Fleets, Flitting and Team Formation - with Caroline Garrow, Chief Insurance Officer, Flock

The Insurance Coffee House

“You have to be able to flit between the strategic, operational and tactical”, says Caroline as she shares her journey of being involved in an insurtech start-up.

“There’s been days when I’ve been operating as a Claims Handler as well as Chief Insurance Officer, thinking about underwriting strategy.”

With an insurance career spanning 25 years, Caroline talks about joining Flock in the midst of the pandemic and how the business pivoted from drone insurance policies to entering a new vertical of commercial motor fleet insurance at the end of 2020.

After a $17m Series A fundraise in June 2021 allowed the business to grow from 20 to a headcount of 60, Flock now use data to analyse road risk and incentivise good driving behaviour for connected motor fleets.

Caroline outlines the challenges to scaling the business and gives insight in to Flock’s values, including ownership, growth, curiosity, transparency and creativity.

Whilst the lead time to recruiting new talent is a source of frustration, Caroline shares Flock’s multi-faceted approach to recruitment, saying, “If you want a breadth of opinions and ideas, you have to take people from all walks of life. We try not to fish in the same pond.”

Caroline explains Flock’s approach to hybrid working as well as the value an insurance career can bring to the business and her advice to anyone looking to start or scale an insurtech, emphasising the importance of mapping out your hiring strategy.

“Your first hires are hugely important. You can easily burn through cash at the start with the wrong people.”

Connect with Caroline on LinkedIn, email [e-mail] or find out more about Flock.

The Insurance Coffee House Podcast is hosted by Nick Hoadley, CEO, Insurance Search, the Executive Search Consultancy for growing Insurance and Insurtech businesses across the globe.

To discuss identifying & attracting the very best talent to your team or being a podcast guest, reach out to Nick via [e-mail] or connect on LinkedIn

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