Karn Saroya

Karn Saroya explains how Cover entered insurance as a capital-light brokerage, using a mobile app to simplify onboarding and gather information that could help assess risk. He describes lessons from earlier ventures: validate customer demand, focus on a business model that can earn meaningful revenue, and use distribution strengths to find a market. Cover expanded into licensed insurance brokerage before considering whether to take on underwriting risk, and built additional tools that help customers access discounts and prepare to buy insurance. He also shares advice for startup founders: focus on a key metric, avoid distractions, and use YC to test whether the business has product-market fit.