Wayne Slavin is the CEO and co-founder of Sure, an insurtech startup that provides on-demand insurance for flights, baggage, and renters.
Education
Wayne Slavin attended San Diego State University in 2002. Slavin earned his Master’s degree in Technology Management from Columbia University in the City of New York in 2011. Columbia’s Technology Management program is meant to educate students to be competent managers of technology, with the ability to assess the benefits of developing technologies and implement them strategically in the business environment. Classroom teaching includes students’ related work experience, and instruction is intensified by relationships with industry teachers.
Early career
Slavin has worked in various companies and launched several startups before to co-founding Sure. Slavin first worked as a Senior Network Administrator at Terracom, Inc. Slavin then co-founded NetStumbler.com, a tool for Windows that assists recognition of Wireless LANs using the 802.11b, 802.11a, and 802.11g WLAN standards. NetStumbler runs on Microsoft Windows operating systems from Windows 2000 to Windows XP. Winner of various industry awards, including Laptop Magazine’s “Editor’s Choice” and Ziff-Davis i3 (Innovation in Infrastructure) Award.
Slavin became the Senior Sales Engineer at Linspire (Lindows.com). Slavin founded his second startup, BackupRight, a secure, automated online data backup service that is simple enough for personal use and strong enough for Fortune 500 companies. BackupRight had a successful exit in 2012, sold to a larger competitor. Slavin also co-founded Language Fish, a Public Diplomacy and Translation Services Company. The tactical communication arm concentrates on Public Relations, Public Diplomacy consulting, and Development. Language Fish’s translation services business provides fast, precise translations of general personal, and specialized custom projects as well as business documents. The brands include OfficialTranslate.com, CertifiedTranslate.com, and Translately.com.
Slavin then worked as a Technical Producer/Product Manager at Barnes & Noble Digital Products (Now Nook Media). At Barnes & Noble Digital Products, Slavin was one of the early team members that helped develop the company’s successful line of eBook Readers, The Nook. Slavin spent time between the New York City Headquarters and Palo Alto Research & Development Center working with both sides of the organization up to the executive levels. Some of the products Slavin helped develop include Nook™, Nook Color™, Nook Simple Touch™, Nook Kids™ Platform for the Nook and iPad, Nook Self-Publishing Software, First UX for the Nook Simple Touch™, and On-Device Shopping and E-Commerce Experiences for Entire Nook Family.
Slavin also worked as a Product Manager at Buddy Media. Slavin was responsible for the development of the platform’s consumer-facing Analytics and Dashboard products. These served as the primary tools for measuring social media campaigns across Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and YouTube for the world’s top brands, including Unilever, Hewlett Packard, and Ford. Slavin was instrumental in the transformation from waterfall development to agile sprints within the PM and engineering organizations. Slavin also served as Vice President of Product Management at Tapingo.
Sure, Inc.
In October 2014, Slavin co-founded Sure, a mobile app that enables users to acquire insurance when they desire and where they want it. SURE aims to make insurance accessible by delivering transparency, demystifying the process, and ease to the insurance cycle.
In June 2017, Sure released the sixth insurance category called Smartphone Protection product that the company has offered to its US consumers.
Sure provides dozens of insurance products through its digital platform crossing both novel coverages like mobility and rideshare insurance and more traditional commercial coverages like travel, renters, rental car, smartphones and more.
Funding rounds
In October 2015, Sure raised an undisclosed amount in a seed round from investors ff Venture Capital and Montage Ventures. In May 2016, Sure raised $2.6 million in a seed round from existing investors ff Venture Capital and Montage Ventures. Fosun RZ Capital has also participated in this round.
In June 2017, Sure raised $8 million in a Series A round, led by IA Capital Group with other existing investors include ff Venture Capital and Fosun RZ Capital. Other investors joined the round include Plug and Play Insurtech, Nationwide Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Assurant Growth Investing, Arab Angel Fund, and Amtrust Ventures. In June 2019, Sure raised $12.5 million in a Series B from its lead investor W.R. Berkley.
The funding will empower the company to scale the Sure platform (for global consumer brands and carriers), Sure app (consumer product), and Sure connect (for eCommerce, affinity programs, and Fintech partners). Additionally, the fundraising will extend accelerate the growth and continued technological expansion for Sure’s technology, APIs, and insurance-as-a-service solution.
Sure has secured a total of $23.1 million in over four rounds of funding. Sure is funded by 11 investors. Sure has $6 million in an estimated revenue annually. Sure competes with Trov, Lemonade, and Slice Labs.