Hartford Business Journal

6 Hartford Business Journal • March 5, 2018 • www.HartfordBusiness.com By Joe Cooper Special to the Hartford Business Journal S tartup innovators Corey Harris Jr. and Rajasekar Narayanan are crediting diversity and authenticity for their team's recent victory at a digital health hackathon in Hartford. Harris, 26, and Narayanan, 27, pre- sented their startup idea at the Digital Health Hackathon Weekend on Feb. 11 and received top honors and a $5,000 prize over seven teams in the competi- tion sponsored by Cigna. Known as InsurGuru, Harris and Na- rayanan alongside teammates Jacques Caspi and Craig Mitchell unveiled a prototype of their product, which uses Amazon's Alexa-driven technology to answer questions through a web portal about what is covered under individual health insurance policies. "We are a very diverse team," Naray- anan said. "We brought in different skill sets and I think that was our big- gest strength." Harris and Narayanan met only recently at Travelers Cos. in Hartford, when they were assigned to the same project. Narayanan, a senior business analyst for Accenture, is contracted by Travelers and works in the same building as Harris, an information technology specialist at the property and casualty insurer. The pair discovered they shared simi- lar interests and thought processes, and brought their amity to happy hour to fur- ther discuss work, diversity and politics. "We are trying to build morale out- side of work and knew we would work well together," Harris said. "We found a lot of common interests and synergy outside of work." Harris, a Baltimore native, moved to Hartford in Jan. 2015 after graduat- ing from the University of Maryland. Narayanan is an immigrant from India who moved to Hartford in March 2016. They enrolled as a team in February's 48-hour hackathon competition hosted by Upward Hartford and InsurTech Hartford — a startup competition fea- turing entrepreneurs, regional develop- ers, designers, mentors and four judges. The competition challenged partici- pants to design and present their digital health business ideas over a few days. Participants came from universities, hospitals, and the insurance sector. Narayanan says he always wanted to participate in a hackathon and considered a competition in his new hometown an ideal opportunity. He pitched the idea for InsurGuru on the hackathon's opening night. Narayanan and Harris said the concept stemmed from the founders' troubles predicting their own health insurance costs. Narayanan in November under- went surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, and Har- ris recently had two ruptured patella tendon surgeries. Both said it has been difficult estimating insurance costs with health providers charging differ- ent amounts for surgeries, prescrip- tion refills and physical therapy. "I still keep receiving bills that I owe," Narayanan said. "Being a busi- ness analyst in insurance, I still find it hard to understand the charges that I owe the hospital and the other servic- es that occurred during my surgery." An aspiring teacher, he said he named the product InsurGuru because it serves as a mentor or expert for handling insurance-related questions. Coming together While Harris and Rajasekar generat- ed the idea for InsurGuru, event orga- nizers assigned Caspi and Mitchell to their team as the hackathon required four-member groups. Caspi, an immigrant from Mexico studying business analytics at the Uni- versity of Connecticut, offered his digital expertise while Mitchell, an IBM em- ployee, helped with revenue strategies and evaluated the market competition. "They helped us complete the entire puzzle," Rajasekar said of the new members. "It was just magical how we slowly built it up." Narayanan suggested exploring ways to improve transparency in the health insurance industry, and customer ser- vice operations surfaced as their focus. Health insurance companies, Harris said, spend millions annually on cus- tomer service operations. The team found that Colorado's state insurance exchange adopted a $21.1 million budget for customer service calls in fiscal year 2016-17. On average, it costs the exchange $2 for every minute a customer service rep is on the phone handling questions re- garding individual insurance policies. After identifying the market inef- ficiency, the InsurGuru team devel- oped a customer service web portal for insurance companies allowing users to ask questions about which X-rays, appointments, or surgeries are cov- ered under their plans. The prototype uses Amazon's Alexa- controlled technology — similar to Siri and Google Home — to answer questions about insurance coverage. Harris said the technology provides an opportunity for businesses to reduce call center overhead costs. Market value Subha Ramiah, Cigna's senior direc- tor of innovation research and develop- ment, served on a panel of judges at the hackathon who determined InsurGuru had the competition's top product. Ramiah said health insurance plans are "very complicated" and difficult for customers to understand when project- ing costs. He said the InsurGuru team was exceptional in proving the product's market value during live demonstrations. Health insurance companies also see the value in emerging natural lan- guage tools, he said, adding that busi- nesses have started exploring technol- ogy comparable to InsurGuru. "Our customers are demanding retail- like customer service like Best Buy, Target and others," Ramiah said. "We see the validity of the InsurGuru idea." Harris and Rajasekar are moving for- ward with InsurGuru and are consider- ing roles for Caspi and Mitchell as they continue learning about the insurance market and the need for this technology. A timeline for launching InsurGuru is premature, Harris said. For now, the owners are still excited about their first place selection at the hackathon, and the accomplishments made by the diverse group over a short period. "I think a lot of companies overlook the power of diversity," Harris said. "You would be surprised with how much productivity that you get with the most diverse groups." Pitching a Startup Hackathon winners laud diversity, ingenuity for Alexa-driven customer service technology Members of the InsurGuru team recently won $5,000 after being named the top startup at the Digital Health Hackathon in Hartford. The team includes (from left): Craig Mitchell, Jacques Caspi, Rajasekar Narayanan and Corey Harris Jr. (Left) InsurGuru team members dine and strategize together. (Right) Rajasekar Narayanan presents to judges. PHOTOS | CONTRIBUTED

• Cover