Pat Cline is Managing Director at 101 Weston Labs, supporting forward-thinking entrepreneurs in their effort to build scalable insurtech startups focused on enhancing independent agencies. Pat was interviewed by Michael Fiedel, Co-Founder at InsurTech Ohio and Co-Founder at PolicyFly, Inc.
Pat, how would you characterize the independent agent's ongoing appetite for innovation in our industry?
“It's evolving rapidly, but there's still some caution in the agent community. There's a continued emphasis on streamlining productivity, enhancing efficiency and improving customer service. To some degree, with or without technology, those have already been there, but agents are looking more and more for simple solutions to address those areas. Data, and what agencies can do with their existing systems, is becoming a more recognized growth area.
We're starting to see more awareness and acceptance of technologies that enhance retention, provide better risk assessment, as well as those that lead to more personalized coverage and experience. And, of course, there has been a lot of experimentation already with AI, and we’d certainly expect that to increase as people get more familiar with the technology and products develop.
There's also more willingness to partner with insurtechs. Many of these agents have been approached in the past, and maybe were somewhat hesitant to get involved or locked into annual contracts. Now, both sides are navigating those relationships better, at least in part because insurtechs are getting better at speaking to agents.
The caution I mentioned above comes primarily from safeguarding the client relationships they're building. The most valuable thing agents have is that relationship with their insured. They want to make sure that the insurers are protected. They're still looking at technology through that lens, and they want to make sure that the tech they put in place enhances that relationship rather than disrupts it in some way.
Something that doesn't get discussed quite as much is agency employees. Companies come in and talk about disruption and that the world is going to change rapidly and drastically. Agency owners care about their employees and want to make sure they’re comfortable implementing any tech solution. They want to be able to utilize technology effectively, while providing a better work experience for the employees, and ensure people are taken care of.”
For startups creating products in this space, what are some of the guiding principles to achieve early success?
“My advice is to focus on the messaging very early on. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it has to be agent-focused. There are going to be differences of opinions and different ways to approach agents, of course, but it’s very important to keep them front and center. For instance, I just mentioned relationships. You need to understand how to communicate your message around what problem you are solving for,and focus on empowering the agency, not disrupting it. Ensure that agents feel comfortable trying this technology and that the whole world is not going to change overnight.
That leads to point number two: incremental, scalable products and services do better than a big change. The product should be easy to use, so much so that the customer doesn’t have to think about it. Those are important aspects of the product.
Another point revolves around pricing. People don't want to be locked into contracts anymore. Ideally, companies would provide some sort of freemium element where agencies can try the product or service before purchasing. If that's not possible, de-risking a new product or service as much as possible around implementation and flexible pricing can make a purchasing decision much easier.
Companies that communicate a lot do well. They are thought leaders on social media and make efforts to educate agents not only on what they do but about different, relevant things happening in the industry. Agents really value that. It's not anything condescending; it's a peer-to-peer discussion of what's happening in the world. Here's how we fit in. You can become well-known and respected just by helping people learn.
One thing that's not specific to this space, but is more general, is that companies have to iterate rapidly. This is a very complex industry with a lot of different legacy technologies in play, and it’s a very regulated environment. The companies that are aware of the entire ecosystem are stronger. You have to understand your place in the world and how it relates to others trying to solve other problems.”
What are some of the ways you focus on connecting independent agents and startups to create an effective feedback loop that will help guide these emerging companies?
“We are constantly working on developing and building the broadest network we possibly can. The areas in which we're strongest come from our origin of being created inside the Independent Insurance Agents Association of North Carolina (IIANC). We have great working relationships with other state associations and are actively working to enhance those relationships. What I mean by that specifically is that we can go to those state associations, talk about the companies that are in our world and ask how we can get in front of their member agents, whether that's a technology committee, their annual conference or just working directly to provide written content or put on webinars. The states can help us get in front of agents. They are very high-leverage organizations in that regard.
We also think about other organizations that are ostensibly collections of insurance professionals, like InsurTech Ohio, that are proliferating across the country. More and more emphasis on technology is coming from these groups, and that dovetails nicely with what we’re trying to accomplish. It may lead to direct interaction with agents, but interacting with these groups allows us to get our word out to agents that are participating in, or simply following, them. We work with organizations like Catalyit, which provides technology advice to independent agents. They help send our message out to a captive audience that’s on their site actively looking for technology solutions for independent agents. We host our own events. We are recently coming off a Demo Day at our annual conference. We support other organizations that want to host events like that as well. It's a great way to not only have 50 to 100 people in a room, but to get things on tape and publicize them that way.
We’re lucky that we have an amazing Advisory Council of influential agents, insurtech startup founders and respected industry professionals who enhance our message. They are a constant source of leads and interest generation, both for companies and for carriers, tying us into the ecosystem. They are also instrumental in the decisions we make as an organization as we look to continue to evolve and expand our impact as well. The goal is to get us to as many places as possible, recognizing that there’s this vanguard of tech-progressive insurance agents. They will speak on our behalf as an organization and the companies that they love, getting us into the mainstream.
We believe deeply in the power of referrals. Our philosophy is, ‘Let's just get in front of as many agents as possible, talk about what we do and who our companies are, get feedback and encourage them to talk to each other.’ We know they have these communities and are talking to each other there. As long as they know about us and the companies we're working with, that's amazing. We’re trying to build a flywheel that we start moving and continues to work without us as more and more agents and insurance professionals share with each other.”
What are some of the key characteristics that you look for in successful founders that you believe precipitate their ability to have an industry-wide impact?
“We're fortunate because we have a wide variety of founders. What makes them similar is not any characteristic around industry experience. It's not that an agent founder is better than a non-agent founder. It’s more that they are relentlessly focused on solving problems, and if they have come to us, they are interested in getting support around distribution, messaging and operations. One thing I think about is ‘Does the founder know what they don't know?’ That's incredibly valuable in the sense that it makes it easier for us to dig in collaboratively and shore up any relative weaknesses.
That definitely takes some humility, adaptability and the ability to take in feedback. People will often tell you that they’re great at taking feedback. You find out quickly who means that and who doesn't. We're looking for people who truly mean that and can adapt based on what they're hearing and learning.
Another key characteristic is the ability to zoom in with the messaging that I talked about earlier. It's easy to stay above the fray and think you have the solution, and agents will just come for it. That’s not usually the case; founders need the ability to go in, get the answers they need, get the feedback and the product testing they need and then pull back to iterate and adapt.
Finally, the last thing I'd say is organizations and founders that have the ability to build alliances, create partnerships and think more strategically about how they can engage others in the ecosystem do comparatively better. It's important to consider partnering and not trying to rebuild the world by yourself. We’ve really enjoyed working with, and promoting, our past and current companies and founders, and we’re really excited and optimistic about the next generation of builders we haven’t yet met.”
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