Episode 393 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Daniel Demetri, Founder & CEO of Trellis.

Through the advancements of technology like cloud computing and AI, you no longer need to have a huge team to support a company that is hitting major levels of revenue. And, it’s not just the ones you read about like Lovable, Cursor, Wiz, etc., as there are other companies that are able to achieve impressive feats with a relatively lean team.

Trellis falls under this category. Conserving cash is an obvious benefit, but as Daniel explains, another advantage is speed. It removes the layers of an organization which in return allows employees to process information and make decisions faster.

Trellis is an insurtech start-up with a mission to simplify and automate shopping for home and auto insurance by powering intelligent insurance experiences using machine learning, real-time bidding, and conversational AI, backed by a team of nationally licensed insurance advisors. The company is funded by top investors, including QED, General Catalyst, Nyca, and Amex Ventures.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover lots of great topics like:

* Daniel’s background, including being a webmaster pre-college and some stories of the inner workings of Harvard.

* His progression as a Product Manager at Google (including his interviews with Marisa Mayer) and how he got involved in startups.

* Co-Founding a company that disrupted the title insurance industry called Doma which eventually went public and is now private, plus how this experience prepped him to be a CEO.

* What led him down the path of starting Trellis and how the company is applying modern technology to the traditional model of insurance sales.

* Lots of details about Trellis in terms of the team structure, hiring plans, and what’s next for the company.

* His thoughts on what makes a great product manager.

* And so much more!