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Starting up in InsurTech?

Returning to being an Operator, exiting stealth mode - an insiders perspective on how D2C InsurTechs begin their life.

Rahul Mathur
Nov 14, 2020
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Hello folks, today’s post is slightly different - some of you may know I have transitioned into a new phase of life - as the Founder of BimaPe. Rather than promoting BimaPe, I’ll be sharing some of our lessons from searching for Market-Product Fit.

Most consumer FinTechs use the “GEM” (Grow, Engage, Monetize) framework. In D2C InsurTech (and at BimaPe), I advocate for a different kind of “GEM” (Garner Trust, Empower with tools, Motivate an informed purchase)..

At BimaPe, we’re still at the “Garner Trust” phase of our journey; so, how have we tried to garner trust?

Lesson #1 - Garner Trust (in non-scaleable ways)

“Do things that don’t scale” - Paul Graham, Founder of YCombinator

  • Be vocal, be explicit and take a stance: At BimaPe, we repeatedly emphasize “we are NOT in the business of selling insurance, we are in the business of helping you make an informed insurance purchase.” Our DMs on LinkedIn & Twitter reveal that this has been noticed by folks.

  • Create cheerleaders: In 3 months, our team has spoken with ~320+ individuals conveying BimaPe’s mission of “simplifying insurance” and hearing our their queries.

    • An average “cheerleader” we speak with introduces us to 1.4 more “cheerleaders”.

    • We’ve responded to 127 comments and DMs regarding specific insurance questions in 14 days of exiting stealth mode.

  • Fortress balance sheet: I think it’s fairly obvious looking at our team below that we are venture backed. Insurance requires customer trust; financial stability induces customer trust!

    For context, 45% of website views go to the “About Us” page - sell your story, array your team and impress the customer!

Team BimaPe as displayed on our website (dated 10.11.2020)
  • Proof of Authority & Likeness: Humans tend to find solace in ‘numbers’ or in the ‘shadow’ of authority . A quick look at our website reveals:

    • BimaPe is registered with the Government of India under ‘Startup India’

    • BimaPe is reviewed by 10+ highly regarded folks in the Indian Tech community.

  • “To give, is to get”: BimaPe’s 1st feature is a public awareness tool called “Know Your Card”. Requires no personal information but shows you the hidden insurance benefits on your card! We got 1,000 sign-ups on D1 and +25 organic sign-ups per day.

In short, trust is a prerequisite to building any (insurance) business. Capital, clout and confidence can speed up everything except for trust building.

Lesson #2 - Leverage social graphs

The roots of insurance lie in community-based risk sharing. Isn’t it odd that no Technology companies are looking to leverage communities to grow an insurance business? - BimaPe’s odd distribution thesis.

Imagine getting 1,500+ ‘qualified’ sign-ups WITHOUT spending marketing $$ -

Assuming you’ve done the ‘create cheerleaders’ right, you will find strong Word of Mouth spread of your product (for a limited time)…

Twitter avatar for @Rahul_J_MathurRahul Mathur @Rahul_J_Mathur
Excited to bring BimaPe out of stealth mode & into your hands.. 'Know Your Card' lets you Discover FREE insurance on your 💳 Without requiring you to share your card number with us. '@BimaPeBharosa Karo' - learn more here 👇
bimape.com/know-your-cardKnow Your Card | BimaPeWhat free insurance do you have on your card?bimape.com

October 30th 2020

60 Retweets533 Likes

Our W1 (Week #1) traction was fully driven by Twitter and LinkedIn post(s) by our team. And, even now (D14 i.e. Day #14), we continue to acquire users via these posts or via Word of Mouth..

Startup_Success = function (Product, Distribution) - don’t ignore distribution by saying “we’re pre-product” (BimaPe doesn’t have a product, or at least, not in the public domain!)

Lesson #3 - Experiment!

“What is the one-line description of the problem you’re solving? Do users seek a solution so badly that they will find your product?” - A question from one of our investors

As a Pre-Market Product Fit company, we’re at the “experiment” stage of the journey. For anyone with a STEM degree, experimentation consists of the following steps:

  1. Form a hypothesis

  2. Create a test; set a benchmark “success” metric

  3. Document (1) & (2)

  4. Run the test in (2)

  5. Document learnings

At BimaPe, we have ~15 hypothesis (actively testing 5); template below:

Experimentation ties in with being open-minded. We initially began posting a daily Insurance snapshot summary on LinkedIn (& found incredible traction; as below):

D10 of ‘stealth mode’ exit - LinkedIn content engagement

So, we asked - if we have Feature-Market fit (and, Feature-Market-Channel fit) on LinkedIn for this snapshot.. Why not try this on WhatsApp? At the time of writing (13.11), we have ~450 sign-ups to the WhatsApp mailer in <7 days!

We’re running a few more experiments that I cannot comment on. Just a heads up, the same “test” can help you test multiple hypothesis.

Closing thoughts

The 0 to 1 phase of start-up building is probably the most exciting! It is also the busiest part of the journey - several of us at BimaPe are doing ~100+ hour work weeks! Apologies for being very slow with posts on InsurTech Tribe.

If you’d like me to post more frequently about building a D2C InsurTech start-up, I’d be happy to do so! And, I look forward to your thoughts, comments & feedback…

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Want to explore any of our experiments live?

  1. Know Your Card by BimaPe

  2. Daily Insurance snapshot by BimaPe


Want to work at an InsurTech in India?

  1. Loop Health (Amrit, Ryan & Mayank would love to hear from you!)

Blurb from Loop Health for their open roles!
  1. PlumHQ (Abhishek & Saurabh are hiring!)

    Twitter avatar for @tanish2kSaurabh Arora @tanish2k
    Plum is looking out for Product Design lead - we think the work you'll do here can be the most impactful of your career. Since our launch a few months ago, 200+ corporates and 10k+ members have moved to Plum to use health insurance. 📩 join@plumhq.com help spread the word?

    October 24th 2020

    34 Retweets42 Likes
  2. Nova Benefits (Saransh & Yash are hiring!)

    Twitter avatar for @saransh92gargSaransh Garg @saransh92garg
    We're hiring for a growth PM. Exciting role where you'll be owning our key growth metrics (Visitors > Signups > Onboarding > Engagement > Churn) If you know someone great, please recommend them!
    angel.co/company/nova-b…
    Image

    October 26th 2020

    2 Retweets16 Likes

That is all from me folks! Until next time!

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Javi
Nov 15, 2020

Can you do a deep dive into Laka, since you worked there?

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