Insurtech Boston — what stuck out most
Thank you to everyone that commented and sent messages regarding my last post. I appreciate the feedback and support. Let’s keeping it rolling!
Holy crap, there is a lot happening in the insurance space, it’s hard to not be excited. In fact, I attended Insurtech Boston last Thursday at District Hall in Boston’s burgeoning Seaport District. For those unfamiliar, it is an event that brings carrier executives, startups, investors, and many other industry members together to network and get a snapshot of what’s new in the industry. Here is a killer breakdown from co-host Mike Albert, also the co-founder at Ask Kodiak.
I want to zero in on one particular moment that really stuck out to me. During the Q & A session, rockstar panelists Curt Stevenson with Duck Creek Technologies (formerly Agency Port) and Jim Fini, co-founder of Quilt were asked, “What in your opinion is the biggest challenge insurtech faces right now?”
Curt’s response was gold — “technologists and industry insiders must do a better job of collaborating with each other.” He went further to say that the insurance industry is an archaic, cumbersome beast, which is the direct cause of our industry lagging in the era of “disruption”. He finishes his remarks with a powerful statement, I take it as a challenge, “we have brilliant coders and knowledgeable industry veterans that are ready to create disruption but are hamstrung by the lack of understanding both sides have of each other”.
Boom! His response hit me like a spring snowmelt barreling down the mountainside. Why? Because of two reasons:
1.) Tech savvy health benefits startups with aesthetically pleasing landing pages and Amazon-like checkout features continue to receive exorbitant amounts of funding while creating minimal if no innovation. They miss where the most important opportunity lies, plan design, because they lack critical industry knowledge. Conversely, when the word “technology” is mentioned many brokers have either no idea what they are talking about though think they do or run for the hills. For brokers and brokerages to thrive they must begin to grasp how technology is currently disrupting the industry and where it needs to go.
2.) Curt validates Benemax’s mission and belief that to maintain our place as an industry innovator our internal technologists and benefits veterans must communicate, understand, and work as one. This enables us to triple down on plan design innovation while simultaneously iterating on technology to stay ahead of the competition.
Overall, I am hugely optimistic that both techies and industry veterans will continue to learn from one another. It’s truly an exciting time to be in this space. Things are constantly moving, which for my ADHD brain, is fantastic!
