Beyond the Policy: an Insurance Requirements Podcast
By Andrew Correll
Join me on Beyond the Policy as we delve into the remaining 70% of risk facing Tech Startup Founders. You’ll hear from founders and other professionals as they recount obstacles they’ve faced and how to thrive in the face of risk.
Visit our website at howyouinsurethat.com
Beyond the Policy: an Insurance Requirements PodcastJan 26, 2021
018: Tolga Tezel
In this episode of Beyond the Policy, we welcome Tolga to share his insight around building an early stage startup and raising capital.
After the episode is over, check out howyouinsurethat.com for our entire catalog of previous episodes.
Please enjoy my conversation with Tolga Tezel!
Scaling your Tech Teams with Patrick Waites
In this episode of Beyond the Policy, Patrick Waites joins us to talk about risks startups face around scaling their teams. Our discussion includes topics such as scaling too soon versus too late, how relationships with staffing agencies work, things to index for when making a lot of hires, and the normal amount of time it takes to go from prospect to signed offer letter.
After the episode is over, check out howyouinsurethat.com for our entire catalog of previous episodes.
Please enjoy my conversation with Patrick Waites!
Pivoting your Startup with Alan Ringvald
In this episode of Beyond the Policy, Alan Ringvald, CEO of Relativity6, joins the show. Alan and I dive into what it's like at a startup that pivots its business model.
Included in our conversation are tips like how to know when it's time to pivot, obstacles you'll face in a pivot and how to avoid them. We also talk about the emotional toll of needing to pivot.
After the episode is over, check out howyouinsurethat.com for our entire catalog of previous episodes.
Please enjoy my conversation with Alan Ringvald!
Derisking your Startup with Stuart Winchester
Welcome to another edition of Beyond the Policy, I’m your host Andrew Correll
I’m joined today by Stuart Winchester, the founder and CEO of Marble.
Like many aspiring founders, Stuart listened to his fair share of How I Built This episodes before taking the plunge himself. But as a first time founder, Stuart was more captivated by a blog post of how a startup didn’t pan out. That blog post, Reflections on a Failed Startup, was written by Sam Stone in 2019. It chronicles the journey of a startup that enjoys some initial success, but ultimately missed signs of its own down fall.
One aspect that caught Stuart’s attention is the concept of Team Beats Problem Beats Solution and how it informs Marble’s culture and team building today. So much so that the blog post is required reading as part of new team member onboarding.
We dive deeper into how Marble’s culture building is centered around transparency and healthy debate. We also spend some time outlining how listeners can implement their own version of Team beats Problem beats Solution in their own business.
We then wrap up by sharing signs to look out for when your business is not performing well and ways in which you can right the ship.
After the episode is over, check out howyouinsurethat.com for our entire catalog of previous episodes.
Please enjoy my conversation with Stuart Winchester, CEO of Marble!
Scaling Culture in a Remote Environment with John Fohr
Building a company is really hard, even when the world is normal.
But throw in a global pandemic? It makes you appreciate so much more how company culture is built on in-person interaction.
My guest today is John Fohr, CEO of TrustLayer (trustlayer.io). He’s built the majority of his team during COVID-19. They’ve had to transition from being in-person, one room with a whiteboard, to a decentralized group spread across multiple timezones.
During our conversation we touch on things like how important building habits of asynchronous communication are in a virtual environment, just how much we underestimate overhearing in-person conversations are, recreating the in-office energy and morale over Zoom and Slack, as well as how to instill confidence of everyone you work with to duck out of a meeting if they shouldn’t be there. Hint: it starts with the CEO throwing up the peace sign in multiple meetings and encouraging others to do so.
This episode is packed full of advice from a team that just raised their Series A, but it’s also a very honest conversation about navigating a global pandemic. It hasn’t been easy, ever, and it’s had its share of down moments. But I’m most impressed with John and team’s fearlessness to keep moving forward and finding ways to celebrate huge milestones even under less-than-ideal circumstances.
After the episode, please visit howyouinsurethat.com to catch up on all the latest episodes.
Please enjoy my conversation with John Fohr!
3 Keys to Solving Customer Churn with Megan Bowen
I’m joined today by Megan Bowen, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Customer Officer of Refine Labs.
Y’all, i’m really excited for this conversation. Churn is a huge risk to a startup. It’s not enough to book revenue, you must earn it! Churning customers gets in the way of realizing your full potential.
But it’s also indicative of some deeper issues.
In today’s episode, we’re going to touch on how to determine if you have a churn problem, exercises to better align marketing, sales, and customer success, the 3 keys to solving customer churn, as well as some worst case scenarios when your churn problem goes unchecked.
Spoiler alert! You’re going out of business.
Finally we wrap up by answering my most burning question: are breakup songs really just customer churn songs in disguise?
After the episode, be sure to check out howyouinsurethat.com to catch up on all of our previous editions. Also, if you have any questions about topics discussed in this episode, let’s start a conversation at andrew@howyouinsurethat.com
And now onto the show!
Scaling Collaborative Work Environments with Ann Boger
When working at a scaling startup, you’ll often hear the phrase, “I don’t want to step on your toes, but…” You might think it’s innocuous enough, but it signals so much more.
I’m joined today by Ann Boger, VP of Scaling at Coterie Insurance.
Ann joins me today to dive into that specific phrase and what it can represent at your company. Is it a sign of healthy growth and the tension that comes from a growing venture? Or is it a sign of a toxic work environment where employees are not encouraged to step outside of their normal roles?
We talk about how to maintain your collaborative spirit in hyper growth phases, the best response to someone who’s afraid of stepping on your toes, as well as what can go wrong when your employees don’t have the space they need to thrive.
We wrap up by sharing some tips to help new employees joining InsurTech startups from large, legacy insurance companies blossom in the startup environment.
After the episode, be sure to visit howyouinsurethat.com for past episodes of Beyond the Policy like when Frankie Arvelo joined us to share tips on obstacles to avoid in contract negotiations.
Startup Legal Risks w/ Frankie Arvelo
Welcome to another episode of Beyond the Policy, i’m your host Andrew Correll.
We’re joined today by Frankie Arvelo. He’s an outside counsel providing services to the Tech startup community, as well as General Partner at Rising Tide Venture Partners focusing on underrepresented Founders in Tech.
Topics Include:
- Company Formation
- Why legal counsel specializing in startups is key
- When should you fundraise?
- Key pieces to building your standard contract
- What Founders aren't thinking about today, but absolutely should be
Special Episode with Broker Brett Fulmer
Andrew sits down with Broker Brett in a wide ranging conversation touching on:
- Insuring startups in today's environment
- Season 2 of Insurance Requirements: Beyond the Policy
- Importance of Content Creation
- Community building within the InsurTech space
- Possibly planning an InsurTech Across America Event?
Stay tuned and enjoy the show!
Season 2 Teaser
I am your host Andrew Correll.
I want to first thank everyone listening to Season 1 and making it a great success. The support from everyone along the way has been incredible.
And the amount of knowledge and experience shared on the podcast through our first 10 episodes was amazing. That wouldn’t have been possible without an all-star cast.
Speaking of that cast, they kept pretty busy too. Risk Genius was acquired by Bold Penguin, Juniper Labs was acquired by Next Insurance. Carey Anne has been busy doing amazing work launching Loop Insurance. Xilo and Spot have both completed recent rounds of funding.
The kindness, generosity, and general badassery among that group is off the charts.
As we get ready to dive into Season 2, I wanted to give you a brief update on what’s been going on since we last hung out in January.
For starters, I started a new role as an Insurance Product Innovation Manager at Vouch Insurance which allows me to double down on creating the premier insurance buying experience for Technology Startups and Innovators.
The past six months have been an incredible experience that’s uncovered so much about the ins and outs of building insurance products. But even more so that successful startups are much more than just insurance. It’s about the steps taken before a claim is filed that tell the real story. In short, Risk Management.
Join me in Season 2 as we meet with some of the brightest minds in Technology, Cyber Security, culture building, team construction, sales, company formation and equity, to uncover the biggest risks standing in between you and ultimate success, as well as actionable advice on how to avoid them.
In episode 1, Frankie Arvelo, of Arvelo PLLC, provides a masterclass in legal hurdles startups face getting off the ground and much more. You won’t want to miss Frankie’s advice for structuring term sheets and customer contracts.
If you haven’t already, please subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you regularly listen.
We’ll see you next time and thanks for listening.
Secure Your Information the Right Way + Modernizing the Independent Insurance Agent
Rather than stand idly by waiting for something like that to happen to his company, our guest today took a proactive approach to data security.
We're joined today by Jon Corrin. He's the co-founder and CEO of Xilo, a software platform that helps independent insurance agencies move into the digital era. Their platform enables modernized workflows, online data intake for new insurance customers, and integrations with carrier quoting systems
We begin our conversation discussing how he found his way into insurance, how he's helping independent agencies thrive during the virtual work revolution, and how Technology startups can utilize online insurance platforms to find innovative ways to cover their business risk.
Then we dive into the deep end of Cyber security. Jon walks me through Xilo's data security philosophy, shares tips around how you should be framing cyber security in your business, what steps you should take to gain certification around your security practices, and the risks you face by not putting security top of mind.