Many small businesses struggle to keep up with the ever-changing risk landscape as the world becomes increasingly digitally focused. Cybersecurity concerns, and revenue loss caused by power outages are just some of the concerns being added to other requirements.
Yet while the need for insurance coverage grows, many small businesses are unable to find offerings that suit their operations and risk.
One firm hoping to solve this issue is digital insurtech blip Insurance. To find out more about the firm’s aims, future plans and challenges, we hear from its founder and CEO, Gary Ross.
Tell us more about your company and its offering
Gary Ross, founder and CEO of blip Insurance
blip is a fully digital insurtech, returning up to 10 per cent of its total policy premiums to its policyholders through a profit share model, allowing blip members to save money, share in profits and benefit from a growth-focused online business community.
We were designed specifically with small businesses in mind. blip is tailored to businesses with five employees or less; the vast majority of UK businesses and those who keep the country running.
We are partnering with European insurer Wakam, integrating a fully stacked technology solution to blip’s proprietary distribution website to provide competitively priced and easy-to-understand small business insurance, with policies less than half the written length of competitors.
What problem has your company set up to solve?
After years working in the insurance industry and seeing the unfair offering for small businesses, I was inspired to create blip and utilise technology to maximise the user experience.
There’s a one-size-fits-all mentality in the industry that doesn’t service small businesses which, given the vast majority of UK businesses are SMEs, is just not right. We want to provide a service for small business owners that is founded on the first principles of insurance but involves so much more.
We know that the most important factor for business owners is price and our model, through the use of technology, has allowed us to offer an incredibly competitive price upfront as well as the opportunity for every blip member to receive up to 10 per cent of their policy back at the end of the year.
The blip website also provides members with access to toolkits and support to aid them in growing and developing their business. We felt small businesses were being ignored and overlooked by the insurance industry and blip aims to put a stop to that.
Since launch, how has your company evolved?
Since launch, we have grown the blip community exponentially bringing on board customers and partners.
We have partnered with the National Enterprise Network (NEN) as its first patron. As the country’s leading representative of business support for micro, small and start-up businesses, the NEN is an established community of dedicated enterprise support providers delivering impact on the ground at a community level across the whole of the UK.
We have developed our technology alongside the insurance products we offer. As we continue to widen our scope and offering, further announcements will be made.
What has been the biggest challenge or most ‘tricky moment’ to overcome?
The biggest challenge for us is the existing and established insurance infrastructure. We have to take customers, partners and investors on a journey to make them realise that the user experience is the most critical aspect of the blip offering.
Potential blip members are provided with a quote within three clicks and could receive a highly competitive price. By not being on price comparison websites we are able to return those costs directly to our members and create a community where the losses of the few are paid for by the premiums of the many. On average we are almost a third cheaper than price comparison sites and we are so confident in our price that if a small business owner manages to find one cheaper we will match it.
As an insurtech challenging the insurance establishment is difficult but at blip we are here to prove that the integrity and foundations of insurance can be maintained while simultaneously improving the customer experience by deploying technology.
What are your biggest achievements or ‘proudest moments’ so far?
As an insurtech, we strive to make purchasing insurance and accessing relevant documents, support toolkits and the community platform as easy as possible for our blip members.
One recent example of this process which we are particularly proud of is the quick and simple registration of tools and business equipment as part of our tools cover. Members have the ability to video and voice record their tools and equipment and we can use this as proof of ownership. If they need to make a claim they simply pull out their phones and record via our app explaining exactly what happened. This is all we need. And we aim to payout within 24 hours!
How would you describe the culture of your company?
For a successful company culture, there are three things which we believe are non-negotiables at blip.
Everybody at blip shares passion for the project and belief in the product. It is imperative that we communicate efficiently and effectively as a team to guarantee uniformity in messaging, planning and strategy.
Thirdly, team members are trusted and encouraged to work independently and without any micromanagement. We are all pulling in the same direction and want to make blip the go-to insurance provider for small businesses in the UK.
What’s in store for the future?
This is just the beginning for blip. We are continuing to fine-tune the technology which underpins our insurance platform. We plan to announce new products such as professional indemnity cover in the coming months to increase the protection and support which we can offer UK small businesses.
The ultimate goal is to grow the blip community. We will do this by ensuring our three core principles of Price, Value & Return remain at the forefront of our offering.
The post Behind the Idea: blip Insurance appeared first on The Fintech Times.
