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Bringing together the best technology and innovation for insurance and risk management together from around the world. Podcast hosted by Matthew Grant.
Episodes
Sunday Sep 01, 2024
Sunday Sep 01, 2024
Next month, Martin Reith will mark 40 years in the London Market. As he approaches this significant milestone, we sat down with him to discuss his journey into the industry, his most notable achievements, his decision to become Chairman of Artificial Labs, and his thoughts on the challenges of modernising the London Market. We also explored his strong advocacy for algorithms and the advice he has for the next generation of industry leaders.
Key talking points:
- Starting 40 years ago
- Founding Ascot Underwriting and receiving backing from AIG
- What has gone well in the Lloyd’s Market and what can be improved?
- Is there a good time to invest in technology
- Smart Follow - a term often misunderstood
- The world of algorithms
- Martin’s advice for anyone thinking about entering the Marketplace
- The London Market - it works on people
If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn.
Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.
Continuing Professional Development
This InsTech Podcast Episode is accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening, you can claim up to 0.5 hours towards your CPD scheme.
By the end of this podcast, you should be able to meet the following Learning Objectives:
- Explain what Smart Follow is in the context of insurance
- Identify ways in which the London Market place can take advantage of innovation
- Summarise what an algorithm is and how it can be implemented in insurance
If your organisation is a member of InsTech and you would like to receive a quarterly summary of the CPD hours you have earned, visit the Episode 318 page of the InsTech website or email cpd@instech.co to let us know you have listened to this podcast.
To help us measure the impact of the learning, we would be grateful if you would take a minute to complete a quick feedback survey.
Sunday Aug 25, 2024
Sunday Aug 25, 2024
What does it take to build a company like Guidewire or attract investor interest?
This week, Matthew Grant talks with Marcus Ryu, Co-founder and Chairman of Guidewire, and Partner at Battery Ventures. Marcus, one of Guidewire's five founders, shares his experiences from starting the company in 2002 and the lessons he learned along the way.
In this episode, Marcus discusses his shift from leading Guidewire to investing through a multi-stage technology investment firm. The conversation covers topics relevant to those interested in the insurance industry, current trends in insurance technology, and practical advice for entrepreneurs and investors alike.
Key talking points include:
- Graduate school and finishing at the beginning of the dot-com era
- What ingredients are necessary to found a successful company?
- Startups are insurgents
- The first sale cycle - what is ‘wandering in the desert’?
- Why you need recklessness to start a company
- The Guidewire story and staying agile in 2024
- From founder to investor - joining Battery Ventures
- Investing in hyperexponential
- Closing remarks on admin systems and generative AI
You can listen to our podcast with Amrit Santhirasenan, Co-founder and CEO of hyperexponential here.
If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn.
Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.
Continuing Professional Development
This InsTech Podcast Episode is accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening, you can claim up to 0.5 hours towards your CPD scheme.
By the end of this podcast, you should be able to meet the following Learning Objectives:
- Describe what founders can learn from the conditions necessary for a successful startup to grow
- Specify how a large technology company can remain relevant and agile after being founded over 20 years ago.
- Identify certain traits and characteristics that investors look for in companies and why
If your organisation is a member of InsTech and you would like to receive a quarterly summary of the CPD hours you have earned, visit the Episode 317 page of the InsTech website or email cpd@instech.co to let us know you have listened to this podcast.
To help us measure the impact of the learning, we would be grateful if you would take a minute to complete a quick feedback survey.
Sunday Aug 18, 2024
Sunday Aug 18, 2024
Have you ever built your own solution to a problem?
Quotech, founded by Guillaume Bonnissent, provides technology for commercial underwriters and brokers. Its integrated solutions cover data ingestion and extraction, pricing, distribution, policy administration and claims.
Matthew Grant caught up with Quotech’s CEO and founder to touch on his underwriting past and how it has helped build a company, the issues with Excel spreadsheets and targeting specific insurance lines to produce tailored products.
Key talking points include:
- From underwriter to entrepreneur - the journey
- Producing innovative solutions for underwriters
- Targeting specific insurance lines - can you really do everything if you can do marine?
- The importance of user experience
- Transitioning from coding to leadership
- Investors and future prospects
If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn.
Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.
Continuing Professional Development
This InsTech Podcast Episode is accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening, you can claim up to 0.5 hours towards your CPD scheme.
By the end of this podcast, you should be able to meet the following Learning Objectives:
- Describe the current issues underwriters face with Excel spreadsheets and policy platforms
- Explain what is an underwriting workbench and why are they helpful to multiple members of a team
- Summarise the importance of turning your frustrations into solutions and entrepreneurial tips for founding a business
If your organisation is a member of InsTech and you would like to receive a quarterly summary of the CPD hours you have earned, visit the Episode 316 page of the InsTech website or email cpd@instech.co to let us know you have listened to this podcast.
To help us measure the impact of the learning, we would be grateful if you would take a minute to complete a quick feedback survey.
Sunday Aug 11, 2024
Sunday Aug 11, 2024
This week Matthew and Robin are pointing the microphones at each other and back for our popular "Partners' Chat" as they review the world around us. Find out what is making Robin happy this month - almost 10 years after the term Insurtech was coined are established insurers now finally embracing innovation and technology? What can we learn from the start of the hurricane season and do investors share our enthusiasm for the role that start-ups and scale-ups can play in really changing insurance for the good in 2025.
Key talking points:
- Robin on becoming a grandfather
- Robin’s article on the positive aspects of the industry
- Alignment of interest between technology and insurance in the US
- Reflecting back on InsTech’s events in New York
- Hurricane season and the companies to look out for
- Is parametric insurance a potential solution to volatile risk?
- 2024 and funding
- The rise of partnerships and ecosystems and Smart Follow
- Wine tasting and looking into what InsTech has in store for 2025
If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn.
Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.
Continuing Professional Development
This InsTech Podcast Episode is accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening, you can claim up to 0.5 hours towards your CPD scheme.
By the end of this podcast, you should be able to meet the following Learning Objectives:
- Describe how technology and insurance has aligned better together in recent years and why this innovation and development is important
- Identify changes in trends to investing in startups in the industry
- Summarise why parametric is a solution to volatile and hard to insure risk
If your organisation is a member of InsTech and you would like to receive a quarterly summary of the CPD hours you have earned, visit the Episode 315 page of the InsTech website or email cpd@instech.co to let us know you have listened to this podcast.
To help us measure the impact of the learning, we would be grateful if you would take a minute to complete a quick feedback survey.
Sunday Aug 04, 2024
Sunday Aug 04, 2024
Joining Insurance Thought Leadership over 10 years ago, Paul Carroll’s motivation was his belief that of four areas yet to be disrupted by digital innovation, insurance was one of them.
This week Matthew Grant caught up with Paul Carroll to ask after 11 years of looking at insurance, how are insurers doing with technology?
Key talking points include:
- Looking back, we predicted greater disruption: the fault of regulation and risk capital
- The industry metabolism and its speed
- Dinner with Bill Gates
- When looking at insurance, are there disruptors equivalent to Microsoft?
- The birth of catastrophe modelling after Hurricane Arthur in ‘92
- The ‘Trough of Disillusionment’
- The rise of the platform
- The Laws of Zero
- How has the way we consume information digitally changed?
If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn.
Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.
Continuing Professional Development
This InsTech Podcast Episode is accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening, you can claim up to 0.5 hours towards your CPD scheme.
By the end of this podcast, you should be able to meet the following Learning Objectives:
- Specify why the creation of the ‘platform’ is significant in insurance
- Identify why we had once predicted there would be greater disruption in insurance
- Summarise what the ‘Laws of Zero’ are and why are they relevant to insurance
If your organisation is a member of InsTech and you would like to receive a quarterly summary of the CPD hours you have earned, visit the Episode 314 page of the InsTech website or email cpd@instech.co to let us know you have listened to this podcast.
To help us measure the impact of the learning, we would be grateful if you would take a minute to complete a quick feedback survey.
Sunday Jul 28, 2024
Sunday Jul 28, 2024
As one of the oldest insurtechs and thirty years in the business - what can we learn from Insurity?
Robin Merttens spoke to Chris Lafond, CEO of Insurity - a P&C insurance software provider offering cloud-based solutions to help companies focus on profitability.
After a series of acquisitions in 2019, Insurity continue to execute their thesis from five years ago in embracing the cloud and providing the industry with out-of-the-box technology solutions. It is currently trusted by 12 of the top 15 managing agents in London.
Tune in to hear Robin and Chris discuss Insurity’s expanding presence in the London Market and whether the term “insurtech” is a helpful word.
Key talking points include:
- Celebrating three decades in the industry
- GI Partners and expanding Insurity
- Looking back at Insurity’s thesis in 2019
- The need for underwriting workbenches in the London Market
- Is AI the ‘data warehouse’ of our time?
- To ‘insurtech’ or not to ‘insurtech’?
- The future of acquisitions for Insurity
- The curse of past technology decisions - the problems that occur with legacy systems
If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn.
Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.
Continuing Professional Development
This InsTech Podcast Episode is accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening, you can claim up to 0.5 hours towards your CPD scheme.
By the end of this podcast, you should be able to meet the following Learning Objectives:
- Specify how an underwriting workbench can help users
- Explain what the cloud is in insurance and how it can help users
- Summarise why mergers and acquisitions (M&A) can be beneficial for a company
If your organisation is a member of InsTech and you would like to receive a quarterly summary of the CPD hours you have earned, visit the Episode 313 page of the InsTech website or email cpd@instech.co to let us know you have listened to this podcast.
To help us measure the impact of the learning, we would be grateful if you would take a minute to complete a quick feedback survey.
Sunday Jul 21, 2024
Sunday Jul 21, 2024
Ahead of our next July evening event in London, Matthew Grant caught up with Deepak Badoni, President and Co-founder of EigenRisk Inc - a one-stop shop platform for the industry to bring all the catastrophe risk analytics in one place.
Join Matthew and Deepak as they discuss the role of technology platforms in simplifying catastrophe risk analysis for underwriters amid the start of the hurricane season. Deepak shares his journey of founding EigenRisk Inc., the challenges of building a one-stop platform for catastrophe risk analytics, the importance of simplicity in complex modeling, and the growing preference for buying technology solutions over building in-house.
Key talking points:
- The start of EigenRisk - a one stop shop platform for the industry to bring all the catastrophe risk analytics in one place
- Building v buying - where do insurers stand?
- A solution for the entire industry
- Differences between building a product and building a business
- Finding the right modelers for the platform - the value of partnering
- A Costco for data
- See Deepak in London for ‘Climate and property blind spots revealed: making the right decision at the right time’
If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn.
Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.
Continuing Professional Development
This InsTech Podcast Episode is accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening, you can claim up to 0.5 hours towards your CPD scheme.
By the end of this podcast, you should be able to meet the following Learning Objectives:
- Describe the importance of customer feedback and SaaS models
- Specify methods for simplifying catastrophe risk management
- Identify how to building partnerships and integrating data successfully
If your organisation is a member of InsTech and you would like to receive a quarterly summary of the CPD hours you have earned, visit the Episode 312 page of the InsTech website or email cpd@instech.co to let us know you have listened to this podcast.
To help us measure the impact of the learning, we would be grateful if you would take a minute to complete a quick feedback survey.
Sunday Jul 14, 2024
Sunday Jul 14, 2024
In this discussion, Leah Emma from Liberty Mutual, Caolan Kovach-Orr from Arch Capital, and Rohit Reddy from Swiss Re Corporate Solutions share their experiences and strategies for leveraging AI and technology in the insurance sector. They cover key challenges, data utilization, build vs buy decisions, and the importance of making underwriting more efficient and engaging. A must-watch for anyone interested in the future of insurance.
Speakers:
- Leah Emma, Assistant Director of Commercial Incubation, Solaria Labs – Liberty Mutual
- Caolan Kovach-Orr, Head of AI & Automation, North America – Arch Capital Group
- Rohit Reddy, Head of Underwriting Strategy – Swiss Re Corporate Solutions
- Matthew Grant, CEO – InsTech
Key talking points:
- Each company and their strategy
- Challenges and opportunities in underwriting
- AI and technology in insurance
- Build vs Buy: strategic decisions
- Engaging underwriters: culture and adoption
- Magic wishes for the future
You can now also watch the whole panel discussion here.
If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn.
Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.
Continuing Professional Development
This InsTech Podcast Episode is accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening, you can claim up to 0.5 hours towards your CPD scheme.
By the end of this podcast, you should be able to meet the following Learning Objectives:
- Specify how AI can be utilised to address issues with the underwriter’s current role in insurance today
- Explain the build versus buy debate
- Summarise the current issues underwriters face in the industry and how it can be addressed
If your organisation is a member of InsTech and you would like to receive a quarterly summary of the CPD hours you have earned, visit the Episode 311 page of the InsTech website or email cpd@instech.co to let us know you have listened to this podcast.
To help us measure the impact of the learning, we would be grateful if you would take a minute to complete a quick feedback survey.
Sunday Jul 07, 2024
Sunday Jul 07, 2024
Crux Underwriting is a multi-line specialty underwriting business launched in early July by Graham Elliott. By combining underwriting with the tech arm of Azur Technology, founded by previous colleague Charlie Blackburn, we are witnessing the production of a 21st century MGA business.
One for the technology lovers and the MGA innovators. Tune in to hear Robin speak to Charlie and Graham about entrepreneurship in the MGA world, how technology can slot itself into an underwriting business and why the cultural aspect is the hardest thing to get right.
Key talking points:
- Journey from co-founding Azur Underwriting, to developing Azur Technology and Crux Underwriting
- Charlie’s experience forming long-term partnerships with MGAs as a separate technology provider
- Graham building out an agile insurance business in a regulated market
- The relationship between MGAs and capacity providers
- Why haven’t MGAs adopted modern and flexible platforms?
- Azur Technology: working on Salesforce
- What is it about technology that makes it currently exciting
- Petting-zoo sales: what has changed since starting a business in 2014
If you like what you're hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn.
To find out more about InsTech, our membership and offerings visit www.instech.co or contact us hello@instech.co
Continuing Professional Development
This InsTech Podcast Episode is accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening, you can claim up to 0.5 hours towards your CPD scheme.
By the end of this podcast, you should be able to meet the following Learning Objectives:
- Describe why an agile approach to building out a business in a regulated market is an unusual but beneficial approach.
- Specify what problems MGAs have with modernising and utilising new technology solutions
- Identify why MGAs have difficulties with deploying technology across multiple classes.
If your organisation is a member of InsTech and you would like to receive a quarterly summary of the CPD hours you have earned, visit the Episode 310 page of the InsTech website or email cpd@instech.co to let us know you have listened to this podcast.
To help us measure the impact of the learning, we would be grateful if you would take a minute to complete a quick feedback survey.
Sunday Jun 30, 2024
Sunday Jun 30, 2024
Reserv’s proposition is to help MGAs and carriers improve claims handling and increase data availability, making claim information available through multiple large language model (LLM) tools feeding automated workflows.
After our successful May Evening Event hosted in collaboration with Reserv, Robin Merttens caught up with CEO CJ Przybyl and discussed the technology behind Reserv, including the integration of generative AI and modern data infrastructure, as well as the company's growth and expansion plans in the UK and Europe.
Key talking points include:
- Origins of Reserv and CJ’s experience co-founding Snapsheet
- Noticing an opportunity for start-up and established MGAs
- Building and scaling Reserv - the success story
- Why the UK market is unique for TPAs
- First job out of university - defining a trajectory
- Ensuring underwriting and claims are more conjoined and reactive
- The ideal balance in a claims adjuster's world between what the machines do and what the humans do
- Dissatisfaction to digitisation - looking ahead to the future
Continuing Professional Development
This InsTech Podcast Episode is accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening, you can claim up to 0.5 hours towards your CPD scheme.
By the end of this podcast, you should be able to meet the following Learning Objectives:
- Describe what legacy issues surrounds few large TPAs and why this may leave some customers dissatisfied.
- Specify in what ways generative AI can alleviate processes claims
- Identify how underwriting and claims can be more conjoined
If your organisation is a member of InsTech and you would like to receive a quarterly summary of the CPD hours you have earned, visit the Episode 309 page of the InsTech website or email cpd@instech.co to let us know you have listened to this podcast.
To help us measure the impact of the learning, we would be grateful if you would take a minute to complete a quick feedback survey.