It was almost 20 years ago that Michael Gottlieb (pictured), founder and CEO of BizCover, swapped the soccer field for the insurance sector. After looking after members of the 1998 FIFA World Cup South African team as a physiotherapist, Gottlieb and BizCover now take care of the insurance needs of SMEs with the same level of urgency and care.
But how did a former physiotherapist move into the insurance space? And how did BizCover become one of the fastest growing tech companies in Asia-Pac? “My background is actually physiotherapy – but that was a long time ago,” Gottlieb told Insurance Business. “I then started work as a strategy consultant, but I always had one eye on starting my own business.”
The aftermath of the 2000-2001 HIH Insurance collapse and the subsequent “tech-wreck” proved to be the opening for Gottlieb to enter the insurance space, and he did so alongside his close friend, Gavin Donner.
“Early stage technology companies found it incredibly difficult to obtain D&O insurance. Gavin and I saw an opportunity, and perhaps a little naively, set about solving the problem,” Gottlieb said. “We decided to start a business that serviced the venture capital industry. Insurance was going to be the first product, and we never got to product number two…” Such was the success of the insurance product, the two close-friends-turn-business partners doubled down and focused their energy on it.
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This first venture took the form of Mega Capital Insurance Brokers, and the brokerage steadily went about transforming into a specialist firm. “Our next focus was building a brokerage focused on financial service clients to supplement our venture capital clients,” he said. “We became a niche, specialised broker to the accounting, financial planning, funds management and the corporate advice sectors.”
Six years after that first foray into the sphere, Gottlieb and Donner established the firm Gottlieb continues to run now – BizCover. Providing SMEs in Australia and New Zealand with a more efficient and transparent way to purchase their insurance, BizCover became Australia’s first online commercial insurance marketplace.
“It has really been about consistent growth over a long period,” he recalled. “That growth has been accompanied by a desire to make life as easy as possible for brokers. We set out to provide a value proposition that was different to the traditional way that brokers obtain insurance on behalf of their clients – traditionally it is slow, labour intensive and expensive for brokers to obtain quotes.”
Gottlieb and BizCover made it their objective to make obtaining insurance as simple, cost effective and efficient as possible. To do this they turned to the online space.
“We built a portal that allows brokers to obtain multiple quotes across different classes of insurance from seven well known and well-regarded insurers in Australia,” Gottlieb said. “Brokers then have the flexibility of choosing the best offer for each product for their clients.”
BizCover now has almost 2,000 brokers using its broker platform, and Gottlieb explained to Insurance Business the draw of operating on the firm’s system.
“One of the key benefits is that there is no requirement to choose the same insurer for each insurance product,” Gottlieb said. “The broker would be able to provide a report to the client showing an excellent range of insurance quotes from several insurers across each of these products – the broker could then recommend one insurer for all products or different insurers for each product.” This minimises the complexity, hassle and red tape of the process, reducing the administration effort for brokers obtaining multiple quotes from several weeks to less than 10 minutes, he explained.
From making the successful leap from one wholly different profession to another, Gottlieb shared some advice.
“Take on an opportunity which may seem too large,” he explained. “It is like a snake eating a goat – it seems impossible and if you’ve ever seen a picture of a snake once it has eaten a goat, it looks ridiculous.” The analogy refers to taking on the big opportunities, projects, chances – however large and ‘ridiculous’ they may seem.
“Don’t let opportunities pass you by because you are scared or not ready – give it a go and take it on,” Gottlieb said. “One step, or bite, at a time.”
