Outskirts Press, INC.

HOW DO YOU CHANGE A TRILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY THAT EVERYONE HATES?

Let’s face it: Insurance is one of the most hated industries in history. The Urban Dictionary defines insurance as “a business that involves selling people promises to pay later that are never fulfilled.” Insurance is the only modern business model with an inherent conflict between the provider of a service and its customer. Simply put, the more insurers deny or delay paying claims, the more money they make. And when customers complain, carriers accuse them of committing “insurance fraud.” This book is first an origin story of Lemonade Insurance, a startup insurance company with a silly name that was created by two Israeli entrepreneurs who knew nothing about insurance but in less than 18 months completely disrupted a trillion-dollar industry and soon became known as the “Uber of Insurance.” It is also the story of a personal journey by a former top executive at AIG and Zurich Insurance who decided to abandon the success of “Corporate America” to help form a startup that changed everything he was used to, and as a result, found himself changed.

“Ty is a great storyteller, and as a founding member of Lemonade he is in a wonderful position to tell the creation story of Lemonade in his unique way. Definitely worth reading!”
~ Daniel Schreiber, Co-Founder, CEO, Lemonade

“Filled with conflicts of interest and mistrust, we often look at insurance as a necessary evil instead of the useful financial tool it can be. Ty, together with Lemonade, is trying to fix this problem, and this is a wonderfully told story of the first chapter of that important adventure.”
~Dan Ariely, Professor, Duke University, Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics and Author, The Honest Truth about Dishonesty

Front Flap: From The Making of Lemonade “Hello, Mr. Sagalow?” The voice on the other end of the phone had a cultured British accent—not like this kid from Brooklyn. “You don’t know me. I’m Daniel Schreiber. I’m calling from Tel Aviv. We googled ‘insurance’ and ‘innovation.’ Your name was the first, and really the only, one that came up.My partner and I are looking for someone who can help us completely disrupt the insurance industry, but we know nothing about insurance. That’s where you come in.” “So what exactly is this idea of yours?” “I can’t tell you anything over the phone. It’s highly confidential,” came the reply. “Is there anything you can tell me? What’s the name of your new idea?” “Lemonade.” I can’t say that I expected that. “Lemonade,” I repeated. (Always a good thing to do when you don’t know what to say.) “What’s your schedule for the rest of the week?” Daniel asked. “I can come by and explain our idea. It shouldn’t take more than two hours.” “I can give you an hour.” I noted in my calendar everything I knew about this new venture: “Israel company tech with insurance/sharing-economy idea.” I didn’t even write down the word Lemonade. That name will never stick, I thought. When I got home that night, my soon-to-be-wife, Jane, asked, “How was your day?” “The usual,” I said. Boy, was I wrong. This book is about the creation of the most industry-disrupting insurance company created in the last 100 years: a small startup founded by two technology entrepreneurs, which changed the very dynamics of the carrier/insured relationship—or, rather, turned it back into what it once was. And, along the way, you will see in no small part a personal journey on a man who climbed the corporate ladder of the modern insurance industry only to find its false foundation, forcing him to help create a new foundation for the industry and for himself.