“Theoretical physics isn’t hard to a skilled physicist. We’re like the theoretical physicists of hazard data. It’s our specialty. It’s what we do,” says Bob Frady, CEO of HazardHub. HazardHub provides complete property-level hazard risk databases for threats and natural disasters that destroy and damage assets. Bob, Brady Foust, and John Siegman decided to start HazardHub when they realized there were massive amounts of new technologies and new data that were not being used for risk assessment.

A Flood of Opportunities

The idea for HazardHub began when Bob’s friend’s house flooded. She didn’t live in a flood zone, so she didn’t think about flood insurance. But unfortunately, she lived only about 100 feet from a known flood zone. Bob and John gathered up all the available data and asked her if anyone informed her that she lived right next to a flood zone. When she said no, Bob, John and Brady realized that they had to build a platform that goes the extra mile. “We thought that there should be a place where anyone can go to see the risk of their property,”. The three co-founders immediately came up with some design screens and once they received a positive response from a potential partner, that seed of an idea grew into HazardHub. Today, HazardHub is fast becoming the go-to vendor for property and risk data in the USA.

Creating Wins

The primary risk for companies selling to the insurance industry is not understanding the length of the sales cycle. This is due to the industry’s desire for evolution rather than revolution. You have to be prepared for a very long, proof-filled sales cycle. New technology comes up every day, A.I. brings in new and better ways for players. If you love your tech and don’t focus on its actual use of that technology and how it could be made better, it could be a problem. “You always have to create wins for your customers and prospects. If they win, you win,” adds Bob.

Transformative Technology

The intelligent leveraging of technology has allowed HazardHub to deliver more than 900 data elements in just over a second. Onboarding customers is done in minutes with HazardHub’s API, rather than taking weeks. Infinite scalability and processing hundreds of thousands of records in minutes is made possible. The biggest barrier to technology adoption is not in its complications, it’s the length of the sales cycle in insurance. When you sell to a carrier or a reinsurer that involves underwriting, pricing, and/or actuarial, the sales cycle is measured in years. “Most technology companies, especially start-ups don’t have the stomach for that extended timeline. They either get frustrated or burn through too much funding,” says Bob. The USA is the largest insurance market in the world so you have to have a lot of national, accurate data in order to scale. So HazardHub focuses on providing highly detailed data for every spot in the United States.

Short-term Pain for Long-term Gain

HazardHub is self-funded. In the early stages, there were times when things got a little tense. “The only way through our issues was to sell our way out of it,” says Bob. They succeeded, and today HazardHub is a great business with phenomenal customers and partners. For upcoming entrepreneurs and startups, Bob’s advice is to simply have a good idea. The second is having good co-founders. “We could not have built this business without John, Brady, and I, each of us bringing our something special to the table,” he adds. Having good co-founders who can share the load is invaluable. As part of HazardHub’s continued growth, they strive to find even more data in order to build better models. HazardHub aims to become the number one provider for risk data in the US.