Berkshire Hathaway’s Three has begun rolling out across the country
Earlier this year, Berkshire Hathaway announced the launch of their new small commercial platform promising customers a new way to buy a comprehensive business policy in just “Three” pages. Following up on that announcement, on May 7th, the company sent an email stating that it had begun rolling out the product across the country. While it is not yet available in Massachusetts, it has now officially gone live in other states.
As a quick reminder, THREE” aims to simply the small commercial buying process by providing policies direct to small businesses, bypassing brokers and other third parties. In commenting on this latest initiative, Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett said:
“Insurance is important protection for any business, but few small businesses have the time to actually read through the policy forms that are supposed to protect them. With THREE a small business can be confident in the protection it is getting, because the whole policy can be read in a few moments. Every day, America’s small businesses prove that great things come in small packages. Now they can get insurance on the same basis.”
In response, Progressive has now launched its own small commercial platform
Not to be left behind in the race to modernize the small commercial insurance space, Progressive also has announced this month, the launch of its own “easy-to-use online quoting platform.” Dubbed BusinessQuote Explorer® (BQX), the platform allows small business owners the ability to obtain accurate multiple business insurance quote in an average of 11 minutes or less.
“We understand the number of demands today’s small business owners are faced with and are constantly looking at ways we can innovate the process of quoting business insurance to save them time and alleviate their questions and concerns,” added John Barbagallo, Progressive’s Commercial Lines President. “With BusinessQuote Explorer®, we help make the process of selecting an insurer and getting an accurate quote fast and easy so small business owners can get back to what matters most – running their business.”
Currently, BQX offers quotes for business owner, professional liability, workers’ compensation, and general liability policies. Progressive also has a similar tool for homeowner’s insurance, HomeQuote Explorer® (HQX), which was launched in 2017.
Progressive’s new platform is powered by agent-focused insurtech Bold Penguin.
As opposed to Berkshire Hathaway’s THREE which eschews working with intermediaries, Progressive’s new BusinessQuoteExplorer is actually working with the agent-focused insurtech Bold Penguin, which is powering the new platform. Using an API-based approach, and an expansion of the Bold Penguin Exchange, the two entities have come together to form an innovative partnership.
“Commercial insurance can be a time-consuming and inefficient experience for all parties involved. We are pleased to work with Progressive, which continues to be a forward-thinking force in the industry,” said Ilya Bodner, founder and CEO of Bold Penguin.
“We built a fully programmable stack that is used to power Progressive’s .com storefronts, their agent-facing portals, and other native systems,” said Ben Clarke, Bold Penguin’s co-founder and CTO. “Progressive is a great group to work with as they allow us to deploy the latest methodologies. Like us, they are relentlessly working to engineer the value chain while emphasizing the importance of the human counsel and, ultimately, the human touch,” Clarke added.
“We’ve enjoyed working with Bold Penguin as we continue to pursue innovations in the commercial insurance process,” said Bill Kampf, General Manager at Progressive. “With our latest offering, BusinessQuote Explorer ® , we help make the process of selecting coverages and getting an accurate quote fast and easy so small business owners can get back to what matters most – running their business.”
More about Bold Penguin in its own words
Bold Penguin operates an Exchange which utilizes a set of solutions to identify, triage, quote, and bind commercial insurance in a highly efficient and tech-enabled way. The technology handles, synthesizes, and standardizes time-consuming forms so that agents have the ability to focus on customer experience. Using the Bold Penguin Exchange, agents, brokers, and carriers can clearly and confidently choose the right customers to fit their business’ preferences.
Bold Penguin is where technology enhances the human touch in commercial insurance. With a focus on agents, Bold Penguin upgrades the user experience for businesses, creates an easy tool for agents, and offers a streamlined process of underwriting for carriers. Founded by a group of entrepreneurs who spent their early days working with Allstate, Nationwide, and Progressive alongside regional carriers and established insurance agencies.
