2019-09-23 Monday - InsureTech Connect 2019 - Day #1

Day #1 - of InsureTech Connect 2019, Las Vegas, NV

(I'm still working on writing-up some pieces for the interviews with Gary and Bassam below - this posting will continue to be updated...)

I arrived late yesterday afternoon (Sunday) in Las Vegas. Checked into my hotel, near the MGM Grand - and walked over this morning for a 9am interview with Gary Hoberman, Founder and CEO of Unqork.

[Listening to Gary expound on his company's vision and mission was one of the most inspiring experiences I've had - not only while attending InsureTech Connect 2019 - but, probably in the last year.]


Unqork was founded in 2016 - and offers a cloud-based, no-code solution, with a market focus on Insurance, Financial Services, and Real Estate. A few interesting notes from my background research and  interview with Gary:

• Their Glassdoor employee reviews are quite interesting (14 reviews, 100% Recommend to a friend, and 100% Approve of CEO)
• Goldman Sachs is both a customer - and a lead investor (April 2019, $22M series A round)
• They have about 150 employees
• Interestingly, their software development is done entirely in-house, in New York. 
• Given their  stated position on not participating in RFPs (see their FAQ), I had assumed that they might have a market focus on the lower end of a target revenue size for their prospective clients - however, Gary surprised me with a few interesting facts:
• Their first customer writes over $48B in annual premiums
• None of their insurance customers write less than $1B in annual premiums.

• Gary mentioned that his view is that "...the idea of a policy admin system is flawed".  This requires a bit more explanation - which I will expand on in the next day or so - but is it a teaser for you - of the radical and disruptive thinking that is embedded in the DNA of Unqork's approach to solving the historical problems/costs/challenges/delays in building information systems for the insurance industry.
• An astounding claim: They were able to port the PCE application for a client in Bogota, Columbia (22 products & riders) in 7 weeks.

I'll have more information to share from my interview with Gary - as well as my deeper dive technical discussion with Unqork's CTO, Bassam Chaptini.A quick summary of their technology stack:

• Cloud deployment  is supported on Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Amazon (AWS)
• The application is primarily written in JavaScript - for both the front-end, and back-end.
• JSON is heavily used in the application architecture - and is stored in MongoDB. 

I attended the conference as an official representative of the media contingent:

Photo by Kelvin D. Meeks

The line to get to the registration desk was quite long...this process might benefit from an application of some technology.  :)

Note: This was the view, after working our way ~50% through the queue... 

Photo by Kelvin D. Meeks

While in line, I had the great pleasure of meeting Joseph Keller, Associate Counsel, Westmont Associates, Inc.  I appear to have misplaced the business card of one of Joseph's associates that I also met (my apologies) - I will update this with her information as soon as I can find it.  Later, I also had the chance to meet Logan Marro, Vice President.

"Westmont brings an unparalleled team of seasoned professionals, including contract/compliance specialists, attorneys, claims experts, accountants and actuaries. Our senior staff possesses insurance company experience and also includes former regulators. The principals on our staff have been senior executives at insurance companies throughout the U.S. We understand your internal issues and goals and we appreciate how regulatory decisions will impact the rest of your corporation."

Services offered by Westmont Associates, include Corporate Producer Licensing/Individual Producer Licensing.



Folks were still arriving throughout the day...

Photo by Kelvin D. Meeks

17:00

• I was fortunate to have the chance to catch-up with Vishal Garg, Sr. Enterprise Architect Data, Digital and Innovation at Farmers Insurance, over dinner. Vishal is a friend, and former colleague. 

Photo by Kelvin D. Meeks

19:00

• Cambridge Mobile Telematics hosted an event at the MGM Grand's Topgolf, with professional golfers David Feherty and John Daly
• One of the best sponsored events I've ever attended at a conference. Great venue, FANTASIC food served. 
• Reminder to self: I need to follow-up with CMT - and coordinate some time to interview some of their executive leadership team. 

Photo by Kelvin D. Meeks

Photo by Kelvin D. Meeks