What protects them? It’s unclear to me what’s their “unfair advantage”. I can tell you what it’s not — a chat bot. Unless they have some NLP/AGI breakthru (and if so, why are they an insurance company?), the apps that Allstate, Geico, etc are pushing should be able to do the same thing. Even if not in a “chat” interface, the end result will be the same.
So do they simply have a nicer UX / more appealing model (marketing) to a younger generation? If so, I’m surprised they weren’t bought by one of the bigger brands by now.
> If so, I’m surprised they weren’t bought by one of the bigger brands by now.
From the S1
"As a public benefit corporation, we will be less attractive as a takeover target than a traditional company would be and, therefore, your ability to realize your investment through an acquisition may be limited. Under Delaware law, a public benefit corporation cannot merge or consolidate with another entity if, as a result of such merger or consolidation, the surviving entity's charter "does not contain the identical provisions identifying the public benefit or public benefits transaction receives approval from two-thirds of the target public benefit corporation's outstanding voting shares. Additionally, public benefit corporations may also not be attractive targets for activists or hedge fund investors because new directors would still have to consider and give appropriate weight to the public benefit"
From an individual stock's financial performance perspective, sure.
Right now it looks like individual stocks are highly correlated to the broader market. [1]
The economy and a diversified portfolio could benefit more from benefits to broader society than anything they do individually. Public benefit corporations could be a trend that could significantly grow in the coming years
They don't need their automated chat bot to handle everything to have a competitive advantage. I once made a claim through Lemonade. My case was simple: my bike was stolen, and I had a police report, a picture of bike, and also the original purchase receipt. My claim was entirely automated.
The point is not to build a chat bot that handles everything, but a chat bot that handles a larger fraction of claims than competitors. And that drives down costs.
Recently had to shop for renter insurance. Lemonade chat bot was the best one. It was the only place I could get insurance without talking a human being. AllState took 4 calls and multiple callbacks just to send me a final quote. While waiting for last callback I just went ahead and got Lemonade.
Most insurance carriers I called want to "We can't find your quote, can you please repeat all those pages again, so we can start a new one?" Most don't disclose what features they offer and let you customize it _fast_. Fucking AllState didn't even show much property cost is insured until I called them and it didn't let me add more coverage until I called. 9.99 a months is very cool, but I would like to know how much and what insured first.
Customer support is pretty good as well at Lemonade. One email and my old policy canceled and all personal items transferred to new place.
That is on top of the fact that no one goes above 300k and make you buy a 1m umbrella policy. All while trying to sell you car insurance, life insurance, shit yo pants insurance.
So do they simply have a nicer UX / more appealing model (marketing) to a younger generation? If so, I’m surprised they weren’t bought by one of the bigger brands by now.