
Chestnut – Free wildfire risk analysis for any address in California - anilclk
https://getchestnut.com/?ref=hackernews
======
anilclk
Hello Hacker News!

I am one of the makers of Chestnut. Chestnut is our response to the wildfire
crisis in California.

Five years ago, my co-founder (@nilgundag) and I started a company called
UrbanStat. UrbanStat helps insurance companies to understand catastrophic or
human-made events better using location intelligence, visualization, and
machine learning algorithms. Companies like Sompo Japan, Ageas, Allianz,
Safety Insurance, and many more are using our platform today to manage their
portfolios, underwrite their customers, and design better products for people
and businesses.

Summer of 2018, we have decided to build a better wildfire risk map for
California as we realized the current maps are doing a terrible job of
explaining the wildfires California has been experiencing in recent years. Our
initial plan was to provide this map to the insurance companies so they can
understand the wildfire risk better. We quickly realized that the insurance
companies are taking a different path. Instead of understanding the problem
and mitigate the risk better, they are actually exiting the market by
canceling out policies, increasing the premiums 2-10x, and not accepting
customers. Another problem consumers are facing in the California market is
even if you had insurance when the wildfire hit your property in 2018, there
is a 50% chance you have still not received your payments.

Chestnut is not a replacement for your home insurance. Our goal is to provide
you a fast relief after a wildfire hits your property and help you reduce your
homeowners insurance premium. Chestnut is an innovative insurance product that
aims to pay you up to $20,000 within days after a wildfire hits your property.
Our plan is to cover the following damages:

\- Damages to your house, personal property, vehicles, landscaping, and other
structures \- $100/day you are away from home due to forced evacuations up to
20 days a year \- $100/day you spend in a hospital up to 20 days a year \-
$50/day your home is out of power up to 10 days a year

We are working relentlessly to make Chestnut available before the next
wildfire season. Until then, we wanted to open our wildfire risk analysis tool
to the public.

I am happy to answer your questions and any feedback is welcome!

Thank you, Anil

