We just wrapped up another successful Global Insurance Symposium (GIS), just down the street from Denim's headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa. Today's guest is Dr. Robin Kiera, a keynote speaker at this year's GIS. Denim's CEO and Founder Gregory Bailey caught up with Robin just as he stepped off the stage to discuss some highlights from his presentation and hear his perspective on why he’s become such an influential insurtech thought leader in Europe and throughout the world. Robin shares his thoughts on the future of marketing while also providing insights into the fintech, insurtech, and startup scene in Europe.

Digital Disruption – Threat & Opportunity

Robin gave an insightful GIS keynote presentation on threats and opportunities that the insurance and financial services industry is facing today. The biggest threat Robin sees is the technology companies that are flooding into the insurance sector. Take Amazon as an example with its partnership with J.P. Morgan and Berkshire Hathaway to enter the healthcare scene. They aren’t dangerous because they know so much about their customers—they are dangerous because they have experience disrupting other markets: retail, entertainment, you name it. They also have experience disrupting themselves.

Robin hopes attendees took away from his presentation that, in the end, embracing digital transformation will allow the insurance industry to take over the world—if they’re serious about it. The opportunity is there for those who want to rise up to the challenge and alter the sector’s ecosystem.

Future of Digital Marketing

There are multi-billion dollar companies that still don’t have tracking on their website homepages. This highlights that some companies are still in the old mindsets of how and when and what insurance they are selling. Going from the 80s and 90s to now, there were debates about whether or not companies should even sell products online. Well, the world has changed. The companies embracing digital-era technologies are delivering what customers want. At their core, they still have to live by the values of their best agents and brokers. You have to truly want to be there for the customer—to be there when their house or farm burns down and tell them you have their back, that their life will not only return to normal but be better than it was before.

Being there for customers as their lives change and helping them transition is a goal Robin sees the industry as working toward. Being able to give advice and support to people as they go through transitions—first-time parents, new college graduates, or those moving from renting apartments to buying their first house, for example—is how you build relationships with customers that last a lifetime.

Links

Dr. Robin Kiera Twitter

Dr. Robin Kiera LinkedIn

Global Insurance Symposium

Digital Scouting

On this episode of the Denim Rivet, we’re tackling a major issue on the minds of businesses and consumers: cyber security. Our guest, Ryan Apgar, is senior vice president of cyber management and a professional liability co-practice leader at Socius Insurance in San Francisco. He shares the cyber trends, challenges, and opportunities he sees in the insurance marketplace—which includes the role of big data in the future of cyber security. Ryan also shares his thoughts on the recent issues involving Facebook and Cambridge Analytica and the conversations they’ve spurred about the ethical use of consumer data.

Biggest Challenge

Ryan believes education is the biggest challenge in cyber security. The world of cyber is constantly evolving and still in its infancy at the same time. Ultimately, the insurance carriers, brokers, and the insured themselves all need a better understanding and grasp of cyber security in order to pave a path forward. Carriers in particular have an uphill battle in terms of staying relevant.

Startups and Cyber

Cyber isn’t always an immediate thought for startups. More often than not, Socius Insurance first encounters startups when they’re seeking management liability insurance. The second time they typically see startups is when they’re opening their doors and rolling out their products and services. Cyber insurance is often the third step. While cyber insurance is important to all companies, it’s not typically the lead-in for startups to engage Socius.

Big Data

Ryan believes big data will play a crucial role in managing risk as the industry progresses. Hiscox recently rolled out their 2018 Cyber Readiness report – where they surveyed over 4,000 different companies. This report noted that two-thirds of losses involved human error. It wasn’t all about third-party threats and how hackers are breaching systems. It’s the employees and staff that aren’t properly educated. This is allowing Hiscox to focus on educating their employees and customers to identify issues and minimize risk – highlighting a perfect use of analyzing big data and putting a plan into action.

Facebook and Cambridge Analytica

With Mark Zuckerberg testifying before the Senate, the hot topic has been security, data, and privacy. Ryan doesn’t see this as a watershed moment for actionable change, however. He believes it is bringing to light the kinds of conversations we need to be having about privacy and security. Technology always blazes the trail for new ideas that permeate into culture and our everyday lives. Privacy has always been reactionary to that growth, and that’s something Ryan is hoping changes thanks to these discussions.

Links

The Lean Startup

[email protected]

What happens when you mix an “actuarial geek” with a Silicon Valley entrepreneur? Insert Erik Wenzel, a fellow of the Society of Actuaries and a top 50 insurtech influencer based out of Chicago. Erik tells how he found his passion for insurtech and how he’s using LinkedIn to drive discussion around how actuaries should embrace insurtech. He believes insurers, insurtechs, actuaries, and regulators can work together to solve the challenges the insurance industry faces by finding new areas of growth. Erik wraps up with a discussion on what he sees happening with insurance innovation in 2018 and beyond.

Erik’s Journey

Erik grew up in Western Canada—literally, as he clocks in at 6 feet 9 inches. He almost went on to play college basketball, but he felt a distinct calling to become an actuary. With a love of math, he majored in actuarial science and passed his exams just a week before his twin boys were born. This led him to working in Texas and Chicago as a traditional actuary; but he still felt the urge to branch out his learning. He started reading books and listening to podcasts, including Stanford University’s Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders podcast, which changed the way he looked at risk.

LinkedIn

Erik realized Silicon Valley entrepreneurs were looking at risk in a completely different light than he was as an actuary. To share his evolving thoughts on this, Erik took to LinkedIn. He quickly found that there were hundreds of other actuaries and actuarial students all asking the same questions he was. Erik has dug in and helped spur global conversation on this facet of innovation in the industry.

Future of Insurtech and Actuaries

Erik acknowledges that he might be a bit biased in saying this, but he believes actuaries are some of the smartest people you can find at insurance companies. They are at the very heart of what drives the profitability of an insurance company, meaning the risk, pricing, reserving, and underwriting. Being close to all these things gives an actuary expertise that overflows to the other niches they operate in, and also brings new technology into those spaces.

He sees actuaries becoming more and more like data scientists in the future. They’ll find new sources of data and apply practices to utilize them. If actuaries gain a sense of entrepreneurship in regards to technology, they can better implement things like AI, IoT, and genomics. Insurtech startups are reaching out to Erik asking for actuaries to join their teams or advise them, so he sees the profession as having a bright path to the future.

Links

Erik Wenzel on LinkedIn

Eric Ries:

The Lean Startup

The Startup Way

Brad Stone:

The Upstarts

On this episode, Gregory sits down with Ilya Bodner, founder of Bold Penguin, an insurtech startup company helping businesses, agents, and carriers streamline the commercial insurance experience. Ilya shares his unique story about immigrating to the United States, starting his career as an insurance agent, and becoming a startup founder. Ilya explains how Bold Penguin is pushing through barriers for agents and carriers in the commercial space. He also shares advice for other startup founders and entrepreneurs.

Illya’s Journey

Ilya immigrated to the U.S. from Uzbekistan with his family in 1993. He says that he grew up “average.” Having parents who didn’t speak English was a tricky thing, but they got through it. His role models growing up — his father, brothers, and uncles — were small business owners. The notion of working hard to achieve the American Dream was something he was surrounded by.

One of his good friends immigrated with him, and the two brainstormed exactly how to achieve that American Dream. After attending The Ohio State University, Ilya found that their ability to build relationships and sell set them up to be great insurance agents.

As an insurance agent, Ilya saw the challenges presented by legacy systems and the more complicated nuances of selling insurance across the board. He set out to make marginal improvements in a space where the same issues kept cropping up — a lack of data and a lack of technology. He built Bold Penguin as a SaaS for insurance professionals in commercial insurance.

Bold Penguin

Ilya started his career with the “hand-to-hand combat” of selling insurance and dealing with underwriters at a home office dealing with personal lines. Through this experience, he saw that the need for trusted advisors wasn’t going anywhere. He also saw that the means and channels of delivering advice was changing. He set out to build a non-intrusive tool that would help agents do quoting and binding faster, easier, and simpler. This results in a win for the customer because of a smoother purchasing experience, and a win for the company due to data flow, cost savings, and a faster process. Commercial insurance producers can log in and interact with everyone they need to: customers, underwriters, data companies — all under one roof.

An interesting feature of Bold Penguin is that the tech savvy companies in the space don’t have to use Bold Penguin’s platform directly. They can pull from their API the data they need.

And the name? Well, the thinking was to stand out in an ever-growing insurance space, a company either needs to be patriotic with bold colors or have an animal in the name. After choosing a penguin and watching a documentary about how penguins will crowd the edge of an iceberg, waiting for that one bold bird to jump in (either to find fish or be eaten by a sea lion) before all the others follow, the name was sealed.

Links

Ilya Bodner

Bold Penguin

Kay Godfredsen is back on Denim Rivet, this time as Iowa's First Deputy Commissioner of Insurance. She also serves as the co-chair of the Global Insurance Symposium (GIS) and shares some exciting updates coming to this year's event, April 24-26 in Des Moines. Kay has her finger on the pulse of innovation taking place in insurtech and shares her perspective on the intersection of insurtech and regulation. She rounds off the episode with her predictions for the upcoming year and, of course, her answers during the Rivet.

Global Insurance Symposium

Based on feedback from previous years, the GIS will be changing its format; after the keynote speakers wrap up, attendees will split into separate tracks. A new event app will enable attendees to keep tabs on different tracks, speakers, and networking opportunities. The app also has a note feature that will allow attendees to take notes in the moment instead of waiting to get back to their hotel rooms or home offices, or scribbling them illegibly on a notepad.

The GIS will feature very important, potentially controversial, conversations — specifically in regards to something that has affected almost every community in the nation: opioids. Other sessions attendees can look forward to include the GIA Demo Day, as well as discussions on blockchain and cyber. This year's hotel is the brand new Hilton in Downtown Des Moines, which is also connected to the event center.

Insurtech & Regulation

At the intersection of insurtech and regulation is the consumer. To keep the consumer at the forefront, Kay recommends insurtech companies talk to insurance commissioners often and early. Talk about how success is defined for you, how you will test that, and if your development is compliant with the current laws. If not, why? Is it capable of being piloted right now in Iowa? Kay's door is completely open for the insurtech scene.

Iowa has had the privilege of being chosen to chair the Big Data Working Group at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). There are a lot of questions being asked right now of the industry around the globe — such as how autonomous driving cars and genetic testing will play roles in the industry's future. Looking at who is at the center, how consumers will benefit, and even if your ideas need trade secret protection around your filings are the types of topics Kay is keeping her eye on.

Links

Kay Godfredsen on LinkedIn

@KayFGodfredsen

Global Insurance Symposium

Iowa Insurance Division

Grit by Angela Duckworth

Kay’s last appearance on Denim Rivet

Returning to the Denim Rivet studio for the third time is Nick Gerhart, now Chief Administrative Officer for Farm Bureau Financial Services. Nick shares details of his transition from Iowa's Insurance Commissioner to his current role. These positions have given Nick a unique perspective on the intersection of regulation and insurtech. He provides an update on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and also shares his take on the recent announcement that Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and J.P. Morgan Chase have teamed up to form an independent healthcare company for their employees.

Intersection of Insurtech and Regulation

Nick hates the term "disruptors" but admits that it is a term that needs some attention. Insurance is made to help people, and any disruption of that means that somewhere people are going to suffer more. He sees the intersection of regulation and the tech space differing from country to country, and also here in the U.S. on the state level. From his perspective, the U.S. is much more concerned with consumer experience than some other nations are.

ACA Update

The last time Nick was on the show, Donald Trump had just been elected, leaving a lot of question marks about the fate of the ACA. Nick jokes that the state of the ACA is like Rocky 4: painful. Some state markets are having serious issues. He’s seen some markets shifting to groups, even groups of one in some states. The major bifurcation comes down to qualifying for tax credits, because those who do will likely use them on the exchange. Those who don’t qualify tend to go uninsured or try to find a way into a group.

The "Manhattan Project" for Healthcare

With the bombshell announcement that Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and J.P. Morgan Chase are forming an independent healthcare company for their employees, many are wondering what their end game is. Nick believes they are looking at fixing healthcare for their employees first and foremost. They have the means for distribution, the capital, and insurance knowledge to do some great things. Whether that is scalable to a much broader audience will take a while to determine. But Nick does believe that there needs to be a "Manhattan Project" for health insurance—something that takes a quantum leap into the future to massively clean up the current state of the industry.

2018 Insurtech State of the Union

Nick says he tends to look at his watch more than the calendar because that is how quickly things are changing. This year he thinks some larger names in the industry are going to fail, even though they have seemed like they were on track to make it. Nick is keeping an eye out for incumbent firms that will start to integrate with more startups and possibly new platforms to emerge. Out of the 2,800 startups around the globe he sees 2,500 not existing in two years. They are startups after all, and like every other industry not everyone can stick around.

Links

LinkedIn

@NickGerhart

On this episode, Gregory Bailey sits down with Stacey Brown, Lead Organizer at InsurTech Hartford. Stacey shares how InsurTech Hartford is disrupting the industry from the insurance capital of the world. He gives a real-life story about a customer service experience with his carrier and how he believes insurtech can inspire the solutions to the problems he faced.

InsurTech Harford’s Origins

Stacey watched the insurtech boom from the technology side of the fence. But as he looked out his office window in Harford, Connecticut, he didn’t see any startups associated with insurtech. So, Stacey set out to change that, and InsureTech Hartford was born. He wanted to utilize his resources and knowledge to keep his corner of Connecticut in sync with the times. InsureTech Hartford mainly does this through three types of events for the community:

• Hackathons, where participants rapidly come up with ideas and solutions to industry problems
• Educational events to develop talent, like a Blockchain event held in October
• Networking events that provide access to experts on an array of subjects and industries to team up eager talent

This community engagement work is how InsureTech Hartford builds connections, plants the seeds of innovation, and sprinkles the community with education and skill development.

Changes Needed in the Industry

Stacey says, hands down, customer service needs a great improvement. One of Stacey’s properties was recently damaged from the cold. After hours of getting batted around all over the company, from phone call to phone call to person to person — just to find out if the damage was covered, Stacey still had no information. Not even the next day. It’s not a one-off story, and customer service has long been viewed as a pain point for customers when dealing with claims.

Digital Consumer Expectations

The want-it-now mindset is real — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you’re snoozing and aren’t on point with the right product at the right price, there isn’t going to be a sale. Ease is another key factor the digital consumer demands. Everyone is incredibly busy, and the last thing they want to do at the end of a tough day is be passed around from phone call to phone call. Stacey sees hurdles in commercial insurance as well, as the decision making requires more data of higher fidelity to make the best decisions. The experience with enterprise software can often be clunky, complicated, and confusing as well — an area Denim is targeting with our products.

Links

InsureTech Hartford

Stacey Brown

Returning to the Denim Rivet studio is Brian Hemesath, managing director of the Global Insurance Accelerator (GIA). Brian introduces you to the GIA's 2018 cohort, just announced this month. These eight companies have built innovative products and business models incorporating artificial intelligence, gamification, portals, apps, IoT devices, and much more.

If Brian had to use one word to describe the 2018 cohort, it would be "expanded." Now in it's fourth year, the GIA had an incredible applicant pool and felt comfortable expanding the number of participants from six to eight. Orientation kicked off on January 16 in downtown Des Moines. Teams got the lay of the land and learned about the 165 mentors and other resources they’ll have access to during their stay.

The 2018 GIA Cohort Rundown

Byeo

Borne out of Mexico and Texas, Byeo has an app that’s consumer-focused on end-of-life planning. This includes stored documentation and communication channels with the carrier all in one stored app.

HomeClub

This startup out of Tempe, Arizona, is all about smart devices. Its cloud service allows customers to register their smart home devices in a central hub where insurers can quickly and easily see what’s installed and operating correctly. Since carriers are looking to offer discounts to users for these devices, they have to know what’s connected and working properly.

Insurmi

Another team out of Phoenix, Arizona, has a consumer app and webstore focused on making shopping for life insurance much, much simpler. How? With the use of AI-guided user experiences and customized online tools.

InsuredMine

Out of Dallas, InsuredMine’s consumer app stores information on all the different policies a consumer has. The app has payment reminders, document storage, and can ease renewal pains as well.

JAUNTIN'

JAUNTIN' is is based out of Toronto, and was awarded second place at Web Summit in 2017. Its app is all about the micro insurance space, so Brian is especially eager to see how a past cohort team, Re-Sure, and JAUNTIN’ align and can help each other.

Lvlfi

Hailing from London, this startup combines gamification, exercise, and wellness to get you up and out of your seat. They have experience in the gaming market, and they are setting out to make an app that does more than tell you to just get up out of your chair and stretch your legs. The gamification aspect will give users a sense of reward for being active through the game, and will also be reflected in the real world.

ProtectRisk

A marketplace and social network platform, ProtectRisk from the D.C. area connects retail insurance brokers and wholesale insurance brokers, specifically on high risk, specialty commercial ENS lines.

RiskPossible

RiskPossible from Miami is working on a product that will do continuous underwriting. As soon as risk is underwritten, of course the next day the risk has changed in either small or big ways. RiskPossible's engine sets out to track those changes. The idea came in originally as property and casualty solution, but carriers on the life side could also interested.

Future of the GIA

Brian thinks the tech accelerator aspect is a perfect fit for the GIA’s goals, and he doesn’t see the GIA ditching it anytime soon. However, Brian is seeking out new opportunities to foster innovation. Without showing too much of his hand, he thinks some of these opportunities can come from working more closely with regulators.

Links

Global Insurance Accelerator

Global Insurance Accelerator 2018 Cohort

Welcome to the first Denim Rivet podcast episode of 2018! You’ll noticed we’ve revamped the podcast’s music to better fit the fun and energetic conversations we feature on the show. To start off the New Year, we’re heading back to Denim Summit 2017 to hear a presentation from Denim’s CEO and Co-Founder, Gregory Bailey. In the “Denim Outlook,” Gregory shares Denim’s point of view on insurtech and offers a glimpse into where Denim — and the industry at large — are headed in the future.

Fundamental Change

It’s Denim’s belief that the insurance industry needs to change in fundamental ways. Growth is the imperative, but there are major issues that need to be addressed when it comes to growing an organic customer base and the investment portfolio side of the coin. Consumer expectations are at an all-time high. They want access to real-time information and transparency from their insurers. Expectations for user experiences have also increased as consumers want the ease that Amazon provides, and they want it on their mobile devices, too.

From 2011 to 2016, the number of Americans that were smartphone users increased from 35 percent to 77 percent. The rapid adoption of mobile technology and the services provided through it have been the impetus for this shift.

Four Areas of Focus for Denim & Insurtech

Data – While the importance of data is not new, the opportunities data presents to the front-stage of marketing and distribution are. We announced at Denim Summit 2017 that Denim had just surpassed one billion data points gathered from how consumers interact with ads over mobile and social. Activating this data is the next step Denim is taking to move forward.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) – AI and machine learning, when applied to big data sets, will change how agents and brokers engage with the consumer market, distribute, and go to market. Denim believes in “human-focused” AI – not in displacing droves of agents and brokers. This means using machine learning as a tool rather than a replacement.

Multi-Channel Consumer Experiences – Denim believes multi-channel consumer experiences that begin with mobile and social are the way forward. On average, a smartphone user spends two hours a day consuming social content on his or her phone. The real estate is now a six-inch screen consumers keep in their pockets. Taking advantage of this space in an actionable way is key to meeting new consumer expectations.

Human-Centered Design – Consumer behavior and personality are key considerations in Denim’s roadmap. These considerations are shaping how we design and present our software. This is different than the way many companies have historically developed products — placing a product-centric or distribution-centric view above all else. Meeting the consumer’s needs and wants is at the center of everything we do. With new partnerships and more data flowing in, Denim is positioned to give companies the means to do that, too.

On this episode of Denim Rivet, Gregory discusses the latest technology insights with leaders from two Des Moines-based insurtech startup companies: Gain Compliance and Denim itself.

Jason Jones, Founder and CTO at Gain Compliance, talks about the shift happening to the economics of software delivery because of cloud and software as a service (SaaS). He has experience with two different startup companies and, it has influenced his own approach to building and delivering software.

Mike Clark is Denim’s own Senior Software Engineer. Mike and Greg continue the conversation on cloud and SaaS by discussing how they allow Denim to build value. They also talk about Denim’s approach to data and the opportunity that exists within insurance.

Jason Jones – Gain Compliance

Jason is amazed that the cost to bring something valuable to a business has come down so much. With the barrier to entry dropping as well, he finds that there are a plethora of solutions today that would have been impossible in years past.

Prior to starting Gain Compliance, Jason hadn’t been introduced to the insurtech scene. He quickly found that every meeting he had with other companies and professionals revolved around how they could help Gain Compliance get on its feet. On top of the great insurtech community, Jason has realized the full value of how important it is to have a team you can work with. He has an incredible amount of responsibility and can’t be there to micromanage everyone in the company. Every employee needs to be able to think on their feet and problem solve. He’s chosen people he can trust to execute Gain’s vision, and he fills in the details where needed.

Mike Clark - Denim

Mike finds that one of the greatest benefits of distribution through cloud systems is how it lets companies like Denim focus on building value, rather than constructing infrastructure to eventually produce value.

With platform as a service, Mike has learned at Denim how to quickly adapt to complex problems. This architecture enables Denim to move quickly — maybe spin up a new API, website, or product in a week or two. Denim doesn’t have to spend time provisioning servers and purchasing licenses like companies had to do 5-10 years ago.

A Billion Data Points

Denim has recently surpassed one billion data points around how consumers interact with ads powered by our platform — a milestone we’re very proud of. Mike has been instrumental in how to organize and structure this data. To him, and Denim, data is both a tool and an opportunity. We have so much data about the performance of advertising in the insurance industry that we don’t even know what we know yet, which is something that excites Mike. It feels a bit like the wild west, so wearing denim is a must.

Links

Gain Compliance

High Output Management

S3E5: Denise Garth on the Digital Age of Insurance