MISSION UNDERWRITING MANAGERS
Recruiting the right talent into the corporate team is also important . Talent is not just about knowing what you ’ re talking about – it ’ s about understanding the specific challenges that your clients face and having the experience to guide them through it . Mission has assembled a top core team , including Chief Digital Officer Alex Williams and Chief Product and Strategy Officer Chris Jones .
April 2021 Mission signed its first series and were up-and-running by
June 2021
Understanding the startup experience For Jones , who has lived the entrepreneurial life himself , bringing professional experiences that are similar to those faced by Mission ’ s partners is an important attribute . He says : “ One of the things that I struggle with , being an entrepreneur , is understanding how hard it is to keep the culture and the mindset , especially in an industry like insurance which most people don ' t think of as very entrepreneurial . Starting out , when we had a handful of employees at Mission and everybody was just doing whatever it took to get things done – that ' s what I want us to be known for , as the disruptors in the insurance space . The company that ' s entrepreneurial , nimble , able to move quickly , and reacts to new market signals quickly .”
Jones acknowledges that it becomes increasingly difficult to do that , particularly as Mission scales . But he explains that he doesn ’ t want to lose the entrepreneurial spirit that Mission shares with its series , nor lose the recognition it has gained as an innovator .
He readily admits that , like most people , he never grew up hoping to go into the world of insurance . Instead , he describes himself as a “ finance guy ”, studying accounting and finance at university before falling – not leaping – into the insurance space . When he first stumbled upon the programme model from a carrier ’ s perspective , he wondered why everybody wasn ’ t taking this approach .