Interview with Mark Musson, Founder at Dynamic Car Insurance Company: Rideshur

Rideshur is a new platform from Humn.ai that works in tandem with proprietary real-time contextual and driver risk analytics to deliver dynamic insurance pricing for fleet vehicles.

We use technology to create accurate, data-based insurance policies that use a more sophisticated analysis of risk factors. Rideshur is powered by two proprietary tools – RiskOS and CityPulse. These tools enable the Rideshur platform to process hundreds of data points every second to generate real-time risk scores for individual drivers. This enables better risk management, and our insurance premiums reflect this accuracy.

Fleet vehicles can be insured dynamically, with explainable pricing and fleet managers can proactively take specific actions to reduce the overall risks to the fleet, improving safety standards and thereby directly impacting their premiums.
 
 

 

How did you come up with the idea for the company?

 
Most businesses start with a big idea. They will make something, do something, use something specific.

We wanted to explore how mobility is changing via data and we gathered and analysed vast volumes of data from a fleet of rideshare taxis, trusting that it would show us what problem to solve. I looked for an industry segment that had masses of data and noticed a trend in the shared mobility market.

Mobility is changing so being able to amass and analyse huge amounts of data seemed to be a great basis to build a business. As it turned out, the insurance industry was ready and waiting with a thorny problem to solve.
 

What advice would you give to other aspiring entrepreneurs?

 
If you want to work with data, you need to find a data source first. You must think about your product/solution and carry out in-depth research. Ask yourself, am I addressing a problem that’s a problem only for me or is it an issue for everyone else? Don’t convince yourself that the solution you have is scalable, test it with potential customers and keep iterating until someone is willing to pay for it.

Having started businesses as a young person, and now again at the other end of my working life, I’m also a big believer in creating businesses when you are young, although there are pros and cons to this. When you’re young, you’re more likely to not have as much to lose, and you’re more inclined to take risks that can work out to be incredibly rewarding.

However, do not try to do everything yourself. Everyone has weaknesses. Know yours and be willing to find others whose strengths are your weaknesses. Some investors can take advantage of inexperienced founders, so take legal advice.

Young people tend to be ideas-driven, rather than focussing on the boring basics but you need attention to detail every step of the way. Get the basics done properly because you won’t be able to solve these types of problems later.

Create a fundable structure – what I call ‘funding fit’, and sort out all your corporate governance properly, such as founder agreements, equity splits, intellectual property assignments and non-disclosure agreements.

There are platforms available to guide you – from business basics to pro forma templates for contracts, agreements, etc. which won’t cost you an arm and a leg now, but could save you a significant amount of money in the future
 

What can we hope to see from Rideshur in the future?

 
In the medium term, we plan to expand our offering to companies in Europe.  Longer-term, at present, we want to be the only company in the UK and globally that uses a data-driven approach to create autonomous vehicle insurance solutions. After that, the sky’s the limit.