July 06, 2021

#18 - Meeri Rebane 🇪🇪 🇩🇪 (INZMO) on raising EUR 3M following a successful Insurtech pivot, starting a business from scratch in Berlin, product validation and building the Red Bull of insurance brands

1 hour 6 minutes

Meeri Rebane (EE) shares her experience of launching a company in one of the hottest Insurtech markets in Europe - Germany. Having pivoted away from a bicycle identification platform, Meeri together with her co-founder Risto Klausen (EE) is building a consumer-friendly insurance app in the heart of the Berlin tech scene with an edgy brand inspired by Red Bull

In this conversation, we talk about the potential of Insurtech (an industry that raised over 1bn EUR in VC in Europe this year) and how it is helping the age-old insurance industry to reach the young and mobile population. We also dig into the intricacies of starting a company abroad and especially as a foreign founder. Finally, we discuss serial entrepreneurship, pivoting and building on top of existing businesses and ideas

The topics covered in this episode with Timestamps

[02:00] - Starting an Insuretech business

If your home market is tiny, then whatever traction you have there won’t mean anything for proving the ability to conquer the bigger European or other markets
Don’t be afraid to start a business in an industry where you don’t have significant experience

[08:45] - The rise of global and European Insurtech and INZMO

Customer acquisition cost through digital is so high in insurance that one must find smarter ways of getting customers
B2B2C partnerships as an efficient customer acquisition method
Legacy insurance companies invest in Insurtech companies heavily to not become obsolete
The insurance market pie is growing both due to new types of products (devices, pets, rent/bills) as well as the growing adoption of insurance products among the younger generations
User experience is more important than the cost for the consumer in most cases
Subscription and embed models will create huge value by making the insurance experience even more seamless

[28:35] - Starting a company abroad

Picking the market to go-to
Legally it’s simple to set up in Germany and most countries in the EU
Tap into potential partners for market intelligence
Berlin is a great place to start a business in terms of costs and welcoming towards startups and big VC interest
Use local accelerators to help market entry with investors and partners
Not knowing the local language has not been a problem at least in Germany so don’t be discouraged by that
Hiring the local team
Making your company an appealing workplace
Employer branding as a foreigner
Estonian vs. German company - how to present yourself in a foreign market to investors, employees, and clients

[43:00] 2 Co-founders / 2 Co-CEOs

How it practically works in day to day business
Long experience working together with founders seen as a huge plus by VCs

[51:40 ] - Serial entrepreneurship and Pivoting the business

Get started, get to market, don’t make the perfect product
Raising 3M from VCs shortly after making the pivot
To successfully pivot you need to be conscious of the real value that you are bringing to the customer - it might be in just one feature of your whole product
Introducing a high;y demanded insurance innovation (apartment deposit insurance)
Building a Red-bull like brand in an old-school industry

Find out more on https://www.pursuitofscrappiness.co/

Support for this episode comes from Nexpay > https://paynexpay.com/

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By Uldis Teraudkalns & Janis Zeps

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