Ask HN: Are there any innovative startups in the insurance industry?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8478342

by antwon • 12 years ago

1 2 12 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Seems like most innovation in this space consists of incremental improvement. Are there any companies actually disrupting this industry?

ColinCera• 12 years ago

No. Fact: the insurance industry dislikes innovation, and innovators dislike the insurance industry.

Insurance seems ripe for disruption, but by its very nature it is extremely risk-averse -- and that's not something that will change, nor should it. It's also a heavily regulated industry with thin margins, which favors the enormously capitalized incumbents with years of actuarial data and armies of experts.

On the other hand, because insurance operates with thin margins yet deals with gigantic amounts of money, what seems to be merely an "incremental improvement" can potentially make you quite wealthy, and if you could somehow figure out how to genuinely disrupt a significant insurance market the rewards would be commensurately mind-boggling.

mtmail• 12 years ago

I like the idea behind Friendsurance (http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2012/06/peer-peer-...). A group of people (friends, colleagues) sign up are thus "in the same boat". The idea is that on average there will be less insurance fraud because your friends will not let you make fake claims.

Ask HN: Are there any innovative startups in the insurance industry?

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