Kinsu at One

Kinsu is one year old, crikey! London is dark and cold and has gone Christmas mad with lights and sparkly things and noise of all kinds trying to make us buy stuff, with little hope of tiny baby Jesus saving us from it all.

Our Kinsu baby was delivered a year ago, not in a stable under a star, but on IOS and has kept us up at night, demanded constant attention, needed loving, feeding and nurturing and occasionally shit all over us, but of course we love it dearly!

Kinsu was born to solve the many problems we are faced with when buying home insurance, and we have made a lot of progress. We solved a few problems, created a few more, solved them too and are now setting about creating and solving more problems, and it’s that which keeps us moving and learning and growing at pace. This is really what it’s all about for me.

Looking after babies and businesses, of religious significance or not, is all about recognising problems, spotting them before they turn ugly or get too big, choosing what order to fix them in and then fixing them. It’s pretty much that simple and if you are good at it you move quickly. We have moved very quickly and so we must be pretty good…We launched Kinsu version 1 a year ago and have achieved a lot in 12 short months.

What did we promise and what did we do?

1. Founded a family — we started out with just me and cofounder Russell outsourcing everything, but now we have a team of 13 weirdos, freaks and misfits — well endowed with large brains, tireless energy, peerless good looks and a common desire to have fun and make a difference in the world. We’re super confident that we have good people in all the important seats.
2. Delivered the goods — In less than 12 months we launched a beautiful app, offering protection for all your important stuff; your lovingly named bike, favourite gadgets and house full of heirlooms. If an angry giant grabs your house and shakes it like a babies rattle, everything that falls out is covered by Kinsu.
3. Unwrapped a shiny new chatbot — Kinsu was conceived by people for people to create a more human experience. But sometimes technology is the answer… so we launched the claimsbot to make the process quicker, smarter, transparent and more efficient.
4. No grey areas, no bullsh*t — Not to brag, but we’ve got an awesome claims settlement rate: to date, we’ve paid 96% of our claims. When you wheedle out the cheeky fraudsters, we’re left with a pretty impressive score. As we grow, we’ll proudly continue with our mantra, ‘if it’s grey, we pay’.
5. Flaunted our personality…. — I don’t know if you’ve heard, we’re all about stripping… we’ve stripped back on jargon, prices and bullsh*t; our brand is unique and we’re more edgy, honest and focused in a human direction.
6. … And then there was culture — Our squad genuinely love Kinsu. The extended family of parents that make up our team have all nurtured and taken turns babysitting the Kinsu prodigy. ‘That’s not very Kinsu’ has been used to chastise our parenting techniques on a number of occasions, because “being Kinsu” actually means something.
7. Made some friends — We’re very proud to have been initiated into the B Corp tribe, and we’ve collaborated with some amazing companies: Divine Chocolate, Tandem, Uncle, Impossible, ImpactHub and Habito. We’re equally honoured to be supporting charities Streetlink and Humankind with our policy sales.
8. Stepped into the spotlight — We felt like top dogs when we started appearing in Forbes, The Independent, various events, trade press and podcasts. So watch this space, who knows where we’ll be trending next!
9. Got ridiculously excited — Our excitement levels about Kinsu are equal to that of an 8 year old child on Christmas Eve. We are properly excited, locked and loaded and ready for growth!

The Kinsu family in Madrid

Yes “Unbelievable!” I hear you shout, “Well done Kinsu, you guys rock!” but its not done yet, we have not yet achieved our primary mission to reset the relationship between people and insurance and become the insurer of choice for the digital generation. But please relax and please don’t worry, we have no doubt we will…”How?” they all shout with quizzical looks upon their drunken, ruddy, Christmassy faces, well funny you should ask that…

2019 — Building the engine:

We swiftly assembled the Kinsu equivalent to a fabulously beautiful car body, wheels and chassis. Our engine is small but beautifully formed and over the coming months with our capability, learnings, skills and energy we will grow this engine into something huge and powerful to zoom Kinsu off into the future.

What powers the engine?
Our new features are going to be an absolute treat. We thought we’d open a few of them early and let you take a peek…

• API — using shiny new tech to power our growth and entice new partners.
• Price — revamping our rules on price, making sure that all our products are fair and affordable.
• Insurance product — you’ve trusted us with your stuff; soon we’ll be able to take care of buildings, students, freelancers, travel… the world is our oyster.

So before the pine needles have fallen, the baubles drooped and before the false hope that Glittery Christmassy consumerism would solve your deep rooted psychological traumas has faded, Kinsu will be revving the fuck up. Still quietly and in our own peculiar way, and to an audience of discerning and loyal customers who know we are better, who know we have their best interests at heart and who truly love the sound of what we are doing.

Thanks for all your support and help and here’s to the next amazing year and teaching our baby to walk by itself…We have lots to be thankful for and many reasons to be cheerful…

Thanks a million,
C x