The Insurtech Leadership Podcast

Creating Embedded Insurance for the Sharing Economy Market (w/Arik Shpak, Connected Insurance)

Arik Shpak is Co-Founder and Chief Insurance Officer at Connected insurance, focused on the creation of new insurance markets in the "sharing economy" such as transportation and mobility. These new markets are growing at over 30% per year but lack of traditional actuarial models and experience. 

Connected helps any sharing economy business embed insurance into their product offering creation. Their technological invention is to utilize advanced event sourcing technology and provide real-time data analysis algorithms and machine learning. This helps fill the gap on actuarial data and discovers a way to price and write the required insurance.

Arik is former the head of innovation at Kesh Underwriters, and an insurance broker at Shepherd Compello Ltd in London (a Lloyd’s Broker and Coverholder). He describes how he sees what Lloyd's is doing in discovering and innovating new insurance markets as being a true basis for the insurance world.

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.

Translating Claims Stories into Predictive Models using AI (w/Sri Ramaswamy, CEO Charlee.ai)

Sri Ramaswamy is founding CEO of Charlee.ai a Silicon Valley technology company specializing in claims and underwriting solutions. Charlee leverages natural language processing to streamline claim workflows and risks to reduce claims expenses, litigation and efficiently manage reserves.

Charlee's core product addresses the rising severity of claims when attorneys get involved, which has grown by more than 30% since Covid. Charlee augments claims teams' intelligence by assimilating past claims data to detect patterns and trends, the risk characteristics that correlate with litigation and rising claims severity, as well as actuaries development of coverage models. 

Charlee also helps parse and strengthen the dataset so that adjusters can bring in multiple data points to make non-emotional decisions to settle claims in the right way. The product was build upon decades of claims adjuster knowledge and experience and 'mimics' the experts to build exactly the right domain libraries and ontologies relevant to the P&C claims process.

Sri spent more than 20 years in architecting and launching business intelligence, advanced data analytics and artificial intelligence solutions for banking and Insurance industries.

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.

What is Semi-Parametric Insurance in Social Media Cyber Protection (w/Rafael Broshi, CEO Notch)

Rafael Broshi is Co-Founder and CEO of Notch, an MGA offering new insurance products for individuals and micro businesses.  Notch provides insurance and security solutions for digital assets, starting with a business' digital storefront - their social media account.

Medium- and large-sized businesses have access to cyber insurance for damages created via email, social media, direct messengers etc. Businesses rely on social media for distribution and as a source of growth and income. Notch's social media coverage product is admitted in the US, written on HSB paper (an AA+ rated carrier) and protects against account takeover. The outcome is loss of income insurance for up to three months with a semi-parametric and semi-automated claims process.

Notch's product specializes on micro-businesses with up to 20 employees, with most of its customers making up to half-million dollars in revenue per year. Notch is selling direct to small businesses to understand the market, and is now starting retail agent expansion with an exact knowledge of their customer typology.

The brain of Notch's product uses public data to instantly evaluate the customer need, rather than relying on collecting information from the customer. Parametric insurance relies on an outside check to trigger the claims process, but it relies on whether there was a real loss. Notch is semi-parametric because they determine semi-automatically whether an incident has occurred and when to pay a claim.

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.

A National Agency Just Created its own Brokertech Accelerator - Here’s What We Know (w/Dan Keough, CEO Holmes Murphy)

Daniel Keough is the Chairman & CEO of Holmes Murphy & Associates, one of the nation’s largest independent insurance agencies. Dan also serves as co-CEO of BrokerTech Ventures, the first broker-led convening platform focused on delivering innovation to the insurance broker industry, or #brokertech. 

Dan talks about how BrokerTech Ventures supports the technological and business development of #brokertech companies and is at the forefront of change for the insurance industry.

Prior to leading Holmes Murphy, Dan founded Innovative Captive Strategies, a subsidiary company of Holmes Murphy. His goal was to develop captive alternatives that would provide businesses with unexpected sources of
revenue while alleviating unnecessary business expenses. Dan earned an MBA with a specialty in Finance from Loyola University Graduate School of Business, and he holds an undergraduate degree in Business Administration from the University of Iowa.

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.

Personal Wellness as Insurance Growth Engine in 2023 (w/Danny Amir, CEO BetterTogether)

Danny Amir is CEO of BetterTogether, a direct-to-consumer personal wellness and weight loss app that is bringing simple and effective well-being and weight loss products to millions of people. 

BetterTogether is answering to the main trends in the insurance in industry in personal health and bringing a new benefit into their offering. Reinsurers are moving into preventative activities, life and health insurance companies are seeking to differentiate and reduce churn with new wellness offerings for insureds. Brokers are seeking creativity in their offering for employers.  While no one wants to increase risk, all parties in the insurance value chain seek innovative new services that delight the end customers.

BetterTogether brings a social-first approach to well-being empowers individuals to make healthier lifestyle choices and achieve success at a much higher rate than traditional approaches.

The well-being product is unique in its ability to engage customers on health and wellness and create shared value for all parties in the insurance industry, including reinsurers, carriers, brokers, employers, and consumers.

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.

Providing the Connective Tissue for Construction Industry Insurance (Nyasha Gutsa, CEO at Billy)

Nyasha Gutsa is CEO and co-founder of Billy, which digitizes and connects the process by which construction contractors work with insurance brokers. Billy is redefining construction insurance technology, managing insurers, certificates of insurance and requirements, working with brokers to retain and engage customers. This can mean commercial general liability, workers compensation, auto and excess liability and more specialist forms of insurance that can be required to sign a customer.

Billy does not want to compete with brokers so is not an MGA, rather acting as the connective tissue between insureds and brokers/agents and focusing on the specialist area of insurance including the claims management process.

Nyasha has built strong cultural values at Billy that drive engagement with the business, based on ownership, openness and optimism. Employees work four days a week (Thursdays are always off), and give opportunities to travel or spend more time with their family. 

Nyasha was born in Harare, Zimbabwe, and began his construction career as a mailroom clerk and rose through the ranks to become a project accountant at Plaza Construction, a New York City General Contractor. He was one of the early employees at Procore, where he spent 6.5 years working as a Sr. Product Manager responsible for building contracts, invoices, and integrations into Procore's financial tools.   

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.

Auto Claims: People Want to Move On, But Insurance Needs to Remember The Details (w/Itay Bengad, CEO Sensa Insurance)

Itay Bengay is CEO at Sensa, the first proactive auto insurance company, focused on help - not just compensation. Sensa provides lifesaving services 24/7.

Itay believes people should not be left alone during a car accident. In the moments after a car accident, people want to deny and move beyond it whereas the insurance need is to remember every detail of that incident to avoid any unnecessary claims inflation. 

Sensa is a "proactive" insurance company engaged in redefining the standards for profitability and loss ratios while helping each policyholder through this important "moment of truth". Itay says removing the policyholder systematically from the claims process and instead relying on hard data will strengthen and improve settlements. 

Itay is a physician by training, and technology executive by experience.He is driven by real-life problems to develop financially viable solutions. He discusses building change from outside the insurance industry but using people from inside the industry to achieve that change.

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.

The Miracle of Software Applied to Insurance (w/Dan Woods, CEO Socotra)

Dan Woods is the founder and CEO of Socotra, the first modern, cloud-based platform for technology-driven insurers.

Socotra has its own app marketplace and APIs to connect software to insurance businesses, providing open access and clean documentation to get started. Socotra provides solutions that are off-the-shelf, true cloud and fully documented.

With computer science being the most popular degree at most universities, we have more people who can implement solutions that go-live and work.

Dan created data platforms and smart enterprise software at 8VC and Palantir. He holds a MS in Computer Science from Stanford.  

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.

The Last 100 Years of Climate Data Can’t Be Used to Predict What Will Happen in the Next Ten (w/Steve Bennett, Chief Climate Officer at Demex)

Steve is cofounder and Chief Climate Officer for The Demex Group, providing actionable risk management solutions at the hyper-local level for non-catastrophic but extreme weather events. Demex offers solutions for insurers, reinsurers, and other companies with exposure to extreme weather to price risk and provide a valuation basis for weather and climate-related information.

What is the impact of extreme weather on a business operations? Where are companies weather-sensitive, what impacts cost structure and revenue.  How should the company best manage that risk, via reinsurance or capital market products?  Demex was built to help clients understand their risk profile and enter into financial risk instruments that best cover that risk.

Demex starts by having a tech stack that can quickly and easily parts large sets of specialist data, then to value risk based on weather data so that insurance and capital markets can certify and price suitable protection. Steve talks about each Florida storm changing the building codes, and companies activating policyholders to take actions that help mitigate losses, all resulting in lower industry risk. 

Steve began his career working as a meteorologist in newspapers, radio and television, including The Weather Channel. He went on to focus his career on linking extreme weather and natural disasters to financial impact for Enron and Citadel where he led projects in energy, agriculture, insurance, reinsurance, and equity valuations. Steve went on to build and lead the team that developed software to identify climate risks to global supply chain operations. He is chairman of the American Meteorological Society’s Committee on Financial Weather and Climate Risk Management.

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.

Giving People More Choices for Long-term Healthcare in the Middle Market (w/Tom Beauregard, Founder & CEO at HCG Secure)

Tom Beauregard is the Founder and CEO of HCG Secure, a product and solution builder transforming the aging at-home experience. HSG produces alternatives to long-term care solutions for middle income families who retire, do not have long-term care and will not qualify for Medicare. Many people in this category may have adequate income but do not understand that Medicare does not cover their long-term care, and 70% of people face larger-than planned healthcare expenditures that are the leading cause of bankruptcy of people over age 75.

HCG is licensed in 50 States and is selling through brokerages who sell to the pre-65 population with an average buyer aged 60. HCG now has 15+ larger brokers as partners, who have confirmed this industry coverage gap. 

Tom was inspired to found HCG Secure when his parents reached an age where they were unable to fully care for themselves but wished to age at home. Limited by geography and his parents’ need for local resources, he found the process both overwhelming and difficult for him to ensure that his parents were receiving the best possible care from afar. Stunned by the lack of coverage resulting in out-of-pocket expenses and the lack of resources, Tom made it his mission to create products that offer the network and coverage needed for individuals and their loved ones to age comfortably, and as they wish. 

With over 30 years of innovation experience across healthcare, public policy, academia, and non-profit organizations, Tom’s career has centered around building disruptive solutions to problems he has personally encountered and identified within the healthcare space. Tom was the former Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer of UnitedHealth Group, where he oversaw the R&D department for both UnitedHealth and Optum. He brought over 100 R&D initiatives to market across various innovation categories, including value-based payment models, digital health, consumer engagement, and home-based care models. 

Tom graduated from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and the University of Connecticut with a Masters in Business Administration. He also received an Emmy for his work with the National Diabetes Prevention Program in partnership with the Y-USA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Project NOT ME, where he was the Executive Producer. 

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.