Interview with David Carpenteir - CEO at Assurely

As CEO of Assurely, David Carpentier is building insurance products for changing industries,  technology and times and is bringing it to market in new ways.

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Guest - David Carpenteir
Host - Carl Grant
Producer - Seth Grant

Transcript

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Carl Grant: 0:08

Welcome to Rainmakers! I'm here with David Carpentier CEO of Assurely the next generation in insurance. David, you've been in the insurance business for a while. And now you're innovating. Tell us a little bit about what you're doing.

David Carpentier: 0:23

Hi Carl, good morning. So it's really what we're doing is we're building and or adjusting insurance products for changing industries. And, you know, technology, you know, traditionally has been a catalyst for change, whether it's insurance or other industries. But in the wake of what's happened in the last 15 to 18 months or so, there's not a single industry in the world that isn't required to change, adapt and or innovate.

Carl Grant: 0:48

Yeah, COVID is kind of rocked the world. And so how is that? So insurance? So just back up a little bit. Every company that that grows to any significant level requires directors and officers liability insurance. And I know that all too well, because I was a founding board member of a bank that didn't do didn't do so well in 2008. And and we were really concerned about our DNO policy is how we abbreviate it. And so those policies were bought historically on relationships. I know somebody who knows somebody who sells directors and officers liability insurance, how has the world changed?

David Carpentier: 1:31

we're diving right into insurance terms, directors and officers. Promise a little stay away from some of the technical insurance.

Carl Grant: 1:40

Not everybody who's listening understands even what that is. So yeah, feel free to just explain it,

David Carpentier: 1:45

nor numbers, nor should they need to. Um, but yeah, so certainly it relationships are important in especially insurance. And when change occurs, when you know, the word innovation starts to embed itself within an industry like insurance. What does that do to the word relationship, right. And so the broker agent intermediary role, there's value propositions that are required, that end up manifesting itself in the form of a relationship. And that is people want to trust who they're working with. They want to feel, maybe not an insurance, they don't necessarily need to have a wonderful buying experience, but they need to know that they didn't make a mistake when they purchase it. They need to be informed, but they don't really want to deal with it. They don't need to be an expert, but they want to feel informed. They want to feel confident, they want to build Express confidence to their board, to their vendors, to their customers, to their regulators. These are the value propositions that come out of a relationship when you're selling insurance.

Carl Grant: 2:59

Now, by bringing the buying process more online, as you have, how do you keep the relationship in the mix?

David Carpentier: 3:10

Well, I'm a 41 year old CEO. If a vendor comes to me with a non non digital or if technology is not involved in the transaction, it actually hinders my ability to have to have that trust, there is a there's an expectation that my life's gonna be easier that data is going to be a part of the transaction going forward, anything I purchase, car, apartment, insurance, you name it. So what I really believe technology augments that in I believe industry should view that as a supporting function versus a disrupting function.

Carl Grant: 4:03

So So I'm thinking about my own buying habits. And so I use a bank that's completely online. And then I have entrusted them with virtually all my money, and so I can get that. But I'm thinking about, like, when we were when, when our bank was going through a tough time and we weren't sure if we were going to be able to sell it or declare bankruptcy or what was going to happen when when the market, you know, cratered. We have the guy who provided the DNO policy on our board of directors, so we all looked at him. So when, when, when, you know, when when the world falls out from underneath your feet and you're looking for your DNO policy, and your you know, you're looking at who you're going to call. How are they to think about a surely in that situation, who do they call?

David Carpentier: 4:58

Exactly. Human, you know, I mean, I can rattle off, you know, the rattle off the qualifications of our team, which are impressive, from Tice agloe, to pure Slattery to Brian moving house and to our board, you know, all massive, massive insurance names. But again, when we go back to insure tech, when we talk about technology, the word that we need to make sure we focus on is augmentation, not necessarily disruption, enablement. And those pieces of the puzzle, again, when it goes back to the value proposition of selling, whether it's the directors and officers, insurance, policy, etc. You need to have trust, you need to have confidence and calling the phone and saying hey, man, I need some help. I'm, I'm in a world of hurt, can you sort us out? That is something that is still done an analog basis, and we don't believe that necessarily, it needs to be replaced. But certainly technology can support the success metrics of that phone call.

Carl Grant: 6:06

And so if I'm a startup founder, and I raise, I raise a round of venture capital, and all of a sudden they say, hey, you need a DNO policy. And so, you know, I've heard about your company on this podcast. How is the buying process different from going on the surely website versus calling up? You know, the guy down the street? I know. It's gonna be than less 10 minutes. Wow. So explain that.

David Carpentier: 6:38

The digital exhaust that we create by our lives, the various risk management items that a company needs to go through. When they raise capital, the data exists, the ability to go get that data that information intimately understand a certain industry sector that'll exists. Traditional underwriting, whether it be directors and officers was typically leveraging finite data sets in the form of the application utilizing underwriter judgment when you start under understanding where those variables are with an underwriter, judgment, and start saying, Okay, cool. So when you do look at this, what questions are you asking? What are the variables, you start coding those, it gets kind of powerful. On top of that, there's other risk management pieces of the puzzle from Who's your content, who's your research VC firm, you know, this is not a, you know, the Cavalier nature that people think the VC may have, or crowdfunding or E other, any other capital raising experience, people got to go through various checks and balances. Now, the ability to leverage some of that in the form of information risk management, is a crucial piece of the puzzle for us.

Carl Grant: 8:06

So David, this this, this podcast is focused primarily on business development. And so, so much of what we talked about on each of these episodes is developing relationships and trust relationships and referrals. When you go to market digitally, like that, how is how is that equation different? How do you build that same type of type of trust, that that, you know, somebody's out in the marketplace, face to face, shaking hands and so forth, would do

David Carpentier: 8:33

not do anything different? Right? There's nothing different. And so we talk about how to build trust is, one is just having an intimate understanding of an industry sector of a company, people want to want you to know that we know you, right. So going into industry segments, specific types of companies, specific types of of, of sectors, specific types of risks, and saying, We're the experts, or here's our credentials. You know, if you fall within this, we're gonna knock it out of the park. That's a piece of the puzzle. Also. This is something that's not going to specifically the more upmarket, you go, people are going to kind of roll their eyes at this. But if you look at Bain and recents, put some information out. handful other studies. And this is more relevant in the personal lines of insurance. But there's a lot of studies that say over 80% of insurance, consumers prefer to buy insurance from someone other than an agent. Now, when you're talking about, you know, some of the folks that that you interact with the insurance folks don't necessarily acknowledge themselves as agents, they're brokers, consultants, what have you, but surely largely focuses on creating partnerships with non insurance native third parties to help them advance their core business. What does that Again, we are very, very, very active in the know what was formerly known as crowdfunding, but the Lord's movement of people using the internet and technology to raise capital. we digitize that capital raising process. So when you find ways of the various components and the various stakeholders that are involved in that process, then you say, Hey, I can help you help your customers. And that's a tangible value proposition. That is not. Hey, Carl, I know you got a bunch of companies raising capital. Those are people we want assumptions to? How would you flip them to me, buddy, and, you know, the idea here, that's not a sustainable long term, tangible value proposition. But when I can go to what we refer to as the adults in the room, if we can identify the adults in the room, they're supporting capitalism, supporting online capital formation, and say, Hey, you bring me a value proposition in the form of risk management data customers, I can bring you a value proposition in the form of better form, better pricing, better process, etc. And there's something tangible that now brings that that entity, that third party partner, that in the form of Rainmaker, that referral partner, tangible value proposition that advances their core business, because they're not in the business of selling insurance.

Carl Grant: 11:33

So, so much of the powerful. Yeah, so so much of the interaction during the whole COVID era, we've had, you know, is not not personal. So you and I are in the same town right now. But we're, you know, we're not in the same room. And so we've gotten accustomed to meeting people digitally and having trust relationships built digitally. And, and the whole kind of notion of an influencer out there has really proliferated. Is that kind of what you're seizing upon?

David Carpentier: 12:04

If we can take the word early, the stigma of the word influencer to what it is today, which is, you know, a clickbait driven. Instagram, social media.

Carl Grant: 12:15

Yeah, I'm not thinking about the Instagram model. I'm thinking about, you know, business influencers, people who have credibility.

David Carpentier: 12:21

Yeah. And so that's it goes back to tangible value propositions, right. And so when you say, credibility, what does that turn into? but certainly the answer's yes. At what level can we impact an influencer versus a core business stakeholder? Right? So if if an attorney, would you view Cooley or any other securities attorney as an influencer, or a key stakeholder of somebody who's raising capital,

Carl Grant: 12:56

probably more of an influencer? You know, the stakeholder would be the venture capitalists.

David Carpentier: 13:01

Okay, then yes, the answer would be yes. To the stakeholder or some sort of the influencer. I apologize.

Carl Grant: 13:05

Okay. All right. So, so that makes sense that we're talking. I can't even remember how we can, I guess it was, it was Tim Donahue who connected us.

David Carpentier: 13:14

Yet another another one of the more highly listened participants on this on this week on this podcast.

Carl Grant: 13:22

Yeah. Yeah, he was. He was a guest on this podcast, but I actually physically met him. So you know, it's, it's a, it's kind of a hybrid model here.

David Carpentier: 13:31

You know, I became friends here in town. As you know, I'm new to Austin, we founded the company. And you know, I was in New York for 12 and a half years. And early on intimidates friendship. I kind of, you know, floaters named to a couple people. And one person in the real estate world, though. Yeah, he's a big hitter. I gave him that legitimate blush out of his Irish.

Carl Grant: 13:56

So if somebody is listening to this, and they want to, you know, they want to check out your product, possibly by how do they reach you?

David Carpentier: 14:04

Yeah, there's two ways. Um, there's the old fashioned way of knocking on our door that is surely calm and getting to us. The primarily in nausea, there's more value for everybody involved, is accessing us through your attorneys through if you're utilizing some type of software, to raise capital manage your cap table, coming through us asking your colleague grants the world, hey, do you know what surely Can you introduce me? They're going to get a lot of benefit coming that direction versus coming to our website directly. That being said, there's a lot of folks that still come to us directly and then we'll go access the Carl's of the world on their behalf to ensure that you know, everybody's aligned.

Carl Grant: 14:49

And one last question, David, so if a young person's listening to this and they're thinking, I want to be an innovator in an industry like you have been what recommend, recommend Do you have for them to prepare themselves to do what you've done?

David Carpentier: 15:03

Ask questions ask why. In the first time somebody says, Well, that's just because the way it's always been done. Write that down in just data. Because if that's the case, that means there is an innovators dilemma sitting within a stakeholder that's not adding value.

Carl Grant: 15:24

Great advice, David Carpentier, founder of Assurely Thank you.

David Carpentier: 15:29

Thanks, Carl. Thanks for having me. Thanks for joining us on rainmakers.

Carl Grant: 15:32

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