Policygenius: Jennifer Fitzgerald

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.8 • 31.1K Ratings

🗓️ 24 May 2021

⏱️ 80 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Some of the world's biggest industries sell products that we all need...but don't want to think about. That's what drew Jennifer Fitzgerald to insurance: she wanted to help people understand the often bewildering world of protecting themselves in case of emergencies. In 2013, she and her partner Francois de Lame left their stable and lucrative consulting jobs to create Policygenius, an online marketplace for insurance that lets consumers compare rates and learn everything they need to know to make informed decisions about their financial future. At the beginning, Jennifer couldn't convince investors to take a chance on the company, and faced rejection after rejection as she tried to hold on to a handful of customers. But by building a relationship with the financial blogging community—and leaning in to a few well-placed financial technology puns—Policygenius got a foot in the door. By 2020, Jennifer and her team had raised over $100 million, and the company now has more than 30 million users.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime members, you can listen to how I built this early and ad-free on Amazon Music.
0:07.0	Download the app today.
0:09.0	When you leave home, can you ever really go back?
0:12.0	Made a version!
0:13.0	Soccer legend Leo Messi and I both left Argentina as kids.
0:17.0	You know you're that piece of a puzzle that doesn't fit anywhere.
0:20.0	To so many immigrants, football is a way to reconnect.
0:23.0	Listen to the last cop in the embedded podcast feed
0:26.0	to hear the latest collaboration from MPR and Fududo Studios.
0:30.0	Hey!
0:33.0	So you only had a six month runway to test out this idea and make a decision.
0:39.0	And either you were going to be able to go after a full time or I guess you would have to go back to your old job.
0:45.0	Correct.
0:46.0	How did you generate any customers or interests for this?
0:50.0	Very slowly.
0:52.0	So before we raised any capital, we were funding this with our own money
0:57.0	and so it was small amounts spent on Google advertising,
1:03.0	stupidly spending money on Facebook because neither of us knew how to do any of this.
1:08.0	Right?
1:09.0	At no idea what I was getting into.
1:11.0	And how many people actually bought insurance through you in those first six months?
1:16.0	God, maybe.
	...

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