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).
Cannabis producer Cresco Labs is acquiring rival Columbia Care in a $2 billion all-stock deal, creating the largest U.S. cannabis company by sales. The deal, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2022, is one of the biggest in the industry's history and would make Cresco the dominant player in a market projected to reach $46 billion in revenue by 2026. Charlie Bachtell, CEO of Cresco Labs, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Sean O'Hara, President of Pacer ETF's, explains why investors who were down after Jerome Powell's remarks on inflation Monday were more optimistic on Tuesday as the major indexes ended the day near session highs.
Sports betting has boomed over the past year; but at the same time, sports betting stocks have not been so hot. Now, some sports betting brands are starting to rethink how to spend their money, especially when it comes to ads. It will come after online sports betting brands spent more than $320 million on advertising in 2021, up 38% from 2020, per MediaRadar. Brendan Coffey, sports finance reporter for Sportico, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Kelly Rodriques, CEO of Forge Global, joined Cheddar News to discuss the company's public debut on the NYSE, and the company's mission of providing users access to private market trading.
Rowing-machine maker, Hydrow, raised $55 million in Series D funding round, led by Constitution Capital. Hyrdow offers a connected rowing machine that costs $2,495. The company's funding round comes as the at-home fitness industry is facing some challenges, due to many consumers returning to gyms after working out at home during the pandemic. Bruce Smith, founder & CEO of Hydrow, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Sam Thapaliya, Founder of Zebec, explains the two major problems associated with paying public figures in crypto, and how his firm is best-suited to help facilitate payments within the growing industry.
Wes Fulford, CEO of Viridi Funds, breaks down how several key headlines, include President Biden's executive order on crypto and rising inflation, are impacting the price of major cryptocurrencies during a volatile period.
Aviation expert Sally Gethin joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss the latest on the crash of a Boeing 737-800 NG in China, as investigators look for a reason for the sudden nosedive, and search for any sign of the 132 passengers onboard.
