Our experience with Sompo so far

May 25th, 2021

Sompo's IDC cooperation program was an opportunity that first presented itself in November of last year. As entrepreneurship students we could not have overlooked this opportunity and as things turned out we got accepted into the program a month later. Since that moment we have been engaged in joint cooperation with SOMPO digital labs TLV. This is a short description of our experience so far.

At first when hearing about our acceptance into the program, it's needless to say we were extremely excited and thrilled to begin our work within the program. This same excitement has not left us since and endured throughout the many difficulties and challenges we had to face while developing our venture. To give some background, Sompo is a Japanese insurance company operating innovation centers in Tel-Aviv, Tokyo and San Francisco. The Tel-Aviv lab offers a unique program in cooperation with the IDC, offering students to develop a venture under their sponsorship, usually within the world of Insurtech. This program consist of two major stages, the first, which we are currently at, is a period dedicated to getting to know the teams and mentoring them on a Triweekly basis. This step is also used as an evaluation period aimed towards a reassessment of the cooperation and the teams which takes place in September. This reassessment takes into account the current state and nature of the venture and of course the period spent working together.

As we began our work, diving into the world of Insurtech, we were exposed to the complexity and vastness of this field and to the fact that we barely know anything about it. Sompo has helped us slowly immerse ourselves into the world of Insurtech along with extensive research and effort on our side. This effort included many trial and errors, reaching out to the right people and constant engagement with the different aspects and ideas of this field. We as a team have went through several pivots and challenges and feel this experience has helped us grow tremendously in both our understanding of Insurtech and as entrepreneurs as a whole, having to constantly put everything we have learned during our three years in the Adelson school to use while breaking out of our comfort zone by taking on new, unfamiliar challenges that follow venture creation. We are sure we will continue to face many such challenges in the future but are also certain in our ability to take them on with the same excitement and determination we feel at this point in time.

After getting to know the world of insurance a bit better, the value that is associated with the ability to cooperate with Sompo became all the more clear. The opportunity to form a partnership with a large insurance company that puts such a large emphasis on innovation is invaluable especially given the early stage of our professional careers it was offered to us at. We strongly believe that opportunities of this nature help nourish the world of entrepreneurship, benefitting both the people involved and the relevant industries by providing a framework allowing entrepreneurs at the beginning of their professional careers, such as us, to put their ambitions and skills to the test while continuing to grow and develop.

We are very thankful for this opportunity and plan to continue and make the most out of it.