The Modern Hotelier #251: Transforming Insurance for the Hospitality Industry | with Sri Nalla
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David Millili: Welcome to The Modern Hotelier, the most engaged podcast in hospitality. Don't forget to follow, like, and subscribe and let us know in the comments what you think about today's episode. Steve, who do we have on the program today?
Steve Carran: Yeah, David. Today we have on Sri Nalla, the Hospitality Vertical Lead, WithCoverage. Thanks for joining us. Sri, how you doing today?
Sriram Nalla: Man, I'm doing great. Steve. David, nice to, nice to meet you guys. Thank you for having me. I'm excited for everything that this year has to hold for the hospitality space and what we're building here WithCoverage.
David Millili: That's good. All right, well, so we're gonna dive right in. We're gonna go through a lightning round. We're gonna get to know you better, your personal background, your career, and then we're gonna dive into some industry topics. Sound good?
Sriram Nalla: Sounds like a plan. Let's do it.
David Millili: All right. What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Sriram Nalla: Oh, man. Well, I grew up playing soccer and so Ronaldo was my favorite player. And my whole thing was that I wanted to play for Real Madrid. I wanted to be a center forward for the American national team. Maybe do a little segue over to the Indian National team, you know? But professional soccer player was where I was supposed to be in a different life but you know, now I just work in insurance.
David Millili: All right. What's something that you wish you were better at?
Sriram Nalla: Oh man. I guess a little deeper note. I wish I was really good at maintaining long distance relationships with, like, friends I've met all over the world. I've been really fortunate to travel and meet some really cool people, but it's not always the easiest to maintain those relationships. And so that would be something that at some point maybe need to put a little bit of more effort into and would love to do that.
David Millili: I think all of us have that same problem. What's a luxury you can't live without?
Sriram Nalla: Oh man. You know, I just moved to New York and I don't know if this is considered a luxury to many people, but bodegas are a luxury man. Like, being able to go and get a high-quality sandwich at any corner is incredible. Like I just moved from Chicago. And that's not a concept. It's not a cultural thing there. And like I truly believe it is a luxury to go and get a really good quality food item, sandwich, whatever it is, anytime of day. So that's my most recent luxury. I cannot live without.
David Millili: I agree. Lived in New York, bacon, egg, and cheese at 4:00 AM is something that's a great thing about living in New, isn't it?
Sriram Nalla: Exactly.
David Millili: So who's a person dead or alive you'd like to take to lunch? 
Sriram Nalla: Oh man. I would say my grandfather, he grew up in India, raised my parents in India and I wasn't very close with him given that I grew up in the United States. And I think as you start to get older, you start to appreciate what they did for your family and the trials and tribulations that they went through.
So it would just be really crazy to hear about how he grew up and what they had to go through. And you know, like my parents love to talk about it, but that's still secondhand, you know, to go another generation up would be quite incredible. I would love to learn more about like my family history, but unfortunately all my grandparents have passed away, so never really got to have those candid conversations.
David Millili: Understood.
Sriram Nalla: And there's a language barrier to a degree, so.
David Millili: Oh, that's a good point. So if you could have, maybe this will be your superpower, if you could have a superpower, what superpower would you want to have?
Sriram Nalla: Teleport, it makes it easier to manage as long distance friendships.
David Millili: Last one. What's on your bucket list? 
Sriram Nalla: Man. Okay, so right now I think the number one thing on my bucket list is St. Patrick's Day in Ireland.
David Millili: Ooh.
Sriram Nalla: Like I said, was in Chicago and St. Patrick's in Chicago is like my favorite time of year. It's electric, right where they dye the river green. Um, I would love to do the same thing in Ireland, but honestly, I've been very fortunate to do a lot of crazy things. Like I did the running of the Bulls in Poona last year. Yeah. And so like that kind of stuff, I live for kind of crazy things. So that would probably be the next one on my bucket list.
Steve Carran: Very cool. Very cool. So, Sri, now we're gonna get into your background a little bit more. What makes you tick? So you were actually raised in Lone Tree, Colorado. Is that correct?
Sriram Nalla: That is correct..
Steve Carran: Yeah. Little south of Denver, if I'm correct?
Sriram Nalla: Yes. 
Steve Carran: Yeah, absolutely. So how did growing up in Lone Tree Colorado affect who you are today?
Sriram Nalla: I think that I have a really good perspective on gratitude. Honestly, like I said, my parents came from India and they grew up in these like tin shacks side of the road, kind of just like low income places. And now they have a really, really nice home in a very developed area where I had access to literally all of my resources. And so I think what it shaped me as is a very driven person to take advantage of every single opportunity that's come my way. And so like I've tried to do my best at everything that comes along, but then it's not just about doing your best, it's about seizing the opportunities that come by. Right? And I think that Lone Tree maybe necessarily didn't shape me in that way, but the story of my parents coming to Lone Tree and what Lone Tree had to offer shaped me that way.
Steve Carran: Well set.
David Millili: So you got your degree from Indiana University. Congratulations. The Kelly School of Business and Economics and Consulting. You also, you know, focused on business analytics and arts management. What led you to Indiana University and to really study in those areas.
Sriram Nalla: Yeah, absolutely. Well, just wanted to start by saying congrats to my Hoosiers. I just won the national championship, it was a big deal, fun weekend. But I knew that I wanted to leave the state. I just felt like I wanted a level of independence and to push myself. And at that point in time in my life, I was really enthralled with starting businesses and also the music industry.
So Kelly's very well known top 10 business school I believe. But what people don't really know is that the Jacob School of Music is like top two in the country right next to Julliard. And so I had done my research and I was like, well, I'd love to go into music business and kind of couple those two things together, which is why I ended up getting the economic consulting and business analytics degree along with arts management which is where I was actually doing a lot of music management, which actually for the first part of my collegiate career, I was working in the music industry. I worked at Live Nation, I was managing rappers. I did data analytics for, uh, different DJs out in la. I was very involved in that space until I kind of pivoted and did something else. But that's what really drove me to Kelly, is there were opportunities in music and business.
Steve Carran: Very cool, and you mentioned you. We're interested in starting businesses. At that time, I came across one of them, in high school, I found out you're the state officer and also member of Future Business Leaders of America. You actually started a clothing website to help your classmates get more affordable vests, bow ties for prom. Can you tell us a little bit more about where this idea came from and how you put it into action at a high school student.
Sriram Nalla: Yeah, absolutely. Oh my God. Throwback to ambiance apparel Incorporated. I just recognized that there was an issue in the marketplace because I had a homecoming date, or I had a prom date and I needed to find a tie and a vest that matched her dress. I was like, where am I supposed to find this? Right? And so they would get upset because I couldn't find the right color. Mind you, I'm colorblind already, right? This is just a mess. Right? And so what I ended up doing is I started going to all of the top dress websites like Lulu's or David's Bridal and so forth, and just very simply using color matching, building out a website that had all of the different ties, vests, handkerchiefs, whatever it might be. And I built a synonymous website to Lulu's and David Bridal, right? The long-term plan was I wanted to partner with them where it's like, if you have a lilac dress that you're buying through their website, we would then be able to have a link at checkout that took you to my website and had the exact same accessories that you might need.
Right. That was kind of the long-term vision. That's something I was building out. I had the website, you know, and I was selling, and it was going pretty well. Then obviously like life happens, college came around and I was like, okay, I can only do this for so long, but I did bring a lot of my merchandise to college, so for formals and like different events that we had, I was known as the bow tie guy. I just had. So yeah, that's how started,
Steve Carran: That's awesome. Shout out Rock Canyon High School, home of the Jaguars. So, well that was great. Sen, now we're gonna dive into your career, how you got to with coverage, so in your earlier days, you worked in media, you were a co-founder, you were a consultant. What did those earlier days teach you that you still take with you today at WithCoverage?
Sriram Nalla: Oh, man. I think the earlier days have really taught me that for me personally, if I work really hard. I can be successful at whatever I set my mind to, right? Whether it was music, I was able to network my way into working with Snoop Dogg at one point, right? Whether it was in consulting, it was getting promoted much faster than my peers, whether it was, you know, starting in fashion, I was able to actually get an internship with Gap and I was supposed to be designing suits for Banana Republic, right?
I was really proud of these different things that I had accomplished in my life. And it was only because I was able to take risks and work really hard, right? And so when it came to leaving consulting and I thought the time was right, I actually moved to South America to like settle myself, I suppose. And I thought about it and I said, look, if you were to work really hard. You will be able to go to South America, come back and be successful in whatever it is that you choose. So go enjoy yourself. And so I was working at a dog shelter in Ecuador. I was a bartender at Nicaragua and then I was an English teacher in Columbia. And during this time I was introduced to WithCoverage. And so I started to work part-time while I was abroad out there to start thinking about where I wanted to fall into this company. And so that's when I kind of thought about the hotel space. I had friends and family in this space and they were struggling with their insurance. And Max, our CEO came to me and he was like, Hey, you need to be the CEO of this vertical. If you succeed, it's on you. If you fail, it's on you. Are you willing to take a bet on yourself? And that was like, okay. If he is telling me to take a bet on myself, which I've done over and over and over again in my life, I know I could possibly be in the right place.
And I'm sure you guys heard the news with the series B raise like we're on a rocket ship. And that's because every single person in this building is betting on themselves, which is a great place to be.
David Millili: That's great. So you've been at WithCoverage for just under a year, so maybe dive a little deeper. You just kind of touched on it, but what really kind of excited you about getting into hosp hospitality and also coming on board WithCoverage?
Sriram Nalla: Yeah, and that's a funny question because telling people, I used to manage rappers and now that I work in insurance is like a complete 180. But I think the big thing for me is knowing that we were breaking an archaic industry. Insurance is inherently boring, right? We're in a position of. Numbers and risk, and it's like no one wants to talk insurance. It's like a necessary evil. It's taboo or whatever, but because it's so taboo and no one wants to talk about it, I recognized this opportunity when with coverage kind of came on my radar immediately reached out to one of my buddies whose family is in the hotel space talking to him. He was like, dude, this space is so broken.
We're spending absorbent amounts on our premiums. We have no idea what we're really covered for, and they hide all of our documentation. I have to email them to find out what I'm actually covered for, right? And as I started to get more granular in the conversation and the questions, I recognized how much of an opportunity there was for this.
And I knew that in my next rule, I wanted to be a leader. When again, max said, you are the CEO of this vertical. You call the shots, you figure it out. that was the big draw. Insurance or not? I didn't really care. I wanted to make a difference and I wanted to.
Steve Carran: That's awesome. And for those that might not be familiar with, with coverage, can you share a little bit about what makes you different from the traditional insurance broker? And also share a little bit about your Series B brag a little bit. Let's hear, let's hear about it.
Sriram Nalla: So WithCoverage is this modern insurance broker. We are this all-in-one risk management solution powered by AI. Your regular insurance broker is not powered by ai and nor are they an all-in-one risk management solution. And so what does that really mean? A traditional broker is coming in, they're placing coverage for you.
You sign documents, you have insurance, and you move. Right, but what are they doing proactively and what are they doing reactively to make sure that you are covered throughout the holistic process of owning a business. For example, we use AI and warm bodies together to go through all of your current policies well before we even become your broker.
And for example, I just did this with someone based outta Colorado and we saw sexual abuse and molestation not covered. We saw that they are not covered for flood. They have a swimming pool but aren't covered for their swimming pool, right? All of these different things that are such big exposures for hoteliers are not covered for. Why are you paying for insurance if you actually have nothing that will respond? A lot of these people are driven by price, and I think that these. Traditional brokers are aware of that. So they're actually giving you subpar coverage to try to bring price down, on the other hand, are informing these people and saying, Hey, these are the adjustments we need to make from a coverage perspective.
These are the adjustments that we need to make from a operating perspective. Let's make sure we get slip and like, uh, the slip and fall mats in the tubs, right? Let's make sure you have right signage around the pool, like all of these things proactively. And then on top of the proactive stuff, the reactive stuff is what is your playbook if something goes wrong. Right. We all expect nothing to go wrong, but if something does, what are your procedures? How can we help you as a claims management solution to ensure you get paid out? Right now, this is all just the coverage side of things. This is us being a risk management partner, but at the end of the day, people also care about price, and so we also have automation and AI solutions that allow us to go to market more efficiently and to more people, more carriers than your normal broker.
If normal brokers are gonna two to five carriers, we're going around 15 to 25 carriers because we're able to do so, so efficiently. And so when you bring more people to the table, you have more competitive pricing. And specifically for hospitality, we're seeing about 20 to 25% reductions on their largest coverages, which is quite substantial depending on the size of a, of a portfolio.
But then to your other point with the series B, right? This is super exciting. We just raised with, uh, Sequoia and ksa and, um, we raised $42 million. This is really exciting because I think it gives us the proper visibility to continue to grow and take down the giants that we see in this space. You know, you got your marsh and your Gallaghers and so forth who have been here for so long.
This is just really validation. We raised our series a few years ago and we haven't touched a dime of our Series a money, which is pretty crazy. We are a profitable business, and so at the end of the day, we think that this allows us to make our product better, allows us to market and get ahead of a lot of our competitors. If there are any and really just validate everything that we've been working towards. It's been a really cool run.
Steve Carran: Awesome. Congrats.
Sriram Nalla: Thank you. 
David Millili: You've kind of answered my question, so I'm gonna pivot a little bit. So, listening to you, I'm sure you've got a lot of stories and you've seen a lot in your travels was there, or has there been one insurance story from maybe a client that you've taken over that you just couldn't believe that they either weren't covered or what actually happened that maybe there isn't any coverage for? But do you have any a story you could share?
Sriram Nalla: Well, one of the big things that we preach is full transparency and aligned incentives, right? And so when we're going through these risk analyses and having conversations with these people, I have had conversations with individuals with 20 plus hotels, they have no idea how much they're paying, they have no idea what they're covered for, and they have no idea what to do if anything happens to their properties.
This individual had 60 plus policies to manage across their entire portfolio. We went through an entire consolidation play. We were able to put them on a flat fee instead of a commission basis, which I'll touch on in a little bit as well. And at the end of the day, we were able to save this person, six figures, improve their coverage, align all of their effective dates, and just make managing insurance such a breeze, right? And people are just so grateful for this backend platform that we have that has all of their information in one place, they don't have to email us for it. You have access to it. And then at the end of the day, going forward, they feel like they have a partner, not just a broker. And that thing that I touched upon about aligning incentives and having this flat fee is.
Traditionally, brokers get paid on a commission basis, they're almost incentivized to work less hard because if your premiums are higher, they make more money, that's backwards. It doesn't make any sense. And so what we've done is we said, look, we're actually gonna charge you based on the industry, the complexity of your business, your claims history.
We come up with a flat fee, which is below the brackets of what a commission could be for a business like your own. And so we undercut and we say, look, if anything happens and you have to file a claim and your premiums go up, we don't make any more money. So you can rest assured that we are going to market the right way on your behalf. We are rest. You can rest assured that if we tell you to file something, we don't make any more money, but your premiums may still go up, right? Everything is aligned and so that you are getting the best possible advice from us as. 
Steve Carran: Awesome. So now we're gonna dive into the thought leadership section of the podcast. So when I think about insurance, I think about its coverage for when things go wrong, but how are you shifting that mindset to support that prevents things from going wrong?
Sriram Nalla: Absolutely. And I think the big part of that is businesses fluctuate and businesses grow, and insurance itself is relatively stagnant to the portfolio that you have. Right? And so when it comes to thinking about not just. Where you are, but where you will be. We go through that risk analysis process to really learn about your business our business is broken into insurance experts and growth and thought leaders such as myself. My job is to get in front of the client and learn everything I can about their business, understand what makes them tick, what they're trying to get out of this, and where we can be as a partner to you. Right?
That's when we go through the risk analysis with my risk leaders who understand this space really well and put together a game plan going forward. And mind you, we do this completely for free because we are so confident that we will show you insurance in a different light that you'll actually want to transition over to us. Right? And so that's where it comes into the proactive side of things that I mentioned, where we coming together with this long-term plan. And then the other side of that is the reactive. We have a head of claims and his team that are sharks, they make sure that you get paid out. Like I've had conversations with people, they have claims that have been open for years, and I'm like, well, what's going on? They're like, I actually don't really know. I was like, okay, well let's, let's do something about it because otherwise you won't be able to grow your business.
David Millili: Yeah, so you've touched on it, but let's dive a little bit deeper. What does trust look like in a world where insurance is seen as a necessary evil as opposed to a solution for these hotels?
Sriram Nalla: Yeah, and I think there's a couple things that we do to really garner that trust, starting with that risk analysis at the beginning, right? We do that completely for free, but then also we also do the flat rate, so you know exactly how much we get paid. You could ask 95% of hoteliers how much their broker gets paid.
And they will say they have no idea. Right? And that's because the commission is actually baked into the premium already. So if you're getting charged a hundred dollars of that a hundred dollars, you have no idea how much went to your broker. It's very rare that they reveal that information. We do it right away off the rip. Right? And then the last thing that I would say is that we have a, with coverage guarantee, we will remove all commissions, all fees, whichever route you decide to go. Completely, just if you say the word. And the idea is that if we, if you don't see that we have served you the right way. If you're not seeing the premiums reductions that you wanted and so forth, we don't take any fee.
And so we have been very open about that. We've said, if you are not happy, we'll do this. We have not exercised it once. And so we are so confident in our servicing ability and our ability to drive down premium that we offer this right off the bat and so people know that they have nothing to lose. The upside is just substantially greater.
Steve Carran: Yeah. Well, well said. And you know, one thing that you've kind of talked about is how the incentives for brokers in, in that relationship with customers are so misaligned today. How do you really fix that problem at with coverage?
Sriram Nalla: I mean, aligning incentive is everything that we try to do here, and I would say primarily it's with the price and also the long-term plan. That flat rate is gonna be absolutely huge to aligning incentives. You know what we are doing, everything that we can in your best interest due to that flat rate, but beyond that, it's like, look, we wanna keep your business right. We wanna do a good job, and if you are gonna continue to grow, then we'll make more money. You'll make more money. And it's a partnership, right? That's the alignment of interest as well. We are a new company, we recognize that, and we wanna make sure that we're able to be successful 10, 15 years down the line.
And in order for us to do that, we need to deliver now. So you know that we are so much more hungry than a Marsh, a Gallagher, an Aon, or even local broker because we have all the eyes on us right now. We have like 6 million views on our Series B announcement. We can't stop now. We can't stop working hard now it's just beginning, right?
So they know if they're working WithCoverage, they're getting our a game every single day. And so we've tried to align our incentives across the board, but you as a client have nothing to lose. We have everything to lose because our reputation means everything.
David Millili: Yeah, you can give us one or maybe a couple, but really, what does replacing a traditional broker broker really mean in practice?
Sriram Nalla: I think it just means being a holistic partner, right? It's not just setting coverage and disappearing. It's about actually building a relationship and knowing who is your broker, right? Like I've talked to people. What is your claims handler's name, right? Like who's your attorney's name at the brokerage?
No idea. On the other hand, when I start the conversation, walk through my team at the get go, I say, Hey, James Miles, Phil, these are the people that you'll be working with from the jump. These are your partners and this is your little insurance family. Right. It starts with building that trust and it's like trust is not inherent in insurance, right? People don't know what they're paying for. We're flipping it upside down. You have complete purview into everything you're covered for. You know exactly what the plans would be if something were to go wrong. You have all of our phone numbers and we're checking in with you all the time, depending on what the client wants. We'll do monthly check-ins, quarterly check-ins, biannual check-ins, whatever it is to make you comfortable and feel like we are in your corner.
Steve Carran: Awesome. And I can't imagine. What that does for the guest experience. We talk about that a lot in hospitality, but you know, you're guess of insurance, right? Having that traditional broker versus, you know, you're, you're having it putting a face to the name and just the personalization. Have you ever worked with someone where they start working with you and there's almost like an aha moment where they're like, whoa, where were you guys for the past 20 years? Have you seen that?
Sriram Nalla: Oh, absolutely. In quite a few ways the first thing I'll say is we have this backend platform that houses all of your insurance information. It also uses an automation tool an AI scraper to pull the current policies and find all of the key information, right? What you're actually covered for how much you're paying when your renewals are, and then also all of the premises locations under those policies, right? It just dumbs insurance down, it's so much more manual or manageable. And so after we receive the policies and we're going through this process with people, we actually create that dashboard for them and invite them to the dashboard to click around and see what that's like. And immediately people are like, this is so much better than anything I've ever experienced.
We get rid of the emails, the zip files, the excel sheets, everything's gone. It's all housed in one place and people just get so excited once they see that the other thing is that the most common gripe with insurance that everybody in the hospitality space has right now, premiums are going up every single year.
Right. 5% one year, 10% another year, 15% the next year, and businesses are suffering. I've heard stories of people having to sell these hotels that they wanted to give down to their kids, but their bottom line is just not financially productive enough for them to keep this business right. We come in, we hit them with the flat rate. We're saving them money right off the bat, and then we run through our marketing process and we save them an additional 20 plus percent on their coverage. Now they're like. This could be a generational business again, because I partnered with WithCoverage, right? It's a completely different experience where we're tackling everything from so many different directions and it starts with that risk analysis, and then it finishes with better coverage and lower premiums.
And that aha moment is continuous throughout because I don't think people necessarily ever wanna believe a broker, right? I mean, we are inherently devious individuals apparently, right? As they go through our process and we onboard them and we're able to find them those savings, they're genuinely so excited and so happy to be partnering with us.
Steve Carran: Sri, can you share a little bit more about the background of with coverage and the stories about your founders and kind of how this isn't your first rodeo in doing something like this.
Sriram Nalla: Yeah, absolutely. So we have two co-founders, Max Benner, our CEO. And then JD Ross, our CTO uh, max is Ex-Con Consulting, and then he started his own investment management company called Compound. And then jd, on the other hand, is actually ex Opendoor. He was one of the co-founders of Opendoor with the idea of replacing the traditional real estate broker, right? That company ended up going public and became a staple in purchasing a home. In the similar vein of replacing an archaic industry JD has always preached that we wanna replace the traditional insurance broker this time around. And so he's been there, he is done that, and having his belief and faith in what we're building is, is really quite cool.
You know, and for me, someone coming from ambiance apparel, selling my ties and bow ties out of the outta my backpack, right? To working with someone that has built billion dollar companies. Is a really cool moment, you know? And so we leverage both of their experiences, their expertise, and their faith in me is everything. You know, I'll get a message from Max or JD and be like, yo, you crushed that. Or, Hey, this is an awesome opportunity. Go run with it. Right? Having their backing is, is really quite cool. And dude, our team is like, like a clo knit, close knit unit. You know, we we're all a bunch of go-getters and having their faith it just means the world. It's cool.
Steve Carran: Awesome. Awesome. Perfect. Now we can jump back. I got one more question before you and then we'll go. So, Sri, last question I got from you, from our end. What advice would you have to anybody who's younger, who's looking to be a leader, maybe not in specifically insurance, but a leader in hospitality, tech, or, you know, lead be a leader in any company?
Sriram Nalla: That's a good question. I would say my biggest advice is to kind of just be observant. I think that there's a lot of opportunities with small struggles that people don't recognize are very repetitive. And if you take the ambiance apparel example, like color matching doesn't seem to be the end of the world, but that doesn't mean that there's not a market for it, you know?
And so, I don't know if you guys saw this in, in your research, but I also had started a company called Loop Light Co. Loop light ended up being a ring light business that we started during COVID because we recognized that there was gonna be a movement to work from home. And so everyone is gonna need better lighting solutions. Again, these don't seem like crazy things, but the market doesn't have to be massive for you to be successful, in a similar vein, actually, I'm getting excited talking about all the industries, but like I used to work with a rapper who is relatively small. Right. And we're trying to just make ends meet for him. How do we get you to a hundred thousand dollars a year? Right? And so it's like, okay, realistically speaking, all it is finding a thousand people to spend a hundred dollars. That's not that crazy. That's a hundred thousand dollars. That is a proper salary that would allow you to survive basically anywhere in the us, right?
And so just breaking things down where not everything has to be this, oh, I need to shatter an industry to become successful. You just find a small niche. Think about the struggles that people are facing and then grow from there. And I think it's very similar here. It's like, wow, people in the insurance space have no idea what they're paying for.
How do we change that? Okay, let's just go through a risk analysis and share with them what they're paying for in that single small thing. At the beginning of the impetus of this business shifted everyone's perspective on what a broker could be. And I think that's why everyone in this, in this building recognizes is it's small changes and improvements every single day to make a massive improvement over time.
Steve Carran: Awesome. Awesome. Well said Sri. Well said. So Sri, we've been asking you questions this whole time. This is where we actually turn the tables and let you ask David and I a question.
Sriram Nalla: Okay, amazing. Well, I would say that having a podcast specific for hotels is pretty niche. What made you guys wanna do something like this, and what drives you to continue doing it, and what success are you guys seeing?
Steve Carran: Sure. David, do you wanna go first or should I take this one?
David Millili: You can go first.
Steve Carran: Sure. So we started this kind of as a marketing arm for a startup to get in front of hoteliers and after that first year, it just kind of took off. But I think in that first year, at least for me, and I think for David as well, is it. It became something that we really enjoyed and um, I love sitting down and learning your background and the fun stories that come out about your background.
You knowing Snoop Dogg, you know, all the research I do, I still am not gonna be able to find that out. So still learning these backstories and about so many people in hospitality and really getting to know all these people in hospitality, the podcast has become a passion. And luckily for us, uh, the podcast industry as a whole has really started to blow up. Now you're seeing podcasts on Netflix, on Amazon, not just on the traditional podcast channels like Spotify and Apple, but you're seeing it on TV on the apps that you go to. So, business is great. I mean, we we're growing every year. Last year was a great year for us, and this year we got a lot of fun things ahead and a lot of growth ahead of us. But, you know, it's a passion now. I can't imagine, uh, not doing podcasts anymore just because it's something I look forward to do every week.
Sriram Nalla: It's amazing.
David Millili: Yeah. I'd say for me it's an extension of kind of who I am. You've used the, you know, term curiosity, and that's kind of how my whole career has been, even when I would run hotels, when I'd go into a hotel, I would observe and I would, I would work almost every job in that hotel, even if I was the general manager. And people would always ask me, why are you answering phones? You're the general manager. I said, well, I wanna start to hear from the guests what they're saying. I would check people in. And I've done that with my career with advisory work I've done. I've always tried to look for things that I'm not comfortable with or I don't understand, and the podcast has become a strange extension of that 'cause of people. Like I would never probably, I might run into you at a trade show, but I would never know your story. And I would never have this insight into insurance that, yeah, I'm sitting here, you know, I'm an old guy, I'm learning from you today, and every time we, we interview somebody, we're learning something, and we're even learning from people that we thought we knew.
We were friends with, but maybe business-wise that we have been going to trade shows with. And then we have 'em on the podcast and we're like, wow, I never knew that this person lived in Japan or spoke Japanese or what have you. So for us, I think we've taken a passion, we've made it into a business. And when we started one of the things I said is I only want to do this if we do it right, and we focus on quality. And I think where we've set ourselves apart is that that's what we do. We make sure that we try to do everything. Uh, we're not perfect, but we try to do everything high quality. So whether it's prep that Steve does for this podcast, whether they're interviewing somebody at a trade show that we've got two professional cameras versus an iPhone on a tripod, you know, things of that nature. So for me, I just like it. 'cause every, every, every time we interview somebody, we learn something new. And to me, that's just really cool.
Sriram Nalla: And I think two of the things that you mentioned, right, is this passion and curiosity. Those two things will really take you far and I think that as long as you're curious, almost any boring industry actually becomes quite interesting. And when they presented insurance with me, I was like, I have, we know, inclination or desire.
David Millili: Yeah.
Sriram Nalla: To work in insurance, right? But the more that you learn, the more you give things a shot and you just remain curious, you'll become really passionate about it. Right? Some of my favorite people are the ones that have interests that you would never imagine, right? And so it's cool to have met you guys who have found your passion in hotels, hospitality, and podcasting, and are running with it in an incredibly authentic way.
You guys are really coming out to find people that are in incredibly interesting, some heavy hitters, some smaller businesses. Like it's really cool to see, but you're doing it at a high quality with intention and I was really excited to come on the show and talk to you guys because I believe in everything that with coverage is doing, but I also love the story and the nature of what you guys are doing as well. So thank you for having me.
Steve Carran: Appreciate that. And one thing you brought up earlier was like how close knit your team is building a startup is not easy. It it is very hard. And you're not gonna agree on everything all the time. But when you have a team like you guys have, like we have where yeah, you genuinely get along and care about these people, it makes the journey a lot more enjoyable along the way as well. So, that was one thing you said that I really resonated with as well, with our team here.
Sriram Nalla: Sure. One thing I'll say to that as well is like, I've had to learn to have a little bit of like tougher skin. It's interesting when I worked in consulting, feedback was generally not always nice, but it was constructive. Like it was structured in a way that was very corporate right here. If I have a bad call or I don't close a deal properly, or I don't provide the value that we should, like, I get told that pretty immediately, you know, 'cause everything here is like, you need to put your best foot forward. You need to be on it every day. Right? You're growing a business. It's not, it's not child's play, you know, so it's, it's cool to be in a position where people will give it to you straight. They trust you, they believe in you, but they also expect the best from you.
You know? And so sometimes that are not necessarily like harsh words, but it's harsh truths sometimes you're like, well, I didn't perform in that call, or something like that. Right? And so you, I think I've continue to get better because of how close knit we are, and my skin has definitely gotten a little tough.
Steve Carran: Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, this has been great, Sri, our producer, Jon has been listening this whole time, so we're gonna kick it over to him for one last question before we get you outta here.
Sriram Nalla: Amazing.
Jon Bumhoffer: Just a couple notes. One, we share, I studied music industry in college as well, so that's cool to meet another fellow music industry person. And then two, we were just talking about how labor costs for hotels and just operation costs arising, and insurance was a big part of that. We were reading an article about that and it is really cool to see how you're helping kind of bring a holistic approach and transform this so hotels can then hopefully maintain profitability, but also hopefully be able to pass those savings along to their staff, take better care of people and things like that.
So I think this is just really cool and something that is definitely needed in the industry as we're seeing the, the cost of things continue to rise. My question is along the lines of what you just talked about, that curiosity, what is now being in this hospitality industry, what has your curiosity led you to find out about the hospitality industry as a whole that is interesting to you as somebody who's traveled a lot, had a lot of different experiences, what are kind of like your favorite things that you've learned about, uh, this industry as a whole?
Sriram Nalla: So I like to gamify things and as you're starting to build a business, I became very curious in the network, and I didn't know this beforehand, but most hoteliers know each other. And so it's a matter of like, how do I meet the right people? How do I meet the nodes? How do I find the people that will champion me and actually care about what I'm doing and who do they know, right?
And so that's been like a fun game for me, is trying to find these leaders in this space and getting in front of 'em. Like, how do I get this person that owns a 70 hotel conglomerate to respond to my email? Who does he know? How can I find a way to meet him? Right. And so when you're building this vertical, essentially from scratch, that's been the biggest thing that I'm noticing and trying to take advantage of is how do I meet the people that matter and where are they? Right? And so it's like going to these conferences, you know, responding to messages, scouring X, you know, LinkedIn, whatever it is to try to find the people that can help me make a difference in this space.
Right? So that's what I've really become curious about. And it's funny because I took a class in college about network analytics and I really talk about nodes and spokes. I never really thought that class would be applicable and nor can I use the coding that we built out in that class anymore. But the theory applies, right? It's finding who matters and finding who cares and working with them to build something that matters.
David Millili: Well, that does it for another episode of The Modern Hotelier. This has been a great conversation. This is where you can let folks know how they can get in touch with you, how they can find out more about with coverage. So plug away.
Sriram Nalla: Absolutely. Well, I wanted to start by saying, you know, thank you guys for having me again. Really enjoyed it and appreciate the deep dives into my background, but then also your genuine, enthusiasm and interest for what we're building here WithCoverage, that means the world, like I mentioned, the support is everything as we start to grow and grow and grow. But if you wanna reach out to me, if you own hotels and are curious about how we can improve your coverage and drive those premiums down, my email is sri@withcoverage.com. You can also reach out to anybody on the team at our website, which is withcoverage.com. So my phone number is (720) 272-5704. Feel free to shoot me a text. Lemme know who you are and if you're a Hotelier, and we'll set up a call. You know, all of this is supposed to be very casual, transparent. I wanna learn about you and your business, and we'll just go from there. There's no commitment, no further ask. It's just, let's see how we can partner together. And if not, no worries. But I'd love to get in contact with more people who are in this space and see how we can help out.
David Millili: That's great. Well, that does it for another episode of the Mob. And Hotelier the most engaged podcast in hospitality. So whether you're watching or listening, we appreciate you and hope to be with you again soon. Thanks for joining us.