01.13.20 | Ep. 327 – Brush Creek InsurTech Accelerator

LaunchKC BCPTech InsurTech Brush Creek Partners

As technology changes the world, all industries are needing to innovate and adapt, including insurance. Launch KC’s fourth accelerator is in the works and they have teamed up with Brush Creek Partners. Joel sat down to discuss the upcoming 75-day Brush Creek InsurTech Accelerator that will begin in May 2020 with Nathan Kurtz, Steve Gardner and Alex Springer.

Joel Goldberg:
Welcome into ‎Rounding The Bases with Joel Goldberg. Interesting and fun episode today, of course, I think that they're all interesting, I hope you do too. And before we get going, as always, you can reach me at joelgoldbergmedia.com. 2020, my second episode of the year. But in the fall of 2019 I had Don Peterson, episode 319, who is the Launch Health Accelerator from LaunchKC. Well Launch KC is about to get set with their fourth accelerator, a partnership with Brush Creek Partners and this one is focused on insurance tech.

Joel Goldberg:
So I had the chance to go over to Brush Creek Partners in Kansas city and visit with Nathan Kurtz, Steve Gardner and Alex Springer and we talked about their new endeavor, an insure tech accelerator set to launch this spring. Here's the conversation.

Joel Goldberg:
Guys, thanks for all joining me here on this lovely afternoon in The Crossroads in Kansas city. Let's start first, Steve with you, because you've been brought in to run this accelerator. Tell us about the accelerator and the world of insurance, and I promise everyone this will be more interesting than just the world of insurance.

Steve Gardner:
Thanks Joel. What we are doing in partnership with Brush Creek Partners is we are developing an insure tech business accelerator. And so, actually, at the beginning of the year our application process was open, and so for the next, about 60 days, we'll be looking for applications of companies that are in the insure tech space that would be interested in being a part of our program. And the program then starts middle of May, runs through the end of July, and that's a 75 day intensive program where we're going to be working with the founders of these businesses and helping them grow, build, and put all the necessary structures in place to actually launch in a much bigger way.

Joel Goldberg:
All right, Nathan, you've been in this insurance world, and out of it too, so what was the allure to Brush Creek and to you guys in starting this accelerator?

Nathan Kurtz:
Hey Joel. For us, it was the opportunity to live out the entrepreneurial world that we live in everyday. So we help a lot of early stage growth companies across all sorts of industries with cyber and technology, insurance coverage. And we were looking at it and saying, "Hey, we're helping all these other industries, what's happened in our own space and then how can we better utilize technology, help our team work on higher level opportunities in different projects and really move the needle forward for our agency to grow?"

Joel Goldberg:
And Alex, for you, and you're at Brush Creek, but you'll be jumping right in with this accelerator, what are you guys looking for or who are you looking for? And I don't mean anybody specific at this point, but what would be the ideal applicant?

Alex Springer:
Well, the ideal applicant will be someone that's coachable. So we're first looking for a company with a ready to go product that we believe in and that we think can be valuable. But at the same time we want these CEOs and these founders to be coachable and be willing to work with us, because we think that we have the necessary mentors and VCs for them to meet. We want to grow their business essentially, what they would accomplish in an 18th month span, and we want to do that in the 75 days that we have them with us.

Joel Goldberg:
Nathan, I'll go back to you. What are ... not so much even just the goals, but what are the hopes for Brush Creek and what you get out of this? The insurance world is one that everybody might roll their eyes at a little bit, I don't mean that in a bad way, you guys have heard. It's like lawyers, everybody always has a lawyer joke, right? But, Oh by the way, we all need those lawyers. We all need insurance. You guys are in that business, one that I think is probably been very comfortable for a lot of years in many ways. But the world's changing, right? And like many industries, the insurance world, which was very successful in the past is going to have to change at some point. So what is the allure to you guys in terms of being able to disrupt here?

Nathan Kurtz:
Yeah, great question. I think the biggest thing that ... one that we can offer is, we want to bring in companies that can help us better manage our own processes. And we believe that we can, by offering up our tech insure networks. So there's 29 agencies and the tech insure network globally. We believe we have 29 excellent agencies to give direct product feedback, beta customers that can help these companies very quickly with early adoption, getting great quality feedback and helping the companies, "Hey, here's the best way for us to solve the problem we set out to solve." And as an agency at Brush Creek, we believe that the best value for us is getting these companies to get some revenue, to get some additional funding, so they can take the products that they've started and really scale them, and then we can grow with them as they grow.

Joel Goldberg:
So as you are getting ready, Steve, for March, or actually this summer, I guess, what is the work that's going into this right now and what kind of expectations do you have for number of applicants or is that somewhat unknown?

Steve Gardner:
In terms of the work that we're doing right now, a lot of it is focused on getting applications in. So that's where we're tapping into our vast network of VCs and other insure tech groups and a variety of people all over the country and even globally. And so we're tapping into them to help drive those applications.

Steve Gardner:
Separately, one of the things that Alex and I are also very much focusing on is the development of the curriculum. So, "What is it that these guys are going to and gals are going to get when they come in and sit down with us for 75 days?" So as we develop that, there's obviously a ton that goes into that, and really dropping it into different buckets, and determining the things that are going to be most likely to be used. And then obviously all of that will be customized based on the five companies and what they need.

Steve Gardner:
But in terms of total applications, we're really kind of thinking, if we can get about a 100 to 150 anywhere in there, that we're in a pretty good spot and we'll be able to choose the best of those and find five that will really work for us.

Joel Goldberg:
And then this is a longterm hope too, right, I mean, this isn't just a one shot deal, Alex?

Alex Springer:
Yeah, absolutely. We're focused on year one right now. We want to do it, and we want to do it well, and hopefully get these companies ... Once the accelerator is finished and we have our demo day and it's complete. We hope that they're on their feet running and that we've provided them with enough that they can have an impact in the insurance world. And after year one, we'll kind of regroup and hopefully attack it for another year and continue this years down the road.

Joel Goldberg:
So, without all the specifics, what will curriculum look like?

Alex Springer:
I think Steve could probably hit on this more specifically, but these companies are going to have a lot to offer, and they're going to know a lot, but at the same time, they're going to need some help. And so they're going to need help with sales, and forecasting, and their pitch, because, they might have the right technology mindset, but they might need a little more help on, the business aspect of it. But Steve may have more to touch on that.

Steve Gardner:
Yeah. Basically, I think what we're going to have is, we'll have a lot of folks that probably have pretty good technical skills, who understand the technology of whatever their product or service is. But at the end of the day, businesses are made or broken by the soft skills by the people.

Steve Gardner:
So a lot of it is going to come down to, "Are they effective leaders, do they know how to build teams, do they know how to interview and hire correctly, and fire correctly sometimes?" So, all of the processes around working with the people and developing effective sales strategies, and go to market strategies, those tend to be some things that people who are really technically oriented may not focus as much on. And so we'll focus a lot on that side. And certainly again, a big part of this is, "Are they self-aware? Do they recognize what they are not good at, as well as what they're good at? And are they willing to take coaching around that?"

Joel Goldberg:
So you guys, I think the three of you have the element that I would say that I have, I hope, understanding people, understanding relationships, culture. Now you start throwing me into that tech world. If you explain to me how to use it, I love technology, I love all the new toys. But there better be a manual or some kind of way, or if it's an Apple product it's usually pretty easy, right? So how much do you feel like, Nathan, that you could learn from whoever these people are, and what do you see that relationship looking like, if you guys are understanding all the elements that Alex and Steve just talked about?

Nathan Kurtz:
Yeah, that's a great point and a huge point for us. We're not the experts in everything. We're going to learn as much as the participants will as well. And hopefully, one of the things we'll do early on in, in the accelerator, probably the first day or two is, do some heavy trust-building and team building among the entire cohort because we know that the more vulnerable and open we are with them about where we're at, that we don't have all the answers, but we're going to curate experiences that these companies cannot otherwise get on their own. That's the value we're going to bring and we're going to do it in a way, we're all going to learn together. Absolutely, all the participants will have experiences, knowledge to share with us that we've never thought of. My hope is that we find some entrepreneurs out there that have a technology that's so far out of what we've even thought was possible. That by getting into adopt a test and give them feedback, we all grow together.

Joel Goldberg:
It's pretty exciting to think about, at least to me, and I'm not in the insurance world, but, well Steve, you're not either, right? But I think this probably would apply to all, and maybe we can go around the diamond here. So to speak, but what's your excitement level of the unknown at this point?

Steve Gardner:
The unknown is what makes it really interesting, because at the end of the day if we knew exactly how this was going to play out and exactly what the companies were and how they were going to grow or not grow or whatever, that's not terribly interesting.

Steve Gardner:
So most of this is unknown in terms of, "What are the interactions going to be with those business owners and founders, and what is the potential impact that they could have in the marketplace?" And ultimately how we can help them, we have a long list of things that we feel pretty confident about, and more importantly, we have a big team of other mentors, people that we can pull in to help in a variety of different areas. But at the end of the day, look, life is uncertain, business is extremely uncertain, and if you are not comfortable with that, then you got trouble. And so, it is the uncertainty for me that is ... it's the most exciting part of it because it's waiting through that and navigating your way through the challenges as they're going to come.

Joel Goldberg:
I'm excited, I told you guys this before we started, to see these stories develop and follow up with you guys this summer and see what's come of it, because there will be great stories, and so that's cool for me to hear about, exciting to hear about that. There will be something at the end. I certainly have no idea what it is going to look like, but I guarantee you that at some point this summer or next fall I'll be sitting down with at least one of these businesses and talking about a really interesting story. What about the unknown for you Alex?

Alex Springer:
Yeah, and I want to hit on that too. I agree completely. I think it will be really rewarding if one or two of these companies can come back and speak about it. But the uncertainty for me is, I'm just excited to see the applications start coming in and see the type of companies that we're going to be able to work with. I want to get to know them and I want all of us to be on the same level. I mean, we're all humans and we're all in the same boat and we can help them and they can help us. And so there's nothing really more rewarding than being able to help somebody and they return the favor.

Joel Goldberg:
Nathan, how about for you and the unknown that this is? And you've had an interesting career too, I should back up a little bit. I mean, if you've seen some of this world before you came over to Brush Creek and so how about the excitement and the unknown of bringing all this together?

Nathan Kurtz:
Yeah. You I always break it down to when I was at the Kauffman Foundation, we'd talk a lot about, "Hey, what is a business? What's entrepreneurship?" The management guru, Peter Drucker, I think has the best definition, "The purpose of a business is to create a customer. And so if you have a customer that has a migraine problem where they need your product to solve, and they're willing to pay money for it, you've got a going entity."

Nathan Kurtz:
And so how can we help these founders? The biggest unknowns right now are still, "Can we find them? We think they're out there. Can we stretch our network broadly enough to do that?" And then, "Can we be as effective for them as they think they'll be for us?" And we really think there'll be a mutual beneficial factor as we grow.

Joel Goldberg:
Which is the ultimate way to be successful. I mean, it can't be a one way street.

Nathan Kurtz:
Yeah, absolutely. I mean we think we can give them good feedback with our partners and we hope to utilize their products in our business.

Joel Goldberg:
All right guys, let's break out the baseball themed questions. And first and foremost, and this is a little bit different than a lot of them, because a lot of times I'm talking to a business, a group association and an accelerator. And I'm asking about what happened, what was the home run, what was the swing and miss? You guys are in those early stages. So Alex, for you, what would the hope be, or up until this point even, of a home run?

Steve Gardner:
Yeah, so we actually feel like we started off the game with a home run. We're pretty confident with the team that we've assembled, with Nathan, and Steven, myself as well as the VCs and the mentors that we'll have access to and these companies will have access to and even more people along the lines within tech insure and everywhere else in Kansas city. But we're really confident with the team that we have and we feel like it'll be very valuable.

Nathan Kurtz:
Yeah, Alex, I'll add to that. I think the network effects of what we're doing will have tremendous repercussions. We'll get that ball over the fence multiple times because we're bringing around people that ... Kansas city is a great place to start to grow company because people really care about entrepreneurship and supporting one another. And so while a lot of people that will apply for this have probably not been to Kansas city or heard of Brush Creek, we think that we can get them across the line and when we get them here, they'll be like, "Oh, there are a lot of people that are supporting me that I don't know. My network just grew tenfold and I have fans supporting me throughout as I round the bases."

Joel Goldberg:
Really interesting. And actually I have another question I want to ask you in our rounding the bases, final four questions about Kansas city and entrepreneurship, because this is as we all know, a very recurring theme here. So interesting stuff there, Nathan, let's go to the swing and miss now, and Steve, how about you?

Steve Gardner:
Well I think most of the swing and miss really does come down to, if we bring in a group of business owners and we don't do a good job of making sure that they are coachable, that they're willing to, to be self aware and listen to room for improvement. If they're willing to work with us, then that's great. But a big swing and miss would be ... Look, we do have an incredible number of resources that can powerfully impact a lot of these businesses just across the board. So the big swing and miss would be if we somehow disconnect that and we don't really get them plugged in effectively, or they're not coachable enough to be willing to talk to those other resources, because we've got an incredible environment here and we have everything that is going to enable us to be very, very successful with it. As long as we have that backend piece ready to go.

Joel Goldberg:
I will be interested to hear about that down the road. Because the reality of it is there will be swings and misses that you don't even foresee. That's just part of life and business and part of the journey.

Joel Goldberg:
Okay. The final question, my favorite, is small ball, and Nathan, we'll start with you on this and then if you guys, Alex and Steve, do you want to chime in, by all means, but what does small ball, the little things that add up to the big things, the singles or not even the hits that add up to the home runs. What do you anticipate or what does that mean to you at this point, in the early stages of the accelerator?

Nathan Kurtz:
Yeah, so the earliest stages during recruiting time, now it's, "Are we getting enough feelers out to the folks that know the people that need to go through this accelerator?" It's unlikely we'll find them directly. We're going to find them through our networks. So our small ball is consistently following up, making sure we're in front of the folks that need to hear about it. And then during the cohort, we've talked about a lot already, but building trust to where there's vulnerability with the companies and with us.

Nathan Kurtz:
To your point, we're going to make some mistakes, hopefully none that are completely tragic, but we're going to learn alongside with the companies and we think it's going to be great chance for us to learn together through the trials, through the ups and downs.

Alex Springer:
Yeah, and I would just add with that a small ball during our program would be, the sales and marketing skills that we'll teach them, the people skills, working on their pitch, the leadership aspect of operating a business. I think all those are really important as far as their success.

Joel Goldberg:
So we will keep an eye on the small ball. So we're now at the end of the podcast, which means four final questions as we round the bases. I told you guys in advance that I didn't know what these questions were, which is part of the fun of it. So now we're ready.

Joel Goldberg:
I'll go back to Nathan because you brought this up. What is it, and for anyone here in Kansas city, they hear plenty about it, maybe for those around the country or even the world, think it's showing that there's somebody even listening in Kazakhstan, so you never know who might be listening, what is it about Kansas city, you certainly know this from your time at the Kauffman foundation, that makes this a place with so much entrepreneurial spirit, and one where a lot of really smart and younger people are wanting to come here and live in neighborhoods just like this in the Crossroads?

Nathan Kurtz:
So, I grew up on the West coast. I transplanted to Kansas city about 15 years ago.

Joel Goldberg:
Where on the West coast?

Nathan Kurtz:
Grew up in Washington state and went to college in Southern California and then trailing spouse back here. When you look at the history of Kansas city, it was the port to the West. This is where the pioneers set off from. And you had people that stopped and said, "I'm going to start a business here because there's a chance for me to create a lifestyle in a really nice part of the country and build a business." I think there's a long legacy of the Hall family, the Kauffman family, the-

Joel Goldberg:
Bloch's.

Nathan Kurtz:
The Bloch's, absolutely. You go on and on and on. Danny O'Neill with The Roasterie, there's a ton of them who have set up and said, "Hey, there's a space to build a business here." But what's unique about Kansas city, and it's not only here, but there's a natural friendliness and openness to try new things in this town that I don't think is as common on the West coast or even the East coast.

Nathan Kurtz:
People will really try a new product. They'll try that Roasterie Coffee even though they didn't really like the coffee they grew up drinking and suddenly they're hooked. They're like, "Hey, this is a really quality product." Same with Boulevard beer, same with a lot of other ... You can put in the foodie space, but I think it goes across all industries. You have very creative people here that know how to start something that people want and will continue to buy.

Joel Goldberg:
You know you, and I'll let you guys drop in, but just a thought triggered in my head as you were talking about this, it made me think a little bit, and I don't know if this is similar, the right story to tell, but a handful of years ago I was talking with Big Papi, David Ortiz, and he had predicted that this town would change if the Royals ... He told me this, in 2014 he said, "I told all the players that if they can take the scene of the playoffs, it'll change this town and change their lives." He was right.

Joel Goldberg:
And I've followed up a couple of years after and told him that and he said what they did here in Kansas city was amazing, but they couldn't have done that in Boston or in New York, because there just wouldn't be enough of a patience to allow it to happen. They'd move on to the next manager, the next GM, the next thought or philosophy or game plan. Whereas they had the patience to be able to do that here. And maybe that is something about the Midwest or Kansas city, Steve.

Steve Gardner:
Yeah. Actually the thing that I was going to say is, just the whole entrepreneurial environment of Kansas city. I've basically been in the entrepreneurial space for about the last 15 years. So I've kind of watched it at the beginning where people started going, "Maybe I should be an entrepreneur." And so then they were kind of starting some things up and certainly Kauffman was there, but then gradually other groups started coming on board and providing some of the formal structure that entrepreneurs needed.

Steve Gardner:
And now you fast forward to today and those organizations led, I will say largely by Kauffman, those organizations have come together and now created an ecosystem that is phenomenally effective. And it is much more effective than a lot of big cities because big cities are so spread out, it's all over the place. Whereas Kansas city is a small community, in reality, where everyone is willing to work with each other and refer people to each other, and we now have a tremendous base of people to actually go work at these new companies. And we're starting to get more and more of an experience of second generation entrepreneurs who've started a business, went through the process and exited, and now they're starting to reinvest back into the community. So we're seeing incredible growth in KC that is very, very beneficial. And ultimately when you fast forward 20, 30, 40 years from now, I think Kansas city is going to be one of the most entrepreneurial cities in the country.

Joel Goldberg:
All right, my second question, who says that insurance isn't cool? We walk in here to Brush Creek. We are sitting on a basketball floor. There's a beer fridge. I don't know what more you could want, but can anyone tell me a little bit about this basketball floor here, because it's definitely the first time I've done Rounding The Bases on the basketball court. Certainly in the first time I've been in an insurance office with a basketball court.

Nathan Kurtz:
Yeah. So we are on the hardwoods from the original floors from where the Kansas city, Omaha Kings played. This was won in an auction and the building owners wanted to make sure that we could preserve it and continue to use it. So it's a wonderful reminiscence of, "Hey, here's Kansas city 30 years ago and we're continuing to grow. We're continuing to refine and renovate and turn an old downtown into a new and old downtown."

Joel Goldberg:
Feel like we're sitting center court at Kemper Arena right now. Well that's what it says, right? Right below us it says Kemper arena. So Kansas city, Missouri, so really cool. Third question as we round the bases. All right, you two guys, Alex and Nathan are in the insurance world. What's the best part about being ... I made fun of it. I really wasn't making fun of it, but look there a lot of people in that world that do really well in that world. And I think one of the things that I talk to groups about all the time is finding a purpose. And there are a lot of people that unfortunately wake up and dread going to work and it is punching a clock. And you guys have been successful and you're working for a phenomenal company. So what is it that wakes you up? What is it that you like about this world?

Alex Springer:
I'm fairly new to the insurance world, but what excites me and what I can relate to is how personal and relational that it is. And I think that's why it's such a big thing in the Midwest. You look at all these areas that are very genuine and personal people. And I feel like we have that in Kansas city, and a lot of it is meeting with your carriers and meeting with your clients and you're up front, and you're not just, I don't know, it's a very one-on-one, relational type of world. And I think that means a lot.

Nathan Kurtz:
Yeah. To add to that, I would say that insurance is going to be changed quite a bit over the next decade. As you think about self driving cars, who's responsible, if there's an accident? The way that risk is transferred through insurance is going to change quite a bit and that's just one aspect of it.

Nathan Kurtz:
We do a lot of work in the cyber and technology space and this is the Wild West of insurance. The carriers are still struggling to figure out how do you appropriately cover risk in cyber. It doesn't transfer the same way that it does with, say a construction company, or a retail business, so we're actually, we're having a ton of fun being on the front edge, cutting edge of, "How do you protect a business? What are the ways that you can prevent these threats, and then how do you make sure that there's a risk transfer mechanism, financial risk mechanism at the back." I think it's actually a fascinating space.

Joel Goldberg:
That is fascinating because I think most of us don't think about it in those terms. We're just starting to hear about the self driving cars, all the stuff that makes us excited about the future now. Oh, by the way.

Nathan Kurtz:
Yeah, that's right. Your car insurance rates will probably go down, but someone else is going to be paying for that and so the cost of the self driving car probably goes up.

Joel Goldberg:
I still say what Alex said, it's about the people. And I'm speaking soon to a finance group and their strategic partners, met with one of the partners today. It's about the relationships. It's about the people. Speaking to a title company soon, title insurance. That doesn't sound very exciting. That's always sort of the stepchild in terms of any transaction with houses, but yet it's extremely important. It goes down to the relationships and the people.

Joel Goldberg:
And I tell people all the time, it's true with what I do in baseball too, it is. For me to get a good interview, yes, I need to be prepared. You need to know insurance. You need to know whatever your field is. I need to know baseball. If I don't connect with those players, it's not going to happen.

Joel Goldberg:
Final question, the walk off, we'll go around the horn with this one, final thoughts on the accelerator and say six months from now, or the end of the summer, what will be the ultimate for you, Steve?

Steve Gardner:
You know, I think the ultimate for me is that we've obviously identified some good companies that have a very interesting story, and a great product or service, but one that we've really been able to impact. Again, we have a huge number of outside mentors who are experts on a variety of areas and certainly the expertise that we bring internally. But the real exciting thing is, we identify great companies that come in. Certainly yes, they go back and we do give them 18 months of growth in 75 days, but then also, that we've given them a taste of Kansas city and maybe some of them move headquarters here or start doing more business here. That certainly is a big part of it too.

Steve Gardner:
But at the end of the day it's about helping people grow and that's what we want to do.

Joel Goldberg:
Alex?

Alex Springer:
Yeah, I'll echo that too on, if they can have a presence in Kansas city and we can somehow bring a little bit of that to our area, I think that will be big. And then for me, if at the end of this, if it's one company, if it's all five, if we've really helped them, not only on a business level, but a personal level too, if we've impacted their life and their company and all the people that work for them, I think that'll be really rewarding for them and for us.

Joel Goldberg:
Nathan?

Nathan Kurtz:
You know, I look at it as there's no better feeling than helping someone find a job, and right behind that is helping someone get new customers for their business. And our hope is we can do both of those. So as these companies are here in Kansas city and growing, we hope they'll hire Kansas Citians for jobs, and hope they'll get customers here and all over the country to grow their businesses. I'm excited by the chance to ... I think growth is amazing, anytime you can help something grow, evolve and change for the better nothing better than being part of that.

Joel Goldberg:
Well, there's a lot going on here in terms of growth, in terms of disruption, in terms of entrepreneurship and storytelling and a lot to come. So just want to thank Nathan Kurtz, Alex Springer, Steve Gardner. And final thing whoever wants to jump in here, Alex, go ahead. I think you guys can all answer this, if people listening want to get in touch, get an application and learn more, how can they do it?

Alex Springer:
Two ways. They can head over to our website at bcptech.co, and there's an application link there. And there's also an application on launchkc.org's website. So two different ways you can apply there and yeah, to fill out the application doesn't take too long.

Joel Goldberg:
So, B-C-P?

Alex Springer:
B-C-P tech.co

Joel Goldberg:
.co Brush Creek Partners and launchkc.org.

Alex Springer:
Correct.

Joel Goldberg:
All right, so that's the way to do that. You can also reach me at joelgoldbergmedia.com feedback is always good, especially the nice stuff. But you know, you could say bad things too. You can reach me on social media and all those other places. Thanks for listening and hope to catch you next time on Rounding The Bases.


Rounding the Bases with Joel Goldberg Podcast was created to share the stories of men and women in business and entrepreneurship that are both well knowing and or hidden gems. Joel believes that everyone has a story and their story matters which is why Joel is eager to connect with individuals that are bringing value to their community through innovation, leadership, entrepreneurial journeys, and developing company culture. If you would like to be a guest on Joel's podcast please email us at joel@joelgoldbergmedia.com.