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).
Grove Collaborative’s CEO shares how the company is reinventing everyday goods with sustainability at the core and working toward a plastic-free future.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens shares plans for affordable housing, community-led growth, and why private and public grocery stores could be key to food equity.
Tesla reported a surprise increase in sales in the third quarter as the electric car maker likely benefited from a rush by consumers to take advantage of a $7,500 credit before it expired on Sept. 30. The company reported Thursday that sales in the three months through September rose 7% compared to the same period a year ago. The gain follows two quarters of steep declines as people turned off by CEO Elon Musk’s foray into right-wing politics avoided buying his company’s cars and even protested at some dealerships. Sales rose to 497,099 vehicles, compared with 462,890 in the same period last year.
Tom’s Guide Editor-in-Chief Mark Spoonauer breaks down Apple & Amazon's latest product drops—what's hot, what's hype, and what really matters for users.
InnerPlant CEO Shely Aronov reveals how engineered crops like soybeans and corn emit signals when stressed—offering farmers early warnings to boost yields.
Payoneer CEO John Caplan discusses the implications of $100K H1B visa requirements—and how they could reshape tech talent, hiring, and U.S. competitiveness.
