Affordable Life Insurance with Omar Kaywan

A little bit personally about me, I come from a growth and marketing background. You know, and mobile, this is sort of my jam, for lack of a better word.

I’m really excited to sort of share our story and the opportunity and what we’re trying to do.

It uses an insurance app that makes buying insurance seamless, convenient, affordable, accessible. Think of it as you know, wanting to order food from your favorite food ordering app, but this time, you’re just buying insurance and protecting yourself. Goose is not a comparison site or a broker site or anything like that, we actually create our own policies. And we work very, very closely with carriers and underwriters to really build products that resonate with consumers and gives them the best value and protection.

And it’s available on the app. So you know, you can basically buy travel insurance, I know travel is coming right back up very, very soon. And you know, it is to some extent, getting to pre pandemic levels in less than 60 seconds. And you can buy life insurance in five minutes. And you can really protect yourself. And the beauty is that the power is at your fingertips. The consumer is in charge. They go without the pressure or the or the

george grombacher 5:08
Yeah, I think that’s really well said, and sorry for the loss, obviously. And

Come on I’m left with this is George G. And the time is right. welcome today’s guest strong and powerful Omar Kaiwen. Omar, are you ready to do this? Absolutely. All right, let’s go. Omar is the co founder and VP of growth with a goose Insurance Services Company, taking the confusing part out of buying insurance and making it easier than ever to get the right coverage. Omar, tell us a little bit about your personal life some more about your work and why you do what you do?

Omar Kaywan 0:39
Absolutely. Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me on the show, I’m really excited to be here.

uncomfortableness I should say, I’m actually talking to an agent, and they can just do it all, whenever they want, at whatever time is convenient for

george grombacher 2:16
them. Nice. Well, I’m excited to dig in and unpack this. Did you just wake up and say, You know what I feel like doing I feel like disrupting insurance.

Omar Kaywan 2:27
Not quite. I mean, I got to meet somebody that says I’m going to grow up and be an insurance. I haven’t played hurt that. I come from a mobile background myself. I’ve I’ve extensive career and mobile marketing, mobile advertising in startup world technology. My two other partners that are with with us at goose co founders, they come from the insurance side, one comes from from mobile side and insurance side, the other one comes exclusively from from insurance side. So with the three of us, we are sort of kind of the three amigos for lack of a better word that we’re trying to bring, bring it all together. In here. The purpose really, for me, was learning about more and more about insurance and how backdated it really is there’s just a lot of process a lot of paperwork, a lot of things that are not necessarily you know, consumer friendly, and to some extent I I find it to be by design, and if we can hail a ride if we can order food if we can, you know, shop literally on our phone, why can’t we buy insurance what’s what’s what’s holding us back. So that’s that was the challenge and the more that I learned about and I actually have a personal story as well, because it’s the under insurance for me that is that is that is real the problem and and that’s as a result of the fact that insurance industry hasn’t really innovated too much and really made insurance affordable, accessible and convenient for consumers. So it’s really I find it a bit hard to get for certain products and causes under insurance. And ultimately what it does is it just puts families at risk. My brother in law actually passed away from cancer. He got diagnosed stage four cancer, gastric cancer, and within seven months he passed away, not have life insurance. He was 30 years old family, father of three children who did not have life insurance, he did not have any kind of critical illness insurance. He is gone. And his family now has to deal with all this debt mortgage expenses. His wife has to take care of all and she was a homemaker. So really it’s just it’s this is the problem that you know needs to be solved because the amount of money we spend on it other things where we could just literally spend it on life insurance, and we can buy it through an app and protect our family. Why not?

george grombacher 5:16
I’m well aware of the catastrophic. Just how catastrophic it is when somebody dies before they’re supposed to, and when they do so without insurance. And so I certainly appreciate the mission of trying to remove if it’s barriers, or friction and all these things, and making changes so that it is easy and comfortable to pick up the app or your phone, which is something that we’re all used to now and say, okay, hey, you know what, I’m going to rip off the band aid and finally, get this policy that I’ve been meaning to for a long time. So thank you for doing that. It is interesting, that there’s probably a lot of reasons for why the insurance industry has moved slowly and has not adopted these things and probably trying to protect, you know, their, their, their dominance, and the way that they’re distributing. Doing what you’ve done. Looking back, what was surprising, surprisingly hard, surprisingly easy, are just sort of thoughts in general.

Omar Kaywan 6:23
I mean, it’s always challenging to go into a lagging industry, like insurance and try to be disrupter and put digital transformation or drive, you know, sort of this kind of put the consumer because insurance inherently is a conservative industry. Right. All it is, if you’re at the very sort of core of it insurances, you know, finding good risk, or finding risks, that is not going to be outrageous, you know, that’s, that’s, that’s all it is. And carriers are very, very conservative and underwriters are very conservative around this, obviously, reinsurers and so on and so forth. So that in itself is not easy to deal with. And then on top of that, insurance is a regulated industry, just like finance. And, you know, so there’s regulators and regulating bodies and every single state is different requirements are different. So I wouldn’t say that it’s easy. It is a challenge, but it’s a challenge that needs to be dealt with. The process for us has been exciting, a lot of learning. You know, but you got to do these kinds of things with an open mind and the ability for you to ask questions, why, why, why? Why does happen? Certainly. So that has been sort of my personal motivation, in terms of just trying to make it as seamless as possible within the confinements that is available to us, unfortunately, because it is a regulated industry. And we have to do this. And that’s probably a good thing as well, because the regulated body is their job is to protect the consumer, but also the industry players as well. So yeah, it hasn’t been easy, but it has been an exciting journey we have, I have learned a lot of learn a ton. We’re continuing to learn, and we’re keeping an open mind to it. And really, we are on a mission to make insurance, like I said, easy, affordable and accessible,

george grombacher 8:28
and love it. So did you go into it saying, You know what, we’re not just going to be a, quote, place that we’re not just gonna be an aggregator kind of a thing we want to create our own products, or was that a pivot?

Omar Kaywan 8:43
No, we actually started with that, with that idea that we want to create our own products. And the reason being was, we learned so much about how these products are created. And, you know, consumers go to these comparison sites or their scoring engines, and they get a quote, let’s just say for travel insurance, they still don’t know what they’re buying, right? There’s still that analysis paralysis, there’s 20 different choices, which one do I make which one is good for me, whereas we want it to sort of create products that we can easily explain to consumers that gives you the best coverage where we’re not nickel and diming. Consumers for for, you know, a $2 million coverage versus a $5 million coverage. We offer $5 million coverage for everybody, for example, for international travel, medical insurance policy, because the cost and the risk is the same essentially from an insurance perspective. But we’re really doing a really good job of explaining what this product is in simple language that anybody can pick up the phone, go through the screen, understand what they’re buying, but most importantly, we explain what it does not cover. So in the app, actually, we actually have an entire section on what does it cover so people clearly know If this is going to be good for them or not. And so for that particular reason, we decided to create our own products and not necessarily, you know, be a broker site or comparison app. Because, you know, that is the core of our mission, the product itself.

george grombacher 10:19
Yeah, I love it. That’s fascinating. And, to your point, what you mentioned earlier that here in the United States insurances is regulated state by state level. And so I’m sure that going through the process of rolling out a new product and doing it on a state by state level, or however that works, I’m sure that the learning has been immense, and I’m sure frustrating, and rewarding, and all that good stuff. So trying to remove the friction, trying to make it affordable, accessible and convenient. When somebody comes to the site. Walk us through sort of what you’re hoping the experience will be for them?

Omar Kaywan 10:59
Well, we’re really hoping for consumers to download the use insurance app on their phones, create an account, become a guest member, it’s completely free, you know, we asked people to just you know, put in some information so we can understand what products they’re eligible for. Because based on age, and where you’re located in which state you live in your products might be different. And then, you know, we’re really hoping for people to spend some time and self discover all these products that’s available to them. Particularly when it comes to life insurance, I mean, 100 and 2 million Americans are underinsured or don’t have adequate life insurance, in the US alone. So it’s, it’s, and that’s a that’s a report put out by Limra. So it’s astonishing as the fact that you know, this, this the financial risk these families face, you know, when when there’s not enough life insurance, or there’s not, they’re not protected by life insurance. So we’re really hoping for consumers to, like I said, download the goose insurance app, and buy the products that’s relevant and most important to them. And if they don’t have any insurance at all, start with life insurance, because you are the number one asset, it’s not your home, your car, your whatever it may be, it’s you because you need to protect yourself and the people and the loved ones that depend on you. Like I said, my brother in law passed away and his kids don’t have any kind of financial support. If he had a life insurance policy, you know, that would have probably helped pay for some of the mortgage, so they’re not as stressed with mortgage payments, and so on and so forth.

george grombacher 12:39
Do you find that people overestimate how much insurance actually costs?

Omar Kaywan 12:44
Absolutely. I think people overestimate how much it costs. And I think people think that it’s a long cumbersome process, which is not, you know, like I said, you can get life insurance on the Gustaf in less than five minutes. You know, with our, you know, people some people are afraid of medical exams and needles and so on and so forth. With use, you don’t have to obviously that’s that’s all within the app, you just have to answer some questions. And people think that it’s, it’s, like I said, it’s, it’s, people think it’s a lot more expensive than it actually really is. If we’re spending, let’s just say, you know, five or six bucks, because insulation is even affected the cost of coffee, and I see you’re drinking Starbucks, I mean, if you if you spend money on on Starbucks, I mean, if you cut one coffee a week that will pay for your insurance premium to buy life insurance and protect yourself and your loved ones.

george grombacher 13:41
Yeah, it is a it is alarming that to your point 102 million Americans are either don’t have insurance or are underinsured, and that we really think that it costs a lot more than it really does. And, you know, God willing, we’re all going to live to old age and die in our sleep peacefully at at the age that we’re supposed to. But unfortunately, people do die before they’re supposed to, and the impact of that happening, the impact when that does happen, and you don’t have life insurance can be again, catastrophic. So I really think that it’s such a simple thing, just downloading the app and finding out just just just find out No, right. It might not fit your budget, or it might cost way less than you expected, but at least then you’ll know so.

Omar Kaywan 14:36
Absolutely, absolutely. that the message is really take that step. You know, you may not necessarily find what you’re looking for, on the goose app and that’s, you know, obviously as a co founder of goose I would love to be able to serve everybody and but we may not and but take that step find out whether it’s with us whether it’s with somebody else, the most important thing you can do is protect yourself and your family.

george grombacher 15:02
I love it. Well, that very well might have been it right there, Omar, but the people are ready for that difference making tip, what do you have for them?

Omar Kaywan 15:10
I think I think like I said before, you know, take the first step, check that box. It’s not as hard as you think protect your family, protect your loved ones. We don’t want to think about it, but we’re not immortal. You know, unfortunately, it will happen. We all have a time and it’s unknown. But the most thing, the number one thing that we should be thinking about is protecting our loved ones and making sure that you know, and you can do that simply by by spending five minutes and generating a quote on the goose insurance app and see how much it’ll cost. And if it fits your budget. And if you liked the coverage, you can purchase it. If not, you can go somewhere else. But take that first step.

george grombacher 15:52
I think that is great stuff that definitely gets Come on. Omar, thank you so much for coming on. And where can people learn more about you? And where can they download the app?

Omar Kaywan 16:00
Absolutely. So the goose insurance app is available on Android on iOS, simply type in goose insurance and search for it, you’ll find it It’s a pink goose it’s hard to miss. Otherwise, you can visit us on use insurance.com. We do have licensed agents, by the way, I should say nationally available across the US as well. So if they have any questions or they don’t quite understand certain things, they’re happy to assist and there to help.

george grombacher 16:26
Love it. If you enjoyed this as much as I did to Omar, your appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciates good ideas. Download the goose insurance app on Android or iOS, just type in goose insurance and the pink goose will come up and spend a couple of minutes that it’ll take to figure out or find out what coverage would be for you. And if it works. That’s great. Also check out goose insurance.com And they do have agents if you have additional questions want to find out more information. Thanks again, Omar.

Omar Kaywan 16:59
Thank you so much. We appreciate this.

george grombacher 17:02
And until next time, keep fighting the good fight. We’re all in this together.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai