Root Insurance Co. won an Addy award from American Advertising Federation of Columbus for its 2021 "Unfair slice" social media campaign, which advocated dropping the credit score as a variable for pricing insurance. The creative director behind the campaign accepted the award this month as a former employee.
Anthony Trimpe, with the company since 2018 and a consultant before that, announced on LinkedIn he was among some 330 employees who lost their jobs in late January when parent Root Inc. cut one-fifth of its workforce. The company said the move was necessary after a difficult first year following its IPO.
Other high-level leaders had left voluntarily in recent months, many for new startups. Among them, co-founder and former CTO Dan Manges and board of directors member Chris Olsen, partner in Drive Capital LLC, the Columbus VC firm that incubated Root in its 2015 beginnings. Others have formed new startups or even moved to competing insuretechs.
"I still love all those guys," co-founder and CEO Alex Timm told Columbus Business First. "As the company changes and the company's needs change, we continue to hire for those needs."
Like many who have written publicly about leaving, Trimpe showed no bitterness toward the company itself.
"I walk away thankful for what we built together at Root, excited to see what they do in the future, but even more excited now to go pour my heart and soul into a new team/company and continue to build exceptional things together," Trimpe wrote in a LinkedIn post.
A week later, he debuted Snack, a marketing consultancy to help brands use TikTok – with campaigns for Root and the Ohio Department of Transportation as samples.
Root, which posted a net loss of $521 million in 2021, expects to save $30 million annually because of the job cuts. It also ended a lease for a second office in the Easton area.
"That day was difficult," Timm said. "Those people helped get the company where it is.
"It was certainly no fault of their own we had to restructure the company, to focus on a different path," he said. "Every employee had an individual meeting. We were very thoughtful about that reduction in force."
In the immediate aftermath, many posts on LinkedIn expressed sadness and offered mutual support.
"I can’t be bitter, because I wouldn’t trade a day of the time I spent there," one affected worker said.
Within a week or so many announced new positions in a hungry tech labor market. The Central Ohio tech community also had rallied around the Root workforce, arranging a digital job fair via Dublin startup Chatstrike.
A leader in facilities management, not affected by the cuts, endorsed the talents of his former colleagues in a post on that day, and in March voluntarily left for another Columbus tech company.
"Root is going to do amazing things, without a doubt," said the farewell LinkedIn post. "If you are thinking of joining Root, please do so immediately."
The executive departures in part reflect the evolution from a startup with a dozen people to a public corporation with more than 1,100 employees, Timm said.
Manges formerly was founding CTO of BrainTree until after it was acquired. When he left Root, eight months post-IPO, he said he wanted to spend time with his young children before thinking about building anew. He has created a website for a new software development company, but told Business First it was too early to comment.
In late February, Root announced the promotion of interim CTO Matt Bonakdarpour to the permanent post, after more than three years with the company as a data science leader. A San Francisco hire had lasted four months in the role, returning to Uber.
Olsen left just over a year after Root's IPO, saying he needed to devote time as a director for earlier-stage companies in Drive's portfolio.
Effective March 1, the company appointed his replacement on the board: Beth Birnbaum, former COO at PlayFab with past roles at high-growth companies including GrubHub and Expedia. She's also an adviser and director for several early-stage companies.
"I’m really excited by her," Timm said. "Our board had a lot of investors and very few operators – people who have scaled companies."
Other key departures include Kumi Walker, who had been chief business development and strategy officer for nearly four years and now sits on several Central Ohio boards. Bill Kaper, who had led an engineering team, is now CTO at digital mortgage lender Lower. Former product manager Megan Harris, who left just over a month after the IPO, founded real estate startup Empora Title with Root backing and Timm's mentorship.
"I want all of them to be super successful," Timm said.
