In this episode of Beyond the Desk, Mark Thomas is joined by Gilbert Harrap, CEO and co-founder of InsurX, the technology business connecting brokers and insurers in the London Market. They talk about leaving a senior corporate role to start a business, how a moment during the pandemic turned a side project into a company, and what it takes to grow as a leader as that company scales.

Gilbert joined MS Amlin as a graduate and spent six years in treaty reinsurance, underwriting US property risk and working his way from underwriting assistant to underwriter. Wanting to see the bigger picture, he took a full-time MBA at INSEAD, sponsored by MS Amlin, before returning as a strategy manager tasked with turning data into better underwriting decisions, and later becoming Head of Strategy for the reinsurance division. That is where the idea for InsurX began. In April 2020, as the London Market was forced to trade remotely, he realised the market would never go back to how it was, and on 1 November 2021 he and his co-founder Will started full-time.

The conversation then turns to a question every founder has to answer: how do you turn a big idea into something customers will pay for today?

Gilbert explains how InsurX’s vision of data flowing seamlessly between brokers and insurers had to start with one specific, painful problem: event cancellation insurance after the pandemic. From $20 million of premium in its first full year of trading, the platform is on track for around $170 million this year, with 35 insurers signed up. He also shares why InsurX has raised from investors connected to the insurance market rather than venture capital, and the lessons that come with growing from two founders to a team of 35.

A candid conversation about career pivots, founding an insurtech, data and technology in the London Market, and growing as a leader as the business scales.