Member Since 2017
Kin Insurance
Chicago Area
Sean Harper is the co-founder and CEO of Kin Insurance, an insurance technology company and home insurance carrier built to make insurance easy, efficient, and affordable. He is also a board member of Accion. Previously, Sean founded FeeFighters, a payments company bought by Groupon, and TSS-Radio, an ecommerce company that became an Inc. 500 fastest-growing company. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Sean was a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group and an investor at Longworth Venture Partners. He holds an AB from the University of Chicago, where he studied economics and computer science, and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
If it’s your goal to grow your company as much as possible, you need to be ready to grow, too.
There will always be situations where businesses have to adapt and pivot, and leaders who tap into their employees’ creativity will have a team of engaged problem-solvers on their side.
Putting systems in place to clarify goals and foster communication helps build the trust needed to encourage autonomy.
Savvy companies know that Slack is much more than a means for communication — they’re using it to build a corporate culture that helps them engage employees, which in turn boosts productivity and retention.
One of the best ways to learn how to manage your employees is to ask them questions. If you pose the right questions, you'll get to know what motivates your employees and what their goals are. You can then use this information to manage them more effectively and help them succeed in their jobs.
Not only is SEO a low-cost and evergreen way to attract new customers and build brand awareness, but implementing a few basic strategies at the outset can have a major impact on your bottom line.
Putting together a book takes time, energy and a lot of effort. And while it accounts for a lot of the book's labor, writing isn't the only thing an entrepreneur needs to concern themselves with. Publishing the book and the marketing associated with it also have a place in the overall success equation. But not all new writers know what to expect from the writing process. To help, 11 experts from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) answer the following question:
There may come a time for certain employees when they notice that their skills or interests are better suited to another part of the company and they ask to switch to a different department to better serve their goals. When this happens, managers may not know how to react as the request may come out of the blue or it could be taken as a slight on their current department.
By hiring the right people and cultivating a culture of emotional intelligence, your team will not only be happy — they’ll also be more productive.
If you see any of these five signs happening in your industry, start planning now.
An entrepreneur must develop resilience so they aren’t stuck with ideas or operations that just aren’t working.
To serve customers, it’s essential that fintech brands acknowledge that money is tied to deep-seated emotions.
Focus on developing real, person-to-person relationships with your customers.
Price-sensitive customers tend to love sales, while value-driven shoppers get excited about investments.
Don't automatically assume that the old ways of doing things will work.
Granular data lets you reach individual customers by teaching you unique things about them, which is something big legacy companies can't often manage.
Don't build an app simply as a vanity metric.
Keep this strategy on the table in your early days to face the challenges ahead.
In many industries businesses remain dependent on outdated and expensive customer acquisition channels. This prevents them from achieving their profitability potential and having the biggest possible impact in their space.
Chatbots can't replace human conversation and empathy in customer service.
The startup world tends to lionize rapid growth, but that isn't necessarily the right path.
A well-run idea meritocracy is both competitive in its space and rewarding to the people who participate in it.
These team players work tenaciously to get our customers the products they need.
Keep everyone moving in the same direction as your company scales up fast.
While a great product or service may not be enough to make it in a highly regulated industry, you also can’t find success unless being better than the rest is your baseline.
If your business is facing a problem with widely varied solutions, it may be a good indication that a cross-functional team is necessary.
Not investing in customer service — or in any process, position or automation that could increase efficiency — may save money in the short run, but it can bog down your growth in the long run.
Transparency with consumers and company stakeholders is the way forward in today's world.
Big data is enabling brands to delight customers with customized experiences.
Startups that focus on making life better and more convenient for all will thrive in the long run.
How can you determine in the moment if your industry is on the brink of a significant transformation?
Legacy costs aren't helping out your customer or your business in the long run.
Does your business proposition solve a specific market issue?
You may have a revolutionary idea, but nothing takes the place of decades of experience.
Kin Insurance is a home insurance startup on a mission to fix home insurance. We use data to make the application process simple, to find our customers every available discount, and to recommend the ideal coverage based on the home's unique needs. Whereas traditional carriers are slow to adapt to a technology-driven world, Kin uses tech to stay lean and efficient and save customers time and money. We also partner with companies that help keep homes safer so our customers get a better deal on both the products and their insurance. In Florida and Texas, we can offer customers a quote with only their street address. We're expanding our reach and will be serving the rest of the US soon.
Insurance