Introduction

What would it take for businesses to treat flood the way they treat fire? At a flood-exposed site, flooding is now twice as likely as fire, and 99% of those businesses have a fire plan. Only 8% have a flood action plan, down from 30% a year ago.

In this episode, Joshua Hollander talks with Jonathan Jackson, CEO of Previsico, about why preparedness collapsed while adoption of early warning systems rose from 35% to 49%, and what the insurance industry could do about it, because it has closed a gap like this before. Listeners will leave with a working picture of how property-level flood forecasting gets built, bought, and priced into insurance programs, and what a founder-led CEO succession actually takes.

Guest Bio

Jonathan Jackson is the CEO of Previsico, the flood forecasting company he spun out of Loughborough University in January 2019 while serving as the university's entrepreneur in residence. Previsico predicts surface water flooding at individual property level up to 48 hours ahead, generates a new forecast every hour, and is live with Zurich, Liberty, Generali, Marsh, and around 200 corporates. Previsico is Jackson's fourth start-up, after ventures in telecoms, agriculture (Farming Online, the UK's longest-running B2B internet business), and CPG digital promotions. He hands the CEO role to Mark Trumper at the end of October and will stay on through the transition.

Key Topics

-Why flood plans collapsed from 30% to 8% - A broader survey base pulled in mid-sized firms with thinner risk management, and warning users discovered their generic emergency response plans don't actually cover flood.

-The smoke detector playbook - US insurers drove fire alarm adoption from 25% to over 70% in about six years through premium incentives, and Jackson argues flood needs the same treatment now that US direct flood losses run five times fire.

-What 48 hours of warning buys - Balfour Beatty went from a multimillion dollar loss on a rail bridge project to zero loss on the next flood, with a 36-hour first warning, staged action plans, and a sensor-triggered evacuation.

-How insurers package prevention - Zurich Municipal embeds Previsico warnings in its premium at no added cost, while Liberty issues risk management bursaries (underwriting credits in US terms) to nudge exposed clients toward prevention.

-Why surface water is the hardest flood to forecast - Every storm floods differently depending on track and intensity, which is why a live hydrodynamic model, rather than a static flood map, is required.

-Cracking the US market - Under 5% of US properties carry flood insurance, carriers have limited appetite, and brokers and captives carry more of the load, so Previsico entered customer-led, with proof points at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the MTA, and Governors Island.

-A three-year CEO succession - The handover stretched from a board conversation through a three-investor fundraise and a long search before Mark Trumper's arrival this October.

Notable Quotes

"Flood is five times bigger now than fire in terms of direct loss in the US. From an insurance point of view, it's the new fire."

"They went from a multimillion dollar loss to a zero loss and were able to resume work the next day."

"The original reason for us going into the US is because the customers wanted us over there, particularly the insurers."

"It doesn't work like that in my life, it seems, because we then decided that actually we needed to go and do a fundraise."

Resources

Guest:

Previsico: https://previsico.com/

Jonathan Jackson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-jackson-a393102/

Host & Organization:

Joshua R. Hollander on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuarhollander/

Horton International (USA): https://www.horton-usa.com/

Insurtech Leadership Podcast (LinkedIn Showcase): https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/insurtech-leadership-show

Subscribe & Review

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe on your favorite platform and leave a review. The Insurtech Leadership Podcast is available on YouTube, Podbean, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.