Forewarned is forearmed. In this case study we will showcase CoverTree – an American startup, offering an online insurance platform for modular houses. You will see how building the app from scratch in the right way was essential for success and became a solid foundation for raising 10 million USD in seed funding.
About CoverTree
The company is a Detroit-based (Michigan) startup focusing on ensuring real estate to provide security for the community and loved ones. From manufactured homes to park models, ADUs, and stationary travel trailers – CoverTree got you covered. The company enables clients to drive the process of quotation of their own, giving them an install tool to secure their property.
The case study dives into the cooperation between CoverTree and Code & Pepper, as we build their platform from the ground up. Even more so, because in the end, we delivered four applications, available for end-users. For ordinary Joe, we have modules for buying insurance and reporting claims. For business, we have a portal for insurance agents and a portal for agent management.
The Main Result: Building From Scratch to Raise 10M USD in Seed Funding
The client came to us in May 2021 with a rough idea for an app and some preliminary, substandard code. We offered him cooperation to develop the product from scratch.
We were able to do that because we have exceptional developers. Each time a developer wants to join us, we examine more than 70 different attributes to single out the absolute best—the top 1.6% of candidates, to be precise. This rigorous talent-identification process means that only the most adept and proficient professionals, get to work on our projects.
Technology is also important: with a laser focus on React & Node.js, we are not just using technologies; we’re mastering them. Especially with AI proficiency, which is a big part of our job.
That’s why today the CoverTree product is already available on the market. It has gained a rapidly growing popularity (raised USD 10M in seed funding in September 2022) and is currently available in selected US states. But the plan is to conquer them all! However, it will not be possible without adjusting the product to technical and legal requirements and taking into account the climatic conditions of a given region.
Challenge
Background
Building such a product from scratch is not simple. In fact, it is very difficult in terms of business logic and requires involvement in the entire process of software development. Understanding the whole product context plays a key role here.
Our team had to not only understand the product but also a complicated background of local legal and “law of the land” landscape. Merging technical, legal, and local demands, affecting the company in many states required a big dose of meticulousness. With over 16 years on the market and more than 500 projects behind us, we were able to do it all.
There were a few aspects that our team had to include in the project and build solutions for. We had to:
- understand the challenges that American homeowners face when it comes to real estate insurance
- create a special risk assessment algorithm, tailored to the modular housing market
- integrate different, third-party systems and applications, such as a vehicle registration platform, online payment solutions, or risk assessment tool
- ensure the safety of customer data, especially those linked to their financial history
- make sure the CoverTree application is law-compliant in every U.S. state and in line with local, state, and federal laws. It’s not only about insurance laws but also about the integration with payment systems that fall into the category of NBFC-licenced entities
- make sure that the application is easy to use and intuitive for end-users
Technological Aspects
The main technical challenge came when we needed to build an architecture that was easy to integrate with other systems. In this case – a Policy Management as a Service (PMaaS) vendor. A PMaaS is a service delivered by a third-party company that enables management policy insurance management. Integration with that vendor enables CoverTree to offer policies in the first place. The result and main need here is to shorten the time of development and reduce costs. It also improves customer relations and the selling process.
The main challenge on the back-end was to maintain quality levels in security, reliability, scalability, and maintenance optimization costs. To achieve these goals, we decided to use serverless cloud architecture provided by AWS. Thanks to that solution, developers can focus on delivering the best possible business value. More so, some of the AWS services allow for dynamic management of system load, which increases stability and effectiveness even further.
The main challenge on the front-end was designing all applications in a similar way, so they could be complementary to each other while being easy to use. We decided on the monorepo approach, in which the code from multiple projects is stored in a single repository. This allowed us to share components library among all applications and bring scalability to the project.
Benefits of Using AWS Services
Utilizing AWS services brought additional perks to the project. Among them were:
- Scalability. AWS allows for easy asset management in the cloud which means we could adjust the environment size and match it with the project’s scope.
- Flexibility. AWS lets developers choose between a large selection of services and tools. That’s why were able to easily construct the app and its technical backbone. Tools to store large data pools and mine them are among the most useful for CoverTree.
- Security. The system offers advanced security features, such as data encryption on the go, identity and access verification, firewall, and others.
- High availability. AWS also brings large-scale automatic data replication solutions to maintain a high up-time ratio for users. In case of emergency or serious downtime, AWS allows a quick and easy process for data restoration.
- Development environment. AWS gives developers quick and easy ways to test and manage applications, co that can quickly react to application patches, changes, and updates. They can also test solutions in different environmental setups.
Technologies Used when Building CoverTree
We have used multiple technologies, frameworks, and tools to assure project quality. Among them are
TypeScript, Cloud Development Kit (CDK), Node.js, React.js, AppSync, DynamoDB, OpenSearch, Cognito, S3, Amplify, SES, GraphQL, and Cypress.io
Scope-specific Development Services
for CoverTree
True Engineering Talents
Behind CoverTree’s Success
It’s not just about the diplomas on the wall—our hiring process digs deep into over 70 specific tech skills. That’s how we find the cream of the crop, the top 1.6% of tech wizards, making sure our development services are nothing short of stellar.
Tailored Industry-Specific Services
We Provide for CoverTree
Impact and Future Directions
In the near future, we plan to refresh the code of the web application by separating the presentation layer from the data transport layer.
Another application is on the horizon, allowing users with policies purchased to file claims for events covered by insurance – ie theft, flooding, fire, etc. In the future, an administration portal and a portal for insurance agents will also be implemented. They will be able to manage policies and reported claims from the application level.
We plan to build user application views based on API responses, and this is largely already underway.
We also want to introduce the application to another 12 states and expand the functionalities of the agent portal by giving the ability to preview the policy and change it. We also want to implement a functionality to exclude policy sales in a given territory.
Summary
CoverTree was and still is a challenging and very rewarding project. The client’s commitment to innovation in the insurance field inspired us to give our best to the application. We leveraged our expertise, delivering a platform that is both technologically advanced and simply useful to the public.
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