Creating a successful new business is hard in any industry, but in insurance it’s an especially daunting challenge. You need a world-class team, a differentiated product, and deeply supportive and patient carrier partners. Even with all of that, you need a healthy serving of luck.

At Newfront, we’ve been incredibly fortunate to have all of those ingredients. And while we’re still a long way off from achieving our ambitions, today is an important milestone. We've spent the last three years focusing on building a strong business, and today we're announcing that we’ve raised more than $100MM to date, most recently at a $500MM valuation. Founders Fund and Meritech Capital are our lead investors. A full list of investors is here.

While our journey is far from over, this has certainly been a time for us to pause and reflect on how far we’ve come. My own story with insurance began early in my career. I was lucky to help build two highly successful companies (Invitation Homes and Opendoor) and in both cases I was tasked with handling our property and casualty insurance. While happy to take care of something as critical as mitigating existential risk, I was stunned by the archaic and confusing process. I filled out mountains of paperwork, waited for weeks, and then received back wildly different options that were nearly impossible to compare. There was no clear dataset to help me understand which carriers to approach, which coverages to seek, or how peer businesses were buying. The process repeated each year, and was even worse when dealing with claims.

As a businessperson, it shocked me that the safety net so crucial to a functioning economy, innovation, and entrepreneurship could be so broken. I dug in and found that I wasn’t alone in feeling the pain. My co-founder Gordon, an MIT grad who built a startup acquired by LinkedIn, had dealt with the pain of buying insurance for his company. For too many business owners, dealing with insurance has become an unpleasant, almost unbearable process. For insurance industry professionals, doing their jobs has become tedious, with the productivity gains made in other industries passing them by, forcing longer hours for lower pay. For industry leaders, attracting high-quality talent to the industry has become an existential challenge. I became obsessed with the idea of modernizing the industry by empowering the people at its core with purpose-built technology. 

Gordon and I launched Newfront in 2017, a year in which several startups were attracting huge investments with a goal of eliminating insurance brokers. We were convinced that their approach was dead wrong. We had already spent countless hours with CFOs, GCs, risk managers, and business owners and concluded that skilled insurance brokers are a foundational requirement for high-quality risk mitigation. The problem wasn’t the broker, it was the brokerage. The typical brokerage forced brokers to behave like data collection and paperwork processing machines, preventing them from deepening their skills or providing expert advice. The brokerages had abandoned their brokers. We resolved to do something about that.

But first we needed to learn what had gone wrong. Why had brokerages fallen so far behind the innovation curve? Why was the average net promoter score for brokerages sitting at a dismal 17 (with 100 being the best)? Why weren’t brokers given the tools that they needed? It didn’t take long to learn that many of these changes resulted from the rise of private equity within the industry. Over a dozen years, private equity funds had purchased thousands of brokerages around the United States with an exclusive focus on generating short-term gains for their investors, rather than long term value for clients. These funds, which operate on short investment windows, do not have the time or incentive to make material investments in technology, the client experience, or tools to support brokers. 

Our model is different. We have the resources, commitment, and know-how to create the brokerage that is truly built for the 21st century. A brokerage where we build our own technology and software in-house, where innovation is our mantra, and where improving outcomes and experiences for our clients is an obsession. While we’ve learned a great deal over the past three years (and made plenty of mistakes along the way!), our founding thesis hasn’t changed -- that the future of our industry combines experts with technology to better serve clients. 

Today we are a team of nearly 200, proudly serving over 5,000 clients across nearly every industry. While we are still only beginning our journey, our book already puts us in the top 100 brokerages in America. And we’re just getting started.

We've spent the last three years focusing on building a strong business, and today we're announcing that we’ve raised more than $100MM to date, most recently at a $500MM valuation.

Over the past 6 months, the work-from-home transition imposed by #COVID19 has put an enormous strain on everyone. Employees are navigating how to blend both professional and personal responsibilities under the same roof. With work and life boundaries merging, burnout is surfacing more frequently across the board. Our success as a company will be defined by our team, and so understanding and preventing burnout is crucial. 

On September 14, our Head of People, Heather Dunn, led the team through a valuable session focused on identifying, acknowledging, and preventing burnout.  Since the start of the pandemic, we have partnered with Modern Health to ensure that our employees have access to a variety of resources that affect all aspects of health. A recent study conducted by Modern Health illustrates that the majority of those surveyed agree that the pandemic is having an effect on our stress levels and work-life balance. 

We spent time understanding that burnout is a medical condition that can show up in many different forms including depression, exhaustion, resentment, and loss of connectedness. It can be caused by a variety of work related reasons including: unreasonable time pressure, lack of communication and support from a manager, unclear job expectations, monotonous job tasks, work-life imbalance, etc. Heather walked the company through a self reflection by rating the frequency of common signals of being close to burnout. 

The meat of the session outlined how we as individuals can prevent our own burnout. The key takeaway is to monitor and understand the key burnout warning signs, where the root cause lies and then communicate this with your team lead. Below are a few concrete strategies we discussed to combat burnout if you feel early symptoms.

1. Consider making changes within your regular work schedule.

2. Use a Prioritization Matrix to determine what is most important and what could come off of your plate. 

3. Ensure you are effectively communicating your priorities and anything that may be falling off. 

4. Communicate with your Manager. Let them help!

How will you manage and prevent burnout? What is one personal or professional step you will take today to help? How will your company support you? Ask yourself these questions and understand that burnout is real and important to address, especially in light of working from home, where work and personal lines continue to blur. Newfront believes in the power of normalizing language around burnout and equipping all employees to identify, address, and prevent it. Employee health and morale is paramount to our success. 

** Content taken from LifeLabs Learning and First Round.com

Over the past 6 months, the work-from-home transition imposed by #COVID19 has put an enormous strain on everyone. Employees are navigating how to blend both professional and personal responsibilities under the same roof. With work and life boundaries merging, burnout is surfacing more frequently across the board. 

In early March, COVID-19 transformed our sense of ‘normal’, Newfront shut down both our San Francisco and Sacramento offices, and we went completely remote. With this change, some of our employees also become full-time caregivers and educators. While some employees find some consistency in the new normal, many of our employees are struggling. Our homes haven't only become our offices — they've become our childcare centers and our school classrooms.

The situation isn’t ending anytime soon, and while schools still grapple with how to educate, we needed to find a way to support the more than 50 parents within our workforce. 

Earlier in the year we put in place some efforts to take the load off our team, like a no-meeting policy during our lunch hour, non-vacation “mental health days” to reduce stress within our lives, and normalizing children being present in Zoom calls. But as we entered the school year we knew we needed to do more. Our People team engaged with the parents of Newfront and created a small focus group of motivated parents to figure out ways that Newfront can support them coming into the new school year. 

We are excited to launch the initiatives below as a direct result of the work done by these employee focus groups:

We will more formally set up a “Parents at Newfront” employee resource group, which will start as a Slack group. This serves as a launchpoint for communication, getting feedback from the group, sharing resources, and as a safe space for people to talk about what’s going on and support needed. 

Starting September 1, we will implement the following meeting shifts:

Record all meetings with 5+ attendees (All Hands, weekly team meetings, etc.) to provide parents with more schedule flexibility

Move larger meetings / 1:1s with parents to the afternoon where possible - providing crucial time in the morning to set their children up for success (morning is the most critical time for parents to get involved)

Where possible, send notes following meetings for those who could not attend

Individual teams commit to no-meeting days, and commit to honoring ‘do not schedule’ blocks

Continue to ‘normalize’ kids being in the background and on screen

All managers will engage in a conversation with parents on what the best ‘working hours’ could be. As an example, it might be helpful if a parent could schedule more set ‘hours’ that are respected by the team to allow for a full day of work but not necessarily on 9-5 hours, like 8-12 then 3-7. These blocks should be predictable, repeatable, and reflected in email signatures, calendar blocks, and Slack.

Managers will receive talking points and ‘go dos’ in managing anyone that is a parent, inclusive of topics like: structuring a conversation on flexible hours / potential change of hours or leaves of absence; how to check in at key points in the year (first week of school, holidays, etc); how to ask ‘What do you need? What’s changed since last week / month?’; showing empathy and seeking to understand challenges for each parent on their team openly.

We launched Modern Health in April for all employees and are expanding this to dependents. Mental health for both our employees and their loved ones is critical in such unprecedented and uncertain times.

We are thrilled to announce that we will begin a partnership with Outschool, who offer over 50,000 (and counting!) live, online activities for learners ages 3-18 across a range of topics, from core academic subjects to more unique offerings like structural engineering, drawing animation and forensic science. Newfront will be funding 20 hours of Outschool per parent. 

Continued Resource Sharing / Monitoring of other Best Practices 

This list isn’t intended to be exhaustive given the ever changing environment we’re in, so the People team will continue to look into ways that other companies have been supportive of parents during this time and share resources, investing in other tools, etc over time. Additionally, our People team will host a parent session every other month for feedback.

Ignoring such an important part of your workforce in incredibly uncertain times would never make sense for us, and we’re proud of the investment we’ve chosen to make at Newfront. Want to discuss more? I’d be happy to engage in a conversation - send me a note at heather@newfront.com!

Ignoring such an important part of your workforce in incredibly uncertain times would never make sense for us, and we’re proud of the investment we’ve chosen to make at Newfront.

Running restaurants is a challenge at the best of times, but 2020 has thrown a series of curve balls at two restaurateurs in Oakland, California looking to bring their community together with good food. 

To better understand our clients’ experience, Newfront co-founder Gordon Wintrob (GW) recently met with the husband and wife team behind Chop Bar, Tribune Tavern, and Calavera. Jana and Chris Pastena (JCP) opened up about their road to success and the challenges they’re facing. 

GW: I'd love to hear what inspired you to get into the restaurant industry?

JCP: We both have a passion for creating great experiences for people and for creating community. We’ve channeled those passions into building restaurants. Each space is unique and it speaks to us when we move in and helps us to decide what should go into that space.

Chop Bar was our first restaurant together in 2009. Jana had just started law school and we had just gotten married. We had $40,000, a wish, and a prayer!

It's exciting and it's exhilarating to build something from the ground up and then watch it grow. We had no idea that Chop Bar would be as popular as it’s been. Chop Bar grew from 20 employees to 50 over the years. We moved to a bigger location just down the street last year, which was very exciting. 

We own three wonderful restaurants today. In 2014, we opened Tribune Tavern in the historic Oakland Tribune building, and in 2015 we opened Calavera, in Oakland’s Uptown district. We used to own an Italian restaurant, Lungomare, in Jack London Square, but have since sold that business.

Between our three restaurants, we employ around 160 people. And we feed tens of thousands of residents of Oakland and people across the Bay area.

GW: Restaurants are in a competitive environment, especially in the Bay area. Your restaurants anchor some of Oakland’s most hip and historic districts. What are some of the things that make a concept successful?

JCP: There is no real formula beyond hard work, consistency, and community. You have to be dedicated to doing hard work and you have to have a love for the work. That gives you an extra advantage.

All too often we see restaurateurs come up with a concept, open, get feedback and start to change their concept based on the feedback. That’s usually the wrong move. It's really important to be dedicated and move forward with your vision. Stay the course.

For instance, it’s hard to build a brunch business. But if you keep at it, and stay consistent with the quality of your food, your staff and your training, the business will grow.

We work shoulder-to-shoulder with our employees every day and we're committed to giving them the tools that they need to succeed. When they succeed, we all succeed.

The last component is working with the community. When you're part of the community, people see that. They come out to support the business because they know that you're supporting their causes as well.

GW: What are some of the ways that you create that sense of community for both your staff and the customers?

JCP: When we first conceived of Chop Bar, we chose its name because a chop bar is a community meeting place. In West Africa the local fishermen catch fish and bring it to a chop bar where the cook prepares it for the community and everybody comes to eat. 

There's nothing more important in this world to us than feeding people. To be able to do that for our community is really meaningful, which is the basis of what we built with Chop Bar. 

We also believe that our restaurants have to be bigger and greater than our four walls. We work on a number of different nonprofit boards to make sure we're giving back to the community. We're doing a lot of work with World Central Kitchen to feed the homeless. We’ve also created the Oakland Indie Alliance, which is a nonprofit for small businesses. Close to 500 small businesses are members.

GW: Tell me more about the Oakland Indie Alliance and how it got started?

JCP: As independent business owners, it's really important for us to do a number of things for the people who work with us. One, we want to pay as much of a wage as we can, especially for the kitchen staff who don’t get tips and have to rely on their hourly wages. In 2014, there was a measure in Oakland to increase the minimum wage from $9.25 to $12.00. We all supported it. However, there was no guidance about how to implement it effectively.

So, we came together informally and started asking the City for help in making it work. For example, how would we communicate with our customers that our labor costs would increase 30% overnight, thereby increasing our Workers’ Comp by 30% overnight, and increasing the price of goods from our vendors by 30% overnight because they would have to comply as well. That would mean, unfortunately, that we’d have to raise prices for our guests, which is not necessarily something that we want to do.

We worked with the City Attorney to develop a book of frequently asked questions about the measure. At that point we were just independent businesses working together to solve problems informally, but election season was coming up and we decided to establish a formal entity. That was the origin of the Oakland Indie Alliance.

The independent businesses involved were a sounding board for each other for a very long time and the Alliance blossomed from that collaboration. Being a business owner can feel like being alone on an island sometimes, and working with other people having the same challenges empowered us.

Our membership spans the political spectrum but we focus our advocacy on issues that impact independent businesses. These days we focus more on building resources for businesses. The Alliance was able to raise a lot of money after the first round of riots. 

GW: You’ve talked about the community of people you work with. How did you support them during COVID-19?

JCP: Literally overnight we had to close the doors on all three of our restaurants and lay off about 160 people. That’s never easy. In the month leading up to the shelter in place, we saw a dramatic drop in business. Our revenue was already depleted. So, we took what we personally had saved and made sure we could pay our payroll. That was first.

Then, we had to cover health insurance for those who are enrolled. Nobody in good conscience could leave people without health coverage in the middle of a pandemic. We directed those who did not have insurance to MediCal and to Covered California to try to get insurance as soon as they could.

Next, we identified the people who weren't going to be eligible for unemployment and we continued to support them and pay their wages out of our own bank account until we were able to open for takeout.

We wanted to be exceptionally thoughtful about what it meant to open and bring back any employees. We worked very, very diligently to put together protocols for sanitation, for cleanliness, for PPE, and to reduce the contact between customers and our staff.

It took us several weeks before we felt comfortable enough to open for takeout. The first people invited back to work were those who didn't qualify for unemployment and some of our managers.

Less than a quarter of our staff has been able to come back to work. And now with the end of that extra $600 a month in unemployment, I'm very fearful for some of the people who've worked for us for a very long time.

Now we're just holding our breath, to be honest. We didn't get into the restaurant industry to only do takeout service. This is not sustainable. We're still down significantly and there's no way that that's a long-term solution. 

World Central Kitchen has been a critical resource for our stability. Eat, Learn, Play and World Central Kitchen teamed up to start a food program in the Bay Area where they buy meals from restaurants. They use those meals to feed underserved communities, children, seniors, and the homeless. So everybody is participating in something that is incredibly socially important and we're happy to do our part. We just hope that we can make it through the end of the year.

GW: We know your restaurant was vandalized during the riots and protests and we're so sorry to hear about that. Was there anything you wanted to share about that experience both personally and as a business owner?

JCP: Well, it's very complicated. We're in the middle of very important and necessary social change. That change is often messy. 

Our businesses got vandalized both in May and July. In both instances, people started turning over trash cans, lighting them on fire, and spray painting things. Both events were terrible. And it's not the first time that this has happened.

Oakland is known for having civil unrest around social movements. Usually, the crowd is great and very respectful of the neighborhood. Then there's an element that hangs out at the end, who I'm certain are not people from our community. Often they aren't people who are actually part of the movement or protests. They're not people out there advocating for anything, but who want to destroy things. What that does to us is devastating.

They used the cover of a movement to support Black people to turn around and destroy a Black-owned business. In May we had been scheduled to open Tribune for takeout, but the day before we were vandalized, which kept us from opening for another several days. That meant that people who relied on that job could not come back to work. People of color, Latinx, and Black people.

It just doesn't make sense to destroy something that somebody has worked so hard for. It seems even worse for somebody to come and destroy a Black-owned business in the name of supporting the Black community. It doesn't make any sense, it’s hurtful and, honestly, it makes it very hard to want to continue doing business. 

We keep hanging on and keep moving forward, but how many more instances can we and our colleagues who own restaurants survive being shut down and having everything that you've worked for destroyed?

GW: I'm glad that you're both safe and healthy and thank you for everything that you do. Your tenacity in the face of incredible pressure and your commitment to your community is inspirational. Thank you!

To support Jana and Chris, you can donate to the Oakland COVID Recovery fund or place an order at Chop Bar, Tribune Tavern, or Calavera.

Restaurateurs in Oakland share their path to success running restaurants, COVID-19 challenges, and their experiences of social change

Oakland Business Owners Adapt to Pandemic and Advocate for Social Justice

With social injustice and systemic racism dominating hashtags and headlines, the topic of diversity has been pushed to the forefront for many companies, including Newfront. Although efforts to develop our Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) strategy began prior to the killing of George Floyd, the event that sparked national protests for social reform, we know the importance of having a strategy in place in times of crisis and always. We have formalized our D&I strategy in writing, which was shared with the team in June and will be added to our website soon. Below we’ve broken out 3 simplified steps explaining how we built our strategy from scratch.

Step 1 - Define what “diversity” and “inclusion” mean for us.

For our team at Newfront, diversity refers to our variety, our set of differences. Decades of compelling research has shown diverse teams make better decisions, innovate more, and produce more. Inclusion refers to a sense of belonging, a human need now more than ever. Fostering an inclusive culture allows our team to feel safe to share their opinions and bring their whole, authentic selves to work. We believe that diversity simply cannot exist without inclusion.

The next step to developing our strategy was sending a simple, two question survey to all employees asking:

What is the most important value as it relates to inclusion?

What is one thing Newfront could do to improve diversity and inclusion?

We wanted to make sure our statement and strategy was a reflection of the team’s values and opinions. What we found was quite interesting. The responses to question #1 were consistent, our team overwhelmingly felt that “respect” was key to inclusion. The answers to question #2 were surprisingly varied, with the answers spread across a spectrum. At Newfront, our team is a mixed bag of expertise, industries, experiences, and perspectives. So, how is Newfront doing in terms of diversity? Depends on who you ask.

Step 3 - Identify key building blocks tailored to the team’s unique needs

Because Newfront is a hybrid of insurance, tech, and brilliant operators, we knew our approach needed to be uniquely tailored just for us. We compared the survey results with our initial definitions for diversity and inclusion and decided that the building blocks for our D&I strategy would be: education, culture, and process. 

Education is essential to getting the team aligned on a shared vocabulary. Culture is already such a huge asset and focus at Newfront, but we needed to re-examine it through the D&I lens to keep it relevant and impactful. As with all good business initiatives, they only take on life when they are stitched into the processes and policies of the company. Here is how each of those three concepts look in our org.

EDUCATION - We are focused on deepening our understanding of cultural differences and improving the way we communicate. We accomplish this through monthly workshops, a monthly D&I speaker series with leaders in the D&I field, and a group of D&I book clubs where we can safely learn together and foster discussions on these complex topics. By educating ourselves, we grow together both personally and professionally. Insurance is all about relationships and we hope to equip ourselves with the tools to nurture all relationships, in and out of the office. Our ambition is to replace, “I don’t agree with you,” with, “Can you help me understand that better?”

CULTURE - One of our brokers referred to walking into our office as, “a shot of adrenaline.” Anyone who has visited our office can understand that sentiment. As you walk in, you’ll be welcomed by a smile, assisted immediately and most likely greeted by every Newfronter you encounter. We really like to make sure everyone feels included. We’ve extended this approach to inclusion, which we see as making our own employees feel welcome every day. We’ve added D&I goals to our company objectives, and each executive is committing to their own D&I initiatives to fit their team and support the overall D&I vision. From adding a D&I speaker to our Broker Summit, to launching fireside chats with employees from underrepresented groups, our leaders are getting creative with their mission. We’ve also empowered our employees with the option to set time aside to work on D&I projects each week. D&I is not an extracurricular at Newfront, it’s essential to cultivating a safe, inspiring, and engaging work environment where we can do the best work of our careers. 

PROCESS - One of our company values is “Question Dogma,” which was instrumental in the way we thought about D&I strategy. We questioned our current business practices, and asked how we could optimize for D&I. By doing so, we updated numerous company policies and practices, such as developing and implementing inclusive meeting practices, building D&I into our performance model, including Juneteenth as a company recognized holiday, adding D&I questions to our monthly culture survey, giving the team two days per year to engage in civic action, and more.

Creating a D&I statement and strategy may seem daunting, as there are so many components to consider - reviewing an entire company’s processes, optimizing handbooks and policies, and much more. We found the best way to form a strong, powerful strategy that transforms our company was to involve our team in the development. Our goal at Newfront is to develop common vocabulary around diversity and inclusion. The first step, in our opinion, is to get the conversation started, stay open minded, and get ready to get uncomfortable. Change can only happen by getting out of our comfort zone, and we plan to get very comfortable with being uncomfortable. We are excited for our D&I journey and what it will bring to the team and we know our strategy will continue evolving as we do.

Building a Diversity and Inclusion Strategy in Three Steps

“​As insurance firms adapt to maturing markets and economic turbulence, in the long run, their ability to integrate technology, talent, and business-model innovation into legacy environments may be the key to success.”  - "2020 Insurance Outlook" by Deloitte

Beginning in the early 2000’s, technological innovation and a new focus on customer experience began reshaping all consumer oriented and business service industries. Nearly every American consumer now has more choice than ever before and business operators have begun large-scale shifts away from legacy service providers in favor of vendors who provide convenience, speed, choice, and quality service.

While trillions of dollars of market capitalization have shifted hands in the turbulent movements of the new information economy, the commercial insurance industry has been left more or less behind. High renewal rates, a lack of alternatives, and significant barriers to entry have allowed commercial insurance to remain a backwater as innovations in client service and technology rapidly transformed other sectors of the economy.

It is clear that change has now come to commercial insurance. Hardening markets, the rise of millennial business owners, the predations of private equity in the insurance space, and increasingly convenience-oriented consumers have made commercial insurance customers deeply unhappy with the industry. Customer satisfaction in the commercial insurance industry is at 30% -  among the lowest of any American service sector. Recent surveys indicate that commercial insurance customers are more open than ever to switching agencies, as long as the new agency  can provide better quality service and increased convenience. Meanwhile insurance agencies still tout “going paperless” as meaningful technological advancement.

In addition to providing a poor customer experience, the insurance industry faces additional challenges around hardening markets, volatile economic conditions, increasing regulations, and a critical shortage of young talent.

These factors are forcing market participants to squeeze harder on their one-time partners. Carriers are pulling out of high risk areas, investing in direct-to-consumer technologies, and privately discussing lowering agency commissions. Brokerage owners are cutting splits and forcing producers to share support resources. Producers are left with fewer resources and support, while their customers face skyrocketing renewals with no improvement in coverage or service. It’s no wonder that only four percent of millennial workers are interested in a career in insurance. 

The industry’s response to these historic challenges has not been to innovate or improve but instead to cash out in the form of retirements and mergers, leaving the industry wide open to an onslaught of private equity. These private equity investors have no interest in solving the key issues facing the industry - they are focused on squeezing every last penny of profit out of the industry for their own investors. 

Newfront is convinced that American customers will always choose better value when it is available. And we are equally convinced that there is a tremendous opportunity to create more value in the insurance industry by harmonizing technology and human expertise. We build this value every day by building and leveraging modern technology to empower our team with tools and resources to more accurately assess and mitigate risk. We build it by finding new ways to attract and retain top talent, and we do it by giving our teams meaningful work within a culture where they have the autonomy to question dogma and innovate. We build it by working together to set a new standard for what the client, producer, and carrier experience can and should be. 

When we started Newfront, my co-founder and I saw an industry facing deep, structural problems. For clients, dealing with insurance had become an unbearable, unpleasant process. For industry professionals, doing their jobs had become more and more tedious as they were being told to work harder for less pay. For industry executives, finding high-quality young talent to enter the industry had become a major challenge. And we believe that society and entrepreneurship and families suffer when our collective safety net, the insurance industry, becomes frayed.

As a part of our pre-launch research, we first looked at other efforts to innovate and reform the industry. What we found was not very compelling. There were tech startups that built compelling technology but had wrong-headed ideas about replacing industry talent with computers. On the other side were existing industry incumbents whose best contribution to innovation was “going paperless” or using Docusign to execute agreements.

We were certain that there was a better path; one that combined the agility and technological capabilities of startups with the deep sophistication and customer focus of industry professionals. We further determined that our best bet for quickly delivering a superior client experience and better platform for producers and support teams would be by focusing on technology, economics, and culture.

When brokerages talk about investing in technology, they often mean buying off-the-shelf tools like AMS tools or application tools like Indio. These tools look great in the marketing pitch, but the reality is that they don’t work well with each other at all. And once these tech vendors become established, like the AMS providers, they stop innovating because they know how painful it is for brokerages to rip them out. These technologies may make some incremental improvements for the brokerages, but they don’t make support teams work better with producers, they don’t improve customer outcomes, and they’re not intuitive. This was not a direction that we wanted to go.

Instead we looked at the companies that we admired the most and saw that their differentiating value came about because they wrote their own software. Apple, for example, makes its money by selling hardware (phones, watches, computers) but instead of just selling those products they invested millions into writing software that they don’t sell. Why invest in software when you only sell hardware? Because Steve Jobs recognized that building a beautiful, magical, seamless software experience made their hardware incredibly valuable. Tesla sells cars. But by writing their software from scratch, they’ve provided a user experience that absolutely dwarfs the experience provided by other electric carmakers. The software is what made Apple and Tesla the two most valuable companies in their sectors.

Newfront is a retail insurance brokerage, and we build our software from scratch because doing so allows us to provide an experience to our customers, producers, and account managers that far exceeds that of any other brokerage in the world. Make no mistake - this is hard, expensive, sophisticated work. But our customers and employees make it clear that the work is worth it.

For us, this process started by building service for our clients similar to online banking. Our customers can log in to see their policies, their covered entities, download their certificates, file or check on claims, and access (or pay) their bills. We've made the entire insurance application process digital, and our customers’ information carries over from year to year, which makes renewals much less painful for them and for our staff. Then we built our own AMS system. Then we started adding ideas from our producers that would delight their prospects.

Our second key area of differentiation was around the economics for our producers. For too long this industry has extracted as much money as possible from the producers in order to line the pockets of the ownership. With the rise of private equity, this inequality has only gotten worse. Agencies are cutting service staff, cutting splits, and cutting producers out of any meaningful ownership. We think that that is wrong, but also incredibly shortsighted.

The hardest job in any brokerage is producing new business. The gifted professionals who do this work should share in as much of the value as possible. And when everyone in the agency works their tails off to build a successful, transformative business, they should get equity.

Newfront not only pays the highest splits in the industry, but we also give equity in the business to every employee. We believe that this shared ownership aligns us all to do what's best for our clients since our reputation with clients will ultimately determine the measure of our success as a company. Many question how we can afford the splits that we offer, and the answer is that the technology allows for efficiencies throughout the business that make us a far more profitable entity than other brokerages our size. We pass these savings back to our producers.

Our third area of focus was to build an incredible team with a terrific culture. The energy when you come into the office is electric — we're a group of people that knows we have a chance to truly move this industry forward, and you can sense that effort and drive from the team. Folks that come in to interview routinely say that they’ve never experienced anything as exciting as Newfront in their careers. 

We’ve built a powerful coalition that bridges the domains of technology and insurance. We have folks with decades of industry experience working side-by-side with talented professionals coming in with a fresh perspective.  By only hiring the best account managers, engineers, producers, creatives, product managers, and operators we’ve moved far faster than any other brokerage to seize the historic opportunity in front of us.

We've had an amazing journey so far and have brought on thousands of clients across the country who were searching for a better insurance experience. Looking ahead, we’re focused on scaling the team so that we can continue to improve and bring the benefits of working with Newfront to even more clients. The opportunity to move this industry is enormous and we're truly just getting started. Onward!

Like all of you, I’ve watched with dismay as COVID-19 disrupts our world and radically re-shapes our lives. As I write this, half of the world’s population shelters-in-place and the resulting business stoppage has unleashed economic calamity unparalleled in our lifetimes. For Newfront, the virus paralyzes some of our customers, dramatically slows down our unprecedented rate of growth, and freezes up the capital markets upon which high-growth businesses like Newfront depend.  

When operating conditions change radically, a business must adapt. For Newfront, the shift in credit markets and the consensus outlook for near-term economic activity presents us with a dramatically different set of operating conditions than we had anticipated at the start of the year. On Monday we made the incredibly difficult decision to restructure our business to operate effectively within the new environment. Unfortunately, that required us to reduce our workforce, especially on our engineering, recruiting, strategic growth, and operations teams. 

We did everything that we could to avoid this moment. We slashed non-essential spending on events, advertising, and travel. We instituted a hiring freeze. We cut most of our executive pay by 20%. My co-founder Gordon and I cut our salaries to zero. But in the end, these alone were not sufficient to achieve the safe harbor needed for us to renew our focus on driving innovation and unparalleled service to our customers.

These cuts are business-related and not in any way reflective of these individuals’ performance. I’m so grateful to each teammate for their dedication to Newfront and their hard work to drive our business forward. We are doing what we can to support those whose roles were reduced in this difficult time, including offering severance packages and extensions of the time periods for them to exercise their stock options so that they remain Newfront shareholders and a part of our community.

With all this said, I can tell you that I have never been more dedicated to our company or more convicted about our long-term prospects. Following this painful day, we stand on sound financial footing. I am fully confident that Newfront will emerge as a highly impactful and lasting business that will transform our industry.

These next few weeks will be among the hardest in our nation’s history.  In spite of this, we will build this business and care for our customers because we owe it to each other and to the people we are losing today, who will always be a part of the Newfront family.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has unfortunately provided an opportunity for cyber security threats to multiply, and many organizations may find themselves vulnerable. Attacks are now ranging from credential phishing and business email compromise (BEC) to fake landing pages and malware, all tied to the rapidly spreading coronavirus.

There are several steps individuals and businesses can take to prevent a cyber attack: 

Run regular updates on your programs and operating system; developers are continually releasing fixes for security gaps, but these only offer protection if you run the updates

Require devices to have two-factor authentication, which verifies a person's identity before logging in

Ask employees to confirm that their home WiFi connections use WPA2 encryption and are password-protected

Ensure employees have easy access to a list of approved remote work tools for communication

Companies should maintain a reliable backup for their data on a different network

Organizations should make sure their antivirus software is up to date

All employees should be instructed to think twice before clicking links within emails. You may consider holding a phishing awareness training

Amidst the crisis, we’re looking for every opportunity to help our clients. Given that many businesses have temporarily shifted to work-from-home situations, or are in the midst of reevaluating their cyber security protocols, we’re making our IT team available to help you. For a complimentary technology consultation and security review, please contact our IT director at chris.hahn@newfront.com. We're available to discuss the systems you're currently using and offer recommendations to keep your workforce productive and secure.

When Newfront co-founders Spike Lipkin and Gordon Wintrob set out to build the brokerage of the future, they resolved to shake off some of the baggage of the old-school insurance industry. One obvious way to do that was by building a company filled with diverse voices and fresh perspectives—and that's just one of the reasons Newfront empowers a strong female workforce and actively encourages gender equality at work and beyond. 

In honor of Women’s History Month, we want to shine a spotlight on just a few of the female leaders, brokers, and clients who make Newfront proud. 

Lisa Hanson's career in insurance has spanned nearly 30 years; before Newfront, she owned a management consulting firm specializing in strategic planning, change management, and leadership. Connect with Lisa on LinkedIn here. 

What do you like most about the work you do? 

Helping salespeople achieve and get out of their own way. I love being a resource at the sales level and helping producers keep their confidence up during tough times. I place a lot of value on helping people gain insight into their own emotions during important sales conversations, because it can help them clear their head of roadblocks and get in the right mindset for success. 

I have cultivated leadership skills over my lifetime and I like to lead other people toward unlocking their own leadership capacity. I strongly believe that everyone has leadership potential and I think it’s a strength of mine to help people feel empowered and find the right leadership role for themselves. 

Can you describe a time when you overcame a challenge? 

In a prior leadership role, one of my responsibilities was to turn around unprofitable territories marked by economic downturn and low producer engagement. The obvious assumption was that the regional economic troubles led the producers to disengage, but I wanted to dig deeper. My first step in every territory was to schedule lengthy one-on-ones with each producer to connect on an individual level. In doing so, I learned that it was not typically the perceived lack of opportunity that caused producers to disengage; rather, it was because the individual did not feel valued by the brokerage.

Once I listened and understood what motivated each person to do his or her best, I found ways to engage the producers in the business. We created action plans that reflected how and why the producer wanted to be successful. To further engage them, I created opportunities for the producers to become part of large and small teams to give a sense of camaraderie. Through coaching and encouragement, the results came quickly as producers surpassed the expectations others had of them as well as those they had of themselves.

Do you have any words of wisdom for women who might want a similar career to yours? 

I would say to never give up. Historically, the insurance industry has been full of barricades for women. While things are dramatically different at Newfront, they’re not fully solved anywhere. So as a woman, it’s important to reach out to your colleagues and find allies in both men and women. Your allies will be critical over time.

Debra Scalice is a Newfront broker with more than 30 years of risk management experience. She partners with entrepreneurs across a variety of industries, from manufacturing and distribution to non-profits. 

My clients are so inspirational to me. Entrepreneurs find a way where there is no way; they are mavericks, pioneers, and problem-solvers. They are the most hard-working, creative people among us and I’m so proud to help them contribute to the US economy. 

I am painstaking about assembling insurance programs that are as unique as my clients. I take the time to deeply understand my clients’ needs, educate them about their options, and compile programs that make sense for their business and their appetite for risk. 

This is one of my favorite stories, because it’s demonstrative of the power of determination. One of my HR clients found themselves in an expensive bind when their workers' compensation classification code had been mis-assigned before we started working together. They had tried to remedy it to no avail, but I was determined to fix it. With my client’s permission, I spoke with eight people at several entities and carriers—all of whom told me “no”—before I finally got the change made. It didn’t affect my commission but it was a huge cost savings for my client. The takeaway is that it doesn’t matter how many people tell you that you can’t do something—you can. Just follow your instinct and keep forging through. 

I would tell any woman that if you want this career and you’re willing to work hard for it, you can have it. Pursue knowledge, gain experience, and find a mentor and this is one of the most financially and emotionally rewarding careers you could possibly have.  

When Cristina Posada emigrated from Colombia at age 20 and arrived in San Jose, California, she found a job at her brother-in-law’s construction company and spent the next 13 years mastering English, earning her undergraduate degree in business and marketing, and absorbing as much industry knowledge as she possibly could. When presented with a fortuitous offer to buy a struggling concrete scanning company, she borrowed money from her parents for a down payment, arranged to pay for the rest of the company over time, and took an enormous risk. She’s owned the company, Safe2core, for a decade now, and Cristina is a client of Newfront broker Susan Groff. 

Safe2core provides concrete scanning, concrete cutting, and utility locating services. We use ground penetrating technology—an alternative to x-ray—to locate embedded construction targets like post-tension cables, conduits, and rebar. We also locate utilities such as water, gas, and telephone lines. After the target areas have been scanned and cleared, we cut the concrete laying over them. The process is important because it prevents the structure from being damaged and protects the safety of everyone working on the site; that's what I value most about what I do. 

I care deeply for my team and I consider them family. I routinely hear from clients, employees, and friends how much my team loves working for Safe2core. Most business owners think the customers are the most important asset, but for me, my employees are the most valuable—because if they’re happy, they make my clients happy. 

When I first bought Safe2core, the business had a terrible reputation that I had to overcome. The prior owner was a good person but distracted by personal issues that left the business in bad shape. Former clients were hesitant to hire me and I couldn’t get a loan from the bank. I sometimes literally begged people to give me a chance. I eventually rebuilt the reputation of Safe2core and I’m now doing five times as much business as the prior owner. It’s an incredible feeling to look back on what I’ve achieved. 

I always think of this quote from Robert Kiyosaki: “Don't let the fear of losing be greater than the excitement of winning.” I always keep that quote present in my mind because it helps me remember to not let fear interfere with my goals. Of course uncertainty is terrifying, but you have to just go for it anyway—because the feeling of really achieving something cannot be matched. 

In March and Beyond, We Celebrate Our Woman Leaders

As an insurance brokerage, our primary responsibility is to you, our clients. As you face interruptions in your normal course of business due to COVID-19, you're understandably inquiring as to whether your commercial insurance policies will cover your losses. While we sincerely wish we could provide more comfort in these trying times, the answer is: It depends. It depends on your individual policies, it depends on the specific reasons for your losses, and it depends on how the government and insurance carriers collectively decide to respond to coronavirus-related damages. So while we cannot address your specific coverages here, we can walk you through some concepts you should be aware of and steps you should take during this complicated time. 

First, we strongly recommend you embark on a policy review with your Newfront broker. Knowing what's contained within your insurance policies is your first and best move before making any decisions. 

Second, the biggest unknown for the insurance world right now surrounds business interruption and property damage coverage, so we'll address that first. But read on for information about other coverages and exclusions you may find within your policy. 

Will business interruption insurance or property damage insurance cover my business losses due to coronavirus? 

It depends. Many policies require a connection between the business losses and some “physical loss or damage” to property. Insurers are currently taking the position that there is no physical loss or damage when a business shuts down or loses customers due to COVID-19 health concerns. However, since governmental directives designed to address the spread of the outbreak are motivated by the physical presence of the virus, there may be credible legal arguments to make that the presence of coronavirus in a building renders that building unsafe and it could be presumed that all buildings where people congregate have been contaminated. Where a property is rendered unsafe for use, there is some authority that this constitutes “physical loss or damage.” We anticipate that these issues will be litigated in court, and we are aware of at least one lawsuit that has been filed and expect that there will be more. (We are tracking developments in our list of ongoing news coverage.)

We can make no guarantees as to how an insurer might react to a claim, but we believe it is in many of our clients’ best interests to track ongoing losses and file for claims.  

While the arguments described above have not yet been tested in courts and we cannot be certain of any outcomes, what is 100% certain is that if you do not file a claim with your insurer, you will not get any coverage for your losses. 

As your brokerage, we can assist you in submitting claims to the carrier, and we can also discuss how a claim might impact your coverage going forward (particularly if you are close to a policy renewal). Please contact your broker or connect with us at contact@newfront.com for more information. 

Please know that any thoughts we may provide regarding potential claims do not constitute legal advice or a legal opinion and we urge you to consult with legal counsel on this matter. 

What other language in my policies might help cover my losses? 

It depends on what's in your specific policies. Your policies may contain some version of the following: 

"Contingent business interruption" coverage may apply when the insured suffers business losses due to damage to property belonging to another party (like a supplier). 

“Civil authority” clauses typically refer to coverage for business interruption losses caused by government closure orders. Losses are typically capped by a time period and depend on the reason for the government action. 

"Environmental loss" coverage pertains to contamination from viruses and other organisms.

Event cancellation coverage may apply if you've been forced to cancel events. 

Is it possible my policy contains exclusions for viruses? 

Yes. Your policy may have specific exclusions for losses caused by viruses, microorganisms, or “contamination.” You should discuss the potential applicability of these exclusions with legal counsel.

What can I do right now to position myself for success as an insured? 

Obtain a copy of your full insurance policy. Policies are made up of several components and you need to have them all to ensure you have the full picture.

Pay your premiums on time. In past circumstances, people facing severe stress have allowed their policies to lapse, and insurers have been unforgiving.

Communicate with your insurer in writing. Keep a specific file—either paper or electronic—of all communications. Send email confirmations of phone conversations.

Document your losses. Many policies require the filing of a “proof of loss” within a certain period of time. The law varies by jurisdiction as to what this requirement means. Discuss these requirements with your attorney or at least familiarize yourself with these requirements. Keeping track of your losses as they happen will make it easier when it comes time to file a claim.

We're here to help during this period of uncertainty. Connect with us for a complimentary policy review, bookmark our regularly updated coronavirus resource hub, and email us at contact@newfront.com with any questions or concerns you may have.

Can I Claim Property Damage or Business Interruption Due to Coronavirus?

The past month has been an unsettling reminder of how quickly business and personal priorities can change. Less than a month ago, the economy was thriving and unemployment was at record lows. Now, the outbreak of COVID-19 has forced social distancing measures across the country and spawned uncertainty across the globe. How should we manage our workforces during these unprecedented times? 

1) Make sure your workplace is safe for employees. 

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) General Duty Clause requires employers to provide a workplace “free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm.” OSHA recommendations include promoting personal hygiene at the workplace with hand sanitizer and disinfectants, minimizing COVID-19 exposure by using virtual communications where possible, and pausing non-essential travel. 

2) Keep a record of any team members who contract COVID-19. 

It might be difficult to determine exactly where or when a worker contracted the virus, but OSHA requires that employers record work-related injuries or illnesses and may request your records in the future. Notify your local health department if a team member is infected, but also maintain their privacy.

New Coronavirus Relief Law Requires Paid Employee Leave.pdf

3) Provide Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) benefits in accordance with updated federal policies. 

If a worker is seriously ill as a result of the coronavirus, they may be eligible for leave (paid or unpaid) under FMLA. The law requires most companies with 50 or more employees to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave every 12 months. Similarly, leave to care for a family member who is seriously ill as a result of the coronavirus may be FMLA-qualifying.

Please note: Healthcare professionals recommend that you don’t walk into a hospital or medical office if you think you have the coronavirus. If you or a team member want to see a healthcare provider, call ahead to let them know you’re coming and that you’ve potentially been exposed to the coronavirus. You can also request a mask be brought to you before you enter the hospital to reduce the risk of infecting other patients.

What to do if an employee has been exposed to the coronavirus 

If you or one of your employees ends up being diagnosed with or exposed to the coronavirus, we recommend being swift, conservative, and non-punitive (e.g., don’t start docking pay) in your response.

Step 1: Send them home immediately. Employees diagnosed with the coronavirus or exhibiting known symptoms, such as respiratory illness, fever, cough, or shortness of breath, should be sent home and encouraged to self-isolate.

Step 2: Separate exposed workers. Before they leave, ask the infected employee for names of anyone who worked in close physical proximity to them, and ask those team members to work remotely as well.

Step 3: Notify the people you work with—sensitively. Inform your team of their possible exposure to the coronavirus, but avoid sharing any private information. Tell the rest of your employees to check for coronavirus symptoms and to contact their healthcare provider in case they want to get assessed for potential exposure. Also notify any potentially exposed vendors, customers, or clients—again, while maintaining confidentiality.

Step 4: Record the diagnosis per OSHA’s instructions.

Step 5: Keep inquiries to a minimum. Limit the amount of personal information you ask from employees. You can encourage—but not require—them to contact the local health department. You also can’t ask them to get tested or to measure their body temperature.

BONUS: Make a payment plan for hourly workers. Depending on your existing policies and applicable local laws, you need to figure out how and when to pay nonexempt employees who are sent home. If your policy is not to pay in this situation, employees may resist going home or try to hide symptoms. This is not the behavior you want to encourage. 

If you have not already done so, set up a remote work policy for your employees. Outline who on your team can and cannot work remotely, ensure that remote workers have the necessary hardware and software to enable remote work, and establish a plan on how meetings, team communications, and daily activities will run. Here are some resources we found helpful:

Harvard Business Review’s guide to creating an emergency remote work policy
 
Lattice’s HR toolkit on pivoting to a remote work environment
 
Telework guidance by the US Office of Personnel Management
 
LifeLabs' HR & remote work playbooks

We recommend reading Harvard Business Review’s piece on companies’ legal obligations around coronavirus. As they suggest, it’s more important than ever to stay informed, intensify communications and hygiene, consider restrictions on returning to work, protect employees’ privacy, and start proactively planning for a worst-case scenario. 

Business leaders across the US are grappling with whether they should furlough employees, permanently reduce their workforces, or close offices during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you need to take one of these measures, these guides on communicating furloughs and layoffs due to coronavirus may be helpful. 

Just Getting Started

Combating Burnout

Newfront's Parent Community

Oakland Business Owners Adapt to Pandemic and Advocate for Social Justice

Building a Diversity and Inclusion Strategy in Three Steps

Innovation in the Insurance Industry

Can I Claim Property Damage or Business Interruption Due to Coronavirus?

Reviewing Your Policy Coverage with an Expert

We're Here For You: Guidance + COVID-19 Financial Resources for CA Businesses

Founding Newfront

Impact of COVID-19 on Newfront

IT & Cyber Security During COVID-19

In March and Beyond, We Celebrate Our Woman Leaders

HR Best Practices During COVID-19

Insurance and COVID-19: Ongoing News Coverage

Newfront for Businesses

Newfront for Private Clients