sam-at-vouch

Thanks for the thoughtful post -- let me expand on what I wrote previously, as I want to be clear: our goal is not to disrupt brokers; rather, it's to build new insurance products that uniquely meet the needs of high-growth technology (and over time, other entrepreneurial) companies. Our view is that brokers are very valuable for some clients -- and for certain other companies, especially very early stage ones, it's more hit or miss -- my experience is that's the case because it doesn't make sense for most brokers to serve small commercial accounts. We're very open to working with brokers over time for some clients/products/etc. Thanks again for the thoughts.

Thanks for the question: our policies are backed by Munich Re, which is an A+ rated (by AM Best) reinsurer.

My experience has been that brokers can add a lot of value with mature companies, but they oftentimes over-complicate things for earlier-stage companies -- so making things simple, transparent, etc. is really key, which is what we're trying to do at Vouch. In addition, brokers sell insurance products that aren't tailored for start-ups. As a result, a lot of companies are either over or under-insured. And, on average, we're seeing our pricing as being very competitive relative to incumbents' offerings. We're not closed off to offering our programs through brokers, but for most start-ups we think this adds an unnecessary layer of cost/inter-mediation.

Sorry for typo -- will amend!

I'm glad you had a good experience for your business, but I can also say that's not the case for many entrepreneurs we've worked with (we've done coverage assessments for 150+, and that's growing quickly). With Vouch in ~10 minutes you can get access up to 10 coverages, and I'm not aware of any other platforms that do that. In my experience if you need anything more sophisticated than coverage for GL and personal property you'll probably be looking at a process that takes a few weeks at least (and I've seen it take 2 months+ for some of the coverages we offer). Lastly, because we've tailored our insurance programs for tech start-ups, in most cases we're cheaper -- our basic coverage starts at ~$300/year, and in general we're seeing companies save 14%/year.

Thanks for sharing your experiences and agreed w/ the pace of change in insurance generally. Our view is that by building an insurance provider end-to-end using software we can take out a lot of this friction and better adapt to our clients' needs. Thanks again.

We're sadly not live in NY yet but will be soon -- I'll let you know as soon as we are.

Hi -- yes, we can serve any company based in CA (or the other states where we're live, regardless of where that company is incorporated), so we should be able to help!

Thanks very much for sharing your experience and I'm sorry we haven't been able to cover your needs yet. Serving boot-strapped businesses is part of our plan (just not in this first release) so I'll circle back as soon as we can cover you. Thanks again for your note.

Both NewFront and Cover are digitally-enabled brokers -- they distribute existing carriers' insurance policies. We think highly of both of them, but we see a need to create insurance programs (including the digital experience and the underlying insurance products themselves) that will work well for early-stage technology companies, which is our focus.

We are an insurance program manager (or "MGA" in insurance speak), and our insurance programs are back-stopped by Munich Re, one of the largest re-insurers in the world. We very purposefully didn't set the company up as traditional broker, because then we'd be reliant on a bunch of old-fashioned and off-line partners, which would undermines the experience we're trying to create for our clients.

Right now we're focused on providing insurance for technology start-ups (so think software, internet, fintech, digital health, etc) but we're planning broaden this so we can serve a much wider range of companies over time. Thanks for the question.

To your 5th question on pricing: in general, to get a new insurance program approved you need to file with the states. Part of that filing includes a list of rating factors. What state regulators seem to care about most are: (1) is your pricing adequate (i.e. will the insurance programs hold together on a pooled basis, so the state doesn't have to step in and backstop the claims) and, (2) is your pricing fair/non-discriminatory / good for consumers.