Back in 2015, after working more than 15 years on the underwriting side of the property/casualty insurance business, Chad Nitschke started to become frustrated with the lack of change in the industry.Executive SummaryVouch, an InsurTech that underwrites commercial and management liability insurance for high-growth technology and life science startups, is the brainchild of Sam Hodges and Travis Hedge. Here, the co-founders describe past experiences with entrepreneurship and startup investing that fueled a mission to correct the problems of time-consuming underwriting processes and ill-fitting coverage for their target customers, along with recent milestones and possibilities for the future as industry veteran Chad Nitschke takes the reins of a new division—Vouch Specialty.
“I just felt like the rest of the world was evolving, but the insurance industry wasn’t really keeping pace with a lot of the other industries,” said Nitschke, president of Vouch Specialty, recalling his feelings at the time.
Before taking his role at a new division of InsurTech Vouch earlier this year, Nitschke made an initial leap to the world of faster-paced companies that started to pop up in the insurance sector five years ago. Switching gears from being an underwriter of specialty lines like D&O and professional liability, and from being an executive who managed niches like credit union protection and small business commercial business at the likes of Travelers, CUNA Mutual and AXIS Capital, he co-founded InsurTech Bunker, a startup focused on independent contractors and small businesses, in March 2016.