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Let's do it!
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Let's do it!
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Broadcasting, from around the world, you're listening to the First 100, a podcast on how
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founders acquired their first 100 paying customers.
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Here's your host, Hadi Radwan.
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Good to have you on the show, Matteos.
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How are you doing today?
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Hi, Harry. I'm doing good.
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How are you?
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I'm amazing.
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Thank you for being part of our podcast.
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I'll give a quick introduction for our listeners.
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Matteos Rialfi is the founder of Tint,
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which empowers tech platforms to sell more
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by embedding unique insurance products
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in their customer flow.
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Tint has raised 30 million to date
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from notable investors such as QED investors,
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and Web Investment Network.
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Take us back to the founding of How Moment.
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How did TENT come to your fruition?
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Yeah, so before Micro Founder and I started TENT,
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we worked at a company called Turo,
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which is the leading company in peer-to-peer car sharing.
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So basically it's like Airbnb for cars.
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You can rent out your car to your neighbor,
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or pretty much everybody, or anybody in the world.
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And Turo was doing something that was radically new,
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broke every single logic of insurance, which is this idea that now you can drive anybody's car,
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but insurance used to follow the car, like, and then it's legal to have a car on the road without
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the liability part of the policy. So in short, we had to create a completely new insurance category
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to exist. And both Michael Fander and I were early employees, and we've been through this journey.
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I was leading the international expansion, so doing the same in different countries. I lived
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setting up Turo and the insurance frameworks in the UK.
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Michael founder was the head of data science.
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So he was building the models, the data part
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that kind of powers the insurance offerings
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that Turo was having.
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And we saw two things.
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We saw huge opportunity because we saw that like
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there was Turo, this tech company was creating
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a known insurance category.
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And we looked around and we saw that happening
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in our Airbnb, Apple, if you think about Apple care,
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like many other great tech companies were creating their own insurance and
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protection products, but we also experienced how hard it was. It was
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extremely complicated to do that without help and there was our inspiration to
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start Tint, so the product we wish existed when we were at Turo. Amazing story.
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So technically is your company Tint a licensed insure tech or are you using
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the technology to create embedded products by partnering with other
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carriers that wants to sell it to your partners?
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We are technically a broker and a captive manager with play a few
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roles, but we are not an insurance company. We're not an underwriter.
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We see ourselves as basically the combination of two things.
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Our technology stack, so we have all the core insurance
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systems, policy admin claims, whatever you need. So our customers don't need to
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write a lot of code on their side. And we also connect them with insurance
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a reassure so we provide them the kind of financial capacity as well.
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And the last role we play is we provide them back office compliance kind of like services
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that they need to operate.
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So from that perspective, we're end to end, but we focus on the connectivity, not as a
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carrier.
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Amazing.
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What has been the hardest problem for you when you're building a B2B ensure tech?
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I think the hardest part is that ensure tech requires a lot of pieces.
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we play at least three roles, right? The software, the compliance back end, and back office, I say,
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and the risk cap of the broker, the matchmaking side of things. And it's a lot. But we see that as
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an opportunity because the way we are thinking about ourselves is that embedded insurance,
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it's really reinventing insurance. Because let's say Airbnb is now the one thinking about those
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products selling, it completely changes the industry, changes where the players, what they do,
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exists. And what we do, in a simple way is to write this infrastructure, write this product,
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it's going to power this new value chain to operate. But that's a challenge. We need to
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build a lot of pieces, right? So that our solution is complete. Thank you for sharing this journey.
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Can you take us back to your first client? How did you convince them to join TENT?
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Yeah, our first client was a company called Outdoorsy.
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RV, so very similar to what we're doing at Turo. And our story with them was very similar,
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I'd say, to a lot of B2B founders. We knew the space very well because we were both from Turo.
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We have a contact from Turo who moved to Aldorsian and was running insurance and claims for them.
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So we already had somewhat a trust relationship. So that got ourselves the opportunity to
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back in 2019, 18 or 19.
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So we didn't have all the components of our product,
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but our first module, if you think about it,
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was what we sold to them.
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And we implemented the results, so it's great.
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And then we started.
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And then from there, they were our kind of flagship customers
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to move into all the companies in the same space,
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in the kind of vehicle sharing or peer-to-peer space.
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And we grew, we focused on that for some time,
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until we expanded to other verticals.
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Now we have customers in shipping, companies like Dio in the HR space.
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We have companies in the crypto space.
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Now we're like a multi vertical company, but I'd say in the early days what we did was
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really focus where we had domain expertise and connections.
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Great.
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Very interestingly for me, it looks like when you land a partner like this, you have done
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something extremely right.
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So if you were to write the playbook of getting clients like outdoorsy,
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neighbor, deal, which are some notable and big clients. What would be the playbook in that case,
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especially when the sales cycle is long, and it's not their core, and insurance is not their core
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revenue stream? How can you close such big names? The playbook would be, I'd say, the same, like an
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expanded version of what I just said for outdoors, which is like try to leverage your domain expertise,
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Those matter a lot in the early days because again,
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at some point you build trust in your brand through the customers you have,
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through the product, right?
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But in the early days,
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it's all about the personal relationships,
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it's all about them trusting that you will be able to solve something that they have.
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That's what we did.
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So, Dio, for example, was a connection through Y Combinator.
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That's one of the main advantages of Y Combinator and Y.
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We went the first place.
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like you have a network of amazing founders and companies
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that they still gonna be like customers
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that will want a lot from you
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because they are all fast growth and exciting startups
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but it gives you the foot of the door
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when you can start having this conversation,
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start building the trust
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and you have somewhat a stamp, right?
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That can tell to the other founders in the community
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that like, okay, they have passed a certain screening
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from to be the OIC community.
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So I would say the playbook
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exactly the same. Start with what you know, ideally with a product and service that you
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used before in your past life or problem that you experienced in your past life and then
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try to sell that first within your immediate network and then expand from there.
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Do you have any advice for founders who probably don't have access to warm leads and they want
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to build their momentum, let's say? Would there be any advice that you would give that
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start at least.
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I think if you don't have the access,
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I'm originally from Brazil.
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I moved to the US 12 years ago.
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I didn't have networks here either.
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I had to definitely start from scratch.
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I'd say my advice,
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what I did was you work for a company,
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like I did for two or four years.
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So I will build that network,
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I'll build the domain expertise,
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and then do my company.
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So that'll be advice number one.
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If you already want an advice for fathers who are already in their businesses and trying
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to hustle, then it is about hustling.
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It is about the numbers game, right?
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Trying to reach out to as many companies as possible, to reach out to them on LinkedIn,
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go to conferences.
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Like, you'll be surprised with the amount of people that if they get the right message
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at the right time, they will help, right?
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Especially, go focus in earlier stage companies where an ideally the founder has a lot of
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a little bit more empathy he or she want me maybe to pay some for their ways but I'd say
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they will be more like a volume game I would say.
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Well if you have some connections through your personal networks, schools or whatever
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you can leverage then I think it becomes more like a targeted approach.
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What have you been so far the most proud of and building Tint?
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Well I think we would have been the most proud of as helping our customers protecting their
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users, we're typically people, right? So we're now going through one of the biggest shocks in
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the venture industry, the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, and I think it's a story, this is
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too breaking, but you can see now, like, everybody's seeing why thinking about downside scenarios is
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important, right? There has been a lot of conversation about the assured part of the pod is the
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uninsured part. Nobody likes you think about those things, but whenever you need, like,
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available to you.
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And it's like what we do in, you know,
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it's complicated technology is regulated, as you know,
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as well as I do in the issue tech world,
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but ultimately it's about protecting people, right?
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So better, cheaper, more convenient ways
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that people get to protect.
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So one of our customers, you ship,
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if you ship a car from one place to the other,
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the car may get broken, right?
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Like maybe get damaged.
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And if that happens and they purchase
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a protection from each ship,
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have a very magical experience that you're taking care of. So how do we help more companies
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to get that in front of their users better in a faster and cheaper way? Because ultimately,
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the reason why insurance is so important is that things will go wrong. And when they do,
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you better be covered.
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That's great advice. Thank you for sharing it, Matias. If you go back now in time, knowing
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funding, where would you have started to acquire your first customer? Would it be the same strategy
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or would you have done something different? Same strategy because in the beginning we had some
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funding but it wasn't too much. So paid marketing, things like that were not even an option for us
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and that's good. It is good in the early days that you have very constrained resources because
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or yet sustainable paths, which matters a lot.
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Did matter at that time,
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matters even more in the market today.
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So yeah, I don't think we will have changes.
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We'll go after our networks in places
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where we have domain expertise
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and we can intelligently talk about why we can,
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even as an unproven company, we can solve the problem.
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Do you place more, let's say,
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effort on building a perfect product
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or you prefer to build a product
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that works well?
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but you want to lend a customer first and then perfect it. Which approach did you go with?
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My natural inclination is the latter. It's to try to move fast, lend a customer, then improve.
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However, in the one complexity we deal with is that in a regulated industry, there is a minimum
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bar you need to make. So that I think we try and like to be agile, but it's not always possible.
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Again, we still try to apply the same.
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We have a value in our company that's called compliant agility.
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So it's still about moving fast, but understanding
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that we need to do some compliance checks before.
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Which of the B2C company in unregulated space
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doesn't have to deal with that.
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Amazing.
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Thank you for that advice.
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If we zag a little bit to Matthew as the person,
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what is a principle that you live by that has served you well
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in your life?
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in your business?
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Yeah, one of these, it happens to be another value that we have not by coincidence, but
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is this idea of constructive candor?
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Is the idea that like I strongly believe in transparency, I strongly believe in being
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straight in business and personal life and telling the truth because if you really care
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about someone, you tell the truth.
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And even so hard thing to hear, that person will get better only if they can knowing what
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they have to improve.
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improving. But you got to do that in a constructive way. I also don't believe in just pointing
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the facts and not helping because this is really not not great. So we have this idea
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in our company, this principle of constructive candor, which is always be open, but always
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be thinking about, okay, here are the things you should improve. But here's what I recommend
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right now is pointing fingers.
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If you were in a room with one of the CEOs of your competitors, what's the topic that
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you would discuss with them? I think we'll discuss like how can we grow like you know
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together in a sense because insurance is so big that like literally two trillion dollars of
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premium of money flowing around every year and embedded insurance the entire category is just
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so small has so much potential right people recognize as the one of the most promising
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That's what we need is about how the tide would lift all the boats.
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And that's what I'll be talking about.
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There are plenty of niches to be carved out by all the different companies.
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That's great.
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Thank you for sharing it, Matthews.
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One last question. What's next for Tint?
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Well, Nexus continued like in the trajectory we are, like keep growing,
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keep adding or keep helping great companies protect their customers.
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And I think it feels strongly about us building a world where insurance will become a feature
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and no longer a product where people don't have to think about it.
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They are protected when things go wrong.
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They have somewhere to go.
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And that's really what we, not every day when we wake up, that's what we're thinking about.
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Amazing.
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Where can people reach you?
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LinkedIn, I'm always there.
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Like I like to joke.
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There's probably just one Matheus Rioff in the world.
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So if you type my name on the thing.
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find me. You need to talk with me, I'm Matheus at team.ai in my email and I'm always happy
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to help even if they are not prospects or anything related to a business.
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Thank you Matheus for your time.
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Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.
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