HCI Group innovates insurance industry with revolutionary quoting tool, TypTap

Click the arrow to listen to the full audio interview with TypTap’s Kevin Mitchell and HCI’s Paresh Patel in the Catalyst studio with Joe Hamilton.

In today’s climate, it’s innovate or die. That sounds dramatic, but this is the truth of our current business environment. 

Innovation is always easier talked about than done, but at HCI Group’s TypTap Insurance, we’re doing it – to the tune of over $50 million in premiums in force in our first three years, and a projecting continued growth in 2020.

St. Pete Catalyst publisher Joe Hamilton asked me and HCI’s CEO, Paresh Patel, about how TypTap was built using cutting-edge technology – created by talent right here in Tampa Bay. We were happy to share our strategies for success with him and the local business community. 

In a nutshell we said:

Take the time to focus on the future.

In 2011, HCI was an extremely successful insurance provider with happy shareholders. We were busy. But our Board of Directors, particularly Paresh, didn’t let that success or frenetic pace obscure the company’s vision. 

Paresh told everyone to forget what was working then, and asked, “How will insurance be done in 20 years? Let’s be the ones to do that.” 

HCI never has any trouble coming up with fresh, inventive ideas, and Paresh knew the company could innovate. With a leadership team and board that have wide experience from different industries, our diversity helps us to think outside “business as usual” to see different ways we could make technology work for us.

Ask the right people the right questions.

HCI is well aware that technology is shaping the future. But in developing our own technology, we wanted to be sure we were solving a real problem, and enhancing the lives of our agents and customers. 

So we asked our partner agents: What do you need? What would be life-changing for you? Their answer: Efficiency. 

It was taking agents an hour or more to get one quote for one customer, and we knew we could do better. Now, anyone can go to typtap.com and get a real home and flood insurance quote by answering two questions. Even at 3 a.m.

Look in your own backyard for talent.

This is especially true for Tampa Bay area businesses. There are so many smart, creative people right here. We didn’t want to be beholden to Silicon Valley for the technology or people we needed, so we used our own money and homegrown talent to create the tech architecture that would solve our challenges. HCI is an insurance company, but in this case, I think we have operated more like a tech start-up: We hire seriously talented people, give them a complex problem to solve and the resources they need, and then get out of their way.

In 2016, HCI launched TypTap with multi-dimensional databases loaded with extensive detail on all of Florida’s 5.4 million single-family homes, backed by sophisticated risk assessment and profitability algorithms. The result: TypTap can provide reliable home and flood insurance quotes with only an address and answers to two questions.

This is how insurance will be done in 20 years. And because of a willingness to look to the future, do the research, and deploy the best talent, TypTap is doing it now. 

For more information on TypTap Insurance, or to get a quote, visit www.typtap.com.