{"id":88087,"title":"Harper: AI-native commercial insurance brokerage","tagline":"Transforming how businesses get the coverage they need.","body":"Hey YC! It’s [Tushar](https://www.linkedin.com/in/tushar-nair-100787144) and [Dakotah](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dakotahrice), and we're building Harper, an AI-powered commercial insurance brokerage transforming how businesses get the coverage they need. Since acquiring our first customers in October, we’ve already grown to write over $6M in annualized premiums across 35 states.\n\n### The Problem\n\nCommercial insurance is drowning in operational inefficiency:\n\n* Manual processes that limit broker productivity\n* Complex, redundant applications\n* Information asymmetry and limited market access\n\nThese antiquated systems create terrible customer experiences and prevent traditional brokerages from scaling.\n\n### Our Solution\n\nWe built an insurance brokerage with a suite of AI solutions that we use internally to enhance our sales, operational, and service interactions. Harper Hub, our flagship tool can:\n\n* Complete forms automatically\n* Find optimal carriers and underwriters\n* Manage client communications seamlessly\n\nThis creates an [infinitely scalable brokerage](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvD1NyGJq3k) that delivers superior service with significantly higher margins.\n\n### Our Vision\n\nAt Harper, we believe that every legacy professional services business will have an AI-Native counterpart that will operate more efficiently, generate more revenue, and grow faster than incumbents. We want to become the largest insurance brokerage in the world with the best NPS. The commercial insurance brokerage market represents over $100B in annual commissions.\n\n### The Team\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post\u0026id=88087\u0026key=user_uploads/1654704/73b6cf13-e7f4-49a9-a8d8-dba947ef85e5)\n\nWe've known each other since we started our careers at Goldman Sachs, where Tushar led ML/AI engineering teams automating services for the commodities desk while Dakotah worked on the Technology, Media, and Telecommunications Team in Investment Banking. He then spent time at Carlyle and Coatue.\n\nTushar spent nearly 9 years at Goldman before leaving to found Poolit with Dakotah, a fintech company that scaled to $100M AUM. While looking for their next project, they started thinking about the highest-impact solutions for LLM-based AI tools.\n\nWe decided to blend Dakotah’s family history in insurance and entrepreneurship with Tushar's technical expertise in automation to build the world’s first AI Native Commercial Insurance Brokerage.\n\n### Our Ask\n\nIf you know any businesses with complex insurance needs, please reach out to us at [harper@harperinsure.com](mailto:harper@harperinsure.com)","slug":"Mul-harper-ai-native-commercial-insurance-brokerage","created_at":"2025-02-27T00:00:50.044Z","updated_at":"2026-05-25T05:24:42.837Z","total_vote_count":22,"url":"https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/Mul-harper-ai-native-commercial-insurance-brokerage","share_image_url":"https://www.ycombinator.com/media/?type=post\u0026id=88087\u0026key=user_uploads/1654704/73b6cf13-e7f4-49a9-a8d8-dba947ef85e5","company":{"id":30288,"name":"Harper","slug":"harper","url":"https://www.harperinsure.com/","logo":"https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/48f09dfa8b59f8e987b3a43c44b0adcd865fe145.png","batch":"Winter 2025","industry":"Fintech","tags":["Fintech","Insurance","AI"],"search_path":"https://bookface.ycombinator.com/company/30288"}}