Assaf Wand is the CEO & co-founder of insurtech startup Hippo.
Insurtech is also a space that has become increasingly crowded and more high-profile in recent years.
Hippo Insurance uses technology to help homeowners maintain their properties, creating a new standard of care and protection for homeowners. Hippo announced its intention to go public via SPAC in early March of this year that will now give Hippo a valuation of $5B, making it one of the largest insurtechs in the US.
Co-Founder & CEO Assaf Wand sits down with NFX Partner Pete Flint to share his Founder story, product mindset, strategy behind the SPAC, and personal frameworks for taking Hippo from idea to IPO.
Assaf Wand is the Founder & CEO @ Hippo Insurance, with over $700M in funding Hippo are setting a new standard for home insurance and offer protection for what’s important to today’s homeowner. Nima Ghamsari is the Founder & CEO @ Blend, with over $665M in funding they are the digital platform streamlining the journey from application to close — for every banking product. Max Simkoff is the Founder & CEO at States Title, with $229M in funding States Title are using machine intelligence to create a vastly more simple and efficient closing experience for lenders, real estate professionals, and homebuyers. Brendan Wallace is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Fifth Wall, with over $1.3Bn in commitments and AUM across multiple different vehicles, they are the largest venture firm focused on the real estate industry and property technology for the Built World. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) 3 of the largest and most successful founders in the financial real estate market, what have been their biggest learnings from their friendship over the last 5 years? What have been some of the most hotly debated topics they have had as a group? How did their opinions and views change as a result? 2.) How do they think and feel about the tech exodus from Silicon Valley, temporary movement due to COVID or fundamental shift? How closely correlated is the move out of California with the explosion of liquidity from IPOs and acquisitions? What pisses Max off most about people leaving CA currently? 3.) How have their roles as leaders changed in the time of COVID? What have been the most challenging elements? What have they had to embrace? What have they had to disregard or stop? What advice do they give to other founders scaling into hyper-growth in a remote format? 4.) What do they believe is the fundraising strategy that allowed them to raise over $1.5Bn as a group? How do they think about what they look for in each stage of investors? How does it change when entering growth stages? How has their experience been having corporates play a large role in their financing? What are the biggest challenges of working with corporates? What does one need to do to extract the most value from them? Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode Max’s Favourite Book: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
Assaf Wand is the CEO and co-founder of insurtech startup Hippo which offers intuitive and proactive home insurance by taking a smarter, tech-driven approach. The company has raised over $100 million from Lennar Corporation, GGV Capital, Felicis Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Munich Re Ventures, Aquiline Technology Growth, Abstract Ventures, Sinai Ventures, Fifth Wall and Propel Venture Partners. Prior to Hippo Assaf founded Foris Telecom and Sabi (acquired by Urbio Inc.).
There's been a rash of activity and a big influx of new capital into insurtech. Insurance almost feels like it was the last holdout to be targeted by fintech firms. That's because it's a really big problem to solve.
Today's guest, Assaf Wand is the founder and CEO of Hippo Insurance. Hippo isn't Assaf's first startup and he doesn't shy away from big problems. To hear him tell it, Assaf wanted to be in the insurance business since he was a little kid. But startup technology costs were always too prohibitive, the lack of historical consumer data prevented him from competing, and customers just weren't ready to switch.
That's all different now as Hippo is attempting to change the way home insurance is sold (spoiler: the buyers aren't just millennials). Hippo's Assaf Wand is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.
Before we jump into the interview — If you get value out of this podcast, we'd appreciate a review wherever you get your podcasts. We do this for you and reviews are the fuel that make this podcast go and help others to discover it.
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Creator Details
Episode Count
5
Podcast Count
5
Total Airtime
3 hours, 28 minutes
PCID
734927