Plymouth Rock's Martin encourages insurers to maintain 'urgency' of a startup

By James Thaler

June 25 - (The Insurer) - Bill Martin, president and CEO of Plymouth Rock Home Assurance, said he believes maintaining the urgency of a startup within established insurance companies is crucial to innovation and efficiency.

Martin, who was a founder of flood insurtech Neptune and joined Plymouth Rock in 2016 to create a "sponsored startup" within the larger organisation, said he believes breaking up large companies into smaller startups creates better operational efficiency.

"I think if I'm ever large enough to call myself an incumbent, then I'll break it up and make a bunch of startups out of it, because they just operate more if you have the right people," Martin told The Insurer at the Insurtech Insights USA conference earlier this month.

Plymouth Rock previously launched Homesite Insurance, which it sold to American Family in 2013.

Martin said startup environments foster innovation through necessity.

"They just operate more logically (with the mindset of), 'I can't live if I spend this next dollar, because I'm the last to be paid as a startup founder,'" Martin said. "Having that environment, I think, helps with the innovation and actually (with) speed to market and people's urgency to make something work."

Plymouth Rock, a $2.3 billion company that Martin described as "the largest private insurance company in the United States", operates in six northeastern states with three divisions covering independent agent auto, direct auto and home insurance.

Its home insurance strategy focuses on simplifying the customer experience by pre-qualifying properties before they request quotes.

"We try to know what we're going to charge you and what process we will put you through if you do want to get a quote or bind with us long before you ever meet us," Martin said.

“If you come to us, we already know whether or not we're going to quote your customer," he added.