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56 | DOING BUSINESS IN CONNECTICUT | 2019 Insurance-technology entrepreneurs from around the world have flocked to Hartford's new InsurTech program to be close to the region's major insurers. As things evolve, LeBlanc said, insurers really have to stay on top of new ways of doing things. "Otherwise, you'll be missing out on a whole lot of opportunities." One example is a member of InsurTech Hub's 2019 cohort – South African company Pineapple – which is tapping into the growing preference for buying goods and services online. Pineapple offers customers the ability to insure small consumer goods like laptops or phones much more quickly than the conventional insurance model allows. "You actually just take a picture of it and you can get insurance on it in something like seven seconds," she said. "The elongated process it usually takes to purchase insurance is really going to shift over time." LeBlanc believes Hartford – and its InsurTech Hub – are well- positioned to help spearhead the dynamic shift that is taking place in the insurance industry. In addition to the vision and buy-in demonstrated by insurers, she said, "we've gotten a lot of support from the state, from the mayor of Hartford, and from people in the regulatory offices focused on insurance. I think people realize [tech is] a big driver, industry- wide, but then we've also gotten support from some of the other accelerators that are working on new technology. There is overlap in some of those concepts and it's really become a community around innovation, which is great." LeBlanc added that Startup Bootcamp operates under a larger organization called Rainmaking, whose goal is "to really help corporations in whatever they need to do to move their innovation forward – and that does evolve over time. So at some point, we may be moving to do more co-development with startups and insurers to extract the exact solutions that they're looking for, and develop those in a pretty quick fashion for them," she said. "Rainmaking has done that for some large companies, like Ikea and Facebook." Andrew Mais, Connecticut's new insurance commissioner, agreed the insurance universe seems to be evolving quickly. "It used to be considered somewhat of a staid industry, but the pace of change and technology that's really bringing it into the 21st century is amazing. This is a fascinating time for the industry. To me, we're at an inflection point," he said. Mais said Connecticut is fortunate to have some forward-thinking CEOs who have pushed for and supported the development of an InsurTech hub in Hartford, and who continue to roll up their sleeves to assist innovative startups from across the globe. "Technology is a tremendous driver for change right now. So is talent. And there's a natural nexus here. We have tremendous talent and we have the ability to mentor that talent. So somebody in tech may not know insurance but they come here and our insurers are able to mentor them to show them what needs to be done. And that's really important for the development of InsurTech as a whole." He added, "This industry has had the ability and the inclination to look backwards because that's how we create our tables. You look back and see what happened and think that history will provide you with a guide to the future. And that is important, but this is also an industry that is very much looking towards the future." INSURANCE & FINANCIAL SERVICES