A week before the infamous global lockdown of 2020, SafetyWing was celebrating its official launch party out of their San Francisco headquarters. The health care and travel insurance provider was one of the first to offer comprehensive coverage to digital nomads and remote workers, far before the closure of offices occurred around the world. At the time of the launch party celebration, the small company had no idea what the future had in store for it, let alone how to brace for it.
"Many of our team members and the guests that we invited to the launch had trouble even getting home as travel restrictions heightened," recalled Sondre Rasch, one of SafetyWing's three founders. "The strange thing looking back was that we were building something for a future that was 5 years to 10 years down the road."
As an insurance provider offering an array of services that cater to the unique needs of digital nomads and remote workers, SafetyWing's product lineup includes remote health insurance for remote companies and remote workers as well as nomad travel medical insurance. Founded by Sondre Rasch, Sarah Sandnes, and Hans Kjellby in 2017 out of Oslo, Norway, the company was originally discovered as a way to alleviate their own frustrations when traveling and working remotely. Little did they know in 2017 that the solution to their frustrations would turn into a global necessity three years later.
Due to the unprecedented circumstances of the COVID19 Pandemic, it became overwhelmingly clear that SafetyWing's offerings were imperative to countless remote workers and companies across the globe, and the enrolments started pouring in.
Within the first month of their launch, SafetyWing grew to $50,000 in revenue. Within the year, they were at $2 million.
In one year the organization grew 3000%, a scale that is ultimately unheard of in the start-up world.
For any organization, experiencing this level of growth is both a blessing and a curse. With the goal of any startup being to succeed and scale, knowing that your product or service is in such high demand can elate any founding team. But it also comes with the risk that you may not be able to keep up with the growth, ultimately collapsing under the pressure.
So how did SafetyWing manage to stay afloat amidst a flood of new members?
"We have this saying that all problems are fixable," shared Rasch. "There was a mass adoption where we had to move around our roadmap and plans for the new reality that presented itself."
As an increasing number of companies around the world found themselves forced to employ a remote-work office environment, issues began to brew including how to provide employees insurance coverage as they began spreading out across the country, continent, and globe.
In stepping up to the bat, SafetyWing was the first and only insurance provider to be able to offer the solutions as they had been building out this framework over the past two years.
"We were able to move around and build things we weren't supposed to," recalled Rasch. "Some of the founders were doing all-nighters on the customer service line just to make sure we were connecting with as many individuals and organizations that needed our help as we possibly could.
"One lesson learned throughout all this is the old cliche, every cloud does have a silver lining," Rasch continued. "It really could have been a disaster for us, but it presented great opportunity instead."
Today, in the wake of their immense growth, the SafetyWing team has grown from 10 members to 40, with plans to continue expansion to meet global demand.
"Over the next year, we hope to keep scaling remote health a lot more," explained Rasch. "We will double up the team size again to keep up with the growth. Remote Doctor and Remote Retirement are both on the very near horizon for us in terms of new launches."
To keep up with the SafetyWing success story and to find out if their platform is right for you and your business, discover their solutions today.
