Cover (YC W16) Raises $8M Series A | Hacker News Reader

Cover (YC W16) Raises $8M Series A

coverinsurance.com

74 pointsaustenallred15 comments

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Congratulations, and best of luck. Insurance is a super interesting market.

Side note: Might want to change out your Lorem Ipsum text from the Claims section:

https://www.coverinsurance.com/make-a-claim

Yikes, nice catch.

Thanks for the catch -- strangely, wasn't updated.

"Take our services + insurance view to the extreme, and insurance premiums start looking like the next ad dollars – spinning out free products and services that bring joy to insurance customers, the basis for a consumer-centric insurance company."

Huh?

Seems like exactly the type of things I don't want my insurance provider partaking in. Insurance is risk distribution, plain and simple. It doesn't need to be cute or fun, and it definitely doesn't need to be spending money to delight users. Your premiums are subsidizing that delight.

As a tech company, many of the things we do to improve the insurance experience can (and perhaps shouldn't, per my prior comments), have zero marginal cost. Say your house burns down - the carrier is going to request receipts, and pictures from your kids' birthday party to prove you owned property you're claiming against. This is not delightful, and is one of the reasons we built out our auto-cataloguing tool.

Insurance companies, largely offer the same products and "differentiate" on customer service. My view is that value-added services, and pressure on price will win the day. Highlighted a few in the article, but perhaps, press a button to get free roadside assistance, talk to a mechanic 24/7, sensors in your home to mitigate risk. The premium volumes are certainly there to support greater value being transferred to the customer.

OK. I still don't understand the reference to "ad dollars". What are "ad dollars" in this context, and how do insurance premiums look like ad dollars?

> Insurance companies, largely offer the same products and "differentiate" on customer service.

UK market, so somewhat different. A large proportion of our insurance sales go through various comparison websites who are the new "zero value add" broker. This leads to a large number of decisions being largely price based.

I have no idea whether this transition occurred in the states?

Is there anything like this for health insurance? I have to get my own insurance but working through the marketplaces is such a pain. If there was a health insurance provider that literally just had a nice web interface I would be very likely to use it even if it's more expensive.

https://www.hioscar.com/

beyond a pain it is incredibly over priced. To the point I can no longer afford it due to making just a little bit to much for subsidies.. They want $1800/mo for my family of 4. That's more than my $1600/mo mortgage and I am 100% positive insurance provides me next to nothing since I go to the doctor less than 1 time a year.

What I ended up doing is cancelling my insurance, I pay our doctor in cash on day of services. He gives us an instant 50% discount to pay same day without insurance. I pay the fine, and get disaster insurance in case shit happens for about $20/mo.

So now, Obamacare is failing not only me, but those its designed to give free insurance to. Because those that are suppose to be paying for the free people can't even afford it and are no longer paying.

The fine is a whole different story and is literally extortion.. Give money to this private company(i only have BCBS to choose from.. nothing else) or we will hunt you down and fine you.. Capone would be proud.

Anyone who supports the current obamacare system is a sheep and a fool. They're literally only supporting it because of the name it carries. No one in their right mind can say this is a good system that supports the American people.

Not only that but, because of one simple mistake on my taxes around these stupid new forms, I'm still waiting on my 5k tax return and its nearly August.

I voted for Obama twice and have never been more dissatisfied with my health insurance.. At 35yo this is by far the worst it has ever been. Before obamacare I paid about $75/paycheck for a really nice plan from my employeer. Now it's $1800/mo and my employeers will only pay up to like $800 when I've had one.

I work for myself now so it's different.

What state are you in?

I'm a bit fuzzy on what business insurance actually means? I operate a few small online companies and what protection would Cover provide? Lawsuits? What about credit card chargebacks? Vendors/clients failing to pay invoices?

On the commercial side we offer business property, professional liability, errors & omissions etc. The financial guarantees you're describing do exist:

https://apps.shopify.com/signifyd

We don't yet offer them though, as they tend to be assessed at point of sale.

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