Shai Wininger, co-founder and “Chief Lemonade Maker” for high-profile homeowners and renters insurance startup Lemonade, took the unusual step of sharing the company’s analytics data from the opening days right after the Sept. 21 launch in New York.
The “peer-to-peer” insuretech startup sold 142 policies and generated $14,300 in gross premium in its first 48 hours, which Wininger said was “four times greater” than the most optimistic prediction made by employees prior to the launch.
The company’s site and app have a feature allowing people to quickly and easily switch carriers – and it seems to be working.
“‘Switching’ is a feature we created that allows users who are already insured with other carriers to cancel their policies, get a refund and buy a new policy from us with a click of a button,” Wininger said. “It’s exciting to see people choosing Lemonade over America’s most respected insurance companies! People left State Farm (22%), Allstate (18%), GEICO (14%) and many others to come to us,” Wininger said in a social media message. “Moving forward, we see this as an important success factor for our growth.
More than 36,000 people visited the site in the first 48 hours; however only 4,570 were from New York, the only state where Lemonade is currently available. The conversion rate for the New York visitors requesting a quote was about 15%.
In the first two days, nearly 83% of visitors were male and only 17% were female, but those numbers appear to be skewed due to the launch being promoted on Product Hunt, where visitors are nearly 90% male.
Other notable numbers:
• 43% of visitors were ages 25-34
• 29% of visitors were ages 35-44
• Average renters policy sold for $86.25
• Average condo policy sold for $528
• Average homeowners sold for $691
“It’s interesting to see that in the past two weeks, our average Homeowners policy grew to $1,120 ($93 per month),” Wininger revealed in the Oct. 6 social media post.
On Oct. 10, Lemonade announced the appointment of John Peters as its Chief Underwriting Officer.
He comes to Lemonade from Liberty Mutual, where he served as Executive Vice President, Chief Underwriting Officer and Chief Product Officer.
“Having a Chief Underwriting Officer as accomplished as John is a game changer” said Daniel Schreiber, CEO and co-founder. “Lemonade has been rethinking the business models, behavioral sciences and technologies underpinning insurance – John has what it takes to bring this level of innovation to the core of insurance: underwriting.”
“From an underwriting perspective, Lemonade has capabilities that have not been seen before. During its first 24 hours of operation, for example, Lemonade collected half a million data points from consumers. This opens underwriting possibilities that its 100-year-old-competitors simply don’t have.” Peters said. “It’s not that incumbents don’t see change coming – it’s that overnight, their culture, business model and legacy systems turn from assets to handicaps.”
Last month, Lemonade announced it had been licensed as a full-stack insurance carrier by New York State. In addition to digitizing the entire insurance process, Lemonade introduces a reversal of the traditional insurance model, returning unclaimed money to causes policyholders care about during its annual ‘Giveback.’
See also:
• Thread: Will Lemonade be the uber of homeowners insurance?
• Article: Lemonade launches its unique homeowners and renters insurance model in New York
About Lemonade: Lemonade is a newly licensed insurance company for homeowners and renters. By replacing brokers and bureaucracy with bots and machine learning, Lemonade promises zero paperwork and instant everything. For more information visit www.lemonade.com.
