Editor’s note: If you didn’t read the last post, you might want to check that out first. Also, you can follow our company page on LinkedIn for future updates.
I have some big news to share today! We have released our first version of the Informed website (if you’re thinking, wait, didn’t they already have a website? Eh, that was more of a corporate information site. This is the user site).
You can find us at getinformed.info (go click now, before you forget!). Here’s a picture…
Now, a few things to know before I tell you more. First, this is an “advanced screening” or prototype site. We’re still putting on final touches before we let the broader public know it exists, but all the main functionality is there. You are getting a first look. Feel free to share it with as many people as you like. In fact, the more the merrier.
Second, it is currently “just” an information site. Now, there is a lot of information, but if you’re looking for something to buy, you’re going to have to wait. Our first mission is to make people smarter insurance consumers as discussed in the last post. Since information should be free, we are giving it away.
Don’t worry, we have a business model. If you want to find out what it is, visit the investor site and ask for a meeting! 😉
What Will I Find?
There are three main things you can do. We call them Get Smarter, Get Answers, and Get Results.
Get Smarter
First, you will find a lot of articles (sample in the screenshot below). They may feel a little like this blog to you…except they’re all about home insurance.
Read them and hopefully learn something. Tell us what you think (praise and criticism are welcome). Share them with others.
The motivation of the articles is largely to address the information asymmetry we discussed in the Teach post the other day. We want people to have better access to information so they can ask the right questions and feel more confident in their purchase decision.
We also shine light on some common industry practices that take advantage of customers lack of knowledge and often leave them without appropriate coverage.
These are practices that need to change – either the policy language needs to go or it needs to be better disclosed – and we are hoping to create the awareness to instigate that change.
Get Answers
Second, you will find the first of our insurance calculators. We plan to share the math on a lot of what goes on inside your insurance policy so people can make more Informed decisions about the right coverage options for them. You can see a partial screenshot below.
If you want to see the answer, go to the site!
There is a lot, lot more to come here. I said earlier we plan to make information free and this is part of that.
I’d rather keep our plans here a little under wraps for now, but, trust me, we’re going to do some stuff here that can really have a big impact on how people buy insurance in the future.
In short, we trust consumers to make the right decisions if they are armed with the best information. Crazy notion, right?
Get Results
Third, we don’t want people to learn something, but not act on it. So we have prepared questions you can ask your agent to make it easier to implement what you have learned.
You can see a teaser below. Go to the site to see the actual shortcuts we’ve prepared for people.
These guides are also free. We are not offering this to maximize clicks on a site. Our goal is to expand the universe of savvy insurance customers and we hope this is an effective way to do so.
We want to make sure people actually get the help they need before they find out firsthand the problem with their insurance coverage. If that means sending them back to their current agent to address their issues, so be it.
It is more important to us that people get help than trying to lock them behind some wall we build. Recall, what I said an InsureTeach does. It’s not about what’s best for us. It’s about what’s best for the customer.
Leave Feedback
We definitely want feedback. That’s why I am sharing the site here first. We are not seeking praise. We’re seeking improvements. We will continue to make changes up until we fully deploy next month.
There are some aspects of the site we feel very strongly about while others we’re still debating the direction, so input is very much welcome. If you’re reading this, then you have good taste, so that means I value your opinion!
Also, please tell us what we left out that you want to see next. We couldn’t fit in everything we plan to add and it would be great to know what people want to see that we may not have even considered. I am also taking requests for more “strange” article (you’ll know them when you see them) topics.
We have a lot of additional plans for the calculators so if there are features you think would be useful for people, please reach out in case we haven’t considered them yet.
You can leave comments on the site, you can email us there, you can email us at the “join” site, you can reach me here through the About page, message me on LinkedIn, etc.
Transparency Always
One of the things we have prioritized for the company is making insurance more transparent. Those of you that know me well understand I have always been an advocate of more transparency in markets. Certainly this blog has some history of trying to make information easier to understand.
So I would be remiss if I wasn’t also transparent about our journey building the company. So look in the future for some behind the scenes stories about trying to launch a startup and some of the mistakes we made and time we wasted getting to this point.
I’m getting a little short on space, so we’ll save those for another day, but I promise to come back to them. I’m not sure they’re really all that interesting to anyone else, but I think there is value in showing how we screwed up some things along the way. Anybody who tells you their path to unicorn status was all up and to the right is lying to you!
And no, I’m not worried some investor is going to judge us if I tell a couple of embarrassing stories. If they do, well, that’s OK, they’re probably not the right investor for us anyway. We’re serious about this transparency thing and that means it starts with us.
How You Can Get Involved
Finally, I wouldn’t be a good CEO if I wasn’t always asking people for something. So, part of getting the site up means we can now start fundraising and hiring for real.
We have a new teaser deck you can request at invest@joininformed.com (or contact me directly). If we talked at some point before, you will probably hear from me again, but you are welcome to hit me first.
As a reminder, if you know me, you are welcome to invest. If you know other people who may want to invest, please introduce me. My goal is to get the right group of investors whether they be individuals, angels, corporates, fintech boutiques, generalist VCs, or the Queen of England.
And by “right group”, I mean investors who get the mission. We are an InsureTEACH. We are following a different playbook than the average insuretech startup. Those aren’t who we are trying to emulate. We are building a brand around service and trust. If you find that compelling, let’s talk!
Finally, if you, or people you know, are looking to get involved with a different kind of startup, all of the above holds true. It doesn’t need to be full time. If you want to help out some in your free time or potentially consult or take on an advisory role, there are all kinds of ways to participate.
Most of our immediate needs are on the tech and marketing side, but happy to talk to anyone interested in helping us level the playing field for insurance buyers. We’ve got a lot of work to do and we need good people!