Diary of an Insurer: Genasys Technologies’ Elliott Green

Monday

It’s a big week this week as on Sunday I’ll be running the London Marathon to raise money for a charity supporting children with cancer. I’m feeling the pressure.

I’ve been training since the beginning of the year and I’m at the stage now where I taper my training.

About three weeks before the marathon, you stop with the very long training runs, and instead it’s more like a casual jog around the block, which my mind and my body now just aren’t used to.

To distract me from the marathon mind games, we have a Request For Information (RFI) document to complete for a major European insurer.

Today’s the deadline for submission so I spend time with Bart Patrick, our chief revenue officer, diligently carrying out the final checks to our document, outlining our insurtech offering before we hit the send button.

It’s an exciting time for us as we’ve made it to the final two vendors shortlist for a series of potential new clients, so I’m biting my nails that I get a “yes” from them soon.

Back home, and time for the worst part of my day – 20 minutes of stretching. Far too much sitting around for me.

Not that time moves much faster in the ice-bath I bought as part of my marathon prep. I do three minutes each dip and the first minute is so bad. But if you can push through that, then you’re alright.

Tuesday

On Tuesdays, I usually work from our London HQ, but today I head up north where I lead a demo session with a potential client. This week I’ll be involved in three such demonstrations.

I always enjoy these meetings as I get to surprise new people with how configurable our system is and see, in real-time, their brains processing all the possibilities that this could open up.

Our client base is varied but they’re all intent on giving their end-customers the best experience possible and the right tech partner is key to this aspiration.

As you’d expect more stretching to be marathon-ready for Sunday. I even manage to do some subtle stretching on the train back to London.

Plenty of funny looks from people seeing me struggling to touch my far-out-of-reach toes, but it’s a quieter train so I take the opportunity.

Wednesday

Back in the office today and I spend time reviewing a few business development opportunities.

This includes checking in with potential leads from a variety of insurtech events that I’ve attended and spoken at this year.

A lot of the executives I chat to share a similar frustration – costly, complicated digital transformation projects – and are interested to know if there’s another way.  

I love the people element of my job and getting to know potential customers and how we can help solve their tech problems.

For just a bit of fun and to raise awareness of my fundraising efforts, I do a training run around central London in the shape of a bear.

When I say bear – there’s some artistic licence here, but squint and you can kind of see one.

I’ve done a couple of bear runs now, which I share on social media and afterwards I always get a little boost to my fundraising total. Why a bear?

The bear has become our unofficial mascot since we first bought some to giveaway at an insurtech event in South Africa last year – people really go mad for them. 

Thursday 

Today is a great day as the whole team gathers at London HQ for our business development meeting. I love coming together in this way.

We review our plan and targets as to how we’ll play our individual and collective roles in scaling our company, as we work to take on more clients across existing and new territories.

Every business I talk to is different, so this is a chance to share feedback and really get into how we can add value. This is probably my most important meeting of the week, and one we all put a lot of time into, but we never forget to have fun while we’re at it.

We always have a good laugh, whether it’s the running joke we have with our vice president of marketing Gavin Peter about his legendary plaid shirts, or Bart baffling us city dwellers with the latest hilarious countryside anecdotes and antics.

Running a marathon is very similar to the business development process – a long lead time training for the final run when the right preparation, positive attitude and self-belief all counts towards your success.

Depending on the size of the potential client, it can take anywhere from three to 12 months to get to the point where you’ve completed the many stages of the tender process.

It’s still thrilling to get the call when you’re told that you’ve been selected as the tech vendor, though I have a feeling that crossing the finish line on Sunday will top that.

Friday

Today I’m working from home, and with daily admin in hand, I’m catching up with clients who are now in the process of onboarding with our product and working with the Genasys team (stay tuned for more news).

At lunchtime, I pause work to pick up my two little girls from school. My colleagues are aware of my parenting responsibilities – they understand that’s all part and parcel of my life.

I’ve been at Genasys now for just over a year and I remember that on one of my early interview calls with André Symes, Group CEO, he could hear my children making a load of noise in the background even though I’d tried some parental bribery beforehand.

André was really cool about it, and we chatted about the challenges that working parents in our sector face. When he turned up to our next call with his baby boy on his lap, I knew for certain I’d found the right fit.

In the afternoon we have our company-wide ‘All Hands’ meeting, which everyone from our UK and South African teams dial into.

These are always interesting as André and Craig Olivier, group chief technology officer, chat about what’s on their minds in relation to what’s going on in the insurtech sector and the wider insurance industry, and Genasys’ role and purpose.

This week both André and Craig have a sharp focus on the insurance consumer and how we as Genasys (through our clients) can make the process of buying, servicing and claiming easier for them.

We’re all encouraged to chip in and before long we’re all in the flow of a really productive conversation. It’s also a chance to celebrate team highlights and to welcome our new starters, like Caroline, who joined this week as the latest brilliant addition to our rapidly growing sales team. 

Of course, there’s a huge wave of support from everyone for Sunday and I’m not going to lie, it makes me very emotional the way everyone is getting behind me. There’s a definite moment when it really hits home about the challenge I’m facing. It now feels very real. Gulp.

This evening, it’s another ice bath, which my seven-year-old gets far too excited about helping to fill – all 10 bags of ice go in for the first time and wowza, does that make a difference – plus more stretching and carb loading. Good job I like pasta.

Post-marathon analysis

I was aiming to complete the marathon in just over three hours and my final time was – drum roll please – three hours and 12 minutes. What a rollercoaster.

I had tears running down my face before I even took up my starting position, and even more by the time I crossed the finish line and limped over to the medic, having massively overdone it in the first 10km. A big lesson in consistency.

Thank you to everyone across the insurance industry who has supported me – so far I’ve raised more than £3,250 for Children with Cancer UK. Your generosity has been fantastic. I got chatting to someone who works at the charity last year and fell in love with what they do and the difference they make.

When they asked if I would run the marathon for them, I couldn’t quite believe it, but I had to accept the challenge. Since I loved it so much, my next stop is the Amsterdam Marathon (15 October).

Elliott Green is sales director at Genasys Technologies. Click here to support his fundraising efforts.