Risk Management

Insurance 101: what’s a retention?

Ever feel like reading your policy creates more questions than it answers? You’re not alone. Insurance is filled with jargon. While there’s good reason for your insurance policy being a 100+ page monster filled with a dizzying web of definitions and exclusions, the ‘why‘ doesn’t really matter to most people…they just want to know what’s

Startup Risk Tips: Optimizing your Insurance Policies

Insurance should be seen as more of an investment than a cost, but given the busy and chaotic lives of Founders, it sometimes becomes a check-the-box activity.  When utilized properly, companies can get value from their policies well beyond that generated by a “set it and forget it” approach.  Here are a few tips to optimize your insurance policies

What We Do That Your Health and Benefits Broker Probably Doesn’t

A lot of people will tell you how happy they are with their current health and benefits broker and rave about how fantastic of a job they’re doing. Still the question remains: “is he really doing the best job he possibly can?” These same people will claim how their broker is the nicest guy in

The Top 5 Business Insurance Requirements from Landlords, Clients, and Investors

We see all kinds of business insurance requirements (and coverage change requests) from our clients’ landlords, clients, investors, business partners, and more. These requests are processed by creating an “endorsement” on the policy that puts the change into effect. From a location change to adding a new coverage to a liability policy, some endorsements are

Business Insurance Package Policies & How They Benefit Startups

Choosing commercial insurance can be daunting.  You want your company to be properly protected, but you don’t want to break the bank. Luckily, that’s why business insurance package policies exist! Insurance carriers frequently bundle various coverage types together, providing a cost-effective approach compared to acquiring them individually. This strategy not only keeps expenses in check

How Insurance Companies Measure Payroll (and Bill You For It)

If you’re a growing business operating in the 21st century, you’ve most likely read about or experienced the importance of separating salaried employees from 1099 workers (Independent Contractors).  If you’re less well-read on the subject, bottom line is this: at the end of the year, your workers compensation insurer will “audit” your payroll and charge

Patent and IP Insurance: Protect Your Ideas

  So what exactly is the value of an idea? These days it can make or break your business.   There has been a 71% increase in patent lawsuits over the last 6 years. There was a mind-blowing number – 2,754 to be exact – of patent infringement lawsuits filed in 2015; for which the

FS101: Minimum On-Demand Delivery Insurance Requirements

Update: We’ve released a new whitepaper examining the Sharing Economy industry. We dive into the insurance landscape, legal climate and how to approach risk management for companies in this sector. You can download the report here! Basic risk management tips for on-demand delivery companies We work with no shortage of on-demand companies operating in the ride share, car

Business Insurance 101: HealthTech, Health Marketplaces, & Telemedicine

Behind the Scenes: Quoting Insurance for Scaling Companies

Let’s go shopping! Think of the insurance market like a fruit market.  You want the fresh, clean, beautiful fruit that’s in season!  You shop around, check for bruises or marks, and then decide which fruit to buy. The way we get insurance quotes is quite similar. We review all the quotes that we receive from

Understanding Insurance Costs as Your Company Grows

FS + 99Designs Starter Kit

We’re excited to announce that we’ve partnered with 99designs on the small business starter kit: a go-to source for all of the tools younger companies need to ramp up accelerate growth. Beyond an insurance 101 lesson from Founder Shield, the kit includes many other tips and tricks for anything from getting funding, building a brand, hiring to create

The Importance of Tail Insurance Coverage for Startups

A tail insurance policy is one of the most important risk mitigation tools for a startup approaching an exit. The mission for every founder is pretty much the same: get some traction, get funded, scale rapidly, and hit an exit opportunity.  While the occasional unicorn might be fortunate enough to IPO, most startups go the

4 Key Things to Look for On Your Business Insurance Quotes

It would be extremely surprising if you didn’t have some questions when looking at your first business insurance quotes.  They’re extremely detailed and certainly not the easiest document to digest.  Here’s a quick overview of the major items you should be looking at on your quote. [Note: this article is mainly pertaining to errors and

Getting Business Insurance for On-Demand Startups

The Business Insurance Renewal Checklist (for Startups)

Business insurance renewals are usually uncharted territory for a young startup.  Typically, venture-backed startups experience significantly more change/growth year over year compared to your standard new business venture.  It’s important to understand how this affects your startup’s insurance coverage and how to ensure you’re properly protected.  Here’s the “checklist” of items to be aware of as your policies renew.

Startup Risk Tips: Don’t Let Your Business Insurance Lapse

Sometimes things don’t go quite as planned and your company ends up a bit more cash strapped than anticipated at year end.  The typical gut reaction is to pull the rip chord and cut any and all “extraneous” expenses.  Insurance is considered by some to be one of those expenses.  Here’s why you shouldn’t be quick to

Don’t Wait: 7 Reasons to Find a Good Startup Lawyer Now

We’re all about teaming up with great startups on a mission to help the startup community excel.  Priori Legal is one of those awesome companies.  This guest post from proiri is important from an insurance perspective because many underwriters will ask for the legal work described below when quoting your insurance policy.  Without these documents, insurance can be more

Priori Legal’s Guidelines for Finding the Right Lawyer

We’re all about teaming up with great startups on a mission to help the startup community excel.  Priori Legal is one of those awesome companies.  This guest post provides some helpful tips for hiring a startup lawyer. Priori Legal is an online platform for connecting start-ups and SMB’s with a network of vetted lawyers at below-market (and wherever possible)

Year in Review: 2014 Cyber Attacks (What Startups Should Know)

2014 Cyber Attacks Reviewed For the last four years, cyber risk management firm Net Diligence has done a report on cyber insurance claims for the year…and 2014 has been a hell of a year for cyber attacks.  This year’s report has been published and has some very interesting findings pertaining to the startup community.  

Intellectual Property Insurance — What Startups Need to Know