As a venture investor, taking risk may be the core part of our job, but that doesn’t mean that all risk is good. In fact, mitigating unnecessary risk can be as important as backing the right company.
At Canaan, like most venture firms, we require our companies to purchase Directors and Officers insurance (D&O Insurance). For any one of our portfolio companies, an expensive and headline-grabbing lawsuit would almost certainly lead to a ruined opportunity. D&O coverage protects not just the company but also the individual directors and officers, founders and investors from expensive litigation.
That said, in the past we’ve always a bit sheepish in the ask. Shopping for insurance is about as much fun as a root canal. It’s a huge hassle for our companies to collect all the necessary info, deal with an extended underwriting process and make sure the price is competitive. It needlessly adds to the cognitive load that founders need to deal with and distracts from more important jobs.
This is why we are so pleased to recommend the new Embroker D&O product to all of our portfolio (and all startups!). Embroker is a Canaan portfolio company improving the way commercial insurance is underwritten and sold. Embroker’s Startup Program, which includes D&O and other coverages startups need, is a 10x improvement to traditional old-school commercial insurance:
- D&O insurance typically takes 60 days to purchase with multiple back and forths, while Embroker’s Startup Program can be fully underwritten and purchased in five minutes.
- The Embroker Startup Program is 100% backed by one of the world’s largest reinsurance companies, Munich Re. On average, it costs 20% less than competitive products – enough savings to celebrate the next company milestone in style.
- It’s built specifically for startups, by Embroker, solving for the exact coverages and limits that a startup needs.
Ultimately our job is to support founders in building the next generation of businesses that change the way business is done. Whenever we can support them in that journey by taking some cognitive load off their plate we try to do so. That’s why Canaan recommends our portfolio companies take advantage of The Embroker Startup Program for D&O insurance – it’s one thing they can easily check off their list and get back to focusing on the real challenges at hand.
More information on D&O and other lines of coverage in Embroker’s Startup Program can be found at https://www.embroker.com/offer/startup-program