

Ask HN: Are there any innovative startups in the insurance industry? - antwon

Seems like most innovation in this space consists of incremental improvement. Are there any companies actually disrupting this industry?
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ColinCera
No. Fact: the insurance industry dislikes innovation, and innovators dislike
the insurance industry.

Insurance _seems_ ripe for disruption, but by its very nature it is extremely
risk-averse -- and that's not something that will change, nor should it. It's
also a heavily regulated industry with thin margins, which favors the
enormously capitalized incumbents with years of actuarial data and armies of
experts.

On the other hand, because insurance operates with thin margins yet deals with
gigantic amounts of money, what seems to be merely an "incremental
improvement" can potentially make you quite wealthy, and if you _could_
somehow figure out how to genuinely disrupt a significant insurance market the
rewards would be commensurately mind-boggling.

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mtmail
I like the idea behind Friendsurance
([http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2012/06/peer-
peer-...](http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2012/06/peer-peer-
insurance)). A group of people (friends, colleagues) sign up are thus "in the
same boat". The idea is that on average there will be less insurance fraud
because your friends will not let you make fake claims.

