CEO of A.I.-Driven Insurance Start-Up Lemonade Says Mockery Is the Highest Form of Flattery
*By Conor White*
Lemonade, the insurance startup that uses A.I. and chatbots to pay claims within seconds, saw exponential growth in the U.S. in 2018, but the company is setting its sights on Europe for its next phase of expansion.
"We've decided that if people in Berlin, and Tokyo, and New York are using Spotify ($SPOT), and Netflix ($NFLX), and Uber, why not Lemonade?" CEO and co-founder Daniel Schreiber asked in an interview on Cheddar.
The burgeoning company's tech-driven approach has caught the attention of some of its more traditional competitors. That includes State Farm, which [released an ad in October](https://youtu.be/KIWfc9aI1YI) poking fun at artificial intelligence and robots, a not-so-thinly veiled dig at the startup. But Schreiber said he didn't mind the mockery.
"We found it remarkable that ... the largest insurance company in the nation, that \[is\] a thousand times bigger than Lemonade, would spend millions of dollars taking us on," Schreiber said. "I really found that interesting and deeply flattering honestly."
The company even took the unusual step of paying to promote the ad online.
"They're mocking us," Schreiber explained, "but I really think it's a bit of a boomerang that comes back and hurts them much more than it hurts us."
The CEO highlighted some of Lemonade's 2018 accomplishments, including $57 million in sales and increasing the number of homes it insures by more than 300,000.
But Schreiber said he is proudest of his company's reputation with customers.
"You go now to any of the consumer ratings sites, and you'll find that USAA and Lemonade compete for the number one spot in terms of customer satisfaction," he said.
"Growing fast is fabulous," he said, "but if you do it at the expense of customer satisfaction, that's a price not worth paying."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/lemonade-insurance-plans-european-expansion).
Wall Street saw major gains Monday, with the Dow Jones jumping nearly 650 points, the S&P 500 moving higher by 1.1% and the Nasdaq by .9%. Ross Mayfield, Investment Strategy Analyst at Baird, breaks down why investor concerns about the Omicron variant may have been a bit too preemptive.
Daniel Loria, Editorial Director at Box Office Pro, joined Wake Up With Cheddar to give predictions for the weekend, which will see three major films debut, as 'West Side Story', 'Don't Look Up' and 'Being the Ricardos' all hit theaters.
Politico Tech Policy Reporter Rebecca Kern joined Wake Up With Cheddar to recap Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri's testimony to Congress, and look ahead to new safety features on the horizon for the social media giant.
Carlo and Baker wrap up the week talking about the Biden economic boom that no one seems to notice, a verdict in the Jussie Smollett case, the first Starbucks union in America and the pleasures of the "dude nod."
After three straight days of gains, investors were skittish Thursday ahead of key inflation data out Friday. Markets are expecting consumer price index data to be higher than expected, with some economists expecting a number exceeding 7%. Chance Finucane, Chief Investment Officer at Oxbow Advisors joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss today's close, CPI predictions, the Fed's recent announcements about inflation and its taper timeline, Lululemon earnings, and more.
A new bill in Congress shows just how bipartisan cannabis really is. Rep. David Joyce, a Republican from Ohio, teamed up with progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on a cannabis expungement bill. Cheddar cannabis reporter Chloe Aiello spoke with the congressman about the legislation.
Rainmaker Games bills itself as a blockchain-based organization founded in the metaverse, built on a new type of gaming ecosystem called play-to-earn. The company announced a $6.5 million seed round after it was founded just this year. Rainmaker Games CEO and founder Will Deane joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
