The Future of Insurance

Tomer is CEO and Co-Founder of VOOM. VOOM is an InsurTech pioneer, crafting cutting-edge, usage-based insurance solutions for the future of mobility. Among VOOM products are VOOM&Fly/SkyWatch - the leading digital drone insurance product in North America, VOOM & RIDE - the world's first pay-per-mile motorcycle insurance product, and VOOM & Drive - auto insurance tailored for the unique needs of gig drivers. Before VOOM, Tomer spearheaded award-winning, interdisciplinary technological projects in the Israeli Prime Minister's Office cyber unit. Tomer is a graduate of Israel's elite technology program "Talpiot", and holds an MBA from Tel Aviv and a BSc in computer science and physics from the Hebrew University. Highlights from the Show Tomer is a computer scientist and physicist by background, and started his work in an elite unit in the Israeli Defense Force's technology unit, and met his cofounder, Ori After completing their service, they wanted to start a new business, and eventually started a drone insurer, SkyWatch, which is the largest drone insurer in North America today, and Voom, a mobility insurer SkyWatch saw success because they built a best-of-breed risk assessment platform, as well as a core system that allowed great flexibility in distribution (including embedded), data and more that they call the Voom Core Voom is focused on mobility insurance, like motorcycle, ride-sharing solutions and other auto and mobility related insurance products The strategy has been to identify a specific category, look at what would be needed to truly delight customers and serve their needs, and try to deliver that, which they've used to go into several spaces beyond their initial drone product One example is how they've address motorcycle coverage Many motorcycles (70%) are occasional-use products, so paying for coverage for regular use seems not to make sense Voom offers the first pay-per-mile motorcycle product, based on sending a photo of your odometer to calculate mileage For traditional insurers to innovate in small segments (relative to their overall scale) is hard because the lift isn't enough for the size of their bottom-line, so customers end up being overlooked and stuck with products and CX that becomes outdated They think of changes in mobility in three ways: New platforms - beyond cars, moving into drones, e-scooters and more Increased connectivity - data connections impacting underwriting, loss prevention and more (like their pay-per-mile motorcycle product) New utilization - changes in ways of using platforms, like ride-sharing changing how cars are used The future of mobility insurance isn't something Tomer claims to know what will happen in the long term, despite all the predictions out there, but he does see some things emerging and some things as technology proof Regardless of autonomy, some people will still want to drive for the pleasure of it, including motorcyclists New ways to use mobility products will keep emerging, and they will require coverage designed for that specific solution, like when Uber or Turo came to be This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance book series (future-of-insurance.com) from Bryan Falchuk. Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes. Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.

Wesley is CEO and Co-Founder of Sola Insurance based in Atlanta, GA. Wesley comes from a tech background and jumped into the insurance industry at a flood insurance startup where he was tasked with working on the data side with private and FEMA flood maps. Realizing this data was telling us exactly where the damage is, Wesley became obsessed with how data can be used to automatically trigger an insurance claim payout. Sola is starting with supplemental tornado coverage for homeowners but plans to expand into every type of natural disaster to help people cover their deductible and immediate expenses. Sola has already been approved in 15 states as the first ever admitted personal lines parametric product, is fully reinsured through Lloyd's of London, and has partnered with hundreds of insurance agencies across the Midwest and Southeast. Highlights from the Show Sola Insurance is a new class of financial insurance products that helps homeowners cover their deductible and immediate expenses after natural disaster events Sola is developing new products that pay period faster and more transparently so they can get back on their feet Right after a disaster, there's an immediate need for assistance while you wait for a traditional claim to get handled (even if it's handled quickly) Deductibles have increased across many lines of insurance, with homeowners choosing $2,500 deductibles twice as frequently just over four years ago, which is more than most Americans have saved for emergencies Many homeowners policies or coverages within them have significantly higher deductibles, like for wind or quake The pressure to increase deductibles is only getting worse, as discussed in this WSJ article we mentioned The cost of capital and providing insurance for carriers is going up, with 30% increases in reinsurance The initial product is a Tornado parametric coverage, which is the first time a startup has launched an admitted parametric product They have capacity from Beazley and fronting from Spinnaker They've just had their first two claims after the Hendersonville tornado outside of Nashville, Tennessee, and paid both within 60 hours of the tornado touching down They see this as complementary to existing coverage, and have seen a lot of interest and support from independent agents who are looking for ways to create coverage to fill in for increasing deductibles to keep insurance affordable With the original HO policy developed in the 1950s, Sola is trying to create solutions for what risk looks like today Their next priority is Wind & Hail, which is segmented out on traditional HO policies and is a frequent cause of loss Wesley started Sola in the Global Insurance Accelerator in 2021 and is young, along with his co-founders, and they haven't let that stop them or slow them down in an industry where tenure and tradition continue to carry weight Wesley credits a two things with their success despite their age: An innate sense of curiosity, which helped him to really get into the issues at hand and stay open to learning People can't deny the work that you've done, so the team has ensured they keep delivering and proving themselves, balancing the need to spend time building relationships with delivering tangible milestones and results This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance book series (future-of-insurance.com) from Bryan Falchuk. Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes. Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.

Kobi is the CEO of InsurTech Israel that established by him to promote and lead the Israeli Insurtech ecosystem. The company has four areas of activity, investments, Bizdev, media and Acceleration program. All that activities make InsurTech Israel as the leading and most active company in the Israeli Insurtech. Kobi was the founder and CEO of Reshef Insurance Brokers, part of Migdal / Generali Insurance Group. Kobi has 22 years of experience in the insurance industry and holds a BA in Management and an MA in Law from Bar Ilan University and he is a Colonel (Reserve) in the IDF. Highlights from the Show Kobi started an MGA in Israel that grew to be the largest in the country that he sold to Generali After some time off, he saw a need to create a way to strengthen the insurtech ecosystem in the country Tel Aviv has almost 200 insurance startups, and InsurTech Israel supports them with four pillars Investment Business Development Exposure Accelerator They partner with other organizations, including BrokerTechVentures, AIG, Aon, AF Group, Dell, Milliman, ResourcePro, Xceedance and others They work across the entire value chain and space in insurance Insurance works on trust, so their core mission is really to help build trust in companies in the ecosystem there Tel Aviv has been a hotspot for innovation more broadly, which Kobi attributes to a very social environment, open mindsets of the people to embrace new ideas, and infrastructure from the government and supporting areas like venture capital Right now is obviously a very difficult time for anyone in the area, and only adds to the uncertainty and need for great leadership for startups Kobi shared the initial shock after Black Saturday in October After a few days, they realized they cannot stay in shock, and must continue or they will lose their momentum and place in the industry It's a time where the country is clearly in the midst of trauma and the impact that's having on the community is visible One reason Kobi believes Israel has so many startups is the way it faces major strife and disaster and comes back stronger, which builds resilience and toughness to press through great challenges Today, the main focus for InsurTech Israel is to support their startups with fundraising as they found many of their members were planning to raise soon and need support there given the way the war is impacting fundraising and these startups need to make it through to their next raise This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance book series (future-of-insurance.com) from Bryan Falchuk. Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes. Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.

Bobby Touran is the CEO and co-founder of Rainbow. He is a founder, CEO and operator with over 15 years of experience in insurance and software development, having previously founded Pathpoint, a digital insurance brokerage focused on retail agents and their E&S risk. Follow him on LinkedIn. Highlights from the Show Bobby is an entrepreneur, with the second half of his career being focused on insurance, including starting a digital E&S exchange, and now co-founding an MGA called Rainbow Rainbow is an MGA focused on specific niches or verticals in small commercial, using that focus to enable better underwriting and service to the space Their initial focus is on providing BOP to restaurants, which they view as an area that will always need coverage and is going through dislocation today as some traditional players have pulled back They can connect third party datasets that are super-specific to a vertical for better understanding of the risk and not just to enable faster application completion time or quote turnaround They also have expert underwriters who really understand the vertical rather than looking to automate underwriting out of the equation In terms of moving into new verticals vs. investing in growing out their first vertical of restaurants, they see plenty of room for growth in restaurants today as they add more states or deepen their distribution relationships with their agents, but they also have a rubric of sorts to help them identify where to move next in terms of new verticals Their relationships with agents and brokers and the underlying platform they've built should allow them to scale and expand efficiently without having to build it all from scratch with each new vertical The focus on a handful of codes for a given vertical helps them stay focused and clear on what they do (and don't do), and the systems, processes and skills needed to support their business They've also built their platform with modularity but also in-house so they aren't beholden to constraints of other systems or vendors They get better underwriting results through three prongs to their strategy Their system has their risk selection built in from the start so they can weed out risks they aren't positioned to underwrite quickly and early for their agents, and the criteria can be very nuanced, specific and inter-connected They have access to deep data on their vertical, and keep eyes on it over the life of a risk so they can get a truer picture of risk early and often They have experienced human underwriters, who not only look at the risks, but also provide differentiated service to their agents and brokers which is something their distribution partners call out specifically as a reason they like working with Rainbow Bobby thinks there's a lot of opportunity today, even in this investment environment, but it requires demonstrating genuinely good underwriting results at the heart of your business When some in the market run away from a space that needs to be served, Bobby sees a moment of opportunity to see if a better approach can be deployed to then successfully and profitably seize on that market dislocation This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance book series (future-of-insurance.com) from Bryan Falchuk. Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes. Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.

Adrian Jones is venture capitalist in insurance and former reinsurance executive. Organizations that he has been a part of have invested in 40+ young insurance sector companies. Adrian has been a Board director or observer at eight young companies including distributors, carriers, and service providers in insurance. Before joining HSCM Ventures as a Partner in 2021, he was Deputy CEO of P&C Partners at SCOR, where he set-up and led SCOR P&C Ventures. From 2010 to 2016, he was head of strategy at RenaissanceRe. He started his career in 2001 at Bain & Co and has lived/worked in New York, Paris, Bermuda, Brussels, and Stockholm. Comments made by Adrian are made in a personal capacity only and should not be associated with any organization to which he is afiliated, employed, or an investor. His comments are solely for educational purposes and do not represent recommendations or research. Highlights from the Show Adrian started in consulting, then worked in reinsurance and venture investing He has been looking at the headcount in the InsurTech sector starting with data from mid-2020, and saw that employment has increased from about 75,000 to over 100,000 In the downturn, there was a retrenchment, with companies reducing staff by 31% on average, with the bulk of that being driven by mid-sized companies (200-1000 employees) There's been a lot of movement recently, between startups and incumbents, and people from outside the industry coming into it (and vice versa) This also portends the changes we've now seen in the traditional insurance companies, especially in admitted carriers, some of which have been reducing staff Adrian spoke at ITC on lessons from early InsurTechs (founded after 2008) who are now worth $5 B or more, and looked into what lessons we can learn from their success He noted 7 lessons from their experience A surprising finding is that technology is not the differentiator He found leadership teams that were experienced, entry into dislocated markets, partnership and support with regulators, and time to prove their model's success "Insurance is a business of compounding reserves over time, and many young businesses haven't had the chance to prove that their compounding machine works? You can see his slides at https://www.linkedin.com/posts/adrianjo_adrian-jones-keynote-at-insuretech-connect-activity-7125587320308682752-NhL6 Insurance isn't about the giant TAM and high traction for Adrian, who would rather see less traction but the right traction rather than getting lots of traction that ends up being bad business Adrian has also seen reinsurers support the new InsurTech risk takers, whether backing programs where 100% gets ceded, to even carriers where they're ceding 40-60% of the premium (whereas an established carrier seeds 6% on average) He didn't see the reinsurance veto people predicted We talked about how to address the issue where coverage is too expensive to buy and too cheap to sell in some pockets today, and what role parametric could play in solving that He sees parametric as a good solution, but in niche situations like a deductible buy down You face basis risk and a need for distributors who are willing to educate consumers while taking potential E&O exposure if insureds are unhappy when their loss isn't paid because the parametric trigger wasn't met This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance book series (future-of-insurance.com) from Bryan Falchuk. Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes. Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.

Juan de Castro is COO of Cytora, leading product strategy, sales, distribution, partnerships and operations. He was previously UK COO at Hiscox (FTSE100), and lead Group Strategy and Corporate Development at the Group level, reporting to the Group CEO. Before moving into Insurance, Juan was a senior manager at McKinsey's Silicon Valley office, focusing on growth strategy and operational improvement engagements for Fortune 100 companies. He worked across a number of different industries, from Tech to Utilities and Financial Services, with a special focus on digital strategy and operational turnarounds. A Computer Engineer by training, he started with a technical career owning P&L responsibility in a professional services division, building and leading engineering teams. He holds a Master's degree from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a Computer Engineering degree from Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Highlights from the Show Juan came to Insurance from consulting in Silicon Valley, and admits he didn't realize how much he didn't realize that justified the sense some have of the industry being behind, like not knowing the cost of the goods you're selling when you sell it He also found that we spend a lot to bring customers in, only to decide they're out of appetite, especially in the direct channel, where his carrier work focused Serving as COO of Hiscox UK, he focused a lot on the expense ratio, but worked on driving up premium per underwriter rather than cutting costs, which he sees as less sustainable or impactful He found getting the data you really need to do this is hard, like where underwriters spend their time or lose it Once you had the data, you had limited tools to deliver on what you discovered, like how to identify the right risks quickly and then get them to the right underwriters Juan sees a growing focus on the end-to-end workflow of underwriters, much like how manufacturing transformed in the Industrial Revolution New tools enabled the flow of work and automation New energy enabled speed and deploying tools that weren't possible before Automation allowed the new fuel and tools to push product through the system This is actually very similar to how underwriters work, and we're in the midst of the same type of drivers coming online New tools, like AI and Gen AI New fuel, meaning better internal and external data New ability to deploy automation that didn't exist before, so risk can flow (which is the idea behind Cytora's podcast that Juan hosts, called Making Risk Flow) This is a moment where underwriters can rise above the transaction to focus on macro-level issues and engage with brokers In the mid-market area that Juan and Cytora focuses, he talks about 10 Click Underwriting This is about using tools to remove the excessive number of steps and handoffs internally so risks can come in and be quoted within hours instead of days or weeks This includes using third party data and artificial intelligence to take in submissions, analyze and prioritize them in conjunction with a rating engine, to present prioritized opportunities to underwriters with the transactional work done for them When it comes to AI, Juan is interesting in enabling both the early adopters and those who are on the sidelines, unsure of what to do You need to have the right controls and safeguards, like not sending proprietary data to the LLMs to protect carrier's IP LLMs allow carriers to overcome historic roadblocks to digitization, with three examples he shared: Ingesting submissions from brokers and taking the insights from them without having to train models on hundreds or thousands of examples Mapping data, once extracted, so your internal systems can understand, like taking in varied occupancy reports in a way that informs a rating engine and record of risk system without a person having to make sense of it Bring together UW guidelines and the book of business to help guide underwriters on how to handle a specific risk – something you'd need years of coaching, shadowing and training to achieve otherwise Juan thinks the horizon for adoption of AI is different from past technology like IoT because the benefits aren't theoretical, they're real, tangible and demonstrable, so he believes the industry will move faster here This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance book series (future-of-insurance.com) from Bryan Falchuk. Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes. Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.

Jean-Christophe Garaix, Head of Agriculture & Parametric Insurance for Liberty Mutual Reinsurance, and Andy Thompson, Co-Founder & CEO of Safehub, join the show to discuss their collaboration on addressing earthquake exposure. Using Safehub's IoT sensors, they've been able to design a parametric insurance product that's live in Mexico City – one of the most quake-prone areas in the world – that brings building-specific shake accuracy to the adjusting of claims. This allows for an affordable coverage that can be provided quickly while solving for the basis risk inherent in previous earthquake data like shake maps. Together, they're working to create great resiliency through the network effect of improved and more point-specific data coming together to paint accurate pictures of risk and how it plays out. Highlights from the Show Jean-Christophe (JC) Garaix oversees the parametric business for Liberty Mutual Reinsurance, looking for external / third party index for the basis to adjust a risk Andy Thompson, co-founder of Safehub, is a structural earthquake engineer by background who became acutely aware of the lack of individual-building performance during earthquakes and other shaking events, and sought to create a sensor-based solution that's easy to deploy to solve this Existing tools are about regional effects, which are helpful for municipalities or disaster response efforts, but not useful for a specific building, where the impact of one building could be completely different to that of a neighboring building Safehub has been working with many building owners for years to help with business continuity, maintenance and general management of their properties, but thought this could increase resilience by solving the basis risk issue JC talked about by partnering with an insurer The size, simplicity and stand-alone nature of Safehub's solution allowed Liberty Mutual to extend a coverage like this to smaller insureds in addition to their large property clients For parametric coverage to succeed, JC jokes that you need education, education and education Liberty is looking at similar solutions for other types of events, like cyclones where there is broad-brush data, but they need to measure the wind speed at a specific location to offer coverage for an individual property Today, the issue is less about data availability (which was the issue a decade ago), and more one of product design A barrier to adoption of the kinds of sensors that allow for solutions like this has been the complexity of installation, making the commercial market more attractive for such products Bringing asset-specific data in a bigger network allows for more resiliency and protection by enabling parametric and other innovative products that can close protection gaps, offer cover options This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance book series (future-of-insurance.com) from Bryan Falchuk. Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes. Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.

Nick and I sit down once again to talk about all the things on our mind. We recorded this in the hotel the morning after ITC 2023 ended, so we recap the event a bit, talk about insurability in Florida and how the rest of the nation is likely to follow that state, Hurricane Otis and more. As always, Nick is a source of a ton of knowledge, perspective and new thinking on what is and what could be for our industry. Highlights from the Show Nick is the Managing Partner of Insurance Nerds, and has just co-founded the Insurance Advocacy Forum of Florida It is an alliance of carriers, brokers, reinsurance brokers, insurtechs, claims professionals and more to advocate for and promote a healthy, stable insurance market Efforts in Florida will be important for the rest of the country since it's generally been a few years ahead of where the rest of the country has ended or will end up given the changing loss patterns driven by climate change and liability costs You need the conditions in place for risk capital to come in and the regulatory structure for the flexibility to use that capital efficiently and effectively and to drive the innovation needed to create product options for consumers to be able to afford to buy coverage and for carriers to be able to afford to offer them At ITC, Nick saw a lot of GenAI talk, but the substance behind it wasn't always there This is driven by the need to compete for airtime and investor attention when GenAI is so hyped up in the conversation ITC has so much going on thematically that it's hard to say what the single theme of the event is It's really more of a networking opportunity given the concentration of people you need to see all being together, though the logistics of seeing so many people when you're running around and being grabbed by people who want to talk is tricky Nick also saw a lot of private meetings rather than trying to fight through the crowds, including bringing people into town since so many of the folks they'd need to talk to are there anyway Outside of ITC, Nick has had conversations with several mutuals who are seeing a need for E&S paper to take advantage of risk opportunities that their strict, admitted underwriting guidelines won't allow them to write Insurance only works at scale, so finding ways to stay viable as a business if you have to contact too far could be a real risk for carriers who are left with pulling out of markets as the only tool in their tool box Hurricane Otis went from Tropical Storm to Cat 5 Hurricane in just 12 hours, which is incredibly rapid This puts pressure on modelers to be able to accommodate for and predict that behavior This was also a strong example of the power of good building codes; Acapulco was built to withstand earthquakes given that this is the main CAT exposure the area faces, so a Cat 5 hurricane basically hollowed out the buildings there because they were only built to stand up to tropical storms Floridian buildings are increasingly built to Cat 5 standards, especially in South Florida, so Nick believes the same storm in Florida would have left the buildings able to reopen within days instead of the extent of rebuilding needed This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance book series (future-of-insurance.com) from Bryan Falchuk. Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes. Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.

Tanguy helps companies build out their digital capabilities to deliver rapid results and sustained growth. He leads the McKinsey Digital hubs across North America and Mexico. Until recently, Tanguy shepherded the firm's property and casualty insurance work in North America. In his client work, Tanguy helps leading global financial-services firms with analytics transformations, digitally enabled business model transformations, and core-technology-modernization programs. He also serves insurance clients more broadly on issues ranging from strategy and organization design to claims and underwriting. In addition to his client work, Tanguy frequently contributes to industry publications and authors reports, and white papers on issues confronting the insurance industry. Through his undergraduate and graduate studies, Tanguy was a Siebel scholar and Fulbright fellow. He is a trustee of Carano for Children, a former member of the MIT Sloan alumni board and of the Massachusetts chapter of March of Dimes, a non-for-profit organization that works to improve the health of mothers and babies. Highlights from the Show Tanguy is a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company, working in their Insurance practice, and co-leads their digital practice, which covers such important things as AI McKinsey is talking to insurers, car makers, regulators and others around the concept of mobility Current Auto insurance products were designed for an industry in decline, where combustion cars without sensors or data are being replaced by things that look similar, but are fundamentally different, which means the existing products aren't going to be fit for purpose We're at the early stages of that transition, but this is when carriers should be thinking about how to respond They see a world in the not-too-distant future where 30% of mobility will be ride-sharing, 50% of vehicles will be Evs, and that has profound impacts on Auto insurance As evidence of this, look at the very high take-up rate for Tesla Insurance where it's available The pace of change will be slower than some say given that the car fleet needs to change over to newer vehicles with new capabilities Distracted Driving is working against the improvements in loss reduction faster than safety tech can lower it, so losses are increasing despite more tools to combat them You will see more partnerships amongst those who succeed, while those less open to partnership will struggle When it comes to AI, Generative AI is not just a buzzword, but is a real disruptor that will have tremendous impact because it's about content creation, which AI has never been able to do before Generative AI can tackle the one thing robots or computers couldn't – empathy at a human level Given that delivering insurance service is a moment of empathy, that means GenAI can be profoundly impactful in insurance in a way that no other technology could be The technology and training the models isn't the hard part of this, but culture, change management and getting the data available cleanly in the cloud is the hard part The dynamics have and are changing so much that Tanguy observes that the industry seems to be losing relevance, as shown by declining rates of CAT losses covered by insurers, which has dropped over time He sees the solution being around the massive unlock of moving from protection to prevention, which changes the importance of what we do With the support of investors behind insurtechs working on solutions and carriers willing to collaborate, there is hope Interestingly, while there was fear that Big Tech was coming for Insurance, they are so critical to cloud-based solutions that they can also be part of this collaborative effort This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance book series (future-of-insurance.com) from Bryan Falchuk. Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes. Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.

Rob is the Group Chief Executive Officer of bolttech, the fast-growing international insurtech, responsible for the company's development and growth around the world. With more than 30 years' experience in the financial services industry, Rob has previously held senior leadership roles in insurance, including President and CEO of AIG's commercial insurance businesses worldwide and Chief Executive Officer of the Americas for AIG. Prior to that, Rob served as President and Chief Executive Officer of EMEA and was the Chief Financial Officer of AIG's global property and casualty business. Before joining AIG, Rob was a partner at Deloitte & Touche L.L.P. where, for 18 years, he used his public accounting experience to serve global financial institution clients, including MetLife, The Prudential Insurance Company of America, and Merrill Lynch. Rob is a C.P.A. He earned his M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of Rider University in New Jersey and Chairman of the Rider University Board of Trustees. Highlights from the Show Rob started as an accountant, and then moved to AIG He left AIG with a lot of lessons of what to do and what not to do, and used that to start bolttech as a an insurance distribution solution for the industry They work on embedded insurance, but with a broad definition of the term Bolttech runs an insurance exchange, connecting buyers and sellers of protection and insurance, and current have a scaled solution that's doing 25 homeowners quotes a minute, every hour of every day (that's 36,000 per day for just one line of business) Their take on embedded allows for the flexibility to offer choice of carrier and product, but also thinks much more broadly about how insurance can support the transaction around the core product it provides protection around, rather than trying to be the center of the transaction itself bolttech intentionally does not think about insurance as the center of the transaction, which helps them to think about other moments and areas to connect into the needs of the consumer rather than a single buying moment Part of this comes from the understanding insurers don't need to do or solve for everything themselves, and finding ways to solve a customer's needs whether it's with something you built or not is better than trying to force your own solution when it's not fit for purpose Two things have been holding embedded back from living up to the hype yet Before that, bolttech recognizes that they're fast but their partners aren't always as fast, so they need to slow down while helping their partners to speed up so they can meet in the middle The first element slowing things is the idea of DIY – I don't need anyone else to be able to build an embedded solution It is possible, but it is slower than if you worked with someone else Second, many players are working on embedded solutions in pockets, which end up being disjointed and subscale rather than what would be possible if we could connect those points together so they can help each other grow When you try to build the entire embedded solution alone, you will move slower and less ideally than if you cooperated and connected to others working on the issue, too You really need to think in the really big picture of everything around the customer rather than any one product, or even just insurance Rob thinks about bolttech as building the rails that enable the trains of products customers need can be delivered, regardless of who builds or sells the products themselves This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance, Volume IV. Asia Rising which features bolttech, available at future-of-insurance.com/asia) by Theresa Blissing. Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes. Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.