Clearcover’s Next Chapter and How Our Culture Fuels It
Written by The Clearcover Team | 3 minute read
In just four years, Clearcover has experienced exponential growth—growth that has been fueled by an amazing group of people as well as by our core values: Our dedication to people, our commitment to keeping perspective, and our focus on performance.
Now, with the exciting news of securing additional funding, 2021 is going to be an even bigger year. As we grow, we’ll lean even more on our core values and operating principles as we shape Clearcover into a company that’s ready for its next phase.
To celebrate this funding milestone, here’s a look at where we started as a company, where we are now, and where we’re going—and how our values of People, Perspective, and Performance have taken shape through this journey, saving the best, People, for last.
Strengthening our performance: Here’s how it all began
Clearcover was founded in 2016. By 2018, we had successfully launched in our first state with a scrappy, lion-hearted crew of roughly 30 employees. (You can read an account from Kyle Nakatsuji, Clearcover’s founder and CEO, about launching an insurance company here.)
Around this time, we first developed our cultural value of Performance. Here’s what that looks like:
Embracing the underdog. We embrace the underdog: We’re building things no one has ever built before in a deeply established and highly competitive industry. As a team, we must have the courage to keep moving forward when things are hard, maintaining resourcefulness, and finding a way when the path is hidden.
Executing with urgency and focus: We’re continuously improving our work and one another by challenging ourselves. As a small team with big goals, working with a deep sense of urgency and focus is built into our DNA.
Accomplishing more with less: Working at a growing startup can be difficult. Working successfully at Clearcover involves being scrappy and generating new ideas. Sometimes we may even be down a player, but we still have to find a way to succeed. We’ve carried this strength and grit into our cultural framework as we’ve grown as a team.
These values were solidified in our small team in the beginning, and they’ve carried us through the challenges of growth to where we are today.
Who we are now: A smart, scrappy startup making unique strides in our industry
As of March 2021, Clearcover has scaled to 245 employees while serving 15 states. Going from 30 employees to 245 in just a few years has challenged us to evolve, develop, and refine our culture.
Throughout our growth, we’ve remained firmly rooted in our core values and operating principles established by that initial small team. And in 2020—one of the most challenging business years in memory—we really leaned into our core values of Perspective and People.
Gaining perspective in a challenging environment
Even in a deeply challenging year such as 2020, we grew. We adapted. We progressed.
And we did that, in large part, by leaning on our core value of Perspective. Here’s what we mean when we talk about perspective at Clearcover:
Playing the long game: We work as a team and win as a team, playing the long game. It takes hard work and dedication to continue to build a smarter car insurance company from scratch. Getting to the finish line by our own efforts alone is tiring, but by working together, we can go further faster.
Investing in understanding: Diversity and inclusion are crucial to a healthy country—and a healthy car insurance company. We share our diversity numbers publicly, and we stay aware that there is much we still need to learn. We provide a safe, welcoming environment to share ideas openly and honestly, truly listening and learning from one another.
Thinking “better-er”: We challenge ourselves to think better. And then think better-er again. When we were faced with the challenges of 2020, we communicated and collaborated to overcome them—together. We use data to make decisions and learn from our mistakes to grow and change.
When the pandemic hit, we knew we had to think on our feet, adapt quickly, and play the long game—not just for our customers, but for our employees. We knew that whatever happened in 2020, we’d never be able to thrive if the people on our team weren’t strong and well. So we increased our commitment to the overall wellness of our people, with a clear focus on mental health resources. (And that was just the first step. You can read more about our 2020 initiatives here.)
And while the year wasn’t easy for anyone, the Clearcover team accomplished amazing things. We expanded service to 7 new states, launched the fastest claims experience in car insurance, provided increased employee support throughout a pandemic, and rolled out employee guides and assistance for remote work.
We’re people first, always
In our cultural journey as an organization, we’ve recognized that we’re deeply people first—that’s why, when you see us talk about our core values of People, Performance, and Perspective, the word People is always leading the way.
Here are the components of Clearcover’s commitment to people:
Empowering others: We work to empower all voices on our team—no one likes a ball hog. We recognize the only way we succeed is as a team, therefore, we want everyone on the team to succeed. In each onboarding journey, employees receive everything they need to start out on the right foot, and continued training is available.
Seeking accountability: Every employee owns their own career. We give employees the playbook, but each one of us comes up with our own workout plan.
Being honest with ourselves and others: We believe honest feedback is critical to success. To be a better team, we all commit to being honest with ourselves and others.
We live out these values by supporting our employees as they take the lead in their own careers. At Clearcover, we believe receiving regular feedback makes us better (and better-er), so we prioritize weekly and biweekly one-on-one meetings as well as quarterly performance reviews.
And here’s another unique way we live out our people-first culture: We recognize the speed at which Clearcover is moving isn’t for everyone, and we’ve discovered how to best support team members all the way through their last day—and beyond—as they continue their career journey.
Within individual career journeys, employees may outgrow Clearcover and Clearcover may outgrow employees. We believe it’s important to give people the respect, support, and resources they deserve when moving up or moving on in their career.
Recently, we also initiated what we call the “Pacesetter Program,” where we identify top performers across Clearcover to ensure we give them opportunities to grow and develop. And soon, Clearcover is rolling out a management training program for both existing and future management. Ultimately, we’re not only excited for what’s ahead for Clearcover as a company, but we’re also celebrating the milestones individual employees are making in their own careers.
Where we’re going: Our next steps toward continued growth
We’re growing—and fast. We’re excited and grateful to announce that we closed $200 million for Series D funding led by Eldridge, with participation from existing investors American Family Ventures, Cox Enterprises, OMERS Ventures, as well as several other new investors.
The funding will accelerate the innovation of our digital insurance offerings by investing in (and growing in) our insurance, product, and engineering teams. Here’s what we hope to accomplish in 2021.
Goal #1: Hire more people
In 2021, we anticipate hiring close to 200 people—so if you like what you’ve read so far, let’s talk. We’re searching for candidates who are the right fit for our culture and have unique superpowers that aren’t yet represented on our team. (Learn more about what your life at Clearcover will look like.)
Goal #2: Build better-er technologies and user experiences
Creating a smarter, hassle-free car insurance experience is what we do. We’ll continue putting energy toward refining our technology—including our proprietary machine learning and AI, our quote experience, and our digital claims and app experience.
Goal #3: Expand across the U.S.
We plan to continue expanding our coverage across the U.S. by launching in several new states, including Virginia, Nevada, and North Carolina in 2021.
Clearcover’s next chapter: Are you in it?
Insurance is a complicated business, but we’re on a mission to make it smarter, simpler, and better-er for both our customers and our employees.
And with the help of our recent funding, we plan to take on our biggest goals yet. To do that, we’re carefully recruiting talented, enthusiastic people to help us effectively scale.
It’s an exciting time. Clearcover is building something no one has ever built before. And we’ll continue to put the values, people, and teams in place that will promote and sustain a thriving company culture. In other words, we plan to grow right, and we hope you’ll join us for the journey.
