Leaky
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Leaky was a Y Combinator Summer 2011 insurtech startup that offered online insurance comparison quotes across carriers, letting consumers enter their personal information and receive customized rate comparisons for auto and business insurance. It was often described as Expedia for car insurance.
02 / Leaky FAILURE REASONS
Failure factors
Co-founder Jason Traff told PandoDaily (via Bamboo Innovator reprint) Leaky shut its auto insurance comparison after failing for over two years to gain a foothold as industry outsiders; scraping carrier sites drew cease-and-desist letters, and partnering with insurers was too slow for a startup.
Carriers hit Leaky with cease-and-desist letters after it scraped quote data without permission.
Traff said partnering with auto insurers was not fast enough for a startup's advantage.
He said they could not get a foothold in the industry over two years as outsiders.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Acquisition
Leaky's site stated it wrapped auto insurance comparison operations on 31 Aug 2013; Traff confirmed to PandoDaily that Leaky was acquired by California broker Navion Insurance, with commercial insurance moving to the buyer after the consumer comparison shutdown.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Acquired by Navion Insurance on August 31, 2013.
- 02
The standalone Leaky service was wound down shortly afterward.
- 03
No public loss or restructuring figures were disclosed.