Today's entrepreneur is Peter Colis, the CEO and co-founder of Ethos.
Ethos, just raised $35 million in Series B funding, is a new kind of life insurance built for people who don't have time for fine print, extra doctors appointments or hidden fees. Ethos uses the power of technology and predictive analytics to modernize the life insurance process and align products with what families want and need during critical times in their lives.
Recognizing a dire need for change in the industry, Peter and co-founder Lingke Wang, began their quest to revolutionize life insurance by creating Ovid Life while rooming together at Stanford Business School. Ovid is a life insurance marketplace that helps seniors about to lapse their permanent life insurance, realize the equity value of their policy in a transparent marketplace that bids life settlement investors against each other for the benefit of the policyholder. From there, the idea for Ethos was born.
Peter and his co-founder Lingke started Ethos with one goal in mind: to make life insurance easy, accessible and affordable. Peter is continuing to lead the charge in turning this traditionally intimidating process and archaic industry into one that customers actually trust and love.
Peter has an M.B.A from Stanford Business School.
I am a(n):
Entrepreneur
Companies I've founded or co-founded:
Achievements (products built, personal awards won):
My co-founder Lingke Wang and I built Ethos to help educate consumers on life insurance. Our ultimate goal is to close the growing coverage gap in America.
We began our quest to revolutionize life insurance by creating Ovid Life while rooming together at Stanford Business School. Ovid is a life insurance marketplace that helps seniors about to lapse their permanent life insurance, realize the equity value of their policy in a transparent marketplace that bids life settlement investors against each other for the benefit of the policyholder. From there, the idea for Ethos was born.
Since 2016, Lingke and I led Ethos’ launch out of stealth to help modernize the broken life insurance industry. We have raised more than $46M in financing, and earned the investments of Silicon Valley heavyweights such as Sequoia Capital and Google Ventures, as well as celebrity investment funds including, Arrive, a subsidiary of Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, Robert Downey Jr.'s Downey Ventures, Kevin Durant's Durant Company and Will Smith's Smith Family Circle.
If you are an entrepreneur, why?
I want to change the world.
My favorite startups:
23andMe, the product and customer experience are incredible. Just imagine what they can achieve with that wealth of genetic data.
What's most frustrating and rewarding about entrepreneurship/innovation?
The most rewarding thing about entrepreneurship is building an A+ team with a diversity of experience and skill sets. The goal is to hire highly successful team members and then get out of their way.
As you go deep into a business opportunity over several years, you discover all sorts of business opportunities that look attractive to pursue. But you need to stay very focused on achieving your clear vision and purpose.
What's the No. 1 mistake entrepreneurs make?
Bringing a product solution to a customer acquisition problem.
What are the top three lessons you've learned as an entrepreneur?
1. Incredible talent can come from all backgrounds
2. As you scale, make management your #1 core competency
3. Constantly ask yourself “Am I thinking big enough?”. No one but you has the authority on your own potential.
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Peter Colis is the CEO and co-founder of Ethos, a new kind of digital life insurance company dedicated to making simple and ethical life insurance for families. Peter has an M.B.A from Stanford Business School.