Scouting for Growth Christie Downs: About handdii
On this episode of Scouting For Growth, Sabine VdL talks to Christie Downs. A self-made entrepreneur and problem solver who started handdii with her co-founder Kathryn Wood.
After working as an executive in the construction industry, building deep experience and broad industry relationships, Christie saw an opportunity to use technology to improve the way customers connect with contractors when they are making property insurance claims.
This is how handdii was born as a three-way digital platform, combining insurance, construction and contractors, where contractors can easily connect, engage and promote their businesses.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- I am a high-energy business leader who loves solving problems and creating exciting solutions that transform people's lives. After working as an executive in the construction industry, building deep experience and broad industry relationships, I saw an opportunity to use technology to improve the way customers connect with contractors when they are making property insurance claims, making it quicker, faster, and cheaper for insurers, clients, and tradespeople.
- We’re just at the starting line, there’s so much opportunity ahead. I think the early innovation in our sector has been pretty straightforward. How do we buy faster, make things convenient, streamline processes and save cost? Quite a lot of separate practical solutions. For example, right now, there are many inspection tools and solutions an insurance company would use – virtual inspections, drones, AI, and they might actually use various tools all at once.
- Our vision is to make small property claims amazing. The industry has a cumbersome process for property claims with multiple people and approvals involved designed for large losses. This process is not designed to fast-track small claims, and moreover, the major suppliers to the insurance industry would prefer not to handle small claims. So, my Co-Founder and I set out to change that! Handdii is a really practical solution to a common problem. Any Claims leader can see the opportunity in their portfolio to improve how small claims are managed. We’re really focused on our niche, and when we partner with an insurer, we make it easy to work with us.
- Our team has a solid property claims background, reflected in the product and program we have built. This makes it easy for the insurer to work with us because we speak their language and understand their challenges while having the speed and the money to be an innovative partner creating solutions for them.
BEST MOMENTS
‘My experience also includes being Executive of Carlton Football Club as the General Manager of Business Development introducing unique revenue streams, the creation of Carlton Respects program against family violence and Blue Skies program supporting diversity and inclusion in the inaugural year of AFLW.’
‘I think the future of innovation will become more and more integrated into our lives, activities, and systems. Bringing all of these different solutions together, then once that efficiency is achieved, we’ll look to bring innovation to achieve more purposeful outcomes around sustainability, inclusion, and prosperity.’
‘COVID has made some things much easier and others more challenging. For example, onboarding contractors, meeting via video rather than in person, has streamlined how quickly we have expanded our contractor network across multiple states this year. Whereas meeting new insurance companies is more challenging, we are certainly happy the in-person conferences are kicking off again now.’
‘When working with large enterprises, be patient, be persistent, be astute commercially – if you’re bringing great value, hold your line on your cost.’
ABOUT THE GUEST
Christie Downs: I am a high-energy business leader who loves solving problems and creating exciting solutions that transform people's lives and work. After working as an executive in the construction industry, building deep experience and broad industry relationships, I saw an opportunity to use technology to improve the way customers connect with contractors when they are making property insurance claims, making it quicker, faster, and cheaper for insurers, clients, and tradespeople. I made the leap to entrepreneurship in 2018, starting handdii with Kathryn Wood.
handdii is a three-way platform where contractors can easily connect, engage and promote their businesses, insurers experience reduced cost, and both and customers find their property insurance repairs are easier and cheaper to organize with better results.
My core career experience of ten years was as group sales director and board member of the national construction company, Johns Lyng Group, ASX listed as JLG. I played a lead role in the national expansion and exponential revenue growth of the group, from $12 million in 2004 to $350 million in 2015. During this experience, I saw first-hand the problems people had with getting repairs done, often after stressful situations, and experienced fantastic contractors who ran great businesses.
My experience also includes being the Executive of Carlton Football Club as the General Manager of Business Development, introducing unique revenue streams, the creation of the Carlton Respects program against family violence, and the Blue Skies program supporting diversity and inclusion in the inaugural year of AFLW.
I am passionate about contributing to society and was Chair of Starball Committee Sydney for 3 years, raising more than USD $1 million for Starlight Children’s Foundation.
I love to share my experiences and learnings with #public speaking on the value of diversity and inclusion, starting your own venture, and how the insurtech industry is evolving.
About handdii:
Having worked as a Director of a Construction company in the Insurance industry for 10 years, I know customer satisfaction in property claims is very low. This is because the traditional fulfillment process is complicated and takes 60 days on average to get a property repaired. Yet, 80% of property claims are small and only require 1 or 2 trades.
For this 80% of small claims, handdii dramatically improves the customer experience by pairing the customer with the trade they need to assist in claim determination and complete works immediately. Cutting claim life from 2 months to 1 week.
handdii makes workflow easy for trades through pre-agreed rates, opt-in scheduling, automated processing, and payment. Minimizing these friction points empowers the trades to focus on providing quality work and an awesome customer experience.
For insurance companies, handdii can provide claim lodgement and allocation, save 25% in claims cost and enable digital transformation for property claims. A significant positive impact on customer satisfaction (NPS) will lead to new customer acquisition and further product opportunities.
ABOUT THE HOST
Sabine is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Managing Partner of Alchemy Crew, a venture lab that accelerates the curation, validation, & commercialization of new tech business models. Sabine is renowned within the insurance sector for building some of the most renowned tech startup accelerators around the world working with over 30 corporate insurers & accelerating over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner.
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