If booking a ride takes 30 seconds, why does filing an insurance claim feel like a legal marathon? In this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine VanderLinden speaks with Naby Mariyam, Founder of Coverhero, about redesigning insurance for the gig economy — starting from lived frustration. Naby didn’t plan to enter insurance. A life-changing illness and a rejected claim forced her to confront a system that felt opaque, rigid, and disconnected from customer reality. That experience sparked a question: why can’t insurance be as simple as booking an Uber? Her answer became Coverhero — and its first product, Hustlecover.com. The gig and self-employed workforce is growing rapidly, yet traditional underwriting models penalize independence. Credit scores drop. Risk profiles shift. Products are designed around actuarial efficiency rather than customer experience. Naby approached the problem differently. With a background in social science and experience building gig marketplaces, she understood behavior, incentives, and ecosystem design. She also recognized something broken in the insurance supply chain — complexity layered over misaligned incentives. Instead of building another narrow product, Coverhero defined a new category: Work-Integrated Life Cover — protection designed around someone entering the workforce as self-employed, not someone tied to a single employer. The strategy evolved. Initially, Coverhero pursued a direct-to-consumer model. Over time, the team identified a larger opportunity: building a valuable software layer connecting insurers and distribution more efficiently — solving infrastructure friction rather than just product gaps. Naby’s journey also reflects founder resilience. Leaving academia was an existential shift. Moving countries, navigating bias as a diverse female founder, and building in a regulated industry required persistence. Yet those experiences shaped a deep commitment to equity and access. She challenges the industry’s mindset: too much capital has chased shiny ideas without addressing systemic friction. Meanwhile, startups in InsurTech face higher regulatory bars than many tech peers. This episode is essential listening for: Insurers targeting Millennials and Gen Z Founders building embedded insurance infrastructure Investors evaluating category-defining platforms Leaders rethinking supply chain complexity Because the next wave of insurance innovation won’t come from tweaking policy wordings. It will come from rethinking how work, identity, and risk intersect. And for a generation building careers on hustle, protection must integrate seamlessly into life itself. The question isn’t whether gig workers need cover. It’s whether insurance can finally meet them where they are.