There was hope. Then it vanished.

Earlier in the week, I met an insurer employing c. 3000 people. Their strategy team was one lady who, amongst other things, looked after new venture scanning and M&A activity.

She was doing a brilliant job; keeping track of the competitor and new venture landscapes, thematic targeting based on sounds insights, and actively building relationship with companies to later partner or acquire.

I then met one of the world’s top 10 insurance companies. They have an army of people across strategy, M&A, and, of course, innovation.

They were lost, focussed only on internal problems, desperately trying to catch up with the BAU, with resources stretched to the max. They had completely lost sight of the changing world around them.

Maybe, just maybe, now is the time we’ll see which incumbents thrive and which quietly fade into the background.

‘We sell mobility, not cars’
Finally, the sun is shining in the UK, and that can only mean two things:

It’s time for us all to feel slightly uncomfortable about what to put on our feet whilst wearing shorts on the weekend
For the people who drive convertibles, it’s their one week in the year to get the lid down, sunglasses on and play music at a respectably quiet, British level.

And, for those who don’t have a convertible, no problem – Cluno can help you with that. Via a monthly all-in rate (everything but petrol is included) you can drive your convertible as long as you like, and come late June when the weather turns, swap back to your 4×4.

This week we caught up with Nico, who, with his wife Christina, who founded Cluno – the mobility-as-a-service car subscription venture based in Munich, Germany.

Having raised a decent €7M Series A back in April this year, just 6 months after launching, Cluno are banking on the fact 15% of the present car ownership models will be subscription based in 5 years.

Have a read; it’s a seriously interesting take on the market.

By 2030, it’ll be hub and spoke
A few days back I read a Q&A with Tom Blomfield, the founder of Monzo. It’s a great article with a gem of a quote:

There is a saying in ice hockey: ‘You’ve got to skate where the puck is going’. If you skate at the puck, it will have moved so far ahead by the time you get there that you’ll have missed it. Banks are looking at us. We are the puck.

The article touches on how Tom’s vision for building a ‘hub’ for one’s money, where you can visualise every aspect of your finances, in turn automatically taking care of all your financial admin through ‘spokes’. Effectively disaggregating services such as insurance, and re-aggregating them through the Monzo platform.

So just what role will an aggregator play in the future?

On our Future Disruptors podcast this week, we chat to Faisal Galaria who, for the last two years, has been Chief Strategy & Investment Officer at GoCompare, overseeing their de-merger as well as some considerable investment and acquisition activity.

Have a listen; it’s super interesting.

API for CRM integrations

Faisal kindly took time out of his busy schedule to talk about what he’s been up to at GoCompare, the reasoning behind their strategic activities, and where the future lies for the business.

Back at the ranch
Thanks for all the interest in the hyper-personalisation disruption report – it really is a 64 page beauty. Hopefully that’s now with all those who requested a copy. Shout if you haven’t already and I’ll send over a (free) copy. Otherwise it’ll be on sale on the Tällt site as of next week.

In other news, a while back we made the call our Sønr roadmap would only be informed by paying clients. Ie not by prospective clients who ‘would’ buy a subscription if it had x, y or z.

As such I thought I’d share an update: we’re now actively working on a bunch of new features including an external API for CRM integrations, an in-product venture tracking pipeline tool and some seriously impressive BI capabilities.

API for CRM integrations

We’re more than happy to demo these features like external API for CRM integrations along with the core product. Just shout if you’d like a tour around.

That’s it from me. Keep an eye out for the launch of this year’s Disrupt 100, which should be out on the 14^th June. It’s another incredible list of companies changing the world we live in with new features including an external API for CRM integrations, an in-product venture tracking pipeline tool, and some seriously impressive BI capabilities.

Have great weekends all.

Matt

—
MATT CONNOLLY
Founder & CEO

+44 7788 711 104
www.tallt.ventures

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There was hope. Then it vanished.

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