Hippo
Reinventing home insurance for the 21st century
Outcomes
Sales conversion rate compared with industry average
Seconds for a user to get a quote
Net Promoter Score
Unicorn valuation reached in 3 years, including a $100 million investment from Mary Meeker’s fund, Bond
Overview
The home insurance industry is worth $100 billion and growing 4–6% each year. But it’s also highly inefficient. About 60% of homeowners are underinsured. Others have too much insurance and are overpaying.
Hippo co-founder and CEO Assaf Wand saw an opportunity. When he set out to revamp home insurance in 2015, Work & Co aligned with his model and mission: give people the best way to protect, maintain, and enhance their homes. We took an equity stake in Hippo and partnered with the company to strategize and design an easy-to-use digital experience that would unseat the decades-old incumbents.
“Big companies usually rely on agencies to get a fresh perspective. In our case it was different. We wanted to tap into Work & Co’s experience and access their high-quality talent. For a startup so early in its life cycle, partnering with them was critical to our success and helped drive our speed to market.”
A Better Insurance Purchase Process
Most direct-to-consumer startups make branding their highest priority. Working with Hippo, we decided to focus on the customer enrollment experience first. We set two goals to guide our product: Create a high level of customer trust and reduce the time it takes to get a quote. To help prospects feel more confident purchasing insurance online, we shunned opaque benefits in favor of clear coverage descriptions, transparent pricing, and modern product offerings.
The Fastest Quote Possible
Onboarding in the insurance sector has historically involved multiple phone calls and extensive paperwork. Getting a quote takes an average of 25 minutes. Our approach was a simple web form that automatically prefills publicly available data about every home, including year built, square footage, and roof type. It generates an accurate quote in 60 seconds.
Relationships Past Enrollment
While prioritizing easy signup, Hippo wanted more than a one-time transactional relationship with customers. To move past the traditional buy-then-forget insurance model, Hippo provides in-home IoT sensors that further reduce monthly costs. We helped the company create a real-time claims flow and dashboard that simplifies a stressful task with a transparent timeline for reimbursement. We also created concepts for a companion mobile app that helps customers manage and maintain their homes.
A Scalable Brand
As Hippo started to scale nationally, we partnered with them to evolve their visual identity. Inspired by the idea that every home is unique, we designed Hippo’s brand to reflect the personal nature of proper coverage. Our illustrations, animations, and playful iconography create moments of delight for customers. The new logo anchors the brand, with the negative space of the “h” forming a doorway. It has become the key element that represents Hippo’s role in protecting your home.
Get in Touch
Interested in learning more about Hippo or any other projects? Reach out to newbiz@work.co.
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