In the Hot Seat with Brittany Clements

Speaker A: Insurance Unplugged in the Hot Seat where the complex world of insurance is laid bare. Hosted by Lisa Wardball, this podcast promises an unfiltered glimpse into the industry like never before. Each episode invites you to listen in on the candid conversations that usually happen behind closed boardroom doors. From deep dives with industry leaders and thought leaders to innovative discussions with minds shaping the future of insurance, we bring the most genuine talks directly to your ears. Our guests take the hot seat alongside me to explore the inner workings, challenges and triumphs of the insurance world. If you've ever wondered what goes on in the shadows of the insurance industry, from the boardroom banter to the behind the scenes strategies, this is your chance for a front row seat. Prepare for unguarded, enlightening and engaging discussions that cover every angle of insurance presented in a way that's both insightful and accessible.

Speaker B: Welcome to the conversation.

Speaker A: Welcome to Insurance Unplugged in the Hot

Speaker B: Seat with Lisa Wardvaugh. Welcome back to another episode of Insurance Unplugged Hot Seat Edition. Today's guest speaker speaks fluent ledger and future. I am so excited to have her on the podcast. Brittany Clements and I met oh gosh at conference a few years back and we decided we had so much in common. Both from our origin story of accounting which don't anybody turn it off yet. I promise it's going to get spicy in a minute. I say can everyone's like delete, don't listen. No, it's going to get super fun. But you know, we really, she and I were raised on balance sheets, audits, financial modeling and discipline of reconciliation, which I love. Where this is going to go in the conversation, what's real and what's not a scene. She now leads American Family Ventures as a managing director there where she really backs companies in rewiring the rules of insurance. So. So again, Brittany, welcome to the hot seat. If you don't mind introducing yourself to our audience who may not know you and all the work you're doing at American Family, welcome.

Speaker C: Awesome. Well, thanks Lisa. So great to be here. Us fellow CPAs have to stick together. I'd say so. Big fan of yours the podcast. Thrilled to be in the hot seat here today at American Family Ventures we invest in the future of the insurance industry and this is a category I've been focused on for the past 10 years. My team's been at it even longer since Insurtech became a thing and our business has really evolved over the years. First as a strategic investor, investing off balance sheet and you know now fast forward to today. We're investing out of our fourth fund. We have the privilege of being in this really interesting spot in the ecosystem where we get to interact with great insurance carriers like American Family Insurance and a lot of other limited partners and carriers in the space and then entrepreneurs who are building really interesting things and innovating and, and building the future of the industry. So thrilled to be here today. I think it's going to be a fun discussion.

Speaker B: So excited. So welcome to the hot seat. Let's unplug. You know you and I love to break it down. Let's unplug theater, kind of get to the truth, um, in particular with scale and what really matters. So our first segment and you uh, know I caught you right in the middle of the year so I want to pick on you a little bit to kind of help me with a mid year filter. And I spend a lot of time on my own, not, not with ventures but really focused on signal versus performance art. Like right. Like a lot of times breaking down the hype. Here we are in July recording this. I'm starting to re forecast like what is moment of the year and everyone is like trying to look strategic, maybe quietly pivoting in particular with foundations, with infrastructure. And I'm not saying AI is a height but really scale. Right. Like what's going to be there, what can we do to get, I'll call it beyond the pocket. So what is your mid year take? You know, what do you see as real, what's hype and what do you think might be past its expiration date? Brittany, like what are you seeing as this mid year look?

Speaker C: Yeah, so uh, an absolute wild start to the year. You know it's been fast and slow. I can't believe it's, it's halfway through the year but then you look back and you think about everything that's, that's kind of transpired and, and kind of moved and changed. So I think it's a, it's a great question as I think about the market, the venture capital market and insurtech specifically. There's maybe a few things that give me a lot of optimism around where, where we're at in the market today relative to, to where we started the year. The first is probably really positive signals of, of life when it comes to the exit environment. And this spans all venture but is especially true within the insure insurance category. You know couple. You know we've seen big acquisitions. Munich reacquiring next insurance for 2.6 billion. You know probably the largest the largest, uh, acquisition.

Speaker B: That was a really big one.

Speaker C: Yeah, that was, that was, that was the one. A lot of folks were big. Exactly. Evolution IQ acquired by CCC, M M. And a deal count, uh, in Q1 was the highest it's been for the InsurTech category over the past several years. Some IPO activity, more on the docket here, here, kind of going forward. And so, you know, I think all of that's really positive and necessary for a healthy ecosystem. And if you think about the way this business works, venture capital firms need to raise money, so then they can deploy that to startups who are innovating in the space and they can build new things and innovate in the industry, but without distribution, you know, that doesn't happen. So, um, I think it's been really promising to see some of that stuff, hopeful to see continued activity on that side of the, the aisle as well. The other thing that I would really call out from, um, a market perspective is probably the continued commitment from carriers to the insurtech category. And so if you look at the broader funding cycle, right, like, like nobody knew what insurtech was like a decade plus ago. And then there was this huge hype and run up in 2021 where, you know, 15, 16 billion dollars was invested into the category and then that dropped significantly and a lot of generalists kind of like stepped away. People weren't very excited about investing in the category. But simultaneously, if you look at insurance carrier and private investment into the category, 2024 was a high watermark, Q1, 2025 was another high watermark on a quarterly basis. And so I'm really excited about that stat because it just shows that, you know, insurance carriers, incumbents, folks who know and understand insurance, are continuing to stay invested in innovation and some of the stuff that needs to change here moving forward.

Speaker B: You know, I think that's interesting too, Brittany, because I think to your point, like a lot of people follow some of the macro without seeing kind of some of those replacement funding metrics. And uh, there's also this other trend that I see which is, and I'm going to like kind of bring it back to funding, which especially like there was a lot of kind of leverage resource models. Right. In short, I mean, we're a very heavy resource, uh, intense, you know, industry, both capital and, and labor. And you know, clearly throughout the decade, you know, I would say the last 20 years, I've been focused a lot on, you know, leverage resource models to business process optimization, onshore, offshore. You know, we look at TPAs, you know, like kind of, I'll say, compartmentalization of specified and specialized resourcing. We, we've always been doing that. And, and then you kind of bring in AI, energetic AI. And I think carriers in particular are starting to say, well, is it the resource model I need to look at? So maybe I need to bring some of that back in house. But if I bring that back in house, what capabilities do I need to have in this new era and include that's gone beyond just digital or automation or intelligent automation. And so I think one of the interesting kind of, I'll say connections to what you're saying would be funding is are you seeing then with the way that the environment is working? It's like, well, if we start to think about this as like resource in totality, we might need some of those edge scenarios to process this if we want to bring kind, um, of specialized processing back in house. Have you kind of connected it to that yet or is that an early signal?

Speaker C: Yeah, no, I think, I think definitely have. And with AI, I mean it's, you know, how do you sell, sell the work and actually tie that into, not an enterprise SaaS license or something like that, but the actual outcome. And we're seeing a ton of companies, I would say, building AI for insurance. I think a lot of them are still kind of in the workflow automation side of things and not really delivering on the outcomes. And that's where I think things need to continue to shift. I think some folks are focused on it, but then it's like, how do you build a, uh, lasting advantage within that category? And I think you have to have the data advantage which startups don't have. Right. Like, that's where carriers, so it kind of starts and ends with data and like quality to have that advantage or something like that. And so, so like, when we're looking at those companies, I mean there's, there's a ton of them. We're, we're seeing multiple pitches every single week, um, kind of in and around those categories and I think there's some promising concepts, but it's like, how do you create the defensible lasting edge over time? And you know, I think it has to be in, in concert with, with the carriers who hold all this data, but they have to be able to unlock it and use it. So we're not quite there yet.

Speaker B: I love that. Uh, and I'm just gonna, we're not gonna get too technical because I want to kind of make sure we get through all the macro Parts. But I just want to kind of plant a seed if you and I ever come back and have this discussion again. I want to plant a seed of foreshadowing and forecasting here because I think to your point, what everyone seems to be pitching and focusing on, we would have called it like point solutions back in the digital day. And now I will call it like they're like automating processes with agentic or AI or whatever. But where we're really seeing, or I'm seeing the missing gap is to your point, I love the word that use outcomes because I'm starting to frame it as outcomes as a service. What we're really missing is that fluidity of outcomes and outcomes as a service which gets into the layer underneath the pro, the, the process. And we're really talking calculations, we're really talking logic layers, we're really talking like end to end. Don't tell me how you achieve the process, like get to the outcome. And of course we're starting to look at techniques of verifiable proofs and all these things. So I think, I love the fact that you use the word outcome and you. And I didn't plan that in advance. Um, but I, I'm starting to see outcomes as a service become a very interesting category in the work that I'm doing and seeing and, and I, I wonder if that kind of correlates into what you're talking about as well.

Speaker C: Yeah, I absolutely see it, see it going that way. And the uh, the other thing that I, I kind of think about is, you know, folks who are spinning up the tools and, and the tooling and selling those in and like, you know, like those sales cycles can be long and hard versus you know, folks who are building the harder thing and, and like building a tech enabled carrier or a tech enabled TPA or like doing the hard work and enabling it with technology. And so I think those are a lot of really interesting models, models as well, which is maybe a little bit different from you know, bringing that back in house. But it's like, you know, could you partner with a new provider that is doing it with significant cost advantages at the end of the day.

Speaker B: So yeah, yeah, I love that. Clearly we have, even within carriers, right, we have levels of different, you know, carriers have their, call it their traditional model, they'll have their digital model, they'll have all these entities that are also serving that. So to your point, insurtech has matured so much over the last 10 plus years that it wasn't this binary scenario that we had, you know, prior to the evolution that we're in now. And, and I think the M and A activity is also supporting that. Right. Like that's what you're seeing. So I love seeing that. Well, let's, let's move into. Not only do you and I share a little three letter title of cpa, but we also both grew up heavy and deep in life and annuity. And I love the fact that you are an expert in this area, Brittany, because I think a lot of people, I uh, don't want to say think of a thought, but they don't. We see a lot of emphasis on PNC topics and property and casualty thought. Like, you know, like I don't know, I always have to say people, it's not Pete, it works very differently but it, but it's huge with the interest rate markets and the macro, um, even the PE interest that we have in the annuity space right now. So let's go, let's take a little deep dive into kind of like from afterthought to edge. And you know when you and I first talked about life and annuity and I saw the innovation map, I really thought, yes, like this really reframes it. This is really kind of a pertinent view that we're missing. But what do you think is still being ignored or maybe overlooked in life and annuity? And why do people in, I'll call it in the technology space, like you know, people coming in for funding, why do they often overlook it or not tackle it? What's your bot there? And are people waking up? Are you seeing movement there?

Speaker C: You know, I think the short of it is everything is still being in the life and annuity space, um, unfortunately

Speaker B: except for the poor people that work there and they're like we are confidently ignored.

Speaker C: Like this is going to be the year. This is going to be the year. But, but, but the piece like the market is massive. Like we, we know how, how big the market is, coverage gap is growing. You know it's, it's, it's like not shrinking and capital continues to be the missing piece in, in my book. And you know there's a lot of different sources for insurtech data out there. FT Partners puts out um, a quarterly report and I think, I think they do a nice job of it because they actually break it out by product line. They don't lump life and health altogether like a lot of other folks do. And when you look at.

Speaker B: You mean it's not the same.

Speaker C: Right?

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker C: But when you look at last year's funding volume, I think there was like over $5 billion that went into to the category again, pretty stable year over year. 2% went into the life and annuity category. So 90 million of $5 billion plus flowed into that category. And so I think I look at those numbers and there's some interesting innovative companies kind of on the early stage of that. So I'm excited to see them continue to grow and mature. But I'm hoping that we get more capital coming into to the space to fund, you know, some of the opportunity sets we have here to really um, you know, expand the value proposition of life insurance and you know, solve for the coverage gap and like there's so many things to go after here and lessons that we can learn from the PNC side and apply on this side of the aisle as well.

Speaker B: So, so, so if there's a startup founder, and I have quite a few of them that follow, follow the podcast and the blogs. If there's a startup founder and a founding team and they have a discrete outcome oriented solution, right, like one that's got merit, it's got tam, it can get to your point, it has that ability to saturate, you know, and work with the carrier or you know, and they're on the cusp, they're like, you know what, we could go PNC or go life and annuity. And they're talking to a, uh, strategic advisor which a lot. These are actually a lot of the people that come to me and say, Lisa, uh, how should we approach the market? You know, what should we do? And I often look at it and I kind of go back and forth when my recommendation to them like do you want to go PC? Here's all the present cons. Do you want to go life and annuity? Here's the pros and cons. It's interesting, Britney. They'll usually gravitate on the outset towards property and casualty. And I'm telling you it's like agnostic between the two. I try to say, you know, have you looked at the life in annuity space? And clearly the cons are like there's not central like kind of like a big five admin operating system, right? It's much more homegrown, much more dispersed. To your point, it's massive. But I also you talk about, but we haven't spent as much over the last decade going through, I'll call it like the innovation fatigue cycles, right? So it's a little bit more right to coming in with a, like a um, like, like hindsight's 20 20, right. Like, you could come in and say, we've learned. What would your advice be to those founders that have that equal decision? They're at fork or why in the road. How would you advise them to think about it? Because I know there's no declarative which one they take.

Speaker C: Yeah, you know, I think. I think you definitely could go either way. I think the challenge with life is, you know, the long tail, you know, complexity. There's so many different permutations of products and stuff. Like, it's. It's so different than a lot of things that you see on, um, say, like, personal lines and. And. And that side of the house. And so I. I think it is diff. I would probably point, you know, uh, I'm going to be a little bit biased in this answer, but I would point to market opportunity. I would point to just the potential, a competitive landscape in itself. Right. Like, there's just fewer companies going after a pretty big prize at the end of the day. And so I would definitely tell them that and ask them to call me,

Speaker B: I was gonna say. And they could call Brittany, because not only does she lead America Families Venture Fund, but she has a big background in life and annuity. And so I think. I do think it's important that, uh, we often talk about inclusion for new entrants into. So if you're coming to solve a problem, how we don't isolate people with being like, oh, we're insurance, you know, But I think life and annuity, we're also even more exclusive. So. So I think there is some inclusivity there that's needed because it is an intimidating. Like, I literally caught myself two weeks ago, Brittany, someone was working on a technology solution for reinsurance, and they were thinking property and casualty. And I caught myself saying to them, like, you have no idea how much more infinitely complicated this is for life. And they said, why? And I'm like, well, you have to regenerate the calculation for every single cell, for every single policy, for every single movement from inception to date. And they're like, oh. And I'm like, that's not the way it works in pnc. Right. And so I caught myself almost unintentionally, like, kind of like saying, it's so much harder. And to your point, it is. But I think the hard parts are where we have actuaries. The hard parts are where we have really good modeling. I don't think those are the hard parts in terms of, you know, maybe bringing technology to partner with that. Do you or do you see that as being like, like limiting?

Speaker C: Yeah, I think, I think it's a lot of calculations. I think that's a good way to put it, and it's math and that's solvable. I, I do think, you know, we sometimes have a debate amongst our team around, you know, who are the right builders for things in different categories.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker C: And whether, you know, that should come from inside the industry or, you, uh, know, outside the industry. And I think especially within this category, you don't have to come from inside the industry, but you need to hire someone who knows their stuff. It can be so complex. And I was, you know, I was talking with someone yesterday who's, who's building in the LTC space. And I mean, it was such a fun call. It ended up going like 20 minutes over and, you know, I learned all sorts of new things and I've been like studying the space for 10 years, so I do get that intimidation piece, but I don't think anyone's an expert. Right. Like, there's, there's uh, there's so many pockets of, of what it all means and that's part of the fun of it all. So.

Speaker B: I totally agree with you and I think the reason why I, cause I didn't even go into life and annuity till like, I, I, I would say much later in my career I had a benefits background, which to your point, health is not the same. It's like. But I had a benefits background, but mainly pnc. But then I, I started my corporate world always in life and annuity. My entire corporate career was life and annuity. Never, never pnc. My, that was more my consulting upbringing, my M and A background. But when I went into it, I fell in love with it because of the complexity of the financial modeling and because of the complexity of the capital strategies connected to the financial modeling. And so I agree with you entirely that it's really, really, really important to have somebody that understands because you won't have any credibility with those carriers if you don't understand the complex path. Right. Like, and I'm not saying you have to be able to rbc.

Speaker C: Like, there's so many facets that you have to kind of balance when you're, when you're thinking about all that stuff. And um, yeah, but it's, it's fun to, fun to build those muscles and you know, it's never dull, so.

Speaker B: Well, here's hoping, you know, I'm kind of interested to see with the AI agency waves and kind of these foundational substrate Layers that I kind of predict as like investment needs. I'm kind of interesting to see how much we can learn from scale of insuretech solutions and thinking about life and annuity. Britney. So I, I, I have my, my second half of the year watch on that and I know some, some leaders that are trying to build in this space. I'm very excited about it. So let's, let's now flip to founders. So you know there's a lot about founders and you alluded to it like certain founders, like can they build certain types of companies? And you know, I think there's a different type of an application founder than there is an infrastructure founder, maybe PNC Life. You know, there's all sorts of different types of founders. But a lot of times I think we fixate on the deck and even maybe the, the blueprint of what someone says the deck and the numbers and the deck should look like. But what are the more subtle cues that make you like lean in or maybe even think? I just, I don't see, and it's not personal, but I don't see this being like viable like at this level. What are those subtle things that you look for?

Speaker C: Yeah, so I think this is, this is a great question because regardless of how good the idea is, uh, what's happening with the market, all of the above, it comes down to a team's ability to execute. And so you know, such heavy weighting is, is placed on that. And um, I've learned lessons over the years. You know, I haven't always gotten this right, you know, been fooled by charisma or you know, different elements where I have gotten it wrong. But um, you know, I, I have, I have learned quite a bit. And there's a few things that, that I'm really looking for when I'm evaluating teams. You know, one, I think you have to have this strong mix of the seller and the builder and those capabilities. And you know, sometimes that's in a founding team, sometimes that's in you know, a ah, CEO and bringing on like, you know, your, your first, you know, really strong technical hire that's, that's highly committed to the business. But you know, that front person, they have to be able to raise capital, present a vision and then recruit really, really talented people into the business. And then, you know, the technical person has to be able to actually execute and get the stuff done. And so I think too often there's folks that are maybe a little too similar in those regards and don't, don't have enough balance to get both of those pieces right. And I think both of those pieces are critical. So I think that that's one side of it. The numbers, uh, accountant in me, I love strong grasp of the numbers in unit economics. There's been times where that kind of stuff has been punted and that doesn't give me confidence in someone's ability to build a long lasting scalable business. And then I think just high trust, high integrity, low drama, you know, in it for the right reasons and high ambition. So a lot of times there's folks who are building things that, you know, don't necessarily need venture capital funding and could be a great business through a certain pathway. But the type of opportunities we're looking for, you know, like billion dollar companies. And so you kind of have to like close your eyes and like, is this person in it for the long haul? You know, are their ambitions aligned with like what we need to see happen from a fund math perspective and making sure it's a mutual fit? On that, on that regard too, you

Speaker B: made me laugh when you. Of course, the billion dollar goal, right. And when I first left my corporate roles and I started working with startups, uh, I like was puzzled, genuine. I, I will admit this, genuinely puzzled that every financial deck I would see put together was a billion dollars divided by. So it was like 100 million in ARR, right? Time signs, a multiple of 10, uh, back in those days, you know, whatever. And, and it was 100 million ARR. Like, you know, maybe that goes up or down depending on your multiples, but. And it was always divided by the years to get there. And I'm like, silly, this, this is not a financial model. And the numbers were derived or contrived. And I don't mean unethically. It was like they knew that was the mark. And so I was like, well, genuinely Brittany, my accounting CFO background, I'm like, but that's not a financial model. So how do you, how do you peel that apart? And then the second layer to my question for you is I grew up as did you, Britney, with true financials, balance sheets, income statement, statement of cash flow. And I find since I started working with startups that they don't use the concept of financials. They use the concepts of, I'll call it maybe cash in and cash out. They're not even comfortable with like, like true forecast, true accrual, uh, based financial statements with you know, like amortization, depreciation, like all those things. And clearly most startups can't have a CFO that thinks like this until they're well into like maybe, maybe B.C. i don't know, depending. So, so how do you tease that out? Because I found that my own level of like oil and vinegar and water and I'm like, whoa, how does this work? How do you see that?

Speaker C: Uh, so one, I think having a strong understanding for the way everything flows is, is really important because like you know, there, there can be things that are positioned certain ways that, you know, maybe something is capitalized as R and D or something like that, but it's truly cash out the door, right? So I do think like in startup like cash is King, you know, your job is to not run out of money and either, you know, turn to profitability or hit a really significant valuation inflection point and be able to go, you know, raise significant capital to pour, pour fuel on the fire. And so I do think having a good grasp on the real cash burn number and you know, how that's fluctuating and all that stuff is super important in that regard. I've seen all types in terms of like the savviness at all stages as well, but there's a couple companies that really use their financial plan as a management tool. They are really using it to drive decisions and I love that. So um, probably no surprise in that end, but they are, you know, really on top of it from you know, what uh, this hire means to my margin, then how it's allocated and all that kind of stuff. And I would say, you know, they, they get to the point where, you know, it truly is like helpful to them in their decision making and I think that that's a good foundation for success as you continue to mature as a startup because I tell you, like growth, growth stage investors and as you continue to mature as a business, that's going to be required. So the lens that I always come in and think about it is like, okay, if I'm coming in at a seed stage company, how can I help provide guidance to like what a best in class series a company looks like from everything from the financial models, the statements and just like your overall KPI dashboard and stuff that you're delivering and then same on for companies at later stages. And so, you know, no one's going to be perfect at the beginning and you shouldn't either because that's probably an inefficient use of resources when you're trying to survive, survive another day. Right. So it's, it's a little bit of a balance and you know, progress towards perfection, not, not necessarily Assuming you're, you're, you're going to be there day one.

Speaker B: And Well, I think you brought up some really great points too. I think like unit economics margin. I think that's often again in this like divide by.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Concept. Uh, it's like top, you know, in terms people, for anybody listening, we really believe in the total unit economics. It's exactly like our business is a capital business, not a balance sheet or like just an income statement. We're really, we look at capital and strain on capital. So in particular when you're trying to partner with or sell into or get investment for insurance, where we of all people are not just top line focused, we're, we're unit economics focused. And I, I think that there's often so much focus on the, I'll call it the bright line of ARR that people forget unit economics. And Brittany, I remember having a discussion with a founder that was, you know, putting clients into um, revenue activation, so, so into production. And I was like, but, but that client's not paying you enough to cover, you know, the cost of production, the cost of goods sold if we just keep it simple. And it was like, but I need the ARR. And I'm like, but your unit economics aren't supporting, so you're actually negative. And clearly like I see it that way. I do understand there's, there's stress to get top line, to get to A. And when do you think this like unit economics pay, like kind of has to pay the piper in the journey from maybe C to A to B. Do you have any guidance for people?

Speaker C: So I think it, it matters so much earlier. I mean I think this growth at all cost mindset, that's kind of what got everyone in trouble in the first place. Right. Because everyone was growing as fast as humanly possible when they didn't even know what their cogs were. So exactly what you were saying. And then that backfired. Right. Like terrible loss ratios, unsustainable financials, like you know, bottomless money pit. Right. A lot of people have learned from that. And I think it's more about measured, measured growth. And being smart about that. I see it as a red flag, let's say for like a uh, new uh, full stack carrier. That's, that's, that's emerging. If they grew like huge overnight, I would be very worried about that because you don't know what's in that portfolio. You don't know, you don't know what the underlying risk is. Right. And so you have to be measured in Your growth at the end of the day. And I think a lot of folks are much more oriented and focused on that today. Just understanding how these businesses will be valued at exit. And you know, I think just having that as a good foundation brings some good practices, uh, into the space.

Speaker B: So we talked about this next section is really like inclusion. And I know you spend a lot of time as, you know, beyond optics with diversity. And we talked a little bit about kind of maybe lines of business or areas within insurance to get funded. But, you know, who would you say is still not being funded? What's the blind spot costing us? And do you think that there is still a blind spot in investing?

Speaker C: Yeah, there is, is the short answer. Um, I would say significant funding gaps for women, people of color continue to persist. Um, a very small portion of venture dollars are flowing into that. I don't know what the actual percentages are, but I don't think there's been much movement here over the past, past number of years. Um, and this just represents a huge opportunity. So, um, you know, I think you've probably seen all the, all the same studies I have. But you know, diverse teams outperform and I think not necessarily building with those folks in mind leaves a lot on the table at the end of the day. So at one time I saw, and this is, this is dated, but I assume that this probably holds true. But Oliver Wyman put out a report that showed underserved women represented like the most significant market opportunity in all of financial services. It was something like, you know, a $700 billion annual revenue opportunity by serving women in parity with men within the financial services category. And life insurance was actually like the biggest bucket within that report. And so demographic shift, there's all this impending wealth transfer, you know, there's differences in mortality, uh, more women are making financial decisions. I just think that there's a big prize to be won there. And so again, maybe another self serving pitch for me. But if, uh, you know, you're a woman building an insurance, I would absolutely

Speaker B: love to chat with you and to serve the underserved in life. Hit Brittany up. I love that. I just saw an ad and I won't name the company and I'm not advocating for the company, but the ad said be the moment. Who has life insurance? Be that mom.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker B: And I was like, I was scrolling through social and I was like, that's such. It's actually getting interestingly at what you just talked about and it made me pause. Right, like, and I just thought, huh, uh, that's interesting. And I had never seen that before. Brittany and I just saw that recently.

Speaker C: No, I think I've shared it. Like I'm a life insurance beneficiary. So like, I think you're crazy if, uh, you know, like, we need to be making these thoughtful decisions for our families. And I love that. That's, that's very much on the nose.

Speaker B: And I really liked, I kudos to that unnamed marketing team. But I was like, really impressed with that. And we need a lot more of that. And to your point, we need a lot more solutions. All right, so let's move into. I want to ask you a couple of questions before we get into our roundup. Let's go for rapid fire. So what is, you know, one deal that you passed on that still stings?

Speaker C: Uh, Chime Bank Series B, I think the entry Point was sub 100, 100 million valuation and what they just IPO'd for, uh, close to 12 billion. So that one, that one stings a little bit.

Speaker B: If you were an inventor, what would you be doing?

Speaker C: You know, probably something golf related. I love the game of golf. It's kind of what my family, uh, and I do together. Played in college, um, probably teaching kids golf.

Speaker B: I love that. And I can totally see that by the way. You should have come and hung out with me when my daughter was over at St. Andrews. We could have played around next time. What's the most underrated risk or opportunity that you have your eye on right now?

Speaker C: You know, we've been spending a lot of time on reimagining long term care and aging in place. You know, I think huge risk to society with all the demographic shifts. Big opportunity for innovation there.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I love that one. I was personally doing a lot of work on that even five years ago. What's the most overrated trend right now?

Speaker C: Uh, AI workflow, automation tools, point solutions.

Speaker B: Can I put like an amplification exclamation part on that?

Speaker C: Easy to stand up and you know, unfortunately easy to be replaced? I think so.

Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, not a lot of moot there. All right, what's one team or teams that you're watching like in terms of founding teams?

Speaker C: Yeah, you know, I will, I'll give a shout out to actually one of my portfolio companies. So Alexander My Mysore, she's CEO and founder of a company called Alex. That is, they're focused on tech enabled estate settlement and facilitating this massive wealth transfer that's, that's underway. And they um, they just announced a great series A this week. Uh, super excited for them and they're just off to the races. So, uh, rooting them on and excited to see what comes next over there.

Speaker B: I love that all around. Okay, so we're getting to the end. Thank you all for hanging in. Even though we started as CPAs, we got a little spicy in the middle. Okay. The hallmark sign off is the call to action. So Brittany, what's one thing that you would ask everyone listening today to start doing, stop doing and continue to do over to you.

Speaker C: All right, let's see here. I tried to leave this one a little bit unscripted and uh, let's see. I would say, oh, this one's easy. So I would say start investing more capital into the life and annuity space in sentence on that one. I think, you know, we spent a lot of time talking about that today, but a lot of opportunities there. Some really interesting companies getting started. So. So, uh, you know, let's, let's see if we can beat 90 million deployed into that category this year.

Speaker B: All right. Anything that you want people to stop doing, stop.

Speaker C: Um, this is, this is a little self reflection on myself. When I kind of did my own mid year assessment, I would say stop with all the meetings. You know, have more of a bias towards action. Uh, I have personally started to do more of that and just more ad hoc picking up the phone. You know, no one's, no one's getting annoyed with me yet, but it just feels more high energy, more fun, you know, and, and more productive at the end of the day and then continue. I think I would just say continue like, kind of where we started with, with like carriers, continued investment. So say continue investing in partnering with startups in a mutually aligned way. And you know, I've seen so much growth here where we've moved on from the theater. I think carriers and startups alike have kind of matured in the way they partner with one another in finding that mutually valuable, um, points of connectivity and really, really doubling down on some of those focus areas.

Speaker B: I love that. And Brittany, like, always, always, always, whether I get to the benefit of being on stage with you or the opportunity to have you one on one on the podcast, I absolutely take copious notes. I love learning from you. I love seeing you out there in the industry. I mean, you provide not only just perspective, but a deep playbook rooted in lots of experience. And you've always been so open, warm, and welcoming to helping others. So if they want to reach out to you and pitch something and they meet some of the categories that you shamelessly plugged or where should they follow you other than LinkedIn? How should they hit you up?

Speaker C: You know, I would just say email. Brittanymfamventures.com I am, um, no problem with, uh, cold outreach on my end. So LinkedIn or. That works great. And feelings are mutual. This was a lot of fun, Lisa, and big fan of yours as well. So really, really appreciate the time today.

Speaker B: Well, thank you. Thank you so much for being a guest on, um, the Hot Seat and for everyone listening. We could not do this without you. So thank you all for listening, for caring, stay curious, stay informed, and stay plugged in until next time.