Finally, Insurance That Gets It: Cents' Laundromat-Specific Protection

Speaker 1 (Adam Goldstein) 00:21
All right, welcome to the 2 p.m. session on Cents Insurance—everyone's favorite topic. My name is Adam Goldstein. I do business development at Cents, and I'm joined by Bobby Vo, the Head of Growth at Authentic Insurance, Cents' insurance partner. For those of you who don't know—you're all at the booth, so I hope you know—Cents is an all-in-one business management platform for laundromats. As part of that, we have employee management services, pickup and delivery, a point of sale—the list goes on and on. You can check out all of our offerings around here. And as part of that, we recently launched Cents Insurance, an all-in-one laundry-specific insurance offering alongside Authentic, our laundry insurance partner. As with most of our products, this came out of a lot of feedback we got from operators. Operators were getting dropped by their large insurance carriers for no reason other than being a laundromat. Left without insurance, we needed to build a solution.

Similarly, a lot of our laundromats were just getting lumped in with other SMBs, but laundromats are laundromats. They're not restaurants, they're not gyms, they're not any other SMB, and they need insurance to reflect that. And lastly, insurance is hard to track. You've got to track it over email, your policies might be in one place, you need to go to another place to file a claim, and it's been a really difficult process for a lot of our operators. So we took it into our own hands, we found an awesome insurance partner in Authentic, and we got to work. So with that, I'll let Bobby introduce himself and Authentic.

Speaker 2 (Bobby Vo) 01:58
Cool, thanks Adam. So the Authentic and Cents relationship is a very interesting one because I think we're both set up to solve the exact same problem. Cents pounded the pavement very hard to solve that problem. And I think the problem is what you kind of outlined.

There are people who are having a hard time finding insurance and people having really high rates. And so Authentic, generally, we started standing up these verticalized programs about three years ago. And laundromats have always been at the top of that list. Why is that? Laundromats generally have a very hard time getting insured, right? Because either a carrier has left or people are underwriting them in very weird ways where they're put into odd buckets and now they don't qualify for insurance. It's a very difficult situation for laundromats. And so when we partnered with Cents, the answer was really simple about why we wanted to work together. How can small and medium businesses be empowered to not have to think about something like insurance on a daily basis and spend their time growing and managing their business? And so when we finally got together, we launched this program about a month and a half, two months ago, and we've seen a lot of really clear success from a customer standpoint. We've heard during our feedback calls things like, "Wow, this makes total sense that Cents is offering this. There were no questions." When I typically ask, "Are there any questions at the end of the feedback call?" they said, "No, this makes complete sense to us. Thank you," right? And so as we start thinking about insurance and how people consume it, how people should expect it to work for them, I think Cents is sort of the frontrunner in the laundromat space for re-envisioning and reframing how this is done.

Speaker 1 (Adam Goldstein) 03:50
Yeah, absolutely. And so a big thing for us was, because of all those negative aspects with insurance, we wanted to build something that our customers and operators would really love and use, and that's something that is better, faster, and cheaper than the alternatives. Better because it's integrated into the existing Cents and LaundryWorks ecosystem. It's right in the Business Manager. It's right in the Laundry Portal. Easy to access. It's right there. You can track your insurance. You can file a claim. Super easy. We wanted something that was cheaper, and by working with Bobby and the Authentic team who are focused on vertical software platforms like us, we can do that because we can create something that's specific for laundry, and therefore you don't have to pay for all those extra things that come along with being an SMB that don't necessarily apply to your business.

Faster—the quote process, as we're about to go through, is really, really, really fast, and it's really good. And if you're working with a larger provider, it could take days, weeks. You've got to get on meetings, and you've got to go through this whole process. This quote process that you're about to see is lightning-fast and makes a big, big difference for our operators. So with that, let's do it. Let's go through it.

Speaker 2 (Bobby Vo) 05:02
Yeah, let's go through it. I will say for anybody who has ever gone through the painful experience of getting an insurance quote, I hope this is revolutionary to you because it will take minutes.

So if you look here, we're in the Cents Business Manager. If you click over here on the top right and you go down, you'll see right here there's an insurance option. So as that loads, you'll be taken to this screen. So let me sort of zoom in here. So you see it's completely within the Cents ecosystem. We've asked a few questions. We'll ask you, "What's your name?" My name is Bobby Vo. You'll be asked your email. Typing with one hand is very fun. "What's your business name?" Let's call it Bobby's Wash. And then you'll be asked your business type. And this is where this is a big differentiator in the insurance market. When you get a quote through any of the large incumbents, you typically just say you're a laundromat or you're a retail store. They take some off-the-shelf product and just throw you in there regardless of how you do your business. What we've partnered with Cents on is to understand really what types of businesses are there, how do they operate, and how do we customize and tailor not just an insurance package, but an underwriting and pricing process that feels completely tailored to that business operation. So you'll see here we have a mix of pickup and delivery, self-service, wash and fold, and any sort of combination of the three. So let's say my organization does wash and fold and pickup and delivery. Let's say I'm in the great state of Ohio, where I'm born and raised. And we'll click Next. So what you'll be taken to is the product screen. And here, you'll see we offer general liability insurance and also property insurance. Property insurance specifically means business personal property. So think of all the contents and the value of the things inside of your store—the machines, the inventory, the equipment, anything that you use to operate within that location. That is what business property is. We also offer workers' compensation. So I'll click Next here. And next, we'll start getting to some of the specific questions around your individual business. So let's say I am at 123 Main Street in Canton, Ohio. Then let's say for my organization, I do about $300,000 in sales every year. And let's say I have about $80,000 worth of contents in my premises. It's about a 2,500-square-foot location. And I have three employees. What's really cool is if you go through this experience, we just added a location. What's unique about this quoting experience is if you're an operator who has multiple locations across state lines, you're actually able to go through this experience all in one go. And so I don't know how many people here have gone through an experience where because my operation's in Ohio and it's also in Michigan, I have to go through two different brokers, two different sort of processes that don't really align.

Speaker 2 (Bobby Vo) 08:26
You can do all of that right here. So we'll click Next. You'll start to be asked some underwriting questions, generally things like, "Have you had any bankruptcy over the last three years? Have you been convicted of any felonies?" For the sake of this, I'm going to say no—not that I'm a felon. "Have you had any insurance claims in the last three years?" If yes, we'll ask you how many claims you've had and for how much. Again, for the sake of this, I'm going to say no.

And then last thing is, "How do we get a hold of you?" So let's say here's my mailing address. Here's my phone number. This is actually my phone number. Please don't call me. And we click "Get a Quote." And so that's it. So from a quoting experience, limited questions because we understand your business and we ask you the critical pieces of information to underwrite your business, not just endless forms of information that don't even contribute. And as that loads, it's taking all the information—the geographic information, the understanding of your income—to provide you with an instantaneous bindable quote, right? So right there, we solve the speed problem.

Like, how do I see how much insurance costs for me? Right? And so you'll see right here, for Bobby's Wash, it's about $123 a month or roughly $1,400 a year. What's really awesome that we've been able to do with the regulators is actually get a specific Cents customer discount. Now, if you know anything about the insurance space, it's a really tough thing to do because we don't discount insurance. That's illegal; we don't do that. But what's awesome about what we filed with the regulators is there's an understanding that if you are a customer of Cents, we are able to provide you better economics because we can prove that you're actually a real business. And insurance fraud is a very, very big problem, right? People signing up fake businesses, using that to file insurance claims—horrible, timely, costly. We figured if you're on Cents, you're able to actually get a discount and you're able to benefit from an insurance point of view for that.

Now, I hear a lot of the time when I do this demo, "Wow, that was really easy, but what did I just get a quote for? I just took a bunch of my information. What am I getting a quote for?" If you go down here and click "View Limits," you'll actually see this policy in particular is a general liability policy for a $1 million per occurrence, $2 million aggregate policy. It includes things like medical payments limits, personal and advertising injury limits. If you click "Property" down here, you'll see this includes things like bailee's goods coverage, which obviously every laundromat needs given the fact that you're holding other people's belongings. In the event that something happens to those belongings, you want to make sure those things are covered. We've seen time and time again where people don't have this coverage—they're underinsured. And we've configured this specifically so that it is automatically included when you get a quote. We also cover things like equipment breakdown coverage to cover if something happens to any of your machines.

Speaker 2 (Bobby Vo) 11:27
If you go down here, you actually see we have some—we call them optional coverages, but really they're tailored specifically to what you need to run a business. So if you lease your space, what's very common is your landlord requires that they be named as an additional insured on your policy, right?

If you do that here, all you have to do is click that. You say, "I want to add Landlord LLC," add coverage, and boom, just like that, when you bind your quote, your landlord will automatically be added as an additional insured on your policy, right?

Speaker 1 (Adam Goldstein) 12:02
Bobby, let me cut you off for one second. So this is all the exact details that you need. It's all here, but insurance is very difficult for people to wrap their heads around. I hate it.

I love working with Bobby on insurance, but it's still very complicated. If at any point any of this is complicated and you want to talk to someone, that human-to-human aspect is really nice for insurance because you feel like you can trust someone—and just trusting the technology is a little bit harder. So that number in the top right—those are all licensed insurance agents at Authentic that you can call pretty much at any time. Someone will pick up, talk to you about insurance for however long you want, whenever you want, and they're available truly 24/7 for Cents. We made sure of it.

Speaker 2 (Bobby Vo) 12:49
Yeah, so I think that's right. Like, we want to enable you to go through this process as much as you can by yourself because we know how tedious an experience it is to rely on another human to understand your needs.

But to the extent that you need a consultative experience, pick up the phone. We have licensed agents at the ready to help you, no matter what your questions are.

So that's the quoting experience. Adam, I don't know if you want to kind of tee it up as I bring up the portal.

Speaker 1 (Adam Goldstein) 13:16
Definitely. So, quoting experience—super awesome, very easy to go through, great experience—but we also wanted to provide an experience once you have a policy.

Once you purchase the policy, how can you manage it? How can you find it? People are used to just digging through emails or going to a bunch of different portals. We wanted to include it right in the Cents Business Manager, and Authentic has helped us do that. So, as Bobby pulls this up, we've got the Insurance Policy Hub, the management tool. Once you're signed up, it'll be there instead of the quoting process. So it'll still be in the same spot in the Business Manager. Top right, you click "Insurance," and once you're a customer, it'll bring you directly to this interface instead.

Speaker 2 (Bobby Vo) 14:03
Cool, so as I'm logging in, I'm logging into what's called our Policy Hub. The Policy Hub at a high level is a place where you're able to manage all of your insurance needs. So it's not just, you know, "I need a COI. Where do I get that? I have to contact my broker that I've been working with, wait two days for them to respond to me, and, you know, send me a PDF."

We instantly make this available to you within the Cents application through the Policy Hub. So if you need to generate a certificate of insurance, you're able to do that here. If you need to file a claim, you can do that right within the app. If you need to add additional coverage or even cancel your policy, you can do that all yourself without having to rely on a broker. So this was completely a revolutionary addition that we've heard amazing things from Cents customers about. It's like, "This is just great that I can do this myself. I have so much to do, so much to run in my business. And the fact that I can do all of this myself and call somebody if I need help, that's the ultimate unlock for an SMB," right?

And so if you go down here, you'll see that you'll have your certificate of insurance readily available to you. You'll have your policy packet readily available to you. And all of this is at the tip of your fingers right within the Cents application.

Speaker 1 (Adam Goldstein) 15:15
Yeah. It's truly amazing. It's been an awesome add-on product for us. Couldn't be more thrilled to be working with Bobby and the Authentic team.

And I'll say from a broader Cents ecosystem perspective, this is the first of many products like this that we're trying to add. We want to be the one-stop shop for everything for your laundry needs, which is all up in there. And then we also want to be everything for your SMB needs, right? You do accounting and you do payroll and you need lines of credit. You have security cameras. So for all of that, we want to be your trusted partner as well. And insurance is just the beginning, and we are so excited to continue to offer more.

Speaker 2 (Bobby Vo) 15:55
Yeah, maybe one more thing I'll add here that we've heard a lot of feedback about is a lot of times when we talk to customers about their insurance needs, they're like, "Hey, this is a really great product. Like, this is saving me money. I really like what I'm seeing. It covers my whole business.

I've just renewed. Like, do I have to wait a year to be able to consume this and to buy this?" The answer is no. If you purchase a policy, we'll actually help you automatically cancel your existing policy and get you a refund on it. So it's a completely streamlined experience from an engagement standpoint. Like, it's a fallacy to believe that you're locked into one-year contracts. And so we've heard a lot of laundromats say, like, "I would, you know, maybe let's wait until next year." And the second they find out that it's not actually a one-year contract—it's just good for one year—it changed the whole paradigm. So we've heard a lot of really good feedback from that.

Speaker 1 (Adam Goldstein) 16:46
Yeah, it's been an amazing tool. So that's kind of all I had, unless you had anything else. Maybe we'd open up for any questions. Yeah, the question was, "How competitive are the rates?"

Speaker 2 (Bobby Vo) 17:02
It's a good question. I would say we wouldn't want to stand up a program that isn't competitive, right?

And so we've seen for Cents customers that have purchased, they've saved somewhere between 30 to 40 percent on average. Granted, there are a couple of customers that have gone through and they just have a really good rate. And we totally appreciate that. Right. And they said, "But, you know, the second this becomes more competitive, we want to join and we want to make sure that this is an opportunity for us." So when we come from an underwriting standpoint, like, we've seen a lot of success in savings for SMBs, and, you know, we're actively trying to find solutions to find more economic value for a lot of customers.

And to be clear, we've had some customers when we went to the field trials where they said, "This is a little more, or it's almost exactly what I'm paying right now. And, like, I just like the fact that I can manage this myself. So I'm just going to sign up." Absolutely. Yeah, 100 percent.

Speaker 1 (Adam Goldstein) 17:57
Do you have available insurance for 24-hour laundromats?

Speaker 2 (Bobby Vo) 18:01
Yeah, when you go through our underwriting flow, we ask those types of questions. There are some things that we don't cover, and there are some things that we do cover. Twenty-four-hour access is something that we're readily working to make available. It's available to some, but some organizations are very complex. They have 24-hour plus something else, which—I don't want to say we can do all 24-hour, right? But we can, to the extent that it fits within our appetite, yes, absolutely.

Yeah. Yeah. We're available in all states except Hawaii and Alaska, but that should be available by the end of the year. Yeah, right here we go. One right here. The building structures—not at the moment. We're actively working on it. So in terms of things to come, automotive is something that's really top of mind for us from a laundromat perspective, given the delivery aspects. Property is obviously top of mind as well. Three and four are more of an extension of what we have currently. So we write $1 to $2 million today. We've heard a lot of desire for $2 to $4 million coverage. So we're working on expanding that. As well as our business personal property—today, we can write easily about $500,000. Obviously, there's plenty of organizations with more than that. And so we're hoping by sometime early 2026, we'll have a much higher limit from a property standpoint.

So if you own the real estate, you probably can't use this. It's a complicated question. So today I was speaking with a customer who says, "I own the building and I also own the business, but they're two separate entities. I lease from myself," right? We can write that business, right? And so we can help them find a solution for the property structure elsewhere.

Like, it won't be this exact experience, but it's not a strikeout for whether or not we're able to work together. That's right. Yeah. Well, I don't know if the separate entities is required. That was just a nuance of this particular situation. But like, we see it a lot with automotive as well. Like, people have insurance with a separate automotive provider, as well as somebody like Cents and Authentic who offer the business owner policy. The carriers? We work with Everspan—Everspan Insurance Company. They're admitted paper, AM Best A- Excellent rated. Say again. For this program, yes, just one. And like, that's how we're actually able to curate this complete tailoring of the solution. It's not like you apply to us and we just place you with a bunch of random carriers. This is somebody that we have a deep partnership with that we have specifically negotiated coverages and rates for with the laundromat class. I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (Adam Goldstein) 20:58
Yeah, how long have they been in the business of laundromats?

Speaker 2 (Bobby Vo) 21:00
Oh, of laundromats? They've been in the business for a while.

Oh, that's—I mean, they've been around. They're a very, very big company. So yeah, yeah, yeah, they're very heavy, you know, billions on the balance sheet, heavily collateralized, fully collateralized, reinsurance panels and the whole thing. Yeah, don't worry, I wouldn't expect you to write insurance with a startup or with Cents.

Speaker 1 (Adam Goldstein) 21:30
Awesome, well thank you guys so much for listening, and feel free to grab me or Bobby at any point over the next couple of days. We've got business cards, and we can take you through the quoting process. Thanks, Bobby.

Speaker 2 (Bobby Vo)
Yeah, thank you, Adam.