 Hey guys, it's MJ and I did an interview with a really cool startup called Pineapple They are a peer-to-peer insurance platform Unfortunately though when I did the interview it was over Skype and the internet connection wasn't the best so the audio quality Is not great. So what I have done is I've added subtitles So make sure to turn on the subtitles if you're battling to hear what they're saying But without further ado, let's jump straight into this. Thanks guys So we are we we are recording and I just want to say thank you guys so much for I mean taking time out of your busy schedule To to do this interview But I know it's something that a lot of people have been requesting on my my channel is You know can actuaries become entrepreneurs? So that's why I was very excited when when I came across your guys article. I was like, ah fantastic because Yeah, I believe it's it's Matthew who's who's studying actuarial science or who studied actuarial science? Okay, fantastic and and the other guys what what are your backgrounds? Mm-hmm, okay fantastic I mean that that's like the the best combination is to have an actuary a lawyer and an accountant kind of all Working together because those are kind of like the three big spheres when it comes to to doing business and stuff Um, yes, yes, but before we get into the whole thing. I just want to ask Matthew very quickly Because this is a question. I get asked quite a quite a lot as well So I'm interested in your answer is why did you study actuarial science? No, yes, Steven was was a brilliant lecture. I must say I do I do miss miss him But I mean the one thing about studying actuarial science is that it does come with this very lucrative salary at the end of every month if you do work for for one of the big companies So what made you decide to to turn your back on that and rough it out as an entrepreneur? And so would you say that this is your your first start up or have you guys or other people in your team worked on? other little projects, maybe say at school Or during university or is this the first time you guys are doing the whole? Yeah, entrepreneurial startup thing and And tell me um, I mean you guys have called yourself pineapple Whose idea was that and like what what's the story behind that name? That's actually pretty pretty interesting because I thought it was like, oh, you know, there's blackberry. There's apples So we like let's just call ourselves after a fruit. You know that that seems to be the trend. Okay, so Yeah I must say it's I think it's that that story of the pineapple It's it's quite a lovely story in the sense that it's something that I didn't know about I mean I eat the stuff all the time and and I wasn't even aware of it So to know that that is great, but now tell me guys. Can you explain your idea in a nutshell? So very quickly what exactly does pineapple do and tell me I mean I see something Something that was also a peer-to-peer insurance company was set up in in 2010 called friend insurance Is is pineapple like a clone of that or is it something different? Okay, cool. So let's just I know you guys are in stealth mode and you don't want to talk too much about how the processes work But I was reading an article where you guys were talking about using the mango db and react native Again, why did you choose those technologies over something like ionic and firebase? I hear so you guys want to go on both and I mean I've just tried to release an app and android was you know like no problem You know put whatever you want on this on this app store But with with apple they they rejected my app. They were like, oh, you know It doesn't meet these guidelines and it goes infringes this and I actually went and I read their guidelines And it's quite a long lengthy document does pineapple infringe on any of of apple's You know business conditions or is this something that will will get the green light from from them Okay, cool, and then another question just around from the the technical side Um There's like a lot of hype around this whole thing known as blockchain and I was seeing some of your articles You guys mentioned that you you know, you were looking at that as a technology Would you ever consider releasing an ico? You know these things that have popped up on the internet that have raised stupid amounts of money Okay, fantastic and and just just to talk more more on the finance side I see you guys raised five point two million rand And I also saw that lemonade, which is also like a tech insurance company They were able to raise 13 million dollars from actually a guy who studied actuarial science at UCT rule of bertha With with his capital, um company in silicon valley What made you guys go for five point two million rand and not for some Stupid silly, you know hundred million like other companies have done And look you guys don't have to answer this this next question But just roughly speaking what is that five point two million going towards like what is the budget? Is it mainly going towards salaries? You know, you're gonna hire a whole bunch of support staff Is it going towards technology? Is it going towards trying to get over regulatory barriers? Is it support staff? What is your we move now more into say the the actual product that you guys are doing The fact that it's peer-to-peer insurance. Is this something that I can approach solo? Let's say my family So let's say for instance my family. They've very got close ties with their brokers And even though I study actuarial science and I can find they're much cheaper premiums elsewhere They're like no, no the broker. He's like a family friend. We've been with him for 30 years There's no way we're moving to to selling cheaper Can I come to you guys as an individual or do I need to come with my entire friend group? Just from like say a regulatory point of view Are you guys going to be an insurance company? Are you going to be a broker? Do you have any underwriting relationships? Are you going to go through somebody else's license set up a captive? I mean, this is more of a a technical actuarial question But how are you guys going to be seen from a regulatory point of view? Well, this is the one thing that that I do find quite interesting about these these peer-to-peer Insurance systems the idea is that you almost pay you pay a big premium because a chunk of that premium goes towards the reserve And if not enough claims are made then that premium then gets refunded back to the person Is there not a way to make it so that you make that premium a little bit lower? And you just let the people take on a little bit additional risk Or do you think that's not something that the market is is ready for? So what I mean by that is a completely isolated system Where you you're putting your money onto this platform and if there's no more money at the end of the day You know you still suffer your risk So it could be considerably more cheaper, but considerably more more risky. Do you think that's something that we're not ready for? Because I mean that that's always I think the scariest thing about insurance Or setting up an insurance company is you might be selling cover to somebody who's got you know a very old Toyota And then one day they they create a pile up with a you know a bunch of Ferraris And you've got this massive this massive claim that could wipe out out the system So it's great to hear that you guys have got those reinsurance Barry or that reinsurance layer of protection But I want to just ask from let's say from a process point of view How would that look let's say I I crashed my car into ferrari I come to your guys app and I say I crashed into a ferrari How do you guys know that it was a ferrari that I crashed into and say not just another random cop? Where's that like your how do you solve that process? Some insurance companies what they do is they sometimes They make a little bit of a an operating loss on their premium But what they do is that they take their premium money and they invest it and they're able to cover up that loss with Investment income are you guys going to be or you don't have to answer this if it's still in stealth mode But will you guys be investing that the premiums that people put forward and how would you be investing that money? No, no, that's 100 5 because I know that is quite a that's like a trade secret with a lot of insurance companies So so no worries with that Um, I'll tell you what let's let's wrap it off with with two last questions Um, the last one will be, you know, how do people actually sign up to this this pineapple and and get involved? But before we get to that one, um, can you just tell us what's next for pineapple? What is the what is the roadmap? What's the five-year plan? I mean, are you guys going to try to take on the world? Or do you want to just be the best in say south africa? What is what's the ambition? Yeah, I guess let's let's end off with say Um, how do people so the people listening here? Um, I'm going to put a link in the description below to your guys website But what is their process for them to to sign up with you guys? They're fantastic. No guys, I must say I'm very very excited for this technology And I'm going to be wishing you all the best. I must say I do want to apologize Yeah, the audio quality hasn't been the best But I'll put on a little like, you know the subtitles at the bottom just to make sure that everyone can follow along But just want to say, yeah, thanks again for your time and all the best. Hey Cheers there guys