Stories+Words+Machines: A Nerd’s Formula for Building an InsurTech

September 1, 2020 by Susanne Sclafane

There probably aren’t too many people who think about insurance claims scenarios when they go out to buy ice cream.Executive SummaryThe path to becoming the leader of an InsurTech that teaches machines to read commercial insurance policies started in construction and surety law for Chris Cheatham of RiskGenius. Here, he discusses his penchant for telling stories that help in understanding insurance. He also describes the applications of RiskGenius for carriers and current trends in litigation and policy form rewrites that he is tracking to inform his business decisions and to provide insights to throngs of fellow “insurance nerds” who follow him on social media.

Executive Summary

The path to becoming the leader of an InsurTech that teaches machines to read commercial insurance policies started in construction and surety law for Chris Cheatham of RiskGenius. Here, he discusses his penchant for telling stories that help in understanding insurance. He also describes the applications of RiskGenius for carriers and current trends in litigation and policy form rewrites that he is tracking to inform his business decisions and to provide insights to throngs of fellow "insurance nerds" who follow him on social media.

Chris Cheatham, the CEO of InsurTech Risk Genius, is one of them, according to a story he included in his recent Insurance Prospectus newsletter.

Newsletter subscribers who received his June 29 edition read about his family’s trip to a favorite Kansas ice cream shop and why the trip had him contemplating a new wave of business interruption claims. During the COVID lockdown, the shop was closed even though it was technically allowed to offer curbside service. Shop owners decided to close because their employees felt uncomfortable during an early trial offering curbside delivery of cones and sundaes.

A recent reopening didn’t last long either, Cheatham reported, reproducing in his newsletter the message from a storefront sign that said two store employees were exposed to COVID from family members and the shop was closed so that all employees could be tested.