Insurance-Tracking Platform myCOI Preps for Massive Growth, Eyeing $3.2 Billion Domestic Market

November 13, 2017

Before she founded myCOI , Kristen Nunery used to flip houses for a living. This line of work brought her into contact with a lot of building contractors and introduced her to the complicated world of professional liability insurance.

Most businesses collect certificates of insurance (or COIs) before contracting work to an outside company or individual, but there’s never any guarantee the contractor’s policy will be sufficient. The coverage amount may be too low, or the policy might even be expired.

According to Nunery, 70% of building contractors are noncompliant with insurance requirements. Companies have no choice but to review and track their contractors’ policies to protect themselves against costly lawsuits or underinsured claims. Unfortunately, this is a tedious process that still relies largely on paper documents and phone calls.

“We recognized there were huge gaps in how people tracked insurance and made sure there was compliance in place,” Nunery said. “We knew we could come forward with a solution that put risk mitigation as the number one priority, and then drive technology into that everywhere we could.”

myCOI’s Cloud-based platform streamlines COI tracking for companies that contract work to third parties, making the whole process clearer, quicker and easier. And with its sights set on a $3.2 billion domestic market, myCOI has a shot at becoming the early leader of a new, highly lucrative segment of the insurance industry.

Applications Across a Wide Range of Industries

Construction companies and contractors aren’t the only third-party entities that carry liability insurance. Building tenants, vendors, suppliers, franchisees and transportation carriers, to name a few, must all be insured to protect against damages they cause to another’s property. Every company that works with these groups has a vested interest in their insurance coverage, and that means myCOI could be a beneficial tool for them.

myCOI is targeting the construction and real estate industries to start, and it has already added international corporations like Caterpillar and RE/MAX to its list of clients. Once myCOI has solidified its foothold in these industries, the team has long-term goals to expand into a variety of adjacent markets including government, retail, manufacturing, utilities, education, hospitality and healthcare.

myCOI should be in a good position to capture these markets, because its SaaS platform is an all-around more robust solution than similar competing services. In fact, Nunery claims the platform has increased insurance compliance by 20–50% and reduced the cost of COI tracking by 30% among its customers.

“When we were deciding if this was something we wanted to tackle, we recognized our competition in the space wasn’t doing it effectively. Our model is what sets us apart and what’s in our favor to really dominate this industry,” Nunery said.

Prepped and Planning for Rapid Growth

myCOI has built a lot of momentum over the past few months, which certainly makes industry domination seem possible. TechPoint reported the company is backed by $2.4 million in angel funding from Elevate Ventures and Indiana Angel Network, and it has plans to add 185 employees to its team by 2021.

The need for myCOI’s product seems to be massive, which means that growing too quickly could actually be a concern for the business. In particular, the platform’s higher membership tiers offer high-touch account monitoring that would scale disastrously without enough of the right people in place.

And as with any innovative business idea, myCOI could see copycat companies spring up if its formula proves to be wildly successful. The secret sauce of myCOI’s platform is less about what it does and more how it does it , though, which could help the team retain an edge even in the face of new competition.

Nunery and her team are currently modeling the company’s path to $100 million in revenue, so it’s safe to assume they’re considering all possibilities as they gear up for growth. The opportunity in front of them is large; if myCOI can successfully grow the team and break into new markets, then it could become the premier solution that helps companies protect themselves against underinsured contractors.

“Ultimately, it’s there to drive compliance for our customers so they have protection,” Nunery said. “A lot of our key metrics are lining up really well right now, positioning us to take off as a company and become the leader in our space.”