6 ms·

Insurance can be a catalyst for a million other things. Amazing how often the answer to "why cant we do innovation X" is: because insurance.

harryh 9y ago
What are some examples of X? I've never gotten the "because insurance" response so you've raised my curiosity!
- tabeth 9y ago
  Effectively if you take any kind of risk it involves insurance. A concrete example is starting a company and quitting your job. Health insurance is currently heavily tied to employment, so the incentive is not to start a company under those circumstances.
- akharris 9y ago
  One example - startups that are looking to sign large enterprise contracts are often prevented from doing so because they don't carry a sufficient level of errors and commissions (E&O) insurance to satisfy customer requirements. Getting that level of coverage can be difficult because the few people on the insurance side really understand how to price software/security risk, and because the size of contract isn't meaningful to the seller of the policy, though it is critical to the startup in question.
  - FLUX-YOU 9y ago
    That seems straight-forward to do (although difficult finding great developers to assess this stuff): - Development process (Agile, Scrum, Waterfall, Panic, etc.) - Architecture - Testing processes - Pentesting - Credentials of all of the developers - Credentials of the managers - Even the presence of physical security There's already "cybersecurity" insurance and surely someone from that industry could join and tell you how to price security features and processes: https://www.dhs.gov/cybersecurity-insurance https://www.dhs.gov/cybersecurity-insurance I can't really speak against it not being worth it for the insurance company though. How do you build a cheap but high coverage insurance product for startups that have limited cash?
- kgwgk 9y ago
  I think he means "because liablities", and then being unable to find a counterparty willing to take a high risk for a small premium.
- zurn 9y ago
  Lack of unemployment insurance makes working for risky companies risky.
- dredmorbius 9y ago
  Small aircraft industry, fairly famously. Many of the most popular small craft (Piper, Cessna, etc.) date from the 1940s and 1950s.
dsfyu404ed 9y ago
Not just startups, consumer facing and b2b services as well. "These tires are going to travel places other than roads and the sidewalls will be shredded by the terrain long before they fail from dry rot, I don't care if they're too old to have a date code, just mount the damn things." "Our insurance policy prevents us from mounting anything over 10yo" And that level of BS is nothing compared to overhead lifting.

harryh 9y ago

What are some examples of X? I've never gotten the "because insurance" response so you've raised my curiosity!

tabeth 9y ago
Effectively if you take any kind of risk it involves insurance. A concrete example is starting a company and quitting your job. Health insurance is currently heavily tied to employment, so the incentive is not to start a company under those circumstances.
akharris 9y ago
One example - startups that are looking to sign large enterprise contracts are often prevented from doing so because they don't carry a sufficient level of errors and commissions (E&O) insurance to satisfy customer requirements. Getting that level of coverage can be difficult because the few people on the insurance side really understand how to price software/security risk, and because the size of contract isn't meaningful to the seller of the policy, though it is critical to the startup in question.
- FLUX-YOU 9y ago
  That seems straight-forward to do (although difficult finding great developers to assess this stuff): - Development process (Agile, Scrum, Waterfall, Panic, etc.) - Architecture - Testing processes - Pentesting - Credentials of all of the developers - Credentials of the managers - Even the presence of physical security There's already "cybersecurity" insurance and surely someone from that industry could join and tell you how to price security features and processes: https://www.dhs.gov/cybersecurity-insurance https://www.dhs.gov/cybersecurity-insurance I can't really speak against it not being worth it for the insurance company though. How do you build a cheap but high coverage insurance product for startups that have limited cash?
kgwgk 9y ago
I think he means "because liablities", and then being unable to find a counterparty willing to take a high risk for a small premium.
zurn 9y ago
Lack of unemployment insurance makes working for risky companies risky.
dredmorbius 9y ago
Small aircraft industry, fairly famously. Many of the most popular small craft (Piper, Cessna, etc.) date from the 1940s and 1950s.

dsfyu404ed 9y ago

Not just startups, consumer facing and b2b services as well. "These tires are going to travel places other than roads and the sidewalls will be shredded by the terrain long before they fail from dry rot, I don't care if they're too old to have a date code, just mount the damn things." "Our insurance policy prevents us from mounting anything over 10yo" And that level of BS is nothing compared to overhead lifting.