BIO: Guillermo Cornejo is the CEO of Riders Share, the Airbnb of motorcycles he started while attending grad school at UCLA.
STORY: Guillermo had an insurance company handling claims for his customers. When he realized the insurance company had a 50% profit margin, he decided to start his own insurance business. This became a costly and challenging venture because he had no experience handling claims.
LEARNING: Don’t underestimate the value of experience.
“Whenever somebody is talking to me about any industry, I'm all ears. I know I know nothing.”
Guillermo Cornejo
Guest profile
Guillermo Cornejo is the CEO of Riders Share, the Airbnb of motorcycles he started while attending grad school at UCLA. Before that, he worked in analytics roles for GM, Nissan, and Hyundai. He grew up in Peru and enjoys anything that makes your heart race.
Worst investment ever
Guillermo launched his company in 2018, and it grew immensely. The company booked over a million dollars in rentals within the first year. Guillermo was on top of the world.
The company was working with an insurance partner with pretty good rates but was providing terrible service to Guillermo’s customers. It took many months to handle the claims. When Guillermo looked at his company’s history of accidents and measured the cost of paid-out claims and how much he had paid the insurance company in premiums. He found the insurance company was making a 50% margin in profits. This got Guillermo thinking he should do it himself.
Guillermo raised some capital and used most of it to set up an insurance company. This was an expensive venture (millions of dollars). The more the company grew, the more bad customers it attracted—from risk-takers to fraudsters trying to steal his motorcycles. On top of that, he realized how difficult it was to handle claims, and just like the insurance partner, it took him months to pay out claims.
Lessons learned
- Don’t underestimate the value of experience.
Andrew’s takeaways
- Don’t let overestimation bias mislead you into thinking you can do more than you’re capable of.
- Try to shift your mind from I think I know something to I know I know nothing.
Actionable advice
Don’t overestimate your skills, abilities, and knowledge. Work with advisors and connect with more experienced people who have done it before. They will help you understand how much you don’t know and then try to fill that gap.
Guillermo’s recommendations
Guillermo recommends reading Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think, co-authored by a previous guest on our podcast, Anna Rosling Rönnlund.
No.1 goal for the next 12 months
Guillermo’s number one goal for the next 12 months is to double his company revenues while remaining profitable.
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