Insurance, the O.G. Data Business: Max Dewez speaks to {Carpe Data's Max Drucker
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Why is insurance considered the original big‑data industry?
Data. just seemed to be such the the big opportunity where there really hasn't been a lot of real innovation and new players in the space for really literally decades. So which
which which is surprising, right? Like If you think about it, you know, insurance is kind of the the original like big data industry. Like back in UK and Europe in the seventeenth century, they're putting together mortality tables and and You're still on my
line, Max. That's that's what I've been saying. I'm saying that that insurers are the OG. They are the only companies, right? They're predicting predicting outcomes for for hundreds of years, right? They take data, they predict outcomes. That's what insurers do.
Welcome to Orbit, the HG podcast series, where we speak to leaders and innovators from across the software and tech ecosystem to discuss the key trends that change how we all do business. My name is Max Duas. I'm a director at HG, where I spearhead our North American investing efforts in financial end markets, including insurance. As such, I'm thrilled to be joined today by my fellow Max D, Max Strucker, the founder and CEO of Carpe Data, a company that is at the forefront of using emerging data to improve outcomes across the insurance cycle. Max, it's great to see you again.
Good to see you as well.
Well listen, thank you, um thank you very much for doing this today. Uh I know you're a a busy guy. Um Lots that we'd love to cover on all things data insurance and and the applications thereof, but You know, for our listeners, we'd love to just get, you know, the uh the headline intro to to you, your background and and what you guys are working on at at Carpe Data.
Sure. Um well thank you. Yeah, I'm um Looking forward to this conversation. CarPeg Data is an alternative data company specifically for insurers. We look at uh the big problems across the insurance uh life cycle spectrum, across various lines of business. And look to identify new data sources and new data elements. uh to improve insurance outcomes. And and generally what that means is basically everything we do breaks down to one of two categories. It's either to enable flash unlock automation so that's uh skipping manual steps in the process from uh underwriting to uh claims process or as we describe improving insurance outcomes. And that can be something as you know predictable as loss, but also things such as pricing, things as paying the right amount for a claim, things about reducing cycle time, etc.
So again, everything we do is about identifying those use cases to to really move the needle for the carrier. that there's still so much tremendous opportunity with data to enable these automated decisions, to enable uh selection um improvements. uh enable uh effectively having a different window, different insight into risks than they've previously had with uh the traditional data sources.
Got it. And and how did you uh how did you get into that? How did you get into that? You were you uh have you always been an insurance guy?
I I I consider myself to be something of an insure tech dinosaur. Um, I mean, so uh for those of you that can't uh see me here, I I have white hair. But so uh I began my career uh out of college working at Apple. So I I came up from the technical side, but That was part of dot com one point z era and I was recruited in to be a founder of eCoverage, which was the first uh online auto insurance carrier. So uh my my claim to fame here in my in my life and my greatest accomplishment
is that I
I was part of a team that that built uh uh the first uh web based uh online insurance platform we sold the first uh auto insurance policy on the internet.
How did Max Drucker get started in insurtech and what were his early ventures?
And that's what he covered did. There you go. And he covered yeah, yeah, that yeah, exactly. So it just shows you how how uh How old I am. Uh, and that was a company that was backed by uh e Trade and Softbank. And that was that air that era. And so um There was no software, there was no web-based software whatsoever. I mean, literally did not exist. There was no guide wire, there was no um Duck Creek or any of these other companies at at the time.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why is insurance considered the original big‑data industry?
0:01–3:51
2
How did Max Drucker get started in insurtech and what were his early ventures?
3:51–8:09
3
What are the three modern trends that enable new data use in insurance?
8:09–13:07
4
How can unconventional data sources—like swimming‑pool detection—improve underwriting?
13:07–17:23
5
Why do Yelp reviews and online ratings predict loss risk for businesses?
17:23–22:16
6
What challenges do legacy carrier systems pose and how can APIs help integrate new data?
22:16–30:50
7
How is automation reshaping claims, underwriting and employee experience in 2022?
30:50–34:18
8
What should we expect to see at InsureTech Connect in Las Vegas?
34:18–34:38
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