Cassie Bell and Steph Skevington on why Butter is better

Vol 46: Issue 4 | December 2023

Cassie Bell and Steph Skevington forged the idea for their company, Butter Insurance, over drinks at a party. Bell had lost an expensive earring, while Skevington had damaged her laptop. Neither was satisfied with the insurance options available.

“We just looked at each other and agreed that there really should be something better out there,” says Bell. “We thought an insurance offering should be more like AppleCare, which is really easy — you can add it to everything, it’s flexible and affordable and made for people our age.”

For the two young women — both former lawyers — that moment planted the seed of what was to come in 2021 with the establishment of their Sydney-based insurtech start-up, Butter Insurance. 

“We kept mentioning it and talking about it, back and forth, and it really grew from there,” says Bell.

Smooth and simple

With no experience in insurance, they came at it purely from a customer’s perspective and followed up with learning and upskilling as quickly as possible.

“We digested everything we could get our hands on about the insurance industry, from news articles to laws and regulations and LinkedIn posts — anything to familiarise ourselves with the market and get up to speed,” recalls Bell.

The thinking behind the Butter brand was that it would be a smooth, simple insurance product you could ‘put on’ everything. 

Skevington, who was born in New Zealand and grew up in Melbourne where she started her career, says both she and Bell felt it was important to build a brand that connected with young people and engendered loyalty.

“It’s a bit of a cheeky, more approachable brand we’re going for …” adds Sydney-born Bell, whose background spans both law and media. 

“The branding is really about aligning ourselves more to ecommerce and retail rather than identifying as an insurance company.”

As you would expect of women who have been friends for nearly five years, Bell and Skevington bounce off each other easily, with a respectful affection that’s infectious.

Because of their legal backgrounds, the pair weren’t afraid to tackle the complex and detailed regulation required for compliance in the industry.  

“That part wasn’t scary to us, like it might have been for others,” says Skevington. “It was just something to learn and read as our base for creatively solving the insurance problems that Butter tackles.”

Bespoke tech delivers control

The tech for Butter — including its pricing engine and policy administration system — was built in house, initially using a contractor and then the talents of the “small but mighty engineering team” now responsible for its upkeep.

“Maintaining control of the tech was crucial,” says Skevington, “because we wanted the functionality for monthly subscription-style policies, the ability to cancel easily and to provide a customer service experience that feels like any other part of the internet.” Bell adds: “It’s also important to scale and iterate quickly when we want to bring out new products or features that our customers are asking for, or that retailers would like. We didn’t want to be beholden to a SaaS [software as a service] provider.”

The Butter platform allows access to a huge amount of insightful data, such as how customers get to the website, how they browse it, when purchases are made and any sticking points for consumers.

First product over the line

As an authorised representative of Virginia Surety Company (VSC) — a subsidiary of global risk management company Assurant — Butter’s first consumer electronics product was launched in 2022.

Having underestimated how much effort and refinement goes into starting up an insurance business, Bell and Skevington found getting their first product across the line especially sweet. 

“Our first thousand, then 2,000 and 3,000 account sign-ups were very exciting, especially as we watched those numbers go up as a direct reflection of so much hard work from the team,” says Bell. “Every policy we get, every customer we win, is a big achievement and very motivating.”

While the Butter team handles customer communications, VSC manages claims resolution.

“We were a bit nervous about our first claim — as you would be — but it just went so well and the customer was so happy with the outcome that it was actually nice,” recalls Bell. “It was also nice to see the full insurance life cycle play out for the customer.”

“It actually worked the way we expected,” Skevington chimes in, “because you can plan and plan, but until it happens, you can’t know.”

Building partnerships

With Butter’s main distribution strategy being embedded insurance, Bell and Skevington have created a partnership with Eftpos Australia, which is now part of Australian Payments Plus (AP+). They say this will eventually allow them to integrate into the Beem digital wallet app and partner with retailers through the AP+ open payments offering. 

“We expect our digital product to ramp up over the next 12 months, which is a massive opportunity for Butter,” says Skevington. “This, along with direct retail partnerships, can put us in front of customers at the point in time when they’re buying something worth insuring.”

While private capital is hard to secure in the current economy and the cost of living is high, Bell and Skevington have successfully raised A$1.3 million in pre-seed funding, which has given them plenty of leeway in an industry “still seen as a kind of risky or unsexy”.

Balancing speed with care

Bell and Skevington say a challenge has been finding the right balance between iterating as a fast-moving insurtech and making insurance decisions that traditionally take time.

“Obviously, a lot of time and effort goes into a decision around underwriting a new product — for good reason,” says Skevington. “There’s lots to think about, including compliance. You can feel stuck in the middle of it, trying to make everything come together and align.”

As leaders of the Butter team, the women aim for a culture of taking work seriously without taking yourself and others too seriously.

“We encourage camaraderie, a kind of community feel to the workplace,” says Skevington. “Everyone wants to work hard at their jobs, achieve amazing outcomes and enjoy it along the way.”

Bell agrees. “Steph and I also have a lot of trust in our people and, as a result, they buy into the success of the business,” she says. “Every time we [sell] a policy, we’re all on Slack saying, ‘Yay, another one!’. It’s not just Steph and me celebrating those wins, it’s exciting for everybody.”

Encouraging a high level of transparency builds on that team culture. “Just because we’re the leaders, it doesn’t mean we can’t share critical information,” says Skevington. “Your people get really encouraged to hit milestones when they can see where the next target and goal come from.”

Thinking ahead

Once the electronics product is bedded in, Bell and Skevington plan to bring out more categories, including jewellery, sporting equipment, bikes, art and collectibles.

Bell says the “big, big scary goal” is to become the insurer of choice for young people.

“We want young people to come to Butter first, because they know we’re the insurer for them,” she says.

Skevington’s ambition is for Butter to be synonymous with “meaningful and innovative approaches to insurance.”

“So, not just cutting it from the same cloth, not your standard home and contents — we want to be known for listening to our customers,” she says. “What do they really want? What’s missing from their current experiences?”

Another ambition is to expand overseas within the next three years — perhaps to Asia, where the embedded insurance market is already mature. “We’d definitely like to, but the question of where is still undecided,” says Bell. “Right now, we’ll just see how things go.”

Two-minute bio

Education
Steph Skevington studied a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Commerce (majoring in Business Information Systems) at the University of Sydney. Cassie Bell has a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and a Bachelor of Media, Communications and Journalism from the University of New South Wales.

Career
Skevington’s background combines law, operations and commercial expertise.

Professionally, she cut her teeth as a lawyer at MinterEllison, focusing on government infrastructure projects within the property and construction team.

She then honed her commercial skills as an associate at infrastructure group Plenary, before moving into the fintech space with Upstreet, where she worked in operations. She was inspired to venture into the start-up ecosystem by completing the Startmate Women Fellowship in early 2021. 

Prior to co-founding Butter in 2021, Bell was a commercial lawyer at Gilbert + Tobin, where she guided many businesses through initial public offering processes, capital raisings and strategic acquisitions.

Under their joint leadership, Butter has achieved a number of milestones, including raising A$1.3 million in pre-seed funding and forging a strategic partnership with Australia’s largest payments provider.

Outside the day job
In her free time, Skevington likes doing anything that doesn’t require screen time, such as catching up with friends, reading, cooking, painting and getting outdoors for a walk every morning.

Bell, likewise, enjoys physical pursuits — more specifically, punching a boxing bag about three times a week. Both of them share a taste for a glass of wine or a margarita, especially in the company of friends. 

Advice to young people
Bell: “My answer is always to actually get some life experience. It doesn’t necessarily have to be work experience because we were lawyers, not insurers. Our work did help us in getting amongst the regulation, but it’s not a huge wall if you don’t have work experience.

“I think what’s more important, especially if you’re young and coming out of school or uni, is to travel and work in different jobs and different areas. Just dabble and see what you’d like and see what most interests you.

“We’re not confident in every decision we make and we second guess ourselves a lot, but we know the direction of the company and we know where we want it to go. We know that we’re in the right place kind of at the right time.”

Skevington: “Get to know yourself. If you start a business or you’re going out on your own, you need to develop a thick skin pretty quickly, so being sure of yourself and who you are can help a lot. Impostor syndrome is a real thing, but you just have to keep going and realise that most people don’t always know what they’re doing. And it’s OK.”

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