Wayne Slavin, founder and CEO of Sure, explains why he prioritized securing insurance carrier distribution agreements before spending capital on engineering.
“Because really, what did I need engineers for to go get an insurance company to be our partner, right? And so you could have been building stuff, but were you building the right stuff? Was that actually a good use of time? And so it was very much like, hey, how can we do this as leanly as possible to have enough material To show an insurance company that this is viable.”
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More from Wayne Slavin
PredictionOpen · timeframe Nov 2030
Wayne Slavin predicts Sure will build the next ten $10B+ insurance brands
“This will truly work to the point at which we will build the next 10 decabillion dollar insurance brands will be built by Shure because of what we saw in auto insurance with That AV brand.”
Wayne SlavinNov 17, 2025▶ 40:50He tested his idea in one weekend—then raised $120M. | Wayne Slavin, Founder of Sure · PMF Show
Disclosure
Sure no longer works with Tesla but runs even larger insurance programs
“And some of the programs we run today, we no longer work with those guys, but some of the things we do today are even bigger.”
Wayne SlavinNov 17, 2025▶ 47:05He tested his idea in one weekend—then raised $120M. | Wayne Slavin, Founder of Sure · PMF Show
Disclosure
Slavin: Sure pivoted because its DNA was software, not consumer marketing
“What we got wrong and or I got wrong is our DNA is more about building product and tech, less about marketing and customer acquisition and In hindsight, my why is much more about helping other people build things versus us building a brand”
Wayne SlavinNov 17, 2025▶ 9:27He tested his idea in one weekend—then raised $120M. | Wayne Slavin, Founder of Sure · PMF Show
Opinion
Slavin: Insurance progress takes a decade compared to one year elsewhere
“But I'd say in other industries, the 10 years could happen in 12 months. I just happened to unknowingly choose an industry that A decade is equivalent to a year in other industries.”
Wayne SlavinNov 17, 2025▶ 12:57He tested his idea in one weekend—then raised $120M. | Wayne Slavin, Founder of Sure · PMF Show
Insight
Slavin: Low-dollar products fail without recurring revenue or zero CAC
“Small dollar things work really well if you have no CAC. Right? If there's no cost to acquire that customer, sell a dollar thing all day long, no problem. But when you have to go acquire the customer, and they're not repeat, and it's not recurring, man, that i…”
Wayne SlavinNov 17, 2025▶ 28:20He tested his idea in one weekend—then raised $120M. | Wayne Slavin, Founder of Sure · PMF Show
Disclosure
Slavin: Sure powers embedded insurance for Tesla, Toyota, and Intuit
“What we're specialized in, in a category of our own, is helping Fortune 500, Fortune 100 consumer and B to B brands embed insurance. And so we've done that with some of the biggest brands in the world, folks like Tesla, Toyota, Better.com, MasterCard, Intuit”
Wayne SlavinNov 17, 2025▶ 31:41He tested his idea in one weekend—then raised $120M. | Wayne Slavin, Founder of Sure · PMF Show
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