Briza: The Future of Insurance
Welcome to a very special episode of Culture Add, where Moe speaks to two guests from Briza, a Toronto based commercial insurance API company. Featured in this episode are Kevin Bracken, the Head of Growth, and Erin Dees, the Senior Principal Engineer at Briza.
A Bit About Erin and Kevin’s Journey
Seeking a change of pace from her previous experience in computer software, Erin found Briza. With Briza’s smaller scale operations, and use of TypeScript to program, Erin found herself in an engineering role.
Kevin’s role at Briza began as the head of marketing. With his past experience “early-stage growth consulting” with Global Skills Hub, Kevin partnered with Dominic Bortolussi, COO at Briza and Co-founder of Global Skills Hub.
What is Briza’s Role in the Insurance Industry?
Briza is an API marketplace for commercial insurance, allowing effortless access to insurance that overcomes the barriers of access to carriers and the fragmentation of integration. For agencies, the availability of a simple, multi-carrier portal helps to deliver commercial insurance to business clients quickly. For carriers, Briza is a digital marketplace for automated underwriting models.
And Briza’s goal? It’s simple. In 2022, Kevin aims to establish Briza’s API at the forefront of insurance tech.
What’s the Leadership Style like at Briza?
Briza focuses on a decision-making process that flows upwards to the leadership team from the individual contributors on the team. Erin emphasizes the need for an engaging and collaborative process to allow her team to grow their skills.
“Let’s talk about how to get there versus I’m going to tell you how we’re going to get there.”
What is the Culture like at Briza?
Briza’s values are summed up in the Briza Oath:
- Ownership: a safe space to share, debate, and take on projects,
- Ambition: leadership comes from the individual.
- Teamwork: an environment of mutual trust and respect is necessary.
- Honesty: feedback and sharing ideas is imperative to success.
Kevin also values: optimism. Working in a high growth startup definitely encompasses the risk of uncertainty.
Briza also differentiates itself from other tech startups, known for their “hustle and grind culture,” by focusing on a strong work-life balance where employees are offered great employee benefits, with an emphasis on parental benefits, flexible hours, generous paid time off, and the option to work remotely.
What is Briza’s Global Hiring Agenda?
“Global” has always been a part of Briza’s DNA. The investments in Canadian technology, and expanding the global talent stream in Toronto is Briza’s hiring goal.
Erin herself moved for Oregon to Toronto, working remotely initially while working with Global Skills Hub to navigate the immigration process to Canada.
What do Engineers do? Who Would be a Good Fit for Briza?
Engineers use TypeScript to program the Briza API that supplies data to the user interface. There is a huge focus on scalability, and performance authentication.
In terms of good fit, Erin seeks out candidates who have an eye for the future, and think ahead during coding assignments to make the job easier. Curiosity is also highly important, as Briza doesn’t require expert experience in TypeScript but candidates should definitely be willing to ask questions and seek out solutions when faced with coding problems.
The Technical Interview Process
The interview process starts with a two-stage, in-person TypeScript exercise where candidates are presented with two failing test cases to fix. Later, candidates may be asked to sketch out web architecture problems and are asked questions about their working experience with others. Erin focuses heavily on a candidate’s approach to failure, conflict, and collaboration.
Check Out The Episode!
Interested in learning more about Kevin, Erin, and Briza? Listen to the episode on Spotify!
