Armed with a new insurance specific computer vision technology, Cole Winans and Laurie Kuhn took to a conference in Boston last year in search of validation.
While walking around the conference, Winans saw a demo of a chatbot that piqued his interest.
“What do you guys do,” Winans remembered asking the representatives, not looking at their nametags.
“Well, we’re Microsoft,” they responded.
Little did Winans know, that interaction would help launch his startup’s first major partnership.
Winans and Kuhn are two of the three-member Flyreel team, based in Denver.
Flyreel is an AI solution for residential and commercial property insurance, allowing users to perform home inspections using a cell phone camera.
“It will walk you through an inspection and tell you, pan slowly across your kitchen. It will inspect everything in that room,” Winans said. “We can tell you when and why that dishwasher is going to fail.”
In February, Flyreel announced a partnership with Microsoft, made possible by that first, semi-awkward encounter. The partnership allowed Flyreel to accelerate its go-to-market strategy and brought increased exposure.
The company announced another strategic partnership with Donan in September. Donan, a leading forensic investigation firm, gave Flyreel access to swaths of data that in turn will help predict when major appliances will fail.
Kuhn said Flyreel does more than just streamlining the inspection process, it also makes for a better relationship between customer and carrier.
“40 percent of customers leave their carrier after a claim, because there’s a misunderstanding on what is covered. Once we understand the hazards, we can personalize to the customer a recommendation to never have a loss or claim,” she said. “We can't stop forces of nature. But, what we can stop, is your dishwasher leaking over your hardware floors.”
Customers will now have a better idea of what is covered and its true value, while carriers will pay out less claims due to Flyreel’s proactive approach.
“We’re making insurance more valuable to the customer,” Kuhn said.
In the future, Winans said Flyreel will integrate weather reports into the technology. So, if a hail storm is barreling towards Denver and you have patio furniture, Flyreel will instruct you to bring it inside.
The company is growing, looking to expand its three-person team and bring on additional data partners in the coming months.
Despite its early success, Winans said he wasn’t always convinced insuretech was the best route for Flyreel.
“At first, we were like ‘oh no, not insurance,’” he said with a laugh.
It appears the company made the right decision.
