![]() “As far as the auto insurance industry goes, COVID hit in probably the worst time,” Melnick states. The startup experienced the usual spike at the end of February, which normally continues well into April, but in the second and third weeks of March demand dropped. The pandemic hit The Zebra at the peak of their high season as car sales increase during the spring months. “Our objective is always to lose as little money as possible and keep heading towards profitability, but we got here sooner than we expected.” “We kind of became profitable accidentally,” Melnick shared in a Zoom call alongside Martina Hahn, chief product officer at The Zebra and his former colleague at KAYAK. In May, it recorded net revenue of $6 million and that number grew to $8 million in September. Three years later and the KAYAK aspirations are still aspirations, yet The Zebra has achieved a positive image few insurtechs have by becoming profitable. “The Zebra team has the product-first DNA and momentum to pull this off, and we’re thrilled to partner with Keith Melnick – who we worked with on KAYAK for over a decade – and the whole The Zebra team to help make this vision a reality.” “There’s an opportunity in insurance to build the go-to digital brand for comparison shopping, just as we’ve lived through from the beginning with what KAYAK did for travel,” said John Locke, a partner with Accel during The Zebra’s Series B round in 2017. But over the years the startup’s image began to fade when the founders passed the torch to Keith Melnick, the former KAYAK president who was brought on as the new CEO to turn The Zebra into the KAYAK of insurance. Includes the uncheckable checkbox, a short-lived marketing gimmick, and the real zebra it once brought to a party. Companies are built in the image of their founders.
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