In an effort to feature more insurtechs Digital Insurance has modified the format of our Meet the insurtech series.
Sure, an embedded software insurtech, started on an airplane.
Wayne Slavin, CEO of Sure, shares how the company was founded and what is ahead. Responses have been lightly edited for clarity.
What's the origin story?
In 2014, I was mid-flight from San Francisco to Las Vegas when we suddenly experienced some pretty serious turbulence. As I was looking around at the other passengers, I could tell it was a scary experience for them. It dawned on me that there should be an easy way to buy insurance on the spot. In this case, it was the idea of purchasing life insurance before boarding a flight.So we built a proprietary app for people to purchase insurance quickly and frictionlessly, starting first with flight insurance, baggage insurance, and shortly after smartphone insurance, to name just a few. We then realized that the technology we developed was so powerful that the opportunity for Sure was so much bigger.
Instead of selling insurance digitally ourselves, we could use our technology to help others sell insurance online. We do so now through our technology rails and insurance network to enable digital insurance transactions between carriers, brands, and consumers. We work with insurance carriers to enable their offline-to-online transitions and non-insurance companies that want to launch embedded digital insurance programs. We're like what Visa and Mastercard were in the early days of credit cards. They built the rails for cashless payments and we're building the rails for digital insurance.
When was it founded and/or when was the product launched?
Following that lightbulb moment on my flight to Las Vegas, we gathered some data around when and how customers would buy insurance.
I assembled the initial team and we began building software to simplify the complexities of buying insurance through a mobile app. Our first initiative at Sure was a B2C approach that would support the online, on-demand purchase of episodic insurance protection. We offered a digital experience for a variety of insurance products, including everything from renters and travel to rideshare and smartphone protection. From there, what was then the Sure App officially launched in October 2015.
Can you tell me about the founders/founding team?
I knew I wasn't the first person to try to do this, so I sought out to see who had done something similar. I ended up finding an article about a founder who shared his experience building an insurance startup that ended in failure. On a whim I reached out to him. I asked: "Was I wasting my time trying to innovate within the insurance industry?" He said no, and to call.
That was my first introduction to anyone who knew anything about insurance. I then reached out to my now co-founder who also knew a thing or two about insurance and together we went on to start Sure. It was based on the idea that eventually, insurance would come online, and we didn't know how we would get it there, but we would figure it out.
Any meaning behind the company name?
The goal of Sure originally was to modernize insurance by making it quick to purchase and simple to manage, and we called it Sure App. We searched for a name and a domain that would be as few letters as possible and still convey what the product would be about.
As things started to take shape, we shifted our focus away from an app. However, the name and domain stuck. We then shortened the name to Sure. You can't spell insurance without it.
How many employees?
We ended 2024 with just under 200 employees.
Where is the company based?
Sure originally established an office in Santa Monica, California, but when Covid-19 hit, we decided to lean into being a fully remote company. Sure easily transitioned into a remote-first company because even though we had physical offices, Sure has always had remote-first culture and remote employees since day one.
Our team operates on a culture of trust that enables us to do our best work from wherever our team members are. Not only does prioritizing remote work allow us to work efficiently, it also provides us access to a broader talent pool and enjoy the benefits of higher employee satisfaction and retention.
What pain points is the technology trying to solve?
Today's consumers have proven that they want to buy insurance differently. They want the right product, at the right time, in the right place. The truth is that the large, legacy carriers haven't been able to deliver the types of experiences consumers now expect. The biggest challenge with embedded insurance is having the technology expertise to build these new digital insurance experiences. While large carriers obviously have the insurance expertise, they don't have the technology expertise to deliver these experiences quickly and at scale. That's where Sure comes in.
For us, building the technology rails of insurance means that we are able to help our partners solve the complex problems of digital insurance distribution. That means bringing the entire end-to-end journey of not only the application, rate, quote, and bind process, but also policy administration and claims management into the digital age. We provide the technology rails to enable our partners to reach people where they are and deliver unparalleled customer experiences.
What funding rounds has the company had?
We've raised $123 million in venture funding. Over the years, we have always been very selective in who we work with. I have always known that changing such an established industry would take time and I wanted us to always be able to control our own destiny.
Early on when meeting with investors, they would laugh at the notion of being profitable as a startup, and ask why we would want to do that. Fast forward to today, and the only thing investors care about is companies that are profitable. We built that muscle early on, and when we raised our $100 million Series C we had every dollar of our Series B in the bank. That capital-efficiency and being disciplined really allowed us to navigate the ups and downs of the market including Covid-19.
It used to be a contrarian way of building a company, and we have proven it can be done successfully, even with traditional sources of capital. We're in a fortunate place where we don't have to raise money and we can just continue to build, scale, and drive towards executing on our vision.
What's ahead?
In what we're building, insurance companies are underwriting and issuing policies on our technology rails, and we're enabling new distribution for consumer brands that don't sell insurance today. We've helped the world's largest EV manufacturer launch their auto insurance program. We currently run the auto insurance business for one of the most recognizable automobile manufacturers on the planet. These are companies that have millions of loyal customers and they've nailed their first act – people love and use their products, and they're looking for how to expand their lifetime value and build more revenue for their customer base. That's how they arrive at insurance, and it's really hard because the insurance companies haven't necessarily built the technology and these B2B companies aren't going to learn insurance.
We're at a parallel moment in time when credit cards emerged. Before that, it was all cash and checks. But there were a few companies that made a bet that cashless transactions were going to dominate commerce. Visa and MasterCard led this group. Many people think that those companies are simply the names on their credit cards, but they actually became the network between issuing banks that were underwriting, and merchants that were powering distribution.
Our vision is to do the same thing for insurance, connecting carriers, brands, and consumers on our network.
