Nick Pester: Growth Ventures and the Role of The Legal Counsel

On this episode, Sabine VdL interviews Nick Pester. Sabine has known Nick for over 4 years. They met when Nick showed a strong interest in the tech startups accepted into Sabine’s accelerator programs and was willing to mentor them with his advice while he was leading the Financial Services, Insurance & InsurTech practices at Capital Law. Nick moved from legal advice within a legal firm to becoming the group general of one of the leading InsurTech growth ventures in the UK. He is also an Advisor to the Chartered Insurance Institute and the Centre for Data Ethics & Innovation on Digital Ethics and the use of Artificial Intelligence in Insurance. On this podcast, they catch up to understand what the past 4 years have brought to him in terms of lessons learnt. KEY TAKEAWAYS I fell into insurance. The firm I applied to for a training contract was a media and entertainment specialist, which was something I was interested in at the time – advising big bands on tour around the world! But they had a really strong insurance practice, and I really enjoyed the fact that there was a dual-layer to all the legal aspects we dealt with: The insurance layer and the underlying subject matter.  My day tends to be partnership-focused; there’s always something going on in the partnership front. There are claims to deal with, but otherwise it’s running around responding to the fires as and when they arise, dealing with them as best you can, and trying to have the headspace to look more than a week or a month ahead and think strongly about the strategy of the legal function and the wider business. Law firms and some other businesses tend to be far too fixated on the granularity of academics and qualifications. Of course, you need to be qualified, but actually, what turns a good lawyer into a really great lawyer is personality and character. People who can roll with the punches, take something on the chin, and move on, most importantly for lawyers, people who can accept being wrong. I don’t think lawyers as a profession are very good at admitting when they’re wrong,  but in a startup environment, you need to be prepared to make mistakes; it’s part and parcel of learning. One of the biggest challenges in the insurance market with respect to data and its use is ensuring transparency and fairness, while balancing commercial interests and protecting sensitive information. The most obvious example of this is pricing. The balance between using data to improve our products and services, and to drive greater revenue and growth, against how much customers want to know about them. With AI, it’s a very difficult area in the context of regulated activities, because you need to have explainability, why someone has been priced in a certain way. It’s going to be very difficult to build a genuinely self-managing, machine-learning-intuitive system with the necessary explainability and insight that goes with it. BEST MOMENTS ‘I like flying by the seat of my pants. I like a challenge, I like disruption, I’m very passionate about trying to improve things within the sphere of influence that I have in the legal and tech areas.’ ‘Bringing a commercial eye to partnerships is incredibly important as a lawyer in-house.’ ‘To build a sustainable growth venture, you need three things: A very clear mission of what you’re trying to solve/address, spend money on getting the best people, and focus on one thing/the key offering before moving on to something else.’ ‘The trends I’m seeing are a greater focus on existing portfolio companies and investors looking after their existing stock. Lots of aggressive investment in already trading, sustainable businesses. People are finding it harder in Seed capital, which has been a bigger challenge in the last 18 months.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Nick Pester was responsible for the Legal and Compliance functions at Wheely, a luxury ride-hailing service offering on-demand professional chauffeuring at the touch of a button. He then decided to go solo and launched Beyond Legal to work closely with the founders of tech startups. Previously, he has been responsible for the Legal & Regulatory functions at the Zego Group, a market-leading InsurTech business focused on commercial motor, where he oversaw a period of growth from 80 to 600 employees, during which the business achieved unicorn status and completed a $150m Series C fundraise in early 2021. Prior to that, he was Head of the Financial Services & FinTech practices at Capital Law, providing a more niche/specialist offering, grounded in a highly commercial approach. As well, he was Advisor to the Chartered Insurance Institute and the Centre for Data Ethics & Innovation on Digital Ethics and the use of Artificial Intelligence in Insurance, and also acted as an advisor and mentor to a number of individual FinTech & InsurTech businesses in the past, as well as wider accelerator/incubator programmes. 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. 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