Writing Authentic Brand Stories

Ditto Insurance scaled by doing everything a typical VC-funded startup is told NOT to do. When a panelist once asked me "What's Ditto's secret sauce?", I replied — we chose to grow slowly, deliberately rejecting the "move fast & break things" mindset. 1. No Spam. Ever: Four years ago, we introduced the "No Spam" model — the first in the industry. Even after advising over a million customers, not once have we spammed anyone. Yes, we lost countless potential sales. But every interaction was a reminder that Ditto exists to help, not to push. → No spam. No sales pitches. Only genuine advice. 2. Helping Everyone — Even Non Ditto Customers. At Ditto, even if you didn’t buy your policy through us, our claim support team is trained to help you. It slows us down. It stretches our team. Infact on many weekends , I would personally pick up many escalations - since if the team misses any call , it gets routed to founders. This builds trust — and many of these people eventually choose Ditto. Good Karma helps :) 3. Advisory-First Approach: If a customer already has a good plan, even if it’s not bought through Ditto, we tell them to stick with it. Because at Ditto, the goal has always been to do what’s genuinely right for the customer. In an industry plagued by mis-selling and aggressive sales, doing the right thing isn’t the shortcut — It’s the moat. Trust compounds the slowest. But it wins the longest. #startup #india

With Australia's largest ever Seed round of $15.5 million AUD, here’s how Honey Insurance is reinventing Home Protection with Smart Tech! In the realm of Australian startups, Honey Insurance has emerged as a transformative force in the home insurance industry. Founded by Richard Joffe, Honey Insurance is pioneering a smarter approach to home protection. Richard Joffe, the CEO and founder, has a rich entrepreneurial background, having founded parking sensor platform TKH Security | Park Assist and jobs platform Stella Jobs in the US, both of which were acquired. With experience as a consultant at McKinsey & Company and an investment banker at Morgan Stanley, Richard's expertise is driving Honey Insurance's strategic and innovative edge. Stunned by the lack of proactive risk reduction by insurers in Australia, Richard decided to apply a tech solution to the problem and launched Honey Insurance in 2021. Honey Insurance is Australia's first smart home insurance company dedicated to preventing avoidable accidents in the home. Richard's vision is to transform home insurance from a reactive service to a proactive protector, giving customers more control and peace of mind. Leveraging technology and data analytics, Honey Insurance aims to reduce the need for claims and provide cheaper insurance by actively reducing risks in customers' lives. Fascinating Facts: - Honey Insurance launched with a record $15.5 million AUD seed round, the largest ever for an Australian tech startup. The funding was led by institutional investors RACQ, PEXA, Metricon, ABN Group, Mirvac, AGL, SFG, and Apex Capital Partners. Individual investors include Zip Co founder and global CEO Larry Diamond; Afterpay co-founder and CEO Anthony Eisen; former ME Bank CEO Jamie McPhee; former CoreLogic CEO Graham Mirabito; Airtasker co-founder and CEO Tim Fung; and former News Corp Australia and Foxtel Group CEO Peter Tonagh. - Recognized as Australia's 6th fastest-growing tech company, Honey Insurance has achieved significant growth since its inception. - With a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 91 in an industry that averages six, Honey Insurance stands out for its high customer satisfaction. - Richard was named Entrepreneur of the Year at the 2023 Executive of the Year Awards, highlighting his influence in the tech and insurance sectors. - Richard aims to foster a culture of innovation at Honey Insurance, hoping to inspire team members to become future entrepreneurs. Under the leadership of Richard, with its unique combination of smart technology, data analytics, and a focus on customer experience, Honey Insurance is setting a new standard for home protection in Australia. #HoneyInsurance #SmartHome #Innovation #HomeInsurance #Australian #Startups #Entrepreneur *** Enjoy this? Share it with your network and follow me Vaibhav Sharma for more in future!   I write about interesting businesses, entrepreneurs, and high performance. Join my inner circle here: https://lnkd.in/gZKZ_Zdb

Beware of the “straight line assumption” when you hear impressive founder success stories. In hindsight, it looks like a pretty straight line through “We started it, then we grew it, then we sold it.” But it was never a straight line. It’s messy with some occasional upward stair steps, when things go better than average. 1000 mistakes and tries that didn’t work, with a small number that worked very well. Some good and some bad luck too. Aaron Steffey is the co-founder and co-CEO of Propeller Bonds, an online platform that enables insurance agents and brokers to issue surety bonds instantly — without the lengthy paperwork or back-and-forth typically involved in bonding. Aaron was an insurance agent, and his co-founder cousin, Chris, was a surety bond underwriter when they set out to revolutionize the way surety bonds are bought and sold in 2019. They initially bootstrapped with a software development partner who accepted equity instead of fees. Their first version drastically simplified the process of buying and selling surety bonds in the digital world, allowing them to grow quickly. They raised $7 million in SAFE notes from strategic partners to accelerate growth in 2021 and grew to nearly $20 million in revenue. They sold 100% of the company to Arch Capital in a strategic acquisition in early 2024. Sounds like a straight line from startup to successful sale in 5 years, but it was the opposite. As Aaron describes it this week on my podcast: “My biggest advice for startup founders is simply just that endurance wins. It’s the whole thing of getting back up after you're knocked down, like everyone says. I had to live that so many times. "So many No's when it came to our first carrier pulling out. No, I don't want to invest. No, I don't want to use your surety product. “There were so many times when I wanted to give up. And the same with my cousin. Had we not founded the company together, I don't know that we would have continued because there were probably times when I would have given up. “As long as both of us weren't on the floor, one of us would just pick the other up when the other person usually was more sane, and we dragged each other along. “A successful founder needs to have a pretty high pain tolerance and endurance to succeed. You just have to keep pushing forward. It just sounds so cliche, but that’s what it was for us.” I appreciate founders like Aaron, who share glimpses of their brutal journey and the things they learned the hard way. Not just the ups. In this episode, Aaron also talks about: - How this sleepy, paper-based market changed quickly in COVID - Why they raised growth funding from strategic investors and not VCs - Why they sold the company and are leading the business after the sale Check out this revealing interview with Aaron Steffey on the Practical Founders Podcast. https://lnkd.in/ebdQ8Wfm #practicalfounders

🏮 Your landing page is killing your conversions. Let’s say you run a 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱. You launch two ads: 👉 One calls out 𝘄𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝘀: “Oily skin? Breakouts? Fix it before it gets worse.” 👉 Another speaks to 𝘄𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻 𝟯𝟬+: “Fine lines & wrinkles? Reverse ageing naturally.” But then… you send both to the 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗲. A generic page talking about “healthy skin for all.” Guess what happens? 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗸. Why? Because a 𝟮𝟱-𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿-𝗼𝗹𝗱 dealing with oiliness and breakouts isn’t thinking about wrinkles. And a 𝟯𝟱-𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿-𝗼𝗹𝗱 worried about aging skin doesn’t care about acne control. Here’s how to fix it: ✅ Identify your ICPs. ✅ Break them down into different personas. ✅ Build 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 tailored for each. ✅ Build 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 that continue the same messaging. 🔹 𝟮𝟬𝘀-𝗳𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗲: Talks about oil control, preventing breakouts, and early skin damage. 🔹 𝟯𝟬+ 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗲: Focuses on collagen, hydration, and reversing fine lines. Your ICP callout can’t stop at the ad. It has to continue on the landing page. Same creative, same persona, 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲. That’s how you scale. Thoughts? 👇 #LandingPage #PerformanceMarketing #CRO

How Jihan Abass is increasing access to insurance in Africa! 🚀 🎙️ 🎙️ In Episode #150 of the Unlocking Africa Podcast, I had the privilege of speaking with Jihan Abass, CEO and Founder of Lami, an innovative insurtech platform in Kenya that is closing Africa’s insurance gap. Lami's agent-driven model is changing how insurance is sold in Africa. reshaping the insurance landscape in Africa. Here’s the big idea… Lami is democratising access to insurance by digitising the entire value chain. In a continent where less than 3% of the population is insured, Jihan and her team are creating solutions that bring insurance to underserved communities in record time. 🕒 🌍 Why Jihan Launched Lami Originally from Kenya, Jihan studied Finance at Bayes Business School and holds an MBA from Oxford University. After a career as a Commodity Trader in the City, a life-changing conversation with a waiter in Mombasa inspired her to bridge the insurance gap in Africa. 💡 How Lami is Closing the Insurance Gap Lami’s platform allows agents to sell products like personal accident and motor insurance with unprecedented efficiency. What used to take up to 20 days can now be completed in minutes! By pivoting to an agent-driven model, Lami has doubled its revenue and is now generating over $300,000 monthly. 💰 💬 What We Discussed: ✅ The challenges in Africa’s insurance market that inspired Lami’s creation. ✅ How Lami is reaching underserved communities and removing bottlenecks in the insurance process. ✅ Lessons learned from raising $5.5M as one of the first female African founders in insurtech. Jihan’s story is not just about insurance; it’s about innovation, resilience, and the power of a big idea to transform lives. Don’t miss this inspiring episode! Listen now via the link in the comments. 🎧 #Insurtech #Insurance #Innovation #DigitalTransformation

HOW DO YOU MARKET TO PEOPLE AFRAID TO EVEN SAY THE WORDS “PAINFUL SEX” OR “POSTPARTUM DESIRE” OUT LOUD? One of the most rewarding parts of the MySine strategy project was defining detailed audience personas for a femtech brand operating in a highly sensitive, often taboo space. We didn’t want generic “women 18–35.” We wanted to understand their real lives, pain points, and needs. Some of our final personas included: • The Informed Intimacy Seeker: Urban, health-conscious, eager for scientific guidance. • The Quietly Curious: Private, cautious, needs anonymity to learn without shame. • The Postpartum Rediscoverer: Navigating identity, desire, and intimacy after childbirth. • The Cycle-Conscious Planner: Interested in hormone-driven libido changes, planning for pregnancy. We mapped their pain points (shame, misinformation, partner communication gaps) to specific messaging strategies and channels This wasn’t just segmentation—it was about empathy and inclusive design. ✨ Have you built audience personas for taboo or sensitive categories? I'd love to have a conversation and talk more.... . . . . #UserPersonas #AudienceStrategy #Femtech #DesignThinking #BrandStrategy

No one is better at being you than you. So many of my clients struggle to write content because they focus too much on trying to sound like anything but themselves. They think they need to write content that is:  → Super intelligent sounding → Filled with professional or corporate language  → Sharing some sort of ground breaking idea Which only ends up with them: → Overthinking and overwhelmed → Creating convoluted confusing content → Procrastinating until they give up entirely With the right knowledge and tools, writing content gets to be a lot less stressful. You just need to write more like you. Because the content that does well has these elements: → Stories from real life experiences  → Shared tips that worked for YOU  → Sounds like you speak in your words People can smell content that feels contrived and forced a mile off, it repels. Authentic content that comes from the heart, is the content that starts real conversations and leads to real clients. The ones you actually want to work with. If you've been struggling to write content, here's a simple structure I use and with my clients that WORKS: → Think about a recent experience you can share → Break down what happened and what you learned → Outline the key takeaways and include a personal tip → End with a question asking others about similar experiences I've seen this approach transform how my clients create content. They've gone from feeling stuck and overwhelmed to consistently sharing valuable posts that resonate with their audience. So don’t be afraid to sound like and be more like you in your content.  Because no one else can be you and your stories matter. What recent experience could you share in your next post?

👉 Born in 1981 in Delhi and raised in a middle-class household in Mumbai’s Juhu-Bandra, Varun grew up with values rooted in hard work and perseverance. 👉 His father worked in the public sector and his mother was a government school principal. He studied at the University of Mumbai and later pursued his post-graduation from MICA, Ahmedabad. 👉 Starting his career at Leo Burnett and later transitioning into the financial sector with stints at TATA AIG and Franklin Templeton, Varun gained crucial insights into the inefficiencies of the insurance sector—clunky systems, high premiums, and customer confusion. 👉 His first startup attempt was Coverfox, an aggregator that allowed users to compare insurance plans. While Coverfox wasn’t a failure, Varun realized it didn’t give him the control he needed to truly innovate. So, he relocated to Bangalore to build something from scratch. 👉 That ‘something’ became ACKO. 👉 ACKO promised a digital-first experience: no paperwork, no agents, no commission. But the road wasn’t easy. The idea was ahead of its time. Customers didn’t trust online insurance, investors were skeptical, and industry veterans scoffed. 👉 They focused on improving customer experience, investing in technology, and forming smart partnerships—with Amazon, Ola, CRED, SonyLIV, and others. ACKO started settling claims in as little as 12 minutes, offered bite-sized insurance products, and issued over 8 crore policies to 2.8 crore customers with a 94.54% claim settlement rate. 👉 By 2024, ACKO was valued at $1.4 billion and had raised $458 million from marquee investors like Amazon, Accel, and General Atlantic. Varun’s entrepreneurial spirit didn’t stop at ACKO. 👉 His net worth grew to ₹107 crore, and he became an active investor in startups like Dezerv, Kuvera, BNC, and Tohands. In 2023, he also joined the panel of Shark Tank India, mentoring and backing new-age founders. 👉 Despite his busy schedule, Varun remains grounded. He credits much of his journey to the emotional support of his family, especially his wife, who stood by him during the toughest days of his startup struggle. 👉ACKO didn’t just build an insurance business—they rebuilt trust in a broken system. Varun Dua’s journey proves that even in the most traditional sectors, disruption is possible if you have the courage to take risks, stay persistent, and put the customer first. If you’re building something people doubt, remember this: every unicorn once looked like a bad idea. Every revolution starts with one bold decision.

I never talked about this, but it's changed the way I see leadership and many other things. Being a woman in leadership often feels like walking a tightrope between authenticity and expectation. The pressure to fit into a certain mold is real, whether it's dialing down ambition or tempering assertiveness to fit in. And then, there are those unexpected moments when resistance comes from within our own circles. It stings, especially because we know the difficulty of the climb. But this isn’t about blame. It’s about recognizing a complex reality. When the world conditions us to believe there's limited room at the table, it's not surprising that competition can sometimes turn inward. Here’s the paradox: 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐢𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐬𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐞𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐰𝐞’𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝. 𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞, 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐛𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞. I've learned that leadership is about more than individual success. It's about collective elevation. The most transformative moments in my journey haven't been solitary achievements but those where women around me chose to use their voices to amplify mine. When we create room for each other, we challenge the very notion of scarcity that pits us against one another. 𝐒𝐨, 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨 𝐰𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞? By redefining leadership to be about collaboration over competition. It means sharpening our insights, fostering environments where diverse perspectives are not just included but are integral to the conversation. The real question isn't how we can each secure a seat, but how we can reshape the entire space to ensure there’s room for everyone. When we focus on elevating the collective, we create new opportunities rather than guarding the existing ones. It’s time we challenge the narrative of scarcity. Let’s choose to be the ones who build longer tables, not higher walls. Because when we lift each other up, we don’t just make room for ourselves, we create a future where there’s space for every woman to thrive. #WomenInLeadership #IntellectualLeadership #ExpandTheTable #WomenSupportingWomen #LeadershipRedefined

✨ Why is it challenging to gather comprehensive data on girls and young women’s leadership and participation? 📊 The “Closing Gaps, Opening Doors” is a study conducted by She Leads and Equal Measures 2030 across regions including East Africa, West Africa, and the Middle East, which seeks to uncover why data on girls and young women (GYW) are often incomplete or missing. The study reveals several systemic barriers that impact the quality of data collected, which is crucial for promoting gender equality. 🚧 Key barriers include the prevalent focus on political data, which overshadows other forms of leadership and participation. Data are rarely disaggregated by age or other crucial identity factors, making GYW nearly invisible in leadership narratives. 📉 This lack of detailed and diverse data limits our understanding of GYW's actual challenges and achievements, consequently hindering the progress that could be made with informed, inclusive policies and interventions. Addressing these gaps involves not just acquiring more data but improving the quality of data to accurately reflect the real experiences of all young women. 🎨 It’s been an honor to pour heart and soul into these illustrations, crafted with intention to celebrate the power and leadership of girls and young women. Each stroke and color choice was made to amplify their stories—capturing both the hurdles they face and the incredible strides they make. This was more than just art; it was a journey of using creativity as a force for advocacy, where visuals meet data to inspire change. Together, we’ve woven a narrative that not only informs but empowers, making their voices impossible to ignore. - #GirlsLeadership #ArtActivism #ArtForGood #GenderEquality #WomenInLeadership #PublicPolicy #SheLeads