Irvine Founder Assessments

Key Partners

• Who are your critical partners/suppliers and what do they provide to your company?

  State Street and Charles Schwab are custodians. Vanguard provides access to asset management products. Experian, Trinet and Justworks are distribution channel suppliers. Navia Benefits Solutions is a key strategic partner. We have a multi-year, seven figure agreement with this National distribution channel for our white label and licensing solutions.

Key Activities

• What specific key activities are necessary to deliver your value proposition?

  Only 20% of Americans work at large enough companies to enjoy well managed and affordable Retirement Savings Plans. Brokerage, investment and specialist firms cannot afford to serve the majority of small businesses due to their high-cost structure, based on scale at a single company. Leveraging best-in-class technology our digital recordkeeper streamlines plan setup, onboarding, investments, and admin tasks enabling advisors and TPAs to serve this market. Retirement Plan Activities: – Plan design and investment selection for core plan – Administration and compliance and audit support (5500s) – Ongoing Plan Sponsor and Participant support and education – Financial Wellness and Education TPA Intermediary Activities: – Streamline communications (notifications, alerts, etc) – Investments selection and ongoing management – Reporting and management summaries – Compliance and regulatory administration Core activities above are reduced up to 90% based on our automation, API integrations and streamlined plan design, investing, communications and reporting.

• What activities set your company apart from others?

  There are 34M businesses in the US with only

Key Resources

• What specific key resources or assets are necessary to deliver your value proposition?

  Key resources needed to build and expand our value prop are a combination of expertise in retirement, investments and compliance (retirement regulations) and entrepreneurial product and engineering talent (dev, data, AI, etc).

Audience Relationships

• What type of relationship do you have with your customers?

  Penelope initially targeted micro/small businesses directly and served 401(k) plan sponsors (employers) and participants (employees) in 2022- 2023. During that time, we received 100% CSAT Customer Satisfaction scores with our digital high touch service model using AI/ML via chat apps. Since pivoting this year to embed our software via white label and licensing model, we work directly with TPAs and advisors who serve retirement plans. Our current focus is onboarding our strategic partner

• How do you interact with customers and how does this differ amongst customer segments?

  This audience tends to be tightly knit and entrenched with many TPAs having worked in the industry for 25+ years and alongside each other. Conferences and events are the primary avenues of meeting and engaging them. Key conferences are sponsored by the ARA (Amer. Retirement Assn) including NAPA (Natl Assn of Plan Advisors), ASPAA (Amer. Society of Pension Plan Prof), Broadridge and Randug (FIS). Custodians such as Charles Schwab and Fidelity also provide networking and educational events. More recently, the US Chamber of Commerce and AARP have held several regulatory, policy and innovation events. We are invited to attend and speak at several of these conferences annually.

Audience Segments

• Who are you creating value for?

  We have reimagined how retirement plans are delivered today. By starting with the worker/employee as the north star vs the advisor and TPA, all parties can benefit. If a 401(k) retirement account has automated onboarding and investments features with an simple UX/UI design that can be opened in less 5 mins, employees benefit by participating and saving. When a 401(k) plan has simple design, low cost investments and employee education, employers benefit by attracting and retaining top talent and reducing costs and administrative budget including answering employee questions. When a retirement platform is feature rich and low cost, TPAs and advisors can lower operational costs and increase margin by targeting more starter plans with smaller businesses.

• Who are your most important customers?

  TPAs – we have a strategic partnership with Navia Benefits Solutions who are actively growing the small and middle market by bundling retirement with their core consumer directed health offering (HSA, FSA, Cobra, etc). Our core DTC (direct to client small businesses) are instrumental in operating as our “lab” to help refine our product for TPAs.

Distribution Channels

• Through which Channels do you reach your customer segments?

  Primarily through networking from existing relationships with custodians such as Schwab and State Street as well as key conferences. Our CEO/Founder has been in the industry for 20+ years. Key advisors and investors provide direct referrals including access to strategic partners.

• Which channels work best?

  Direct referral partners and conferences.

• How much do the channels cost?

  100,000

• How are you integrating them with customer routines?

  For strategic partners, our teams meet on monthly and quarterly basis. For prospective customers and existing partners, meet at Fall/Spring events NASPP, ASPA, Broadridge, Wealth At Work, etc.

What problem is your company trying to solve and what needs are your company satisfying?

The US is facing a retirement cliff. One in four have zero saved for retirement and two-thirds of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. With Social Security at risk, older Americans are working longer and struggling to save. 46% of Americans work for privately held, micro/small business owners who not able to provide a retirement savings plan due to high costs and complexity. Penelope’s smart recordkeeping software enables the TPAs and advisors who work with these small business owners to administer their plans more efficiently.

How do you offer something different that satisfies the demands of your customer segments?

When we initially launched in April 2022, we targeted small businesses directly with a 401(k) plan. Beginning in April 2024, we pivoted to targeting TPAs, advisors and benefits administrations with two solutions: 1. White label: bundled retirement plans – Safe Harbor and Starter(k) with Solo(k) coming in early 2025 – featuring automated onboarding, contributions, investing and admin, all branded to the TPA and advisors. We provide the backend, servicing and admin support with the TPA and advisors service the clients. 2. Licensing recordkeeping software: our platform minimizes the operational complexity and costs for third party administrators (“TPAs”) focused on retirement. There are over 5,000 TPAs who manage

Cost Structure

• What are the major drivers of costs?

  Major drivers of costs are: – R&D (product and dev) – 45% – Operations (Cust. Services) – 35% – G&A – 20%

• How do your key activities and key resources contribute to the cost structure?

  Overall Digital Recordkeeping & Retirement Plan Activities: – Product and dev support (integrated plan docs, APIs to payroll, trading & investments, custody, etc.) – Compliance and legal support TPA Intermediary Activities: – Customer servicing and support – UAT testing by dev analysts

Revenue Stream

• What value is your customer willing to pay?

  500,000

• What channels do your customers pay? How would they like to pay?

  Our customers can be categorized, and pay accordly, as follows: 1. White Label: – One time implementation fee (invoiced at contract signing) – Monthly servicing fee (ACH or Stripe) – PEPM (price per participant per month) (Stripe) 2. Licensing: – Implementation fee (invoiced at contract signing; paid equally over implementation period) – PEPM fees based on tiers by number of participants (Stripe) 3. Direct to Client: – Set up fee (ACH or Stripe) – Monthly admin fee (ACH or Stripe) – PEPM for active participants (Stripe) Going forward, our focus is on serving TPAs via #1 and #2 channels above.

• How much does each revenue stream contribute to the overall revenues?

  As we transition our revenue model to TPAs, our revenues will break down to: – White Label (40%) – Licencing (60%)

Jean Smart, CEO: 44% Ownership
Slauson & Co.: 14% Ownership
PrimeTime Partners: 8% Ownership
GFVP: 8% Ownership
Amplify: 7% Ownership
Other (<3% each): 19% Ownership

• Has an updated and completed pitch deck or business plan that contains ALL of the following sections: Executive Summary, Team, Problem, Total Addressable Market, Solution, Use Case / Scenarios, Timeline, Monetization / Business Model, Competitors, Current Traction, Financials.
• Penelope has a sales plan that outlines its revenue strategy, channels, and expected yield from each.
• Penelope has taken initial steps or completed a filing of a trademark for the brand and/or slogan of the business.

• Penelope has documented research regarding product-market fit.
• Penelope has a detailed multi-channel marketing strategy.
• Has standardized messaging across all platforms where information can be found (web, social media, etc.)
• Penelope has a comprehensive social media and communications strategy.
• Penelope has a PR plan that involves a regularly scheduled press release and positive social media content regarding the company.
• Penelope has a public relations contact readily available that understands the company and is well versed in handling publicity.
• Penelope has a strong social give-back/corporate social responsibility partnership that is kept active and displayed/shared clearly.
• Penelope has a media kit readily available for press or customers to download when searching for snippets, logos, or other information for a story.
• Penelope has a documented plan of action for disasters, scandals, or unplanned crises.
• Penelope has no negative press online.
• Penelope does not have multiple negative reviews online that describe something similar.
• Penelope has never been the victim of libel/slander and sees no imminent threat to the company’s reputation.
• Penelope Has a customer support process to receive and handle customer support issues
• Penelope has analyzed the media platforms its competitors are using to market their products or services.

Key Partners

• Who are your critical partners/suppliers and what do they provide to your company?

  We receive data from one of the largest CCRCs in the midwest which we are using to improve the accuracy of our predictive models. We’ve partnered with Financial Independence Group both as a customer and as a sales channel to individual advisory groups. We’ve partnered with the Caregiver Action Network as their sole financial partner providing their users with access to Waterlily, which serves as lead generation for our fulfillment partner. All other partners/suppliers are either customers, advisors, investors, or software providers like AWS.

Key Activities

• What specific key activities are necessary to deliver your value proposition?

  Waterlily can be used self-serve as a SaaS platform, but many wealth advisors and agents choose to walk their client through the platform step by step to improve their experience and increase the sales conversion further.

• What activities set your company apart from others?

  Waterlily stands apart through several key operational and team-driven activities: 1. Elite Team Composition and Execution – Our founding team combines exceptional backgrounds (UC Berkeley at 11 and 14, MIT Ph.D. at 16, Forbes 30 Under 30, experience at Palantir, NASA, Google, etc.) with proven entrepreneurial success (Evan is an exited founder, previously CEO of Clara Health) – Our technical leadership includes specialists who excel across data science, machine learning, and full-stack engineering – We maintain an incredibly high bar for talent while keeping our core team lean and efficient 2. Innovative Use of AI for Operational Excellence – We leverage Large Language Models (LLMs) extensively in our daily operations to automate and enhance: – Content creation and marketing materials – Customer support documentation – Sales outreach and follow-up – Software engineering and documentation – This AI-first approach in combination with requiring every team member to be sufficiently technical to do their own light scripting and automations allows us to maintain extremely high quality while operating at significantly lower costs than any would-be competitors 3. Efficient Global Team Structure – We’ve built a sophisticated hybrid team model combining elite US-based leadership with a highly effective team of 40+ in the Philippines – Our operational structure enables us to maintain an exceptionally low burn rate while delivering enterprise-grade results – We’ve developed proprietary systems for managing and scaling offshore teams using AI and automation 4. Rapid Execution and Iteration – Our team consistently pushes 60+ hour work weeks to drive industry-leading results, and hits 80-100 hours when the opportunity calls for it – We maintain a culture of rapid experimentation and iteration, quickly testing and implementing new ideas – Our lean structure enables us to move faster than larger competitors, particularly in product development and customer response 5. Cost-Efficient Growth – We’ve achieved significant milestones with minimal capital expenditure through innovative use of technology and efficient team structure – Our approach to scaling combines automation, AI, and strategic use of offshore talent to achieve results at a fraction of typical costs – We maintain strict capital efficiency while still delivering enterprise-grade results to major customers like Prudential This combination of elite talent, innovative AI utilization, efficient team structure, rapid execution, and cost-effective operations enables Waterlily to consistently outperform larger companies while maintaining exceptional capital efficiency. Our ability to leverage these elements together creates a unique operational advantage that would be difficult for would-be competitors to replicate.

Key Resources

• What specific key resources or assets are necessary to deliver your value proposition?

  Waterlily’s value proposition relies on several critical resources and assets: 1. Proprietary Data and AI Models – Access to over 500 million data points on aging and care trajectory – Advanced machine learning models that deliver highly accurate LTC predictions – Proprietary algorithms that significantly outperform traditional Monte Carlo analyses – Growing dataset from partnerships with major insurers, home health agencies, and care facilities 2. Technical Infrastructure – Sophisticated LLM integration for automated policy analysis – Secure data handling systems compliant with healthcare and financial regulations – Scalable platform architecture supporting enterprise-level deployment – Advanced analytics capabilities for processing complex datasets 3. Elite Technical Team – World-class data scientists and engineers led by founders with exceptional backgrounds – Deep expertise in machine learning, healthcare technology, and financial services – Proven track record in scaling enterprise software solutions – Combined experience in both startup environments and major institutions 4. Strategic Partnerships – Relationships with major insurance carriers like Prudential – Integration with Financial Independence Group (FIG) and other large distributors – Growing network of financial advisors and insurance agents – Partnerships with home health agencies and care facilities 5. Operational Resources – Efficient hybrid team structure combining US leadership with Philippines-based operations – Automated systems for sales, marketing, and customer support – Advanced LLM-powered content creation and analysis tools – Sophisticated offshore team management systems 6. Regulatory Compliance Framework – Infrastructure to meet insurance industry regulatory requirements – Capability to handle sensitive healthcare and financial data – Systems designed for HIPAA, GDPR, and financial services compliance – Framework for expanding into additional regulated services These resources and assets work together to enable Waterlily to deliver accurate, personalized long-term care predictions and planning tools while maintaining high efficiency and scalability.

What type of relationship do you have with your customers?

Waterlily maintains multi-layered, strategic relationships with our customers: 1. Enterprise Leadership Engagement – Primary relationships are with C-suite executives and SVPs in sales, strategy, life, and LTC departments – Regular weekly meetings with leadership teams for feedback and strategic alignment – Deep collaborative partnerships focused on industry innovation and market development – Joint thought leadership initiatives, including co-authored articles and speaking engagements – Invitations to speak at customer-hosted industry summits as recognized thought leaders 2. Strategic Partnership Model – Standardized pricing structure with recurring SaaS fees – Flexible monthly or annual billing options – Transparent, predictable pricing that scales with usage – Long-term commitment to customer success and growth 3. Product Support and Success – 24/7 live chat support powered by AI chatbot trained on product documentation – Seamless escalation path to core team for specialized support – Regular check-ins to ensure optimal product utilization – Comprehensive help documentation and training resources – Direct access to product team for feature requests and feedback 4. End User Support (Financial Advisors/Agents) – Dedicated support channels for day-to-day users – Access to training and educational resources – Regular product updates based on user feedback – Community engagement through thought leadership content – Responsive technical support for immediate needs 5. Collaborative Innovation – Active solicitation of customer feedback for product development – Joint development of industry best practices – Regular sharing of insights and market trends – Partnership in developing new solutions for emerging challenges – Co-creation of educational content and resources Our relationship model emphasizes deep partnership at the enterprise level while ensuring comprehensive support for all users across the organization. This approach enables us to maintain strong strategic alignment while delivering exceptional day-to-day value to all stakeholders.

How do you interact with customers and how does this differ amongst customer segments?

Waterlily maintains distinct interaction models for different customer segments: 1. Enterprise Customers (Insurance Carriers & Large Distributors) – Direct C-suite and SVP-level relationships – Weekly strategic meetings for feedback and alignment – Collaborative thought leadership initiatives – Joint speaking engagements at industry events – Custom implementation support – Dedicated account management – Regular data sharing and analytics reviews 2. Financial Advisors & Insurance Agents – 24/7 AI-powered live chat support – Access to comprehensive help documentation – Product training resources – Automated onboarding – Direct escalation path to core team when needed – Regular product updates and feature announcements – Access to marketing materials and sales tools 3. End Users (Families & Individuals) – Guided interface for self-service planning – Automated support through AI chatbot – Educational resources and content – Automated follow-ups for plan completion 4. Integration Partners – Technical documentation and API support – Integration testing and validation – Regular technical reviews – Update notifications – Compatibility testing – Performance monitoring Each interaction model is designed to maximize value for the specific customer segment while maintaining efficiency through automation and AI-powered tools where appropriate. This segmented approach ensures that each customer type receives the level and type of support that best meets their needs.

Audience Segments

Who are you creating value for?

Waterlily creates value for multiple stakeholders in the long-term care ecosystem: 1. Families & Individuals – Those needing to prepare for future long-term care needs – People wanting to protect their retirement savings and inheritance – Families seeking to avoid emotional and financial devastation from lack of preparation – Those looking to make informed decisions about aging and care preferences – Individuals wanting to maintain control over their future care choices 2. Financial Advisors – Wealth managers seeking to protect client assets and relationships – Advisors looking to engage the next generation of clients – Professionals wanting to reduce liability in LTC planning – Those seeking data-driven tools for sensitive client conversations – Advisors wanting to drive new revenue through insurance and financial product sales 3. Insurance Carriers – Companies seeking to understand and manage their blocks of business – Carriers looking to reduce claims risk in their in-force populations – Organizations wanting to expedite underwriting processes – Insurance companies aiming to increase policy sales – Carriers adapting to new state LTC coverage mandates 4. Insurance Distributors – IMOs/FMOs/BGAs seeking to generate and qualify leads – Distributors wanting to increase agent productivity – Organizations looking to streamline sales processes – Companies wanting to enhance client retention – Distributors seeking to provide value-added tools to their agents 5. Benefits Brokers – Brokers looking to differentiate their employee benefits offerings – Those seeking to provide comprehensive financial wellness solutions – Professionals wanting to help employers address LTC planning needs – Brokers aiming to increase revenue through voluntary benefits – Those wanting to provide data-driven recommendations to employers 6. Employers – Companies wanting to enhance their employee benefits package – Organizations seeking to improve financial wellness programs – Employers looking to reduce productivity loss from caregiving – Those wanting to attract and retain talent through comprehensive benefits – Companies aiming to support employees’ long-term financial planning 7. Employees – Workers seeking to protect their financial future – Those wanting to balance work and family caregiving responsibilities – Employees looking for comprehensive benefits solutions – People seeking guidance on long-term care planning – Those wanting to protect their retirement savings 8. Care Providers – Home health agencies looking to better predict future demand – Assisted living facilities seeking to understand market needs – Care facilities wanting to improve occupancy planning – Healthcare providers seeking to optimize care delivery – Organizations wanting to better understand their future client base By creating value across these segments, Waterlily helps bend the growing multi-trillion dollar LTC cost curve while ensuring better outcomes for all stakeholders in the long-term care journey.

Who are your most important customers?

Most are under NDA. They include Prudential, 3 other life insurance carriers, Financial Independence Group, the Caregiver Action Network, one of the largest LTC BGAs, and one of the largest CCRCs in the Midwest.

Distribution Channels

Through which Channels do you reach your customer segments?
Everything has been inbound either through word of mouth, conference attendance, or advisor introductions.

Which channels work best?
Conference attendance and word of mouth.

How much do the channels cost?
$0

How are you integrating them with customer routines?
We will be attending and speaking at nearly all major industry conferences in 2025.

What problem is your company trying to solve and what needs are your company satisfying?

Waterlily addresses several critical problems in long-term care (LTC) planning: Primary Problem: Families are unprepared for long-term care needs, leading to devastating financial and emotional consequences. Over half of Americans will need significant LTC that traditional health insurance won’t cover, yet 164.5 million Americans have life insurance but no LTC coverage. This lack of preparation leads to: – Financial devastation when LTC is needed – Family conflicts and emotional trauma – Rushed, suboptimal care decisions – Depletion of family savings and inheritance – Permanent rifts in family relationships Specific Needs Satisfied: 1. For Families: – Accurate prediction of future LTC needs decades in advance – Personalized care planning based on individual circumstances – Clear understanding of expected costs and financial requirements – Guidance for proactive financial and estate planning – Tools to facilitate family discussions about care preferences 2. For Financial Advisors: – Data-driven tools to initiate LTC planning conversations – Ability to provide precise, personalized recommendations – Reduced liability in LTC planning – Improved client satisfaction and retention – Better engagement with clients’ children for generational planning 3. For Insurance Carriers: – Enhanced understanding of their blocks of business – Expedited underwriting processes – Reduced claims risk for in-force populations – Improved policy sales through data-driven recommendations – Better customer engagement and satisfaction 4. For Insurance Distributors: – Increased policy sales through personalized recommendations – Improved lead generation and qualification – Enhanced client engagement and retention – Data-driven insights for client targeting – Streamlined sales processes The problem is becoming increasingly urgent due to: – The impending “silver tsunami” of retiring baby boomers – Rising healthcare costs (projected 5.4% annual growth through 2031) – Increasing median costs ($105,000+ annually for nursing home care) – New state mandates requiring LTC coverage – Growing complexity in care options and financial products By addressing these problems and needs, Waterlily helps bend the growing multi-trillion dollar LTC cost curve while ensuring families are better prepared for their future care needs.

How do you offer something different that satisfies the demands of your customer segments?

Waterlily offers several distinctive solutions that address specific customer segment demands: 1. For Financial Advisors and Insurance Agents: – AI-powered predictions that enable earlier, more accurate LTC planning conversations – Consumer-friendly interface that makes sensitive discussions more approachable – Story-driven planning tools that motivate client action and product purchases – ROI comparison tools that model different insurance and self-funding options – Ability to drive new annuity, life, and LTC insurance sales – Tools to engage the next generation of clients through family-centered planning 2. For Insurance Carriers: – Advanced data analytics for better understanding policy blocks – Automated policy analysis using large language models – Risk reduction for in-force populations through proactive planning – Expedited underwriting processes through data-driven insights – Enhanced customer engagement and satisfaction metrics – Tools to meet emerging state LTC coverage mandates 3. For Insurance Distributors (IMOs/FMOs/BGAs): – Lead generation through personalized LTC planning – Data-driven targeting for policy sales – Streamlined sales processes through automated analysis – Enhanced agent productivity through AI-powered tools – Better client retention through comprehensive planning 4. For End Users (Families): – Highly accurate, personalized predictions of LTC needs – Comprehensive care planning that considers family dynamics – Clear cost projections accounting for local rates and inflation – Easy-to-understand comparisons of funding options – Tools to facilitate family discussions about care preferences – Guidance for proactive estate and financial planning What makes these offerings unique: – Unprecedented prediction accuracy through analysis of 500M+ data points – Integration of LLMs for automated policy understanding – Consumer-friendly interface that drives engagement – Story-driven approach that motivates action – Comprehensive planning that considers both financial and care aspects – Ability to predict needs decades in advance – Precise ROI modeling for different funding options This combination of advanced technology, user-friendly design, and comprehensive planning capabilities enables Waterlily to satisfy diverse customer needs in ways that traditional solutions cannot match.

Cost Structure

• What are the major drivers of costs?

  Airfare and lodging for conference attendance. Potentially sponsorship for paid speaking positions, but thus far all have been invited speaker positions with $0 cost to attend.

• How do your key activities and key resources contribute to the cost structure?

  The more conferences we attend, and the larger presence we have at them, the more those channels will cost. Word of mouth can be incentivized with revenue sharing which would create cost.

Revenue Stream

• What value is your customer willing to pay?

  250

• What channels do your customers pay? How would they like to pay?

  We charge customers via Stripe subscriptions. They seem to be satisfied with this.

• How much does each revenue stream contribute to the overall revenues?

  Vast majority of revenue today is SaaS subscription. A small subset is usage based revenue connected to the total plans created, and this pricing is only used with a few customers.

• Has an updated and completed pitch deck or business plan that contains ALL of the following sections: Executive Summary, Team, Problem, Total Addressable Market, Solution, Use Case / Scenarios, Timeline, Monetization / Business Model, Competitors, Current Traction, Financials.
• Waterlily has a sales plan that outlines its revenue strategy, channels, and expected yield from each.
• Waterlily has taken initial steps or completed a filing of a trademark for the brand and/or slogan of the business.

• Waterlily has documented research regarding product-market fit.
• Waterlily has a detailed multi-channel marketing strategy.
• Has standardized messaging across all platforms where information can be found (web, social media, etc.)
• Waterlily has a comprehensive social media and communications strategy.
• Waterlily has a PR plan that involves a regularly scheduled press release and positive social media content regarding the company.
• Waterlily has a public relations contact readily available that understands the company and is well versed in handling publicity.
• Waterlily has a media kit readily available for press or customers to download when searching for snippets, logos, or other information for a story.
• Waterlily has a documented plan of action for disasters, scandals, or unplanned crises.
• Waterlily has no negative press online.
• Waterlily does not have multiple negative reviews online that describe something similar.
• Waterlily has never been the victim of libel / slander and sees no imminent threat to the company’s reputation.
• Waterlily Has a customer support process to receive and handle customer support issues
• Waterlily has analyzed the media platforms its competitors are using to market their products or services.

Action Items

Waterlily does not currently have a strong social give back / corporate social responsibility partnership that is kept active and displayed clearly. While the management team’s energy may be focused on new business, growing, or overseeing the staff, time should also be carved out to discuss and further some sort of social responsibility program. While positive PR is not the reason you should be doing this, it can come in handy in the event that there is negative sentiment circling. The team should be seen as doing some good for the community or promoting change for the better, and can only open doors to expand. Customers and/or users like to feel as if they are a part of a movement, even if it is not tangible for them.

InsurTech Express is the leading tech resource in the Life & Health Insurance and Annuity Industry. We unite carriers, reinsurers, distributors, advisors, and solution providers on a secure online platform, giving them access to essential tools, industry discounts, job opportunities, and cutting-edge software solutions. With a vast network of over 200,000 industry connections, we deliver everything from software development and strategic consulting to marketing, training, and an online store for top insurance tech solutions. We’re where the insurance community comes together to innovate, connect, and grow. Visit InsurTechExpress.com for more!

Key Partners
Who are your critical partners/suppliers and what do they provide to your company?
We have software development team in India that we contract and they provide software development for our software development services, maintain our AI tools, and any coding needed for our website.

Key Activities
What specific key activities are necessary to deliver your value proposition?
Our marketing team works with the software solution providers to implement content in social and digital media.

What activities set your company apart from others?
We are a central resource for life insurance technology. We not only provide marketing services, but resources for consulting and software development.

Key Resources
What specific key resources or assets are necessary to deliver your value proposition?
Our marketing team and our software development team.

Audience Relationships

• What type of relationship do you have with your customers?We build strong, collaborative relationships with our customers, tailored to their specific needs and goals. These relationships include: Strategic Partnerships: We work closely with carriers, distributors, and solution providers as trusted partners, helping them achieve their objectives through tailored solutions, marketing campaigns, and strategic consulting. Advisory Relationships: For advisors, we provide tools, training, and resources that support their daily operations and enhance their effectiveness, creating a dependable, supportive relationship. Collaborative Connections: Our presence at industry events allows us to establish and nurture personal relationships with our customers, fostering trust and mutual respect. Long-Term Engagements: Many of our clients rely on us for ongoing services, such as software solutions, platform access, and continuous marketing support, solidifying a long-term partnership. Community-Centric Relationships: Through our extensive network and industry involvement, we act as a central hub, connecting our customers to opportunities, peers, and innovations, reinforcing a sense of belonging and shared growth. These relationships are built on trust, reliability, and a commitment to delivering exceptional value, ensuring our customers see us as an indispensable part of their success.
• How do you interact with customers and how does this differ amongst customer segments?We interact with customers through a variety of channels, tailored to the unique preferences and needs of each customer segment: Carriers Interaction: Personalized meetings, both in-person at industry events and virtually, to discuss strategic partnerships and technology solutions. Approach: Focused on high-level discussions about industry trends, solutions that address operational efficiency, and opportunities for collaboration. Distributors Interaction: Regular communication through email campaigns, webinars, and targeted marketing outreach. Approach: Highlighting tools and services that can streamline their operations and enable better connectivity with advisors and carriers. Advisors Interaction: Providing resources through our online platform, such as job opportunities, advisor tools, and industry discounts. Approach: Emphasizing ease of access to practical tools and resources, with responsive customer support to address their specific needs. Solution Providers Interaction: Collaborative partnerships where we market their offerings, position them in front of the right audience, and provide feedback on market needs. Approach: Hands-on involvement in building their visibility and driving results through targeted campaigns. We attend key industry events whereby we engage with hour customers in person. Differentiation Among Segments: Our interaction style varies from strategic and consultative for carriers and solution providers to more practical and resource-focused for advisors and distributors. This segmentation ensures that every customer receives value in a way that aligns with their business objectives and operational needs.

Audience Segments

• Who are you creating value for?Life insurance carriers, reinsurers, distributors, insurance & financial advisors.
• Who are your most important customers? All my clients are very important including solution providers that pay us to market their platforms and services, to the carriers & distributors that pay us to consult and do software development.

Distribution Channels

• Through which Channels do you reach your customer segments? Independent Brokerage, Direct Marketing Channel for Life Insurance, and Financial Institutions.
• Which channels work best? Our biggest outreach is to the Independent Brokerage distribution channel.
• How much do the channels cost?100,000
• How are you integrating them with customer routines? We integrate our solutions with customer routines by deeply understanding their specific needs and aligning our offerings to address those requirements seamlessly. Here’s how: Tailored Positioning: We position our solution providers to directly meet the unique challenges and goals of carriers, distributors, and advisors in the life insurance industry. By curating solutions that fit into their workflows, we ensure they gain immediate value from our network. Extensive Research: When hired as consultants, we conduct thorough market research and client-specific analysis to deliver actionable insights and strategic recommendations that resonate with their business routines. Ongoing Support: We ensure continuous engagement through training, marketing, and sales enablement tools that help our customers integrate solutions effortlessly into their daily operations. Accessibility through Technology: Our online platform provides a centralized hub for customers to access resources, software, and tools at their convenience, making it easier to adopt and benefit from our solutions. By focusing on relevance, usability, and support, we ensure our offerings align seamlessly with the routines of carriers, distributors, and advisors, making us an essential part of their business success.

What problem is your company trying to solve and what needs are your company satisfying?

The life insurance industry faces significant challenges due to the lack of a centralized marketplace for discovering and accessing software solutions. This fragmentation leads to inefficiencies, as companies struggle to find the right tools to meet their needs. Additionally, outdated technology and disjointed communication channels further exacerbate these issues, resulting in higher operational costs, slower innovation, and a subpar experience for carriers, reinsurers, distributors, and financial advisors. InsurTech Express solves these challenges by offering a centralized, secure online platform that serves as the go-to marketplace for insurance technology solutions. Our platform not only connects the entire life insurance ecosystem but also provides access to a wide range of industry-leading software, tools, and resources. With over 200,000 industry professionals in our network, we streamline the process of finding and implementing the right technology solutions, driving efficiency, reducing costs, and fostering innovation across the industry. (INSURTECHEXPRESS.COM PLATFORM)

How do you offer something different that satisfies the demands of your customer segments?

We differentiate ourselves by offering a comprehensive ecosystem that satisfies the unique demands of our customer segments—carriers, distributors, and advisors—through the following: Unmatched Network: With over 200,000 industry connections, we provide access to the largest and most diverse network in the life insurance industry, enabling customers to connect with the right partners and opportunities. Tailored

Solutions: We carefully position our solution providers to address specific challenges faced by each customer segment, ensuring relevance and immediate value. Comprehensive Platform: Our secure online platform offers a one-stop shop for tools, industry discounts, job opportunities, and the latest software solutions, streamlining access to resources. Industry Expertise: Backed by extensive research and a deep understanding of market trends, we offer strategic consulting and marketing services that are not only effective but also customized to the nuances of the life insurance market. Event Presence: Our regular attendance at industry events ensures personal engagement, strengthening relationships and building trust with customers. Value-

Added Services: From training programs to exclusive advisor tools, we provide resources that go beyond basic expectations, supporting customer growth and success. This holistic approach sets us apart, as we don’t just meet customer needs—we anticipate them and provide innovative solutions that empower their business.

Cost Structure

• What are the major drivers of costs?

  Travel to industry events.

• How do your key activities and key resources contribute to the cost structure?

  Our key activities and resources directly shape our cost structure by focusing on the elements essential to driving growth and maintaining our industry presence: Travel to Industry Events: Regular attendance at industry events is a core activity for building relationships and expanding our network. These costs include travel, accommodations, and event fees, which are critical investments in connecting with clients and prospects. Marketing Team: Our marketing team is a key resource responsible for amplifying our brand, executing campaigns, and managing client promotions. Their salaries, tools, and resources form a significant part of our cost structure. Tools to Support Our Team: We invest in tools like CRM systems, marketing automation platforms, data analytics software, and collaboration tools to enhance efficiency and effectiveness, directly impacting our operational costs. Content Development and Technology: Producing high-quality content, maintaining our online platform, and ensuring seamless integration of solutions for our clients are ongoing activities that contribute to both cost and value. These investments are essential to our strategy, as they enable us to deliver value to our network, expand our reach, and drive revenue growth.

Revenue Stream

• What value is your customer willing to pay?

  10,000

• What channels do your customers pay for? How would they like to pay?

  Our customers primarily pay through digital channels, including our secure online platform, which allows for easy transactions. Additionally, some customers prefer direct invoicing for services like consulting or marketing campaigns, which we process through traditional billing systems. How do they like to pay? Customers typically prefer flexible payment options, including: Credit Card Payments: Convenient for quick transactions on our online platform. Bank Transfers: Preferred for larger or recurring payments, such as marketing retainers or consulting fees. Subscription Models: Some customers opt for subscription-based pricing for ongoing access to tools and services. By offering multiple payment options, we accommodate the preferences of carriers, distributors, and advisors, ensuring seamless and customer-friendly transactions.

• How much does each revenue stream contribute to the overall revenues?

  Consistently Marketing revenue makes up 90%, however, a big software project or consulting opportunity can move the needle.

Has an updated and completed pitch deck or business plan that contains ALL of the following sections: Executive Summary, Team, Problem, Total Addressable Market, Solution, Use Case / Scenarios, Timeline, Monetization / Business Model, Competitors, Current Traction, Financials.

Action Items:
Insurtech Express, LLC has a sales plan that outlines its revenue strategy, channels, and expected yield from each.
Insurtech Express, LLC has not taken initial steps or completed a filing of a trademark for the brand and/or slogan of the business. It goes without saying that as new concepts and ideas are constantly being created, the risk increases daily for your company regarding the protection of your brand. While it may be too early to file for a trademark or patent for your concept, you can always display the TM symbol to show the intent to register the company, a form of immediate and cost effective protection. You should confer with company counsel to see if they or someone they can recommend will handle the filing soon, or when the time is right.

• Has standardized messaging across all platforms where information can be found (web, social media, etc.)
• Insurtech Express, LLC has a comprehensive social media and communications strategy.
• Insurtech Express, LLC has a PR plan that involves a regularly scheduled press release and positive social media content regarding the company.
• Insurtech Express, LLC has a public relations contact readily available who understands the company and is well-versed in handling publicity.
• Insurtech Express, LLC has no negative press online.
• Insurtech Express, LLC does not have multiple negative reviews online that describe something similar.
• Insurtech Express, LLC has never been the victim of libel/slander and sees no imminent threat to the company’s reputation.
• Insurtech Express, LLC Has a customer support process to receive and handle customer support issues
• Insurtech Express, LLC has analyzed the media platforms its competitors are using to market their products or services.

Action Items

• Insurtech Express, LLC has not conducted an in-house or independent market research study. Without conducting and having a well-laid out market research report, you run the risk of launching a product or service that may not be needed, or you may identify other needs that may be more or less important. Companies can also launch and misallocate resources to the wrong segments, which can be expensive and time-consuming mistakes. Investors want to see that they are providing capital for the company to execute, rather than experiment. Market research doesn’t need to be an expensive process – there are large firms, small firms, and even freelancers online that do great work, depending on the budget.
• Insurtech Express, LLC does not have a detailed, multi-channel marketing strategy. When creating a marketing strategy, the company must take into consideration all potential clients, competitors, substitutes and other parties that may have influence on the business. There are many factors that can influence the company’s marketing activities, such as social factors, political, legal, technological, economic ones, and so on – so having a clear marketing strategy is critical to show the staff, any potential investors, or potential partners that you have outlined how exactly the company’s goals are going to be achieved.
• Insurtech Express, LLC does not currently have a strong social give back / corporate social responsibility partnership that is kept active and displayed clearly. While the management team’s energy may be focused on new business, growing, or overseeing the staff, time should also be carved out to discuss and further some sort of social responsibility program. While positive PR is not the reason you should be doing this, it can come in handy in the event that there is negative sentiment circling. The team should be seen as doing some good for the community or promoting change for the better, and can only open doors to expand. Customers and/or users like to feel as if they are a part of a movement, even if it is not tangible for them.
• Insurtech Express, LLC does not have a brand and media kit available for download if someone is searching for snippets, logos, or other information for a story. Brand guidelines inform the reader what type of fonts, color schemes, and rules there are regarding your company, and in turn reduces the risk of the public perception of you going a different way than you or the person utilizing your information intended. Assuming you want to grow the company and you are going to utilize the press and internet to do so, you will need to have media kits readily available. This kit usually has high resolution versions of your logo(s), and carefully curated descriptions and other information for people to quote or use without having to wait for someone from the company to get back to them.
• Insurtech Express, LLC does not have a documented plan of action for disasters, scandals, or unplanned crises. Developing a plan that is available to key employees is important in the event that you or other management members are unreachable or away from the office. By ensuring you have a PR consultant on standby, a generally positive digital presence, and ties back to the community, you can easily develop a strategy to deal with situations when they arise, often out of the blue.

InsurTech Navigator AI
InsurTech Express
Ken Leibow LinkedIN
InsurTech Express YouTube Channel
IE Cybersecurity
InsurTech Books

Life & Annuity B2B2C Links:

• BuySPIA.com
• ShopSPIA.com
• AnnuityShowroom.com
• LifeInsuranceShowroom.com
• SearchforLifeInsurance.com
• SearchingforLifeInsurance.com
• SearchingforAnnuities.com
• LifeInsurancePlaza.com
• AnnuityPlaza.com

Key Partners

• Who are your critical partners/suppliers and what do they provide to your company?

  AlphaBot, Inc.: Alphabot is the analytical engine that our front end technology is built on top of. AlphaBot founder Dmitri Alexeev is a key investor in our company and serves as our OCTO. Mammoth Technology: Our back end technology partner, Mammoth Technology founders are former colleagues of Banrion Founder, Shana Orczyk Sissel. Mammoth serves as an important joint venture that has provided a fully integrated technology platform. Mammoth creates custom client portals to aggregate client data, provide data reconciliation, document delivery and digital on-boarding for our clients. Banrion has a revenue share agreement with Mammoth Technology, we receive 20% of all revenue Mammoth generates from Banrion clients.

Key Activities

• What specific key activities are necessary to deliver your value proposition?

  Content creation and marketing Analytical tools Technology development Due Diligence services Brand Building Distribution Strategy Professional networking Media Visibility

• What activities set your company apart from others?

  Our advisor focused model is SaaS based, while our competition relies heavily on Pay to Play. Our marketing reach and focus on delivering an advisor centered solution, that is open architecture and decentralized is a key differentiator. Lastly, our extremely strong brand, led by the superior network founder Shana Orczyk Sissel has built has generated trust and respect in our target market. Shana is seen as a thought leader in the wealth management space and is highly visible to the firms we target.

Key Resources

• What specific key resources or assets are necessary to deliver your value proposition?

  Much of our advantage comes from the expansive network and Founder Shana Orczyk Sissel’s reputation as a visionary in wealth management. Our marketing prowess and earned media footprint far exceeds even our largest competitors. This has allowed Banrion to pursue major partnership initiatives with major industry leaders like WisdomTree, Morningstar and Apollo.

Audience Relationships

• What type of relationship do you have with your customers?

  We are a B2B tech-enabled SaaS model. We charge our clients a subscription fee to use our technology. Additionally, we offer a la carte services at an additional cost.

• How do you interact with customers and how does this differ amongst customer segments?

  Banríon Capital Management primarily serves wealth managers and alternative asset managers. In the United States alone, there are over 45,000 registered investment advisors with more than $128T in assets under management. This highly fragmented market is difficult to navigate without specific expertise. Through Banríon’s platform asset managers are able to match with advisors that are looking for their products. Banríon does the due diligence and educational heavy lifting, while providing advisors with advanced operational workflows. We provide a traditional relationship management structure to all Banrion Clients, on the advisor side, most of our services are scalable and automated. On the asset manager side, our approach offers a bit higher touch, assisting with distribution strategy and brand building and marketing support to our advisor clients.

Audience Segments

• Who are you creating value for?

  We generate value for both of our key segments. The goal is to create an elegent and efficient user experience for all users which is de-centralized and scalable. We solve for all major points of friction that currently exist in the space. Ultimately our greatest value comes from our ability to integrate across a tech stack and our desire to build a robust marketplace of deal flow, focused on ensuring the operation and compliance checks are completed but we do not seek to gatekeep deal flow or transaction activities of our users.

• Who are your most important customers?

  Financial Advisors. Our entire value proposition to our other partners is based on access and distribution to financial advisors and their end clients who can drive transaction activity. None of this works if advisors don’t use our solution.

Distribution Channels

• Through which Channels do you reach your customer segments?

  We primarily focus on social content creation, earned media and industry conference speaking opportunities. Founder Shana Sissel, is a highly sought after speaker and media contributor. Her reputation in the industry has resulted in Banrion generating significant cold inbound demand. As we grow we intend to implement a more formalized proactive go to market strategy which will focus on high profile sponsorship opportunities at the big industry events.

• Which channels work best?

  Earned media and speaking opportunities by far and away drive most of our business opportunities.

• How much do the channels cost?

  100,000

• How are you integrating them with customer routines?

  It’s hard to answer this question, our focus on thought leadership and earned media opportunities allows us to reach our target audience who rely heavily on these channels for business development and to keep current on industry trends.

What problem is your company trying to solve and what needs are your company satisfying?

Alternative investments are used by institutional investors looking for the benefit of diversification and potential for outsized positive returns for their investment portfolio. However, the wealth management industry has largely ignored the benefits of the space. In fact 74% of financial advisors DO NOT incorporate alternatives in client portfolios. Lack of education, operational complexity and lack of access for all clients are the primary reasons advisors give for not using these products. Banrion Capital provides these advisors with a solution eliminates these hurdles through technology. Banrion Capital is a b2b tech-enabled marketplace that allows financial advisors to invest and scale alternative investment solutions across their book of business from the non-accredited to the qualified purchaser. Most access marketplaces cater only to accredited investors, making it a one-time solution. Banrion’s open architecture model marketplace allows for 40 act funds, as well as Private vehicles. We remove operational and compliance friction though our user friendly investment portals that integrate seamlessly with the back office software solutions advisors employ.

How do you offer something different that satisfies the demands of your customer segments?

Our technology platform is the only solution build for advisors by advisors. As former financial advisors ourselves we understand the complexity of advisor business operations. The company was founded after Founder, Shana Sissel struggled to find a solution to help the advisors she worked with build a comprehensive offering of alternative investments for their clients. The legacy players were designed to help asset managers raise asset, not financial advisors integrate alternatives into their back office operations. As a result advisors continue to search for better solutions that remove the friction from the process of investing in alternatives. Banrion was designed to be highly scalable and fully flexible to provide advisors with a comprehensive solution while seamlessly integrating with their existing tech stack. We easily integrate with Orion, Black Diamond, Addepar, Tamarac, HubSpot and SalesForce. The Wealth Management space has seen record demand for alternative investment solutions. The legacy providers continue to serve the asset managers more than the advisors. It is predicted that over $5T will look to move to alternative investment solutions over the next 5-10 years. The opportunity to introduce the first advisor centered alternatives technology platform has never been better than it is today.

Cost Structure

• What are the major drivers of costs?

  Today our biggest cost is payroll. Our success is contingent on us having specific expertise which is highly regarded in a competitive market place. This requires that we compensate our talent at the industry average or better.

• How do your key activities and key resources contribute to the cost structure?

  Travel is a major cost to our firm, it is imperative that we travel to leverage speaking opportunities, meet with potential customers and investors. Most of our remaining expenses are focused on technology expenses and membership fees.

Revenue Stream

• What value is your customer willing to pay?

  60,000

• What channels do your customers pay? How would they like to pay?

  Banríon primarily generates revenue through reoccurring subscription contracts for its tech enabled service offering. Contracts have a minimum one year term with auto renewal. Our agreements our opt out not opt in, allowing us to avoid timely and expensive renegotiations year after year. We have pricing power as the agreement includes guidelines for increasing our subscription fees that reduce potential client loss. Clients can choose to pay monthly or in advance. Advance pay agreements allow customers to receive a 10% discount on the annual subscription fee. Additionally, Banríon has partnered with Mammoth Technology to build our white labeled investor portals. This arrangement includes a 20% revenue share from Mammoth for Banríon clients opting into the Mammoth’s development agreement.

• How much does each revenue stream contribute to the overall revenues?

  70% SaaS Reoccuring Subscription Revenue 20% Revenue Share Agreements 10% On-Demand Services

• Has an updated and completed pitch deck or business plan that contains ALL of the following sections: Executive Summary, Team, Problem, Total Addressable Market, Solution, Use Case / Scenarios, Timeline, Monetization / Business Model, Competitors, Current Traction, Financials.
• Banrion Capital Management has a sales plan that outlines its revenue strategy, channels, and expected yield from each.
• Banrion Capital Management has taken initial steps or completed a filing of a trademark for the brand and/or slogan of the business.

• Banrion Capital Management has documented research regarding product-market fit.
• Has standardized messaging across all platforms where information can be found (web, social media, etc.)
• Banrion Capital Management has a comprehensive social media and communications strategy.
• Banrion Capital Management has a PR plan that involves a regularly scheduled press release and positive social media content regarding the company.
• Banrion Capital Management has a public relations contact readily available who understands the company and is well versed in handling publicity.
• Banrion Capital Management has a strong social give-back/corporate social responsibility partnership that is kept active and displayed/shared clearly.
• Banrion Capital Management has no negative press online.
• Banrion Capital Management does not have multiple negative reviews online that describe something similar.
• Banrion Capital Management has never been the victim of libel/slander and sees no imminent threat to the company’s reputation.
• Banrion Capital Management Has a customer support process to receive and handle customer support issues

Action Items

• Banrion Capital Management does not have a detailed, multi-channel marketing strategy. When creating a marketing strategy, the company must take into consideration all potential clients, competitors, substitutes and other parties that may have influence on the business. There are many factors that can influence the company’s marketing activities, such as social factors, political, legal, technological, economic ones, and so on – so having a clear marketing strategy is critical to show the staff, any potential investors, or potential partners that you have outlined how exactly the company’s goals are going to be achieved.
• Banrion Capital Management does not have a brand and media kit available for download if someone is searching for snippets, logos, or other information for a story. Brand guidelines inform the reader what type of fonts, color schemes, and rules there are regarding your company, and in turn reduces the risk of the public perception of you going a different way than you or the person utilizing your information intended. Assuming you want to grow the company and you are going to utilize the press and internet to do so, you will need to have media kits readily available. This kit usually has high resolution versions of your logo(s), and carefully curated descriptions and other information for people to quote or use without having to wait for someone from the company to get back to them.
• Banrion Capital Management does not have a documented plan of action for disasters, scandals, or unplanned crises. Developing a plan that is available to key employees is important in the event that you or other management members are unreachable or away from the office. By ensuring you have a PR consultant on standby, a generally positive digital presence, and ties back to the community, you can easily develop a strategy to deal with situations when they arise, often out of the blue.
• Banrion Capital Management has not analyzed the media platforms its competitors are using to market their products or services.

Banrion Capital Management in the News

Banrion Capital YouTube Channel

Banrion Technology Demo For Asset Managers

Banrion Capital Management Advisor Platform Demo

Get to Know The Banrion Capital Management Team

Today, the life & annuities markets operate like we’re in an analog world. Policy data is fragmented and unstructured and core processes continue to be painfully manual. Leopard is fixing that by creating an indispensable tech layer that modernizes and streamlines the life and annuities markets, starting with in force policy management and optimization. For the first time, Leopard is able to retrieve and structure in force policy data, analyze it for up-sell and cross-sell opportunities and automate many of the routine service and support tasks that take too much time for the independent agent and carrier alike. By harnessing Leopard’s data digitization, analysis, and process automation, distributors–and eventually carriers–can multiply their customer lifetime values and minimize operational costs.

Key Partners

• Who are your critical partners/suppliers and what do they provide to your company?

  Policy data gathering: This is largely done via Leopard Connect, our policy retrieval system that connects directly to carrier portals to gather policy data. We work with a company called Automat, which provides AI-powered process automation, for the back-end technology that fuels Leopard Connect. Quoting: We use Hexure for term life quoting and iPipeline for permanent life quoting. We’re exploring working with Ebix to assist with permanent quoting and are beginning to have conversations with carriers regarding direct quoting integrations.

Key Activities

• What specific key activities are necessary to deliver your value proposition?

  1. Onboarding (e.g., training new users on the platform, helping them configure their settings, etc.) 2. Policy and policyholder data retrieval & structuring 3. Analysis of policy and policyholder data 4. Quoting 5. AI evaluation of field underwriting guidelines 6. Sales enablement for the broker (e.g., generating talking points that summarize existing coverage and alternative options, auto-populating comparison grids for coverage, etc.) 7. Ongoing customer relationship management (e.g., checking in with customers, determining ROI and assessing cost-savings, answering questions and soliciting feedback, etc.)

• What activities set your company apart from others?

  Policy retrieval and data structuring: our ability to connect directly to carrier portals to retrieve and structure policy data is truly unique. Policy analysis/opportunity mining: we’re able to compare existing coverage to other options on the market at scale Sales enablement: AI-generated talking points and auto-populated comparison grids are unique in the market AI-powered field underwriting: instead of rigid workflow rules we’ve developed the ability to read underwriting manuals to determine eligibility for various products

Key Resources

• What specific key resources or assets are necessary to deliver your value proposition?

  Technologically, we rely on three assets: – Process automation for policy retrieval and servicing & support automation – Access to large swaths of data for product/data benchmarking – Analysis engine to uncover opportunities Otherwise, there are two key assets: – Industry expertise, which accelerates product development because we don’t have as much learning to do – Industry connections, which make it easier to drive sales and form partnerships

Audience Relationships

• What type of relationship do you have with your customers?

  We work very closely with our earliest design partners and customers, meeting with them at least monthly and often more frequently than that. Additionally, they all have direct access to the founding team, and we prioritize our roadmap according to their needs. This is still a relationship-driven industry, in many ways, and we keep that in mind in our approach to customer engagement.

• How do you interact with customers and how does this differ amongst customer segments?

  My answer to the prior question should largely have answered this, but we conduct structured onboarding, regularly check in with customers, measure success according to their goals and try to regularly gather feedback. We’ve focused on distributors, but our expectation is that when we work with carriers we’ll take largely the same approach, though we’ll likely need to take an even more consultative and flexible approach to working with them, since carriers are large organizations with multiple stakeholders and bespoke needs.

Audience Segments

• Who are you creating value for?

  – IMOs, FMOs, BGAs – Financial institutions (BDs, RIAs, banks & credit unions) – Carriers

• Who are your most important customers?

  Our early design partners and customers have been absolutely critical in getting us to where we are today. Those include NFP, Legacy Funding, SageCrest Wealth (an LPL BD), Optimized Insurance, and DMI, among others. We’re also looking forward to getting up and running with Total Financial and hopefully expanding throughout Simplicity. We haven’t yet engaged much on the carrier side but have maintained open communication with Lincoln and L&G.

Distribution Channels

• Through which Channels do you reach your customer segments?

  We rely on a fairly traditional outbound B2B sales process, but we’ve found a unique approach in bringing on advisors that are senior industry executives who can introduce us to very senior stakeholders are target firms. That has accelerated our customer acquisition significantly, and we believe it will continue to be a unique approach that will help us grow faster than others.

• Which channels work best?

  Advisor-based introductions

• How much do the channels cost?

  0

• How are you integrating them with customer routines?

  (N/A – not sure I understand the question?)

What problem is your company trying to solve and what needs are your company satisfying?

At a macro level we’re working to remove the inefficiencies that exist throughout life & annuities distribution that keep revenue per policyholder low and drive up operational costs. More tactically distributors currently spend too much time hunting for new clients because they can’t easily identify opportunities with existing clients (they don’t have the data and can’t analyze it at scale to identify opportunities). Additionally, their routine servicing and support tasks are manual, which drives up operational costs.

How do you offer something different that satisfies the demands of your customer segments?

We leverage process automation, digitization of data and analysis to increase customer lifetime value.

Cost Structure

• What are the major drivers of costs?

  Our cost breakdown is as follows: – Product & engineering =

• How do your key activities and key resources contribute to the cost structure?

  Process automation and quoting are key resources and activities and account for

Revenue Stream

• What value is your customer willing to pay?

  55

• What channels do your customers pay? How would they like to pay?

  Distributors pay $54.99/user/month, which scales up as each user manages more policies in Leopard. It’s a subscription SaaS model. We haven’t yet started working with carriers, but we expect them to also pay SaaS subscription fees on a much larger scale.

• How much does each revenue stream contribute to the overall revenues?

  All revenue currently comes from distributor subscription fees.

• Has an updated and completed pitch deck or business plan that contains ALL of the following sections: Executive Summary, Team, Problem, Total Addressable Market, Solution, Use Case / Scenarios, Timeline, Monetization / Business Model, Competitors, Current Traction, Financials.
• Leopard has a sales plan that outlines its revenue strategy, channels, and expected yield from each.
• Leopard has taken initial steps or completed a filing of a trademark for the brand and/or slogan of the business.

• Leopard has documented research regarding product-market fit.
• Has standardized messaging across all platforms where information can be found (web, social media, etc.)
• Leopard has a public relations contact readily available that understands the company and is well-versed in handling publicity.
• Leopard has a documented plan of action for disasters, scandals, or unplanned crises.
• Leopard has no negative press online.
• Leopard does not have multiple negative reviews online that describe something similar.
• Leopard has never been the victim of libel/slander and sees no imminent threat to the company’s reputation.
• Leopard Has a customer support process to receive and handle customer support issues
• Leopard has analyzed the media platforms its competitors are using to market their products or services.

Action Items

• Leopard does not have a detailed, multi-channel marketing strategy. When creating a marketing strategy, the company must take into consideration all potential clients, competitors, substitutes and other parties that may have influence on the business. There are many factors that can influence the company’s marketing activities, such as social factors, political, legal, technological, economic ones, and so on – so having a clear marketing strategy is critical to show the staff, any potential investors, or potential partners that you have outlined how exactly the company’s goals are going to be achieved.
• Leopard does not have someone that monitors and posts on social media. Regardless of the business line, product or service, people shop online. A social media strategy is fundamental to your go-to-market strategy, and like a diet, should be a permanent lifestyle adjustment for the business. Participate in the conversations, create, aggregate and share relevant content with your audience and build and strengthen your brand and product/service portfolio. Small investments here can pay dividends as you scale your business.
• Leopard does not currently have a PR plan that includes regularly scheduled press releases and positive social media content. A massive red flags for users, customers, strategic partners, or financiers is working with a company that is virtually non-existent. Another risk that comes with not having a regular PR release and content plan is that you have a generally blank slate, so if something negative does get posted or occur, the comments or news is now the top result tied to your company’s keywords. Aside from building credibility for the company, putting positive articles and content out there regularly will balance the ‘SEO scales’ in favor of showing the good things as opposed to negatives if something were to happen.
• Leopard does not currently have a strong social give back / corporate social responsibility partnership that is kept active and displayed clearly. While the management team’s energy may be focused on new business, growing, or overseeing the staff, time should also be carved out to discuss and further some sort of social responsibility program. While positive PR is not the reason you should be doing this, it can come in handy in the event that there is negative sentiment circling. The team should be seen as doing some good for the community or promoting change for the better, and can only open doors to expand. Customers and/or users like to feel as if they are a part of a movement, even if it is not tangible for them.
• Leopard does not have a brand and media kit available for download if someone is searching for snippets, logos, or other information for a story. Brand guidelines inform the reader what type of fonts, color schemes, and rules there are regarding your company, and in turn reduces the risk of the public perception of you going a different way than you or the person utilizing your information intended. Assuming you want to grow the company and you are going to utilize the press and internet to do so, you will need to have media kits readily available. This kit usually has high resolution versions of your logo(s), and carefully curated descriptions and other information for people to quote or use without having to wait for someone from the company to get back to them.

Key Partners

• Who are your critical partners/suppliers and what do they provide to your company?

  Dassault Systemes – Provides modeling and simulation tools for human digital twin platform. Invited to apply for company accelerator program in 1Q25. In mature discussions with several channel partners.

Key Activities

• What specific key activities are necessary to deliver your value proposition?

  1Q25 – Tech Platform Development 2Q25 – Human Digital Twin and Personalized Healthcare Pilot Launches 2H25 – Clinical Trial Contract Win

• What activities set your company apart from others?

  Whole-Body Human Digital Twin (HDT) R&D – Development of a functional interoperable model of the entire human body. HDT Pre-Surgical Planning – Using HDTs to model patient outcomes in advance of complex surgial procedures. In-Silico Clincal Trials – Conducting FDA clinical trials using synthetic HDT models in lieu of real-world patients. Personalized Preventative Healthcare – Proactive preventative healthcare program that leverages HDT technology to proactively address patient health concerns. Channel Partnerships – Our turnkey white-label delivery model has attracted national and global partners to bring our solutions to their existing customer bases.

Key Resources

• What specific key resources or assets are necessary to deliver your value proposition?

  Team – We have a team of experts that have previously successfully implemented key aspects of our solution offering. Technology – We are developing a technology platform that allows us to automate and scale our solution offerings. IP – We are developing a significant patent portfolio strategy that will act as one of our barriers to competition.

Audience Relationships

• What type of relationship do you have with your customers?

  We have previously either worked or done business with the majority of our current pipeline customers.

• How do you interact with customers and how does this differ amongst customer segments?

  Most of our customer interactions are through our channel partners (B2B2B/B2B2C). This allows us to leverage the trust established by our partners with their existing customer base.

Audience Segments

• Who are you creating value for?

  We create value across the healthcare industry – payors, pharma/biotech, care providers, and patients.

• Who are your most important customers?

  We are in advanced NDA discussions with several large pilot customers for each of our offerings.

Distribution Channels

• Through which Channels do you reach your customer segments?

  We are working with insurance carriers/reinsurers to build new supplemental product offerings and reimbursement structures to reach our customer segments.

• Which channels work best?

  We are launching pilots in 2025 to quantify channel performance.

• How much do the channels cost?

  0

• How are you integrating them with customer routines?

  We customize our solutions to each channel partner’s existing customer demographic and GTM approach, so that it becomes a seamless offering to their existing offerings and customer experience.

What problem is your company trying to solve and what needs are your company satisfying?

Pharma and biotech companies need to reduce the cost and risk of clinical trials, which enables them to (1) bring a broader portfolio of products to market and (2) serve a broader set of the population that is often times seen as too risky to include in trials. Our in-silico clinical trial solution changes the clinical trial paradigm such that the results are known going into the trial. The clinical trial then becomes a validation point rather than an investigation with an unknown outcome. This new process dramatically reduce the cost and risk of early-stage clinical trials. Care providers need to reduce the costs and risks of complex procedures under the evolving ACO model. Our HDT pre-surgical planning solutions help better inform care providers on intervention options, which leads to better overall patient outcomes.

How do you offer something different that satisfies the demands of your customer segments?

See previous answer

Cost Structure

• What are the major drivers of costs?

  patient data acquisition for their human digital twin is a major driver of cost. This is why we have developed a B2B2C offering where patients pay us to acquire and manage their human digital twin as a proactive preventative healthcare solution.

• How do your key activities and key resources contribute to the cost structure?

  COGS/COS: 50% margin SG&A: 20% margin

Revenue Stream

• What value is your customer willing to pay?

  32,000

• What channels do your customers pay? How would they like to pay?

  customers pay us directly and through channel partners depending on the offering. They would like to pay through insurance which is our next major channel roadmap item.

• How much does each revenue stream contribute to the overall revenues?

  We forecast that each solution offering will generate

• Has an updated and completed pitch deck or business plan that contains ALL of the following sections: Executive Summary, Team, Problem, Total Addressable Market, Solution, Use Case / Scenarios, Timeline, Monetization / Business Model, Competitors, Current Traction, Financials.
• Nexus Healthcare Inc. has a sales plan that outlines its revenue strategy, channels, and expected yield from each.
• Nexus Healthcare Inc. has taken initial steps or completed a filing of a trademark for the brand and/or slogan of the business.

• Nexus Healthcare Inc. has documented research regarding product-market fit.
• Nexus Healthcare Inc. has a detailed multi-channel marketing strategy.
• Nexus Healthcare Inc. has a PR plan that involves a regularly scheduled press release and positive social media content regarding the company.
• Nexus Healthcare Inc. has a public relations contact readily available that understands the company and is well versed in handling publicity.
• Nexus Healthcare Inc. has no negative press online.
• Nexus Healthcare Inc. does not have multiple negative reviews online that describe something similar.
• Nexus Healthcare Inc. has never been the victim of libel / slander and sees no imminent threat to the company’s reputation.
• Nexus Healthcare Inc. Has a customer support process to receive and handle customer support issues
• Nexus Healthcare Inc. has analyzed the media platforms its competitors are using to market their products or services.

Action Items

• Nexus Healthcare Inc. does not have the same standardized messaging across all platforms where information can be found (i.e., company Website, LinkedIn, Social Media, etc.), which poses the risk of mixed interpretation on the company’s core offerings, values, and direction. Not having standardized messaging also poses the risk of outdated or incorrect information being included in press / publications that will forever be archived online.
• Nexus Healthcare Inc. does not have someone that monitors and posts on social media. Regardless of the business line, product or service, people shop online. A social media strategy is fundamental to your go-to-market strategy, and like a diet, should be a permanent lifestyle adjustment for the business. Participate in the conversations, create, aggregate and share relevant content with your audience and build and strengthen your brand and product/service portfolio. Small investments here can pay dividends as you scale your business.
• Nexus Healthcare Inc. does not currently have a strong social give back / corporate social responsibility partnership that is kept active and displayed clearly. While the management team’s energy may be focused on new business, growing, or overseeing the staff, time should also be carved out to discuss and further some sort of social responsibility program. While positive PR is not the reason you should be doing this, it can come in handy in the event that there is negative sentiment circling. The team should be seen as doing some good for the community or promoting change for the better, and can only open doors to expand. Customers and/or users like to feel as if they are a part of a movement, even if it is not tangible for them.
• Nexus Healthcare Inc. does not have a brand and media kit available for download if someone is searching for snippets, logos, or other information for a story. Brand guidelines inform the reader what type of fonts, color schemes, and rules there are regarding your company, and in turn reduces the risk of the public perception of you going a different way than you or the person utilizing your information intended. Assuming you want to grow the company and you are going to utilize the press and internet to do so, you will need to have media kits readily available. This kit usually has high resolution versions of your logo(s), and carefully curated descriptions and other information for people to quote or use without having to wait for someone from the company to get back to them.
• Nexus Healthcare Inc. does not have a documented plan of action for disasters, scandals, or unplanned crises. Developing a plan that is available to key employees is important in the event that you or other management members are unreachable or away from the office. By ensuring you have a PR consultant on standby, a generally positive digital presence, and ties back to the community, you can easily develop a strategy to deal with situations when they arise, often out of the blue.

Summary Cap Table

Members Bios

Axel: I am from France/Spain were I was an Industrial Engineer and worked on Electrical Vehicles at Renault/Nissan. After an MBA at MIT I have been Head of Strategy & Digital Transformation in several banks, managing strategy, product, marketing, operations, compliance, M&A. I also launched/managed two direct banks.

William, our CTO, is from the Philippines. William has been the founding engineer and CTO in several startups, including three of them where he led the engineering teams until acquisition and exit. 

Rafael Alvarez-Vallina, our CPO, is from Spain where he was a BCG consultant. After an MBA at MIT, Rafael became a product manager/director at Symantec, Omaze (a start-up, from Series A to Series D stage), and Amazon.

Lazaro Gonzalez, our CMO is a Cuban American from Miami. After being a fire fighter and managing a large call center, Lazaro became the head of digital marketing, in banking; specializing in SEO/SEM, CRM, and user experience.

Jeff Memnon, our Head of Investment is from Haiti. After starting his career in Banking, as a

Strategy Analyst, a Banker and a Financial Advisor, in institutions like JPMorgan or Merrill Lynch, Jeff obtained a Masters and became a Data Scientist at Booz Allen and Quiet Professionals.

How do we know each other?

I met Rafael 13 years ago, as we were classmates at MIT, both attending the MBA program. We connected right away and we became personal friends. With our families, we spend vacation time together on a regular basis, like an RV trip that we enjoyed before Covid. In the last 10 years we explored several start-up ideas until we started launching Wizest.

I Hired Lazaro 8 years ago to be my Head of Digital Marketing at Sababell United Bank. We have been working hand in hand since then. When changing banks Lazaro came with me and together we built and launched a new online Bank: TotalDirectBank in less than 9months.We are also personal friends, spending time together after work and on weekends. Lazaro has been part of Wizest since the first day and the ideation phase

I also hired Jeff 7 years ago to be a Strategy Analyst in my team at Sabadell United Bank. We worked together on Commercial Planning, CRM and M&A projects together. He continued his career adding new strings to his bow, becoming a private banker and financial advisor, and more recently a Data Scientist. Given all his skills and being a personal friend since we worked together, Jeff finally joined our team in early 2023.

I met William thanks to a common friend, who is also an investor in Wizest. William not only joined Wizest as our CTO, but also brought his own development team/resources to build our final solution, as well as became an investor in Wizest in our pre-seed round.

What’s our favorite book? What’s the most recent book we’ve read?
I am sharing here the answers of each team members:

Axel:my favorite book is: Perfume by Patrick Suskind, And the most recent book I read is: The

Exodus (personal stories of the exile caused by the Spanish civil war) 

Lazaro: My favorite book is The Art of War by Sun Tzu. And, the most recent book I read is ‘Can’t Hurt Me’ by David Goggins’.

Rafael: my favorite book is: One hundred years of Solitude (G.G. Marquez); and the most recent book I read is: A gentleman in Moscow

Jeff: my favorite book is: One up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch. And the most recent book I read is Mastering the Market cycle by Howard Marks

William: My favorite book is High Output Management by Andrew Grove. And the most recent book I read is Influence: Psychology of Persuasion

What do we enjoy doing for recreation? 

Axel: being a car guy, I enjoy riding my cars, go-kart racing, attending races and restoring classic cars. I also love travelling, for classical cultural discovery but also for sailing trips or adventure in remote locations. Another interest of mine is architecture and interior design as all my houses have been fixer-upper projects that I managed. Finally, I love to spend time with my 8y old and my 3y old for all sorts of playing, learning and outdoors activities

Lazaro: for recreation I enjoy doing high-intensity interval training. I’ve built a home gym and participate in CrossFit-style workouts as part of my regular routine. I also enjoy going to the park and playing with my 4-year old son

Rafael: I enjoyed Reading, boardgames, videogames, TV shows and movies

Jeff: like Lazaro I like workout. I have also interest in lifestyle, fashion and social media content creation.

William: I like playing tennis and played varsity tennis in high school and college. I also recently just got my sailing license

What are our company’s values? What is our mission?

Our mission at Wizest is to democratize access to financial advisors, so our user can start their investing journey with less risk while learning. We also want to bring our support offering a digital solution with features that are in sync with today’s consumer behaviors. One core value is trustworthiness.

Do we have a personal connection to the problem our business is solving? To what extent?

I, along with all my co-founders, experienced the very problem we are trying to solve! Mostly coming form an engineering and technical background we didn’t received financial training and always felt that investing in the stock market was the privilege of a few experts or gamblers. As a result we all became passionate about this subject and all had experiences working in financial services. Now we want to be able to provide knowledge and opportunity to anyone looking for it, without being part of the 1%

Which of your competitors do you admire most, and why?

I personally admire what e-Toro was able to achieve in Europe, offering one of the feature of Wizest: copy of trades or portfolio from experts. E-Toro has in Europe a similar success story than Robinhood, with now over 10 Million users. Sharing my thoughts with the team, we also look up at Circle Invest for their educational content and obviously Robinhood for their road map to expand into different revenue streams, as well as how they were able to attract the new generation of users and became a household name

Example of a time where we had a strong disagreement within the company. How did we resolve it?

It would be lying telling that we didn’t have disagreements. I occasionally disagrees with the other co-founders. Not to be driven by our biased vision, an efficient solution has been to look for additional information or an outsider view or expertise to get better perspective on the point of disagreement.

What’s the hardest job we’ve ever had?
Being a father of two little kids is without a doubt the hardest but also most rewarding job ever.

I would like here to also share what the team think about this question:

William: The hardest job we have had in our existence was the execution of our launch. This was given the technical challenges during the time. We have since resolved this and the hardest job right now is onboarding more users and convert them to paying users.

Jeff: my mission at the DEA

Lazaro: my first job working at a printing company. The work was so monotonous, with no need to think. There was no challenge, learning or growth

Rafael: my experience at AWS is the hardest one. I’m no expert in development and need to learn a lot in no time to be able to perform at my job

What’s the best advice we’ve ever received?

Axel: 100% of those who won have one thing in common: they tried Lazaro: ‘Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard’.

Rafael: Don’t try to hide who you are or present yourself as someone else. It will not make you happy

William: move fast and break things

Jeff: We are our biggest critic and the best thing you can do is to focus on the things you can control rather the things we can’t control. The rest is history

What do we do to bond with our team?

We have a multicultural team, with roots in Europe, Haiti, the Philippines, and we are spread across the US, with bases in Cleveland, NY, Raleigh, LA and Miami. It is not easy to physically meet, but we are all personal friends and we always love learning about the places we are from. Apart from work, we also spent time together for diners, nights out, sports activity and even vacations with our respective families. 

Do we see ourselves as more of introverts or extroverts?

I am an ex-introvert that is becoming more and more extrovert with time.

In our team, both Jeff and Lazaro see themselves as extrovert, while Rafael and William see themselves more as introvert.

What are our team’s greatest strengths? What about weaknesses?

We only have one technical founder. But, we have tremendously relevant industry experience, which is especially useful facing compliance issues. We are also lucky to have strong alumni networks. Within the team, we know what each of us brings to the table, we embrace, and we’re not afraid to ask for help when we need it. Our team work well together and we can observe a great dynamic and communication. Lastly, we may be minded as sales persons, but we are very transparent and brutally honest, which is key to face reality, take the right decisions, and build healthy relationships and partnerships.

How does our team currently communicate on the day-to-day? What tools do we use to manage our work?

We are using several tools and strategies:

• Core team:

Quick stand-up 3 times a week.

Slack and WhatsApp group chat

Trello board for agile development

Other communication by phone, text, email, zoom.

• Advisory Board:

From weekly to monthly connections with our board members

Quarterly communications

Other communication by phone, text, email, zoom

When did we recently feel a sense of accomplishment?

I have a few moments that I would like to share:

The first one was las year, when we closed our pre-seed round successfully. This is what allowed us to transform a vision and a prototype in a real product with now real users and partners. 

The other one was earlier.  what pushed me to start Wizest. In 2018, with Lazaro, we built and launched from scratch a new online bank division in less than a year and were able to raise $150M in deposit in less than a year. This success was the trigger to think: We can do it. Now let’s built Wizest.

Finally, just a month ago, The latest changes with simplifying onboarding. We had a difficult time prior because users were not converting and dropping through the flow, simplifying this process led to more user engagement and multiplying by two our conversion rate!

If we could snap your fingers and instantly make the world better, what would we do? I concur with Rafael considering that providing everyone a good education and free access to healthcare would definitely make the world better Other ideas from William, Jeff and Lazaro:

• Invest in the world’s most impoverish countries and provide every human with the means to feed and provide for their family. End hunger
• Make entrepreneurship and access to capital equally easy for anyone regardless of their location, or personal connections.
• Provide everyone with financial education. Most marital/family issues are a result of financial stress. So Wizest could be doing it’s part in making the world a much better place.

What do we regret not doing in the past year? On a personal level: traveling more and spend more time with the family.

About Wizest: identifying earlier the technical challenges we faced to go live and being able to invest more in UX and B2B Sales

Example of a time we received less-than-kind feedback from a customer/user. How did we handle it? What was the outcome?

After receiving feedback that our app was a bit “raw” and that the onboarding process was not smooth and easy, we devoted time to address the feedback as we knew that even if the bucket was great it was leaking. Then, in a couple of months we fully revamped our onboarding process, splitting it in two part to allow user to test and play with Wizest before having to go through an in depth KYC process. This change allowed us to get our conversion rate from app download to user to double. We are confident that we can double it again by solving the UI/UX feedback. This iteration process was very valuable and we are continuing with this same approach. We are not building Wizest for us, but for our users.

What is one personal goal we have?

Have a positive impact in society. Given what we are trying to achieve with Wizest, the goal would be to help people with their finance and financial education. So some opportunities are not the privilege of a few and we can reach our audience where it is: directly, but above all via their employer of financial services. Also, we think that Wizest as a global potential, not only in the US. However, before achieving this ambitious global objective, our goal is to prove Wizest’s model, get to a sustainable level of ARR and break-even. We are convinced we can do this with a successful seed raise and working with the right partners.

How did we decide who the CEO should be?

I have been the one coming with the initial idea and having the industry knowledge and experience. I has been a natural decision.

Here one comment for a team member: We knew from the start that Axel was the best man for the job, and he is the one with the vision and drive to make sure Wizest is the best version of itself.

How do we determine compensation for each team member?

The compensation has been dictated by the value that each member can bring, as well as the time dedication in this early phase. Each member as a different equity participation, but it was easy to agree on the numbers given the rational we used to split the equity.

Do we have the full support of your family/significant others (if applicable)? Yes.

Apex Clearing Company Highlights: Wizest

Fireside Chat Video: Ron Shelvin (Chief Research Officer, Fintech, at Cornerstone), Bill Capuzzi (CEO, Apex) and Axel Thibon (CEO Wizest)

Romain Grosjean is now part of the Wizest Team!

What is Wizest?

Wizest One Pager Website

Wizest Website

Wizest founding team LinkedIn:

Axel Thibon

Lazaro Gonzalez

William Estoque

Jeffrey Memnon

Rafael Vallina