Great companies don’t start with products. They start with people—and the problems they refuse to ignore. In this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine VanderLinden sits down with Steven Mendel, CEO and Co-Founder of Bought By Many—now known as ManyPets in the US—to explore how deep customer empathy, community-led design, and relentless focus can reshape an entire insurance category. Steven’s entrepreneurial journey didn’t begin in insurance. After multiple startups in finance and a career spanning actuarial science, consulting, and wealth management, he found himself increasingly frustrated by a familiar imbalance: large financial institutions treating corporate clients exceptionally well—while individuals were left with poor experiences, rigid products, and little voice. Bought By Many was born as a response. The original idea was simple but powerful: build communities of people with similar, niche insurance needs—and design products around what they actually want. When the team asked pet owners to share their frustrations and ideal policies, they didn’t get a few hundred responses. They got 40,000. Instead of rushing to market, Steven and his team paused. They reimagined every step of the customer journey—from pricing and coverage to claims and communication. The result? Seven entirely new products and a launch in 2017 that felt nothing like traditional pet insurance. What followed was extraordinary growth. Bought By Many became a double unicorn in under nine years. But Steven is refreshingly uninterested in valuation as a goal. It hasn’t changed who they hire, how they operate, or who they serve. Pets and pet parents remain at the centre. Everything else follows. The conversation also highlights the power of advocacy. Pet owners talk—to vets, to friends, to each other. When trust is earned, it compounds. With a Net Promoter Score consistently above 70, ManyPets has turned customer love into a growth engine far more powerful than paid acquisition alone. This episode offers sharp insight for leaders across insurance and beyond: Why community-led product design outperforms assumption-led innovation How customer obsession creates both emotional and economic returns Why brand, trust, and experience matter more than valuation milestones What it takes to scale without losing your soul Steven Mendel proves that doing the right thing for customers isn’t a trade-off. It’s the strategy. 🎧 Tune in—and ask yourself: are you optimising for valuation… or building something people genuinely advocate for?