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Auto Insurance Comparison Startup Leaky Launches Nationally, Raises $670K

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21–30 of 44 posts

Re: Auto Insurance Comparison Startup Leaky Launches Nationally, Raises $670K

#21

Instead of an insurance comparison service, these guys should start an actual auto insurance company. Nobody likes insurance companies, so there's certainly a market for an insurance company that people love. Be ambitious. Build something big. Comparison sites are not a big or ambitious idea. Comparison sites are a feature of bigger platforms. If you're building a platform, call it that. Otherwise, build something bi…

Agreed. I thought that's what it was at first, and I got really excited :)

Re: Auto Insurance Comparison Startup Leaky Launches Nationally, Raises $670K

#22

Instead of an insurance comparison service, these guys should start an actual auto insurance company. Nobody likes insurance companies, so there's certainly a market for an insurance company that people love. Be ambitious. Build something big. Comparison sites are not a big or ambitious idea. Comparison sites are a feature of bigger platforms. If you're building a platform, call it that. Otherwise, build something bi…

Agreed. I thought that's what it was at first, and I got really excited :)

Me too! :(

Re: Auto Insurance Comparison Startup Leaky Launches Nationally, Raises $670K

#23

Instead of an insurance comparison service, these guys should start an actual auto insurance company. Nobody likes insurance companies, so there's certainly a market for an insurance company that people love. Be ambitious. Build something big. Comparison sites are not a big or ambitious idea. Comparison sites are a feature of bigger platforms. If you're building a platform, call it that. Otherwise, build something bi…

According to the article on pandodaily (also on the front page at the moment), that's part of what they are doing too.

http://pandodaily.com/2012/12/05/from-kidnapping-and-bribery...

Re: Auto Insurance Comparison Startup Leaky Launches Nationally, Raises $670K

#24

Instead of an insurance comparison service, these guys should start an actual auto insurance company. Nobody likes insurance companies, so there's certainly a market for an insurance company that people love. Be ambitious. Build something big. Comparison sites are not a big or ambitious idea. Comparison sites are a feature of bigger platforms. If you're building a platform, call it that. Otherwise, build something bi…

Insurance is one of the most highly regulated industries out there (even more so than banking). It's also almost entirely regulated by state insurance commissions (-> many arcane one-off regulations, and a fair amount of political games). Take the regulatory difficulties Uber, etc. are running into, and multiply by 100.

Re: Auto Insurance Comparison Startup Leaky Launches Nationally, Raises $670K

#25
post #4

Welcome to doing something that has been done in Europe for many years now, and not just on auto-isnurance: http://www.confused.com/ http://www.comparethemarket.com/ http://www.moneysupermarket.com/car-insurance/ to name a few... I understand that this was a legal issue due to the insurers (but even so, they only launched a year ago...) but what is it with American companies that they just don't seem to get the inter…

This is very true, and actually had a strong influence on Leaky - especially in the early days. I spent a lot of time in the UK (and actually spoke at a price aggregation conference in London), and there are a few structural reasons for why the markets evolved so differently and have made the US much more resilient to adopting comparison services. Suffice to say, we think that's changing.

Glad to read you are launching country wide, and with over 100 companies on board. Hopefully that will be a wake up call for the remaining to get with the times and open up some services to consume.

Good luck with the venture.

Re: Auto Insurance Comparison Startup Leaky Launches Nationally, Raises $670K

#26
post #4

Welcome to doing something that has been done in Europe for many years now, and not just on auto-isnurance: http://www.confused.com/ http://www.comparethemarket.com/ http://www.moneysupermarket.com/car-insurance/ to name a few... I understand that this was a legal issue due to the insurers (but even so, they only launched a year ago...) but what is it with American companies that they just don't seem to get the inter…

I take it you're not a fan "Go compaaaaare!"? (http://www.gocompare.com)

Re: Auto Insurance Comparison Startup Leaky Launches Nationally, Raises $670K

#27
Is there a place where I can compare car-insurance + house insurance + any other insurance among companies?

Most companies give discounts on bundling few types of insurances, and so it would be great if entire price could be compared. I am under impression that not all insurance companies provide full coverage for what people need, so just because car insurance is lower, total price may increase if you split the needs across few companies.

Re: Auto Insurance Comparison Startup Leaky Launches Nationally, Raises $670K

#28
post #3

Tried it and the lowest priced company it showed had a rate that was ~$250 cheaper than the actual quote I could get on the insurers web site. Plus my current company (Safeco) wasn't in the comparison list, which means the cheapest company (for me) isn't shown.

Try EZquo.com to get a quote from any company, including Safeco and the other carriers rated best on price and customer satisfaction by J.D. Power. It's a simple website that I built over the last few months: you enter your insurance details and get a private link that you can pass to any agent for a quote, without having to repeat your information.

Re: Auto Insurance Comparison Startup Leaky Launches Nationally, Raises $670K

#29
This has the exact same issue that nearly all insurance companies seem to have and is the reason I'm with my current insurance company.

I have a 1978 Datsun/Nissan 280Z. Only one insurance company allowed an online/unattended quote for insuring that age car. Only one other company was able to give a quote after talking with them on the phone, all of the others didn't have the ability to do a quote, even for liability only insurance. I went in person to several places and the result was the same. The company that allowed me to get a quote online now has all my other insurance related business (renters/property/full coverage on my new car/etc.). It just so happens that they've been an amazing company to work with, particularly when we've had car related issues (getting rear-ended while stopped at a stoplight, hitting an animal in the middle of the night when there was no room to swerve/stop and rendering the vehicle undrivable, etc.).

Trying to go through the process to see what things are like, the list of makes of cars is an abomination. It tries to filter based on years the make was available, but isn't inclusive (Nissan starts at ~85, but Datsun doesn't exist for older dates, etc.) and ends up being an incomplete list for a large number of years (I sampled the most recent ~5 years and the oldest ~5 years and several major manufacturers are missing) as well as model of cars being incomplete for at least a few makes from those years as well.

Re: Auto Insurance Comparison Startup Leaky Launches Nationally, Raises $670K

#30
post #4

Welcome to doing something that has been done in Europe for many years now, and not just on auto-isnurance: http://www.confused.com/ http://www.comparethemarket.com/ http://www.moneysupermarket.com/car-insurance/ to name a few... I understand that this was a legal issue due to the insurers (but even so, they only launched a year ago...) but what is it with American companies that they just don't seem to get the inter…

There are legal reasons why the U.S. doesn't have true comparison sites, unlike the UK. Screen-scraping is illegal here, but not in the UK, so you need the cooperation of the carrier to show their quotes.

Most U.S. carriers don't cooperate with independent comparison sites, since they don't want to see their product commoditized.

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