The Insurtech Leadership Podcast

We Turned Employee Safety & Compliance Into an Insurance Product (w/Jason Berkowitz, Founder ArrowUp)

Jason Berkowitz is currently CEO and Founder of ArrowUp, providing restaurant safety, compliance & leadership. ArrowUp helps restaurant owners reduce risk, satisfy compliance regulations and develop a culture of safety.

ArrowUp's Insurtech platform strengthens the relationship between the insured and insurer by utilizing tools to promote safe habits and capture data for enhanced underwriting, ultimately lowering risk and liability for insured restaurant owners.

He is addressing a market size of $16B in restaurant claim payouts annually, in a culture where lawsuits and union suits are commonplace. ArrowUp makes restaurants safer by providing leadership development, lowering turnover and building upon the culture within an organization to avoid unnecessary lawsuits. The results have been tremendous, with restaurants seeing 30-50% risk reduction based on OSHA standards for its customers.

Jason has opened over 50 restaurants, served as VP of Operations for Umami Burger, and COO and Partner for Tocaya Organica. 

Follow the Insurtech Leadership Podcast airing weekly hosted by Joshua R. Hollander. We give you up-close access and personal insights from the leaders of the fastest-growing #insurtechs and most innovative #insurance carriers and brokers.

Rebuilding a 40-Year Old Company into a High-Growth Tech Platform for Agents (w/Jackson Cromer, President BondExchange)

Jackson Cromer is President of BondExchange, a leading national surety-focused wholesale insurance agency serving retail insurance agents for over 40 years. Since 2012 the wholesale MGA, based in Charlottesville, NC has been boosting its automation and tech capabilities as well as redesigning its end-to-end customer experience. The company is currently bringing in business financial data and personal asset verification via a new partnership with Finicity.

 

BondExchange's technology provides a one-stop-shop for agents to efficiently quote and issue bonds in all 50 states. The company is open architecture meaning it partners across multiple insurance companies and uses an easy process that is profitable for the agent. Underwriting has been fully automated via algorithmic processing of credit data, requirements on past-due amounts, the summary of liquid accounts. The company also uses a unique bond library documenting how a bond is filed, which forms must be used for reporting purposes, and with highly structured underwriting notes for example on specialty bond clauses.

 

Jackson describes how as trust in a relationship increases over time, premiums decrease. Therefore he is focused on customer service and adding value and capabilities in surety bonds on the platform. 

Jackson digs into how he is driving technology investment, organizational growth and building brand awareness via continuous agent communications in new and existing market segments.  He also addresses how the company is focused on its internship program to develop new talent into a specialist market such as surety bonds.

 

Follow the Insurtech Leadership Podcast airing weekly hosted by Joshua R. Hollander. We give you up-close access and personal insights from the leaders of the fastest-growing #insurtechs and most innovative #insurance carriers and brokers.

 

Opening a Profitable Insurance Niche Market Means Finding Tribes (w/Blair Baldwin, CEO Boundless Rider)

Blair Baldwin is CEO of Boundless Rider, a specialty MGA focused on product innovation for the motorcycle, power-sports, and e-bike markets.

Tribes of riders form an underserved market niche that includes motorcycles, UTVs, snowmobiles and new forms of mobility.  Because these categories represent only 2-3% of an insurer's book, they have not introduced unique new customer personas of riders. Boundless created a new brand of customer experience, and added new features to the product. One example is an e-bikes optional endorsement linked to the Boundless mobile app that enables product discounts for usage. 

Blair says that the digital self-serve experience is outdated and cumbersome. They put in features that encourage safety for example requiring the use of a helmet in order to be covered.  His biggest surprise has been the collaboration with carriers to run this part of the business so that they can concentrate on larger lines of business. 

Prior to launching Boundless Rider, Blair was the Co-founder/CEO of Quilt, a venture-backed insurtech that was acquired by MassMutual, where he later ran a product innovation studio. Blair started his adventures in insurtech as the Chief Marketing Officer for Goji, an early insurtech pioneer that raised over $100M in venture capital funding. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School.

Follow the Insurtech Leadership Podcast airing weekly hosted by Joshua R. Hollander. We give you up-close access and personal insights from the leaders of the fastest-growing #insurtechs and most innovative #insurance carriers and brokers.

Building New Insurance Platforms with a Customer-First Mindset (w/Yaron Ben-Zvi, Founder Haven Life)

Yaron Ben-Zvi was the CEO of Haven Technologies, a subsidiary of MassMutual and SaaS company in the life insurance space. Yaron led the company from inception through M&A, building a cloud-based end-to-end technology platform for life insurance.

As Founder and CEO of Haven Life, Yaron was also responsible for the strategy, vision, and management of one of the leading direct-to-consumer term life insurance businesses, whose mission was to make life insurance simple. Haven Life was recognized by US News, Investopedia, and many others as one of the best Term life insurance providers in the United States. 

Previously, Yaron was also the Founder of Goalmine, an early robo-advisor that was acquired in 2012. Before that he was a Director at BuzzMetrics, where he joined as employee number ten, and helped grow the company’s key accounts until its exit to Nielsen.

Follow the Insurtech Leadership Podcast airing weekly hosted by Joshua R. Hollander. We give you up-close access and personal insights from the leaders of the fastest-growing #insurtechs and most innovative #insurance carriers and brokers.

How Insurers Can Price Companies Ability to Mitigate DEI Risk (w/James Felton-Keith, Inclusion Score)

James Felton Keith is Founder of Inclusion Score, an award-winning engineer and economist who was the first Black LGBTQ person to run for US Congress. James is currently an elected member of the New York Democratic Committee and is a frequent keynote at global venues like the United Nations, Future Tech Congress, Data Protection World Forum, and the World Pride Human Rights Forum. As an entrepreneur, he established the first international diversity & inclusion certification and the first insurance policy for a lack-of-inclusion based on an "inclusion score". 

James has also founded multiple companies in Insurtech, Fintech and Adtech including Harlem Center, Slay TV, LGBT Chambers, and Accrue.com. James' focus economic inclusion, and how to get equity in the hands of the people who have increasingly less, while the world becomes more productive from their inputs.

James played an important role in forming the data industry by founding of Data Unions and Personal Data Week conferences. He also co-founded and edits the Ethics of Personal Data Collection series at Anthem Press. As an author, his bio-political philosophy, Inclusionism, is at the forefront of International Relations and Human Rights diplomacy. His career transitioned after founding Detroit’s LGBT Chamber of Commerce and "Pride Nights" at the four Big Box American sports franchises: NBA, NHL, MLB, & NFL.

Follow the Insurtech Leadership Podcast airing weekly hosted by Joshua R. Hollander. We give you up-close access and personal insights from the leaders of the fastest-growing #insurtechs and most innovative #insurance carriers and brokers.

 

Improving Access for First-Time Auto Buyers (w/Josh Minsky, CEO Suretys)

Josh Minsky is the Founder and CEO of Suretys, replacing the need for a co-signer for first-time auto buyers with little or no credit history (eg. recent immigrants).

Retail lenders want to make more loans but are concerned about risk.  Suetys insures these lenders by underwriting the individual, leveraging banking transaction data, binding a policy and enabling the lender to give a favorable interest rate to the buyer. In the rare event of debtor default, Suretys will repay the loan balance and settle a claim with its insurance partner.

Finicity and Plaid with their 15,000 institutional individual-level account connections allow Suretys to review income and spending patterns and drill deeper than traditional credit scores can. Josh digs into how the team evaluate data and find proof points to back their risk decisions.

Suretys is an example of a startup built on a founder's personal values and beliefs. Josh is both passionate and action-oriented about in helping working people get ahead, creating opportunities for Americans to build solid financial futures, and creating solutions that bridge the inequality gap for millions of Americans.

Follow the Insurtech Leadership Podcast airing weekly hosted by Joshua R. Hollander. We give you up-close access and personal insights from the leaders of the fastest-growing #insurtechs and most innovative #insurance carriers and brokers.

On Becoming a Pure-Play Software Technology Provider for Insurers (w/Shameem Shah, CTO InsurIQ)

Shameem Shah is Chief Technology Officer at InsurIQ, providing the insurance industry with specialized resources and SaaS products design to create speed and efficiency throughout the policy life cycle. 

Shameem tells the story of how InsurIQ came to be, pivoting from business process outsourcing and inventing code to becoming a pure-play software tech provider. Over time the team added submission-to-quote-and-bind processes including policy administration, digital store for direct-to-consumer, agency onboarding, license management, appointments and policy terminations.

InsurIQ now assists insurance providers, managers, and distributors in achieving their digital transformation objectives in both B2B and D2C businesses, converting legacy applications (eg. excel) into containerized micro-services and migrating applications to scalable cloud environments.

In the episode, Shameem talks about recent implementations of A&H Policy Administration Systems using InsurIQ's flagship PAS application for some of the leading carriers in North America. As a result of these initiatives, he describes how carriers were able to receive submissions, rate, quote, bind, and issue state-compliant fulfillment documents in a significantly reduced time frame.  

Shameem spent the past 18 years working closely with underwriting, operations, and financial teams with a variety of insurance related constituents leading technology strategy from within MGU and TPA organizations prior to co-founding and launching InsurIQ as an insurtech partner on which its clients depend.

Follow the Insurtech Leadership Podcast airing weekly hosted by Joshua R. Hollander. We give you up-close access and personal insights from the leaders of the fastest-growing #insurtechs and most innovative #insurance carriers and brokers.

Why Health Insurance Is Not Important -- Until It Suddenly Is (w/Dylan Slattery, CEO Excel Health Plans)

Dylan Slattery is from Dyersville, Iowa - home of the Field of Dreams.  An avid baseball fan, he moved to Denver after coaching baseball for six years while battling two bouts with stage four melanoma in his twenties. Later, while working for a benefits consulting company, Dylan realized that many consultants were looking for a solution that worked for their small groups without all of the customization that comes with large group self-funding. 

Dylan says that as we approach $5 Trillion annual healthcare spend in the USA, 40% of it goes to waste, fraud and overspend, so trimming at small pieces can go a long way. Excel Health Plans helps employers with fewer than 150 employees save 20-40% on their health insurance without giving up access to a network. Excel increases transparency and control to make decisions such as adding access to health supplies, finally bringing the free market principle of choice to healthcare.

Dylan believes if you are only seeing your benefits consultant at enrollment or taking orders and coming back with a price, you should look elsewhere. In his words, "A good consultant will push back, bring value and know blind spots about an employer's benefits they should be considering, and be right up there with your lawyer and accountant." And his personal cancer experience has brought a patient-focused approach: Excel do not believe in denying claims as a form of cost-containment.

Follow the Insurtech Leadership Podcast airing weekly hosted by Joshua R. Hollander. We give you up-close access and personal insights from the leaders of the fastest-growing #insurtechs and most innovative #insurance carriers and brokers.

Finding Growth in Highly Regulated Channels (w/Will Prest, Managing Partner KWP)

Will Prest is Managing Partner of KWP Consulting LLC (kwpworks.com). KWP accelerates company growth by bringing together strategy development, operational and functional expertise on financial products, technology, insights, brand, sales, marketing, and distribution. Their process helps startups get to market, and large firms start new divisions or find new product/distribution partners.

In this episode, Will shares valuable insights and lessons on how to bring new ideas for growth into existing, highly regulated channels. Will has held leadership roles in sales, marketing, and product at insurers, broker/ dealers, and retirement plans providers, and was employee #2 at a successful startup focused on how to deliver advice to recreate your paycheck and benefits in retirement. 

Follow the Insurtech Leadership Podcast airing weekly hosted by Joshua R. Hollander. We give you up-close access and personal insights from the leaders of the fastest-growing #insurtechs and most innovative #insurance carriers and brokers.

Founder, Market, Product, Team: Why Adding Veteran Insurance Experience is Invaluable (w/Mike Mansell, American Family Ventures)

Mike Mansell is a Principal at American Family Ventures, a multi-limited partner VC firm focused on the future of insurance. Mike assesses, invests in, and teams with early-stage startups that are poised to write the next chapter of insurance, whether from inside the industry or a relevant adjacency.

He talks about the macro investing environment and cooling off after years of hyper-growth, and how founders have become more focused on creating strong businesses. While deploying their latest fund, the team have built an ecosystem of partners across the entire value chain of insurance, including a network of advisors for companies and connections to reinsurance, brokerage/distribution or other investors. 

Mike talks about the team's focus on founder, market, product and team, and staying true to core investing themes that have been iterated over time. Mike feels that massive change to the industry is hard to imagine, that insurance is an industry that moves by inches over a longer time given its compulsory nature. 

Mike’s recent work has taken him to the sectors of insurance distribution, E&S lines, and financial wellness. Prior to joining AFV, he gained deep risk management experience through roles at Liberty Mutual, GE Capital, and Kearney.

Follow the Insurtech Leadership Podcast airing weekly hosted by Joshua R. Hollander. We give you up-close access and personal insights from the leaders of the fastest-growing #insurtechs and most innovative #insurance carriers and brokers.