Startup Business Showcase : Mia

By @SimonCocking

Describe the company – the elevator pitch …

Mia is a digital assistant that solves all of your insurance needs, in one place.

Mia enables users to:
– View all of their insurance policies on one dashboard, to understand their portfolio at a
glance.
– Save time and money with personalised renewal offers.
– Get assistance checking what they’re covered for, making claims, and amendments.

How are you different?

Mia will be the only product in the UK that solves all of your insurance needs in one place. This starts by viewing all of your insurance policies on one dashboard. You no longer have to go hunting through emails and paper policies to find out policy details, it will all be there in one place. Mia will also handle the renewal of insurance policies when they expire. No longer will you have to go through the pain of price comparison websites, we’ll do the hard work for you, serving you a personalised renewal offer to save you time and money. Finally, users will be able to interact with Mia through an intelligent chatbot, whether you want to check if you’re covered for that bungee jump, you need to make a claim on a policy, or just simply change your address.

Why will the company / product do well?

We understand that if you’re to thrive in a market, it’s no longer enough to mimic and incrementally improve your offering compared to fellow industry players. Consumers expectations are being influenced by their experiences with brands across all industries. For example, why shouldn’t renewing your insurance be as easy as ordering an Uber? We take a user-centred approach to understand exactly what our users now want and expect, then
iteratively build a product that meets these needs, resulting in a product and experience that our users love. Gone are the days where insurance needs to be complex and boring, we’re passionate about moving insurance into the digital age, and with mia, the experience will be as delightful as all of your favourite other digital services.

Where are you based?

London, UK

When was the company launched?

The company launched in September of this year, however we’re yet to release our first product

What type of people (market segment) are you trying to attract to your product?

We’ll begin by targeting early adopters who are prepared to trust a new company with their personal information, in exchange for testing exciting new products. Ultimately, we’re here to save people time, money and make their lives that little bit easier. This means we target those individuals who are time pressed, and certainly don’t want to waste their time dealing with insurance, for example young professionals and young families.

Tell us about your team?

The founding team is made up of 3 co-founders, with backgrounds in financial strategy, technology development and innovation consulting.

What are you long term plans for your product / company?

Being a company that puts the user at the centre, designing and building for their needs, it’s hard to know for sure. We’re guided by our vision, to make insurance simple, so whatever products consumers need to make this happen, we’re here to build them.

What are your favourite tech gadgets?

For mia, there’s 2 main software products that enable the team to communicate and work collaboratively. Slack is brilliant for communication, the less emails, the better. Trello is great for managing our workflow, keeping on top of current and future tasks.

From a personal perspective (this is a tech news site after all)… I’m falling more and more in love with my Apple Watch. I’ve had it over a year now, and I’m really starting to get good use out of it. Similar to the iPad, I believe the true value of this device is defined by the apps that are made for it. I recently found a great sleep tracking app, called Pillow , that also plugs into Apple’s Health app. I’m finding this really valuable to track my sleep and the variables that can impact it. Also, Apple’s latest software for the update has made replying to messages much easier, with their ‘Scribble’ functionality, and, as Siri gets smarter and smarter, the value will only increase.

What tech gadgets do you wish you could use to help you?

Maybe a smart robot to handle all of the boring stuff that comes with starting a business. Organising meetings, managing the accounts etc. That would save us some time to worry about the more important tasks!

Anything else you’d like to add / we should have asked?

Why the name ‘Mia’?

We wanted to use a human name as our product is all about being a personal assistant, and we wanted to do what we could to encourage users to interact, and trust mia like they would a real human. But, there were a lot of names out there we could choose from, so it wasn’t easy. We knew we wanted it to be short and sharp, so it’s simple to spell and write, but still, there were plenty of human names that fit this criteria. Then one morning, one of our Co-founders had a lightbulb moment on the tube… Mia. Easy to spell and easy write, and it also stands for My Insurance Assistant – and as they say, the rest is history!

How do people get in touch with you?

Start off by visiting our website, www.meetmia.io , to check out our demo and you can join the waiting list. This means you’ll have the opportunity to help shape our product, and you’ll be the first the get access when we release Mia.

Also, keep in touch on Twitter and Facebook and follow more detail on our progress via
Medium . If you’d like to speak to us direct, send us an email at hello@meetmia.io .

If you would like to have your company featured in the Irish Tech News Business Showcase, get in contact with us at Simon@IrishTechNews.net or on Twitter: @SimonCocking