The Leadership Letter

Real correspondence from the people running real companies — and what it reveals about leadership.

Shrink the Risk Before You Chase the Growth

Before going on offense, fix the math on the losses you can actually control.

In two short years, we have nearly doubled our total generated premium from $606 million to $1.1 billion and more than doubled our revenue from $91 million to $210 million, all while lowering fixed expenses from $140 million to $138 million and improving the gross loss ratio on our Hippo Home Insurance Program by approximately 40 percentage points.

In the second half of 2023, we launched an aggressive program to raise deductibles for wind and hail in certain geographies and began non-renewing policies in higher-cat areas where we had excess concentration. If we experience the exact same hailstorms this coming year, with the same level of severity, the program of deductible changes and selective non-renewals in CAT concentrated areas that is currently in progress would reduce Hippo's direct losses by approximately 55%. Moreover, because the changes that began last October take a full year to work their way through policy renewal dates, the benefits in 2025 would be even greater: an almost 80% reduction in direct losses if the hailstorms from second quarter of 2023 were to reoccur.

These initiatives, when combined with the actions we took in the second half of 2023 to streamline our operations and reduce our fixed expenses, give us greater confidence that we are on track to achieve our profitability goals ahead of schedule, with a mix that is shifting toward businesses with lower volatility and higher predictability. As we enter 2024, we believe we are incredibly well-positioned to compete for business in our core markets and in our core customer segments. It is time for Hippo to go back on offense.

This edition is for members.

The daily letter is free. The archive — every prior edition, fully searchable — is for members. Sign in to start your free week.

SEC EDGAR Filing
SEC EDGAR · EX-99.1
Hippo Holdings Inc. · EX-99.1 · filed 2024-03-06 · Accession 0001828105-24-000005
March 6, 2024
Public domain
View the primary source →