to have the information available, well structured, and you need to be able to talk to the machine." – Carlos Cendra Falcón (00:21:00) "The question is never whether a startup is interesting. It is whether it is institutionally useful." – Sabine VanderLinden (00:24:42) "We are here to help people navigate the risks they're facing in their lives, with their property, their health and their way of life." – Carlos Cendra Falcón (00:22:18) "First understand what an insurance company should look like in 2035, then design the roadmap that gets you there." – Carlos Cendra Falcón (00:23:32)   ABOUT THE GUEST Carlos Cendra Falcón is Scouting and Investment Lead at MAPFRE Open Innovation, where he works at the intersection of insurance transformation, venture ecosystems, and corporate strategy. His role focuses on identifying the startups, technologies, and ecosystem partners that can help MAPFRE respond to new risks, new business models, operational challenges, and changing customer behaviors. Carlos’s work is grounded in the practical realities of transforming a large, global insurer. He focuses on detecting early signals across AI, embedded insurance, human–machine interaction, real-time risk intelligence, and preventative insurance, translating market signals into strategic partnerships and investment opportunities that help incumbents move beyond experimentation.   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

  7. Jul 16

    Reggie Townsend: Making Responsible AI Irresistible

    Reggie Townsend: Making Responsible AI Irresistible Responsible AI has a design problem. Too often, it is treated as a compliance exercise, a policy document, or a late-stage control, when it should be the operating system that enables organizations to innovate with confidence. In this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine VanderLinden welcomes back Reggie Townsend, Vice President of AI Ethics, Governance and Social Impact at SAS, to explore one compelling idea: making responsible AI irresistible. Drawing on decades of experience helping enterprises embed trustworthy AI into their operations, Reggie explains why governance must evolve from abstract principles to practical systems people actually use. As organizations race to deploy generative and agentic AI, the conversation has shifted. Responsible AI is no longer just about avoiding harm—it is about creating the conditions for innovation, resilience, and long-term competitive advantage. Boards are asking tougher questions. Regulators are raising expectations. Employees increasingly need guidance they can apply in real-world decisions, not just policies they acknowledge once a year. This conversation is essential listening for CEOs, board directors, Chief Risk Officers, compliance leaders, AI product teams, and founders navigating the transition from responsible AI intentions to responsible AI execution.   KEY TAKEAWAYS One of the biggest insights I took from this conversation is that responsible AI is fundamentally a design challenge. We have spent years writing principles and policies, yet many organizations still struggle to translate those aspirations into everyday decisions. Reggie reminded me that if governance feels complicated, disconnected, or burdensome, people will naturally work around it. Our challenge as leaders is to make responsible behavior the easiest path rather than the hardest one. I was also struck by how governance is becoming inseparable from business strategy. As generative and agentic AI systems begin making increasingly autonomous decisions, governance can no longer be treated as a legal or compliance function operating at the edge of the organization. It has to become part of product design, procurement, operations, and executive decision-making. Trust is no longer something we communicate after deployment; it is something we engineer from the beginning. Another important theme was the preservation of human agency. While AI can dramatically enhance productivity and decision-making, Reggie reminds us that organizations must remain intentional about where humans stay accountable. The future is unlikely to be defined by replacing people with AI, but by designing systems where humans and intelligent machines complement one another in transparent and meaningful ways. However, perhaps my greatest takeaway is that responsible AI should become a competitive advantage rather than a regulatory obligation. Organizations that embed governance in their innovation will move with greater confidence because customers, regulators, employees, and investors will increasingly reward trust. Making responsible AI irresistible is ultimately about making good governance so practical, intuitive and valuable that people actively choose to adopt it—and that may prove to be one of the most important leadership capabilities of the next decade.   BEST MOMENTS "Responsible AI isn't about slowing innovation. It's about creating the confidence to innovate at scale." – Reggie Townsend "If responsible AI feels like extra work, we've designed it wrong. We have to make it irresistible." – Reggie Townsend "Governance shouldn't be something you visit once a year. It should be embedded into every decision, every workflow, and every system we build." – Reggie Townsend "The question isn't whether AI will make decisions. It's whether we've designed those decisions to preserve human agency." – Reggie Townsend "Trust isn't something you add after deployment. It's something you architect from the very beginning." – Reggie Townsend "We're moving from governing models to governing systems of intelligence—and that's an entirely different challenge." – Reggie Townsend "The organizations that thrive won't be the ones that adopt AI the fastest. They'll be the ones that build trust the fastest." – Reggie Townsend "Responsible AI is no longer just an ethics conversation. It's becoming a leadership conversation, an operational conversation, and ultimately a competitive advantage." – Sabine VanderLinden "As AI becomes more autonomous, our responsibility as leaders becomes even more intentional." – Sabine VanderLinden "The future belongs to organizations that can turn responsible AI from a policy into a practice." – Sabine VanderLinden   ABOUT THE GUEST Reggie Townsend is Vice President of AI Ethics, Governance and Social Impact at SAS, where he leads SAS’ global AI Ethics, Governance and Social Impact organization. His remit includes the company’s Data & AI Ethics Practice, AI & Society initiatives, AI Governance Advisory, Standards, Regulations & Risk Intelligence programs, and Accessible & Adaptive AI efforts. He drives SAS’ work on trustworthy, human-centric innovation across products, policies, and partnerships.  Reggie is recognized as one of the clearest voices in responsible and trustworthy AI. He has served as a member of the White House National AI Advisory Committee, sits on the board of EqualAI, and works at the intersection of responsible innovation, enterprise governance, social impact, and emerging AI regulation. In this conversation, he explores how organizations can turn AI governance from a source of friction into a driver of adoption, accountability, and 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

    Reggie Townsend: Making Responsible AI Irresistible

  8. Jul 2

    Dale Diamond: When a $25K Claim Becomes a $7M Verdict or More

    Dale Diamond: When a $25K Claim Becomes a $7M Verdict or More A small claim is no longer a small claim. It can be the first signal of a verdict that changes everything. Dale Diamond, J.D., Vice President of Claims at NAMICO, joins Sabine VanderLinden to unpack one of the most urgent realities facing mutual insurers today: nuclear verdicts are not random events. They are often predictable. And if they are predictable, they can be prevented. With more than 30 years of experience across appellate law, bad-faith defense, complex professional liability claims, underwriting, and claims leadership, Dale brings a rare three-dimensional view of what is changing within US insurance. He has seen the courtroom. He has seen the underwriting file. He has seen the claim review where one missed signal can turn a $25,000 auto liability claim into a $7 million jury verdict.  The uncomfortable truth? The old claims playbook was built for a world that no longer exists. This conversation is for mutual insurance CEOs, claims leaders, underwriters, reinsurers, and transformation executives navigating social inflation, plaintiff sophistication, AI-enabled litigation, climate volatility, and the new protection gap.   KEY TAKEAWAYS One of my biggest takeaways from this conversation is that claims are no longer simply an operational function; they have become one of the most important strategic differentiators in insurance. Dale made it clear that the difference between a well-managed claim and a nuclear verdict often comes down to the decisions made in the first few months. Early collaboration, honest assessment, and having the courage to settle the right cases before positions harden can dramatically change outcomes. I was also fascinated by how artificial intelligence is reshaping both sides of litigation. While insurers are embracing AI to analyze documents, accelerate investigations, and support claims professionals, plaintiff firms are using the same technologies to generate stronger complaints, organize evidence faster, and pursue increasingly sophisticated litigation strategies. AI isn't creating the problem—it is accelerating it for everyone. Another insight that stayed with me is the importance of trust. Whether we are talking about policyholders, mutual insurers, or regulators, insurance remains a promise business. Technology should never replace empathy or transparency. Instead, it should free experienced claims professionals to focus on judgment, negotiation, and building stronger customer relationships. Finally, Dale reinforced something I believe will define the future of insurance leadership: the best organizations won't simply automate existing processes. They'll redesign work around people. As routine activities become increasingly automated, the most valuable professionals will be those who combine technical expertise with communication skills, strategic thinking, and emotional intelligence. That combination will become one of the industry's greatest competitive advantages.   BEST MOMENTS "Insurance wasn't my first career choice… I always thought I'd be much more useful before all the problems happened, to prevent them rather than defend them afterwards." – Dale Diamond "All the departments have to work together. If one gear breaks, the whole machine stops working." – Dale Diamond "You don't just want to sell all the business you can—you want to make sure it's profitable business." – Dale Diamond "Claims today are about much more than processing files. They're about protecting the customer, protecting the insurer, and making strategic decisions early." – Sabine VanderLinden "The most dangerous cases are the ones with clear liability but disputed damages." – Dale Diamond "Insurance is selling a promise." – Dale Diamond "Technology should augment human judgment—not replace it." – Sabine VanderLinden "As AI takes away the routine work, claims professionals will spend more time making decisions, building relationships and analysing complex situations." – Dale Diamond   ABOUT THE GUEST Dale Diamond, J.D., is Vice President of Claims at NAMICO, the insurance arm of the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies. With more than three decades of experience across appellate law, insurance coverage, bad-faith defense, professional liability, EPLI and D&O underwriting, and complex claims leadership, Dale brings a deeply cross-functional perspective to the challenges facing mutual insurers. His work focuses on helping NAMIC members navigate nuclear verdicts, social inflation, bad-faith exposure, litigation funding, claims modernization, and the operational realities of defending mutual carriers in a more volatile claims environment. In this conversation, Dale helps decode the new survival playbook for mutual insurers in 2026: earlier intervention, better data, stronger talent, verified property intelligence, and sharper leadership discipline.   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

    Dale Diamond: When a $25K Claim Becomes a $7M Verdict or More
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There are over 180,000 FinTech ventures out there today. My team tracks 7.3 million of them across markets every single week. But the number that matters isn't the one that's growing. It's the one that isn't. Only 25% of these ventures have secured funding and meaningful backing. The other 75% aren't just looking for capital. They're looking for access, credibility, and partnerships with the institutions that can turn a great product into real-world impact. This is Scouting for Growth. I'm Sabine VanderLinden. I lead Alchemy Crew Ventures, and I built the Venture-Client Model for regulated industries... the model where a growth venture earns a corporation as its customer before a VC writes the cheque. When that sequence works, it changes the equation for everyone: founders, corporates, and the investors watching from both sides of the table. Each episode, I bring a founder, an operator, or an institutional leader to the table for the conversation that usually happens behind closed doors: about how corporates really think, how capital really flows, and what it actually takes to build, grow, and scale in a world where the boundaries between FinTech, InsurTech, HealthTech, and AI are dissolving by the month. This isn't theory. Our conversations should bring you the strategy, the tactics, and the hard-won clarity from people who control capital and collaboration. If you're navigating this ecosystem — as a founder, an operator, or a leader — this conversation is for you. Listen in. Challenge what you thought you knew. And join us.

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  • Creator
    Sabine VanderLinden
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    238
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Sabine VdL | Alchemy Crew Ventures
  • Show Website
    Scouting for Growth

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