Sabine VanderLinden

Activate Innovation Ecosystems | Tech Ambassador | Founder of Alchemy Crew Ventures + Scouting for Growth | Chair, Board Member, Advisor | Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow-Bayes Business School

I don't just talk about innovation, AI, workforce or digital transformation— I build the bridges that make things real.

As Founder & Venture-Client Partner of Alchemy Crew Ventures, I run global R&D + Adoption Labs that connect Fortune 500 insurers and corporates with the most brilliant tech ventures on the planet. Think of us as the “fast lane” between startup brilliance and enterprise adoption. My themes include FinTech/ InsurTech and deploying AI at scale responsibly. 

What this looks like in numbers:
📍 Accelerated 160+ ventures and sourced 55,000+ startups worldwide
📍 Invested in 35+ early stage startups
📍 Delivered exits like FitSense → Zurich (2018), MyFutureNow → L&G (2019), and Tia Tech → Sapiens (2020)
📍 Created Insurer-led Acceleration and Scaleup programs that turned pilot purgatory into scalable commercial success

But the real story? I help founders land their first million-dollar client, build authentic personal brands, and help corporates cut through the noise to adopt tech that drives real growth.

My world revolves around:
📍 Venture Clienting 2.0 & Corporate Innovation Frameworks
📍 AI (ethics, adoption, emerging risks)
📍 Climate Resilience, Risk Futures & Sustainability Transformation
📍 The Future of Work (where humans + tech thrive together)

Beyond Alchemy Crew:
📍 Co-editor of the bestselling INSURTECH Book
📍 Wrote forewords for the Future of Insurance and Momentum
📍 Lecturer on Corporate Venturing at Bayes Business School
📍 Board + advisory roles across VCs, Scaleups (The CareVoice), foundations (Women to Watch), standards (ACORD Solutions) & global insurers
📍 Top 10 Business Podcast "Scouting for Growth" 
📍 Recognized with 10+ awards, including Most Influential CEO – Insurance Corporate Ventures (2024/2025)

My channels beyond LinkedIn:
x.com: @SabineVdL
instagram: @sabinevdlofficial
Medium: @sabine_vdl
Podcast: Scouting for Growth and Beyond Tech Frontiers
Newsletter: alchemycrew.ventures

What drives me?
Creating value where others see friction.
Turning hype into measurable outcomes.
And making sure technology becomes a force for good, not just another buzzword.

Award List (10+): Insurance Times-Tech & Innovation Awards Winner (2018), Grant Thornton-Face of a Vibrant Economy (2018), Business Insurance-Women to Watch Honoree (2019), Corporate Vision-Venture Validation Firm of the Year (2021), Finalist Women in Insurance Perseverance Award (2021), Awarded Perseverant Company to Watch in (2021), ACORD Awards (2020/2023), Most Influential CEO-Insurance Corporate Ventures (2024/2025).

Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer & Venture Partner

Delivering venture labs that accelerate, industrialize and democratize the way tech ventures engage with corporations. These labs apply acceleration, co-creation, and commercialization techniques to de-risk the way insurers and financial institutions collaborate, grow, and scale their venture-led growth initiatives.

Also, systematizing for a select group of growth ventures the way their engagement with corporations.

You can find out more 👉🏽 https://alchemycrew.com/

🌟 74% of enterprises are racing to deploy agentic AI.
Only 21% have the governance to handle it.  Where do you sit?💫

Some say this is part of a slow but controlled demolition.

Here's what's happening. Deloitte's latest State of AI in the Enterprise report confirms the stampede: three-quarters of companies plan to deploy agentic AI within two years. 

But the #governancegap is staggering. Half of all projects (as we know) are stuck in pilot purgatory. And Gartner now projects the AI governance market will hit $1 billion by 2030 because the cost of getting this wrong is existential.

What does this reveal? As shared with you before, we're entering the era of the Frontier Firm. Organisations that don't just adopt AI, but rewire their entire operating model around human-AI collaboration. 

Microsoft and McKinsey & Company agree: the bottleneck isn't the technology. It's leadership. 

Harvard Business Review calls it "AI angst": a predictable, industry-specific pattern of fear that stalls adoption from the inside out.

The opportunity... and challenge is this: the companies that govern first and scale second will define the next decade. The rest will become cautionary tales in someone else's case study.

Soooo, here are 5 things to act on now:

📍  Govern before you scale. A governance framework isn't bureaucracy. It is actually your licence to move fast.
📍  Address AI angst head-on. Your people aren't resistant to change. They're waiting for you to lead it.
📍  Bridge the pilot-to-production gap. Find partners who deliver governed, production-ready solutions 😊... not just demos.
📍  Industrialise your venture-client model. The best startups solve the problems you haven't staffed for yet.
📍  Measure velocity, not just speed. Controlled, strategic acceleration beats reckless momentum every time.

Think of it this way: everyone has a ticket for the AI rocket ship. But only a few have actually checked the engineering.

Which side of the governance gap is your organisation on? I'd love to hear what's working... and what's not. 

Let's debate below.

And today, I just decided to pick Deloitte Research to support my thesis.

Deloitte-State of AI

🌟 70% of AI pilots never scale. 💫

So why do we keep celebrating experiments instead of outcomes?

Today at 11AM ET/ 4PM GMT, I'm moderating a Reuters Events Insurance conversation that cuts through the noise with leaders who've actually moved GenAI from slide deck to underwriting floor.

🎙️ Win with GenAI: Transform SME & Mid-Market Underwriting for Speed, Accuracy, and Scal.

I'll be joined by an exceptional panel:

Caroline Thompson, Chief Underwriting Officer, AtBay 
Frank Neugebauer, VP of Generative AI, Cincinnati Insurance 
Alex Bibic, Head of Products (Technology), CFC 
Nicole Ricci, Head of Commercial Gen AI Underwriting Assistant, Verisk

We won't talk about what AI could do. We intend to unpack what it's already doing across data governance, human-agent teaming, and ecosystem design at scale.

Because boardrooms don't buy pilots. They buy scaled outcomes.

The real question isn't "Do we have an AI strategy?" -> it's "Where are our results?"

If you lead underwriting, transformation, or technology in insurance, this one's built for you.

🔗 https://lnkd.in/eMuNP3G5
Today, Feb 26 | 11–12PM ET/ 4-5PM GMT

#GenAI #Underwriting #AITransformation #ReutersEvents

Reuters events. Today's webinar

Win with GenAI: Transform SME & Mid-Market Underwriting for Speed, Accuracy and Scale

I look forward to meeting insurance executives, transformation leaders, and tech innovators in Istanbul for the Silk Road Insurance Forum at the end of March 2026. 

We will unpack what innovation looks like for the Silk Road Insurance countries, dive into SAS's four insurance futures, and discuss the Agentic Frontier Transformation Playbook.

Across insurance markets, the challenge is no longer whether to adopt AI — but how to operationalize it at scale.

Sabine VanderLinden will share how AI-enabled transformation actually works in practice across insurance organizations.

Request an invitation via our website:  https://lnkd.in/d5eJb_Ma

#SilkRoadInsuranceForum #InsuranceLeadership #TechBridge #FutureOfInsurance #BuildingBridges

🌟 The countdown to 2027 has begun, yet most insurance leaders are still looking in the rearview mirror. 💫

Check out the compelling post from Karl Grandl about the EUDI Wallet (the European Digital Identity directive), and it struck me how few in our industry have this on their strategic roadmap. 

We often talk about the current transformation as a distant goal, but with EU Regulation 2024/1183 (eIDAS 2.0) already in force since May 2024, that specific "future" is arriving faster than many realize.

We have seen the number: Less than 20-30% of digital transformations succeed, often because they lack a standardized, secure foundation. 

The EUDI Wallet is the state-verified digital identity that will finally bridge the gap between corporate legacy and startup agility.

By the end of 2026, every EU member state must provide this wallet. 

By 2027, it will become mandatory for industries requiring strong customer authentication, and insurers are right at the top of that list. For those building the future of our industry, this is transformational. 

Imagine a world where we can:

📍 Simplify: Onboard customers in minutes, not days, with instantly verified identity and driver’s licenses.

📍 Standardise: Issue policies instantaneously as customers authenticate via EUDI.

📍 Share: Handle claims without media discontinuity, no paper, no friction, just verified digital documents. (This is what Miss Moneypenny Technologies does by the way)

However, the real risk isn't the technology. 

Today, we have to admit... It's the wait. Those who prepare their customer journeys now will gain a significant strategic advantage. Those who wait will be forced to follow suit under immense time pressure, risking the very failure rates we strive to avoid.

Karl is doing incredible work at the Bitkom Working Group "Digital Insurance & Insurtech" to map out these implications. 👇🏽

#DigitalIdentity #EUDIWallet #eIDAS2

EUDI Wallet - die Europäische Digitale Identität kommt

Ende 2026 muss jeder EU-Mitgliedsstaat eine EUDI Wallet bereitstellen. 

Ab 2027 wird sie für Branchen mit starker Kundenauthentifizierung verpflichtend — und Versicherer stehen ganz oben auf der Liste.

Die meisten haben das noch nicht auf dem Schirm.
Die EUDI Wallet ist nicht einfach eine weitere App. Sie ist die staatlich verifizierte digitale Identität — für jeden EU-Bürger, auf dem Smartphone.
Was das für Versicherer konkret bedeutet:

→ Kunden-Onboarding in Minuten statt Tagen. Identität, Wohnsitz, Führerschein — alles verifiziert, alles im Wallet. 
→ Policen-Ausstellung wird instant. 
Kfz-Versicherung? Kunde authentifiziert sich per EUDI, teilt Führerschein und Fahrzeugdaten. Fertig. 
→ Schadenmeldung ohne Medienbruch. 
Verifizierte Identität + digitale Dokumente = kein Papier, kein Call Center.

Die EU-Verordnung 2024/1183 (eIDAS 2.0) ist seit Mai 2024 in Kraft. Die Implementing Acts sind seit Dezember 2024 veröffentlicht. 

Der Countdown läuft.

Wer jetzt anfängt, seine Customer Journeys darauf vorzubereiten, hat einen strategischen Vorsprung. 
Wer wartet, wird unter Zeitdruck nachziehen.
Ich beschäftige mich als Vorstand im Bitkom AK "Digital Insurance & Insurtech" intensiv mit EUDI und den Implikationen für unsere Branche. 
Was ich sehe: Die wenigsten Versicherer haben das Thema auf ihrer Roadmap — dabei wird es das Kundengeschäft der nächsten Dekade prägen.
Wenn ihr tiefer einsteigen wollt — was EUDI konkret für euer Geschäftsmodell bedeutet, welche Use Cases jetzt schon realistisch sind und wo die regulatorischen Fallstricke liegen: 
Schreibt mir eine Nachricht oder kommentiert einfach kurz. 
Ich teile gerne, was wir im Bitkom dazu erarbeiten.

#DigitalInsurance #EUDI

👉🏾 Health Coach for Black Professionals, Execs & Business Owners. Finding balance between Health, Family & Growth.

I built an 85,000-follower fitness business from zero using organic social media, content systems, and marketing automation—all while working full-time in theatre.

Now I share what I've learned about:
• Building audiences that convert to customers
• Creating sustainable content systems (not burnout)
• Using AI and no-code tools to work smarter
• Balancing founder ambition with real-life constraints

BACKGROUND

I spent a decade performing in West End shows (The Book of Mormon, TINA, Show Boat, The Scottsboro Boys) while building JDCF (Joshua Da Costa Fitness) on the side. What started as extra income became a profitable business teaching busy professionals how to train effectively without living in the gym.

The marketing lessons I learned building that audience organically—understanding platform algorithms, creating systematic content workflows, converting followers into paying clients—those are skills companies pay for.

WHAT I'VE BUILT

→ 85K+ organic followers across Instagram and video platforms
→ Content production systems generating 15+ pieces weekly
→ CRM and email automation infrastructure driving consistent conversions
→ No-code AI applications for client onboarding and program delivery
→ 10+ years running a business with full P&L responsibility

WHAT I DO NOW

I'm looking to bring founder-level thinking to a high-growth company while continuing to scale my own business. I want to work somewhere I can:

• Apply my social media and growth marketing expertise at scale
• Learn skills I can't teach myself (enterprise systems, team leadership, paid media)
• Contribute immediately with an ownership mindset

If you're hiring for growth marketing, social media management, or demand generation roles and want someone who treats your business like their own—let's talk.

Otherwise, stick around for honest takes on building audiences, creating content systems, and running a business without the typical entrepreneurship BS.

📍 Based in Lichfield, open to hybrid/remote opportunities
📧 joshuadc@outlook.com

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