Founder Snapshot
- Founder: Eric Yen, CEO & Co-Founder
- Company: Stream Claims
- Stage: Seed
- Investors: Spark Capital, Acrew Capital, Y Combinator
- Founded: 2024
- Previous: Formerly Next Insurance, Liberty Mutual
“I’m building it for the old me.”
For Eric, the mission behind Stream Claims isn’t just a market opportunity; it’s personal history. Graduating in 2010, at the tail end of the financial crisis, Eric found himself in a job market where offers were scarce. He took the only one he got: a role at Liberty Mutual.
“I didn’t care what the job was,” Eric recalls. “I see a 50k offer come across my desk, I’m taking it. I have student loans.”
That decision plunged him into the world of insurance claims, an industry he affectionately calls “the ugly stepchild of financial services.” It’s a sector where hundreds of billions of dollars are spent just on the administrative burden of adjudicating claims -not paying them out, just managing the paperwork.
“You learn a lot in claims because you learn about people and their incentive structures,” Eric says. “But I was like, I’m highly educated. I did not come here to fill out paperwork and to just type summaries into the claim system.”
The “Shared Language” of High-Performance Teams
Now, as the founder of Stream Claims, Eric is building the AI workbench he wished he had back then. But building a company to transform a legacy industry requires a specific kind of team. For Eric, the secret ingredient isn’t just raw intelligence; it’s what he calls a “shared language.”
“The most important thing is a shared language. And that shared language needs to come from some kind of shared experience,” Eric explains.
This philosophy stems from the reality of a founder’s life. With Eric on the road meeting customers 50% to 75% of the time, he can’t be everywhere at once. He needs a team that can operate with autonomy and precision, translating high-level strategy into execution without constant oversight.
“I need my team, at least my direct reports, to be able to carry my expectations forward and deliver,” he says. “Having that shared experience is extremely important…it allows for inherent trust. You don’t have to explain things over and over again.”
Hiring: Head of Sales/GTM
When it comes to his next critical hire -a Head of Sales/GTM -Eric has a very specific archetype in mind. He’s looking for someone who combines the grit of an athlete with the polish of a consultant.
But grit alone isn’t enough in the insurance world. The role requires a rare kind of emotional intelligence -the ability to connect with everyone from a front-line claims adjuster to a Fortune 500 CEO.
“Imagine the CEO of Liberty Mutual… making like $75 million a year,” Eric posits. “To be able to capture his attention for even 10 minutes… part of that is you don’t have to truly know the exact details of insurance or claims, but have this intellectual curiosity about you.”
It’s about possessing the “intangibles of being able to just ride that hierarchical structure without any problem.”
A Player-Coach Role
For the right person, the opportunity at Stream Claims is rare. Unlike many early-stage startups searching for product-market fit, Stream is executing on a clear, validated need with a named list of target customers.
“I have a named customer list of like, let’s say 500,” Eric notes. “We’re very specific. We don’t say today we’re going to do insurance and tomorrow we’re doing financial services… We are focused on insurance.”
Eric needs someone who can do the Enterprise AE-type work today while laying the GTM foundation for tomorrow. “We’ve got a solid pipeline ($XM) already in play for this person to take over.”
“I’m looking for someone to come in, get creative, and help build structure around what’s already working.”
A Force Multiplier
As Stream Claims prepares for its Series A and looks to double or triple the team, Eric is acutely aware of the stakes. He views recruiting not as a distraction, but as the ultimate lever for the business.
“Getting the best people around you is just like a force multiplier,” Eric reflects. “Not having great talent around you… your time gets sucked and your energy gets sucked into the disappointment around a bad hire.”
For those who speak the language -who have the grit of an athlete and the curiosity of a consultant -Stream Claims offers a chance to modernize a trillion-dollar industry that has been waiting for this moment.
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Stream Claims is building the AI-powered workbench for the insurance industry, helping adjusters process claims 10x faster.
