3 Years from Now, which Startup Will Have Experienced the Most Success?

[Brian Anderson]

There are a handful of well-funded high-tech startups looking to disrupt the insurance industry in different markets. News this week from Lemonade about how they are now “weeks” away from a launch of their new “peer-to-peer” homeowners insurance model in New York got me to wondering, which – if any – of these companies will be in for the long haul and truly become a player?

• Silicon Valley-based health insurance broker Zenefits has gone through its share of high-profile legal issues and general turmoil, but new management seems committed to redefining its previously flawed corporate culture.

• Oscar is a New York-based startup founded to sell health insurance in the new individual markets created by Ovbamacare that reportedly lost $105 million between its New York and New Jersey businesses in 2015. Oscar has expanded to California and Texas, and still was valued at $2.7 billion as of March.

• Lemonade also has impressive funding, plus an experienced executive team and the support of major reinsurers. It is scheduled to roll out its “peer-to-peer” homeowners insurance product in New York in the “coming weeks.”

I know other new companies are out there as well, but for the purposes of this poll, I thought I’d get a feel for who Insurance Forums members think has the best shot at making it among these three. If you think a different company will emerge as the most successful in the next three years, please post it on this thread.

Insurance Forums | Lemonade takes steps toward a New York product launch in coming weeks

Insurance Forums | Oscar gets investment from Google; eyes California and Texas in 2016

http://www.insurance-forums.net/forum/employee-benefits-forum/zenefits-lies-booze-billions-t81264.html

 

[agentinsouth]

Thanks for finding Lemonade- I needed a good laugh! Any company that brings In a "Chief Behavioral Officer" is doomed from the beginning. I read it fast, but it looks like they are going after the home insurance market online? How many people have failed? & I mean the big names. 2nd- 50% of the article was bragging about their reinsurance markets... I am sorry.. Did I miss something? Is reinsurance so new you have to brag about it? I am really glad they told me about reinsurance over and over in the article... They should really bring that concept to the coastal states, it would revolutionize the industry. 3rd "revolutionizing" the claims service concept! Big talk for a company with a zero claims ratio. 4th Changing the way people think about insurance. Man, I am really glad they brought in that Chief Behavioral Officer! That was a fun read.

 

[indienoise]

Man. Lemonade is either going to make good on their word, and find out just how tough the business can be after a couple of cat losses and some fraud attempts, or they are making the same empty promises as the scumbag carriers they are slamming. Wonder how that "CBO" will save them then. Lol.

I don't know the health insurance industry like some of the pros here, so maybe you guys take this Oscar as seriously as I do Lemonade, but asbroken as the healthcare industry seems to be, I am certainly interested in hearing about how anyone might plan to effect change, even if it's from the insurance side. The article was pretty short on actual details of how they plan to differ from those giants.

 

[agentinsouth]

feel free to contact me in case you somehow missed my resume online. I am the Chief Behavioral Officer you are looking for. For one-on-one sessions, I hired the hot shrink on Billions.

 

[sman]

The CBO motto:

Beatings will continue until morale improves.

 

[Key2Success]

None of the above.....stay tuned.

 

[agentinsouth]

The CBO motto: Beatings will continue until morale improves.

Yea- the hot shrink in Billions

 

[Heather]

Lemonade made me laugh. My kid comes home from college every summer and wants to "revolutionize" my agency because they took some business or marketing class the previous semester taught by someone who never actually ran a business or sold a thing.

NY is one of the strictest states for insurance regulations so I don't know what the DOI is going to think of these guys.

We have bad winters and our coastal areas have super storms that can destroy your loss ratio in one day. Most of our buildings are also very old and poorly maintained.

 

[ModernInsurance]

I think Zenefits is on to something, but the larger question remains: have they tarnished their reputation beyond the point of no return? I read that they've picked up some new accounts (now totaling 20K on the books, up from 12K), but they still have a long road ahead of them with respect to regulatory hurdles and rebuilding the brand. I'm very interested to see how they fare over the next year or two.

 

[Sam]

I think that Lemonade has a reasonable chance of becoming a very big success. I would pick Oscar over Zenefits because there is a simpler path to that success, but I think that Lemonade has the best chance of becoming a fortune 100 company.

I think that bringing in the Chief Behavioral Officer is a stroke of genius and will have a meaningful and material impact on their success. I have been very impressed with the team they have put together and if you really dig into what they are doing, it is very cool.

I agree that there are immense challenges facing them, but these aren't kids who don't know what they are doing. They have a pretty serious team of extremely experienced insurance leaders, along with their tech and behavioral people.