8DECEMBER - 2017Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, said that the "Web 3.0" era will be driven by data. I lived through that transition in my past life at LinkedIn, where I was VP of Product Management from 2009 to 2014. Our business model was built on top of the profile data that LinkedIn users submitted, and many external parties wanted access to it. So we built APIs that enabled authorized third parties to submit and extract data from LinkedIn. This allowed us to control the flow of data in and out of LinkedIn's systems. We could grant or revoke access, limit query volume, and minimize unauthorized traffic on our web frontend. The APIs took time to build, maintain, and program-manage, but they gave LinkedIn full control over how third-parties interacted with its data and services. After my experience at LinkedIn, I assumed that virtually every company was going through the same transition to provide programmatic access to their systems and data. Boy, was I wrong!Fast-forward to earlier this year when, on behalf of Norwest, I led an investment in PolicyGenius, an insurance marketplace that makes buying insurance as easy as booking travel. It's an exciting company that's innovating on the parts of the insurance-buying process that matter. Modern consumers want to buy things online with minimal friction. They want to do research to compare their options and they want to know that they're getting a great deal. And that's where PolicyGenius comes in. They've built a platform that addresses all those consumer needs, just like Amazon in e-commerce or Kayak in travel.If only the rest of the insurance industry were as innovative and forward-thinking.In one of my first meetings with the PolicyGenius co-founders, Jennifer Fitzgerald and Francois de Lame, they mentioned that insurance carriers still require applications to be submitted as PDFs via email or FTP. None of the carriers offered application APIs or otherwise supported programmatic submission of an application. In response, the PolicyGenius IN MY OPINIONFor InsureTech to Flourish, Carriers Must Ensure TechBy Parker Barrile, Partner, Norwest Venture Partners
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