Former New York Yankees shortstop and third baseman Alex Rodriguez has made a busy post-baseball career in finance. The MLB star is now announcing another new investment, this time in a new startup focusing on the relationship between insurance providers and their customers
Although insurance agents drive 90% of the $100 billion in annual home premiums, the experience for most customers is that they purchase policies and never speak with an agent again. But this can often lead to properties being underinsured, leaving customers in the lurch later.
By making agents more responsive and anticipatory of their customer’s needs, Ranger aims to improve the insurance experience by both changing agents’ financial incentives to better align with their customers and also provide agents with the customer relationships management (CRM) tools they need to do this.
Rodriguez recently shared more with Fortune about his decision to invest in the company.
- Startup: Ranger
- Location: New York, N.Y.
- Year founded: 2022
- Valuation: Declined to disclose
- Investment level: $5.25 million (total seed funding)
- Number of employees: 10
- Other major investors: Seed round led by Lerer Hippeau with participation FirstMinute Capital, Slow Ventures, Global Founders Capital, Raven1 Ventures and Montauk Ventures
Why he invested, in his own words
Since I founded A-Rod Corp., I’ve learned a lot about investing and honed my own investment approach. We’ve followed market trends and identified winning opportunities across a variety of industries that have contributed to A-Rod Corp.’s success, including coconut water giant Vita Coco, social media icon Snapchat, and private aviation company WheelsUp.
But as my portfolio grows, I am frequently reminded of something my mentor and one of the greatest business leaders of all time, Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO Warren Buffet, said that has always stuck with me: he told me that I should get into the insurance business.
When I look for a company to invest in, I’m not just looking for a promise of profitability or a novel product. I look for category disruptors, the types of founders that are looking to change their industry for the better. When I first met with Greg Garrison and Philip Krim, I knew they were disrupting the insurance industry with Ranger, and that spoke to me.
This is an installment of Why I Invested, a series featuring famous investors from all different backgrounds and industries, revealing what inspired them to invest their own money in a new business.
