QuickInsurance: The Race to Click and Close.

BACKGROUND: Steven Aldrich launched Interactive Insurance, an online insurance.com portal, in July 1995. Less than 1-year later, Aldrich sold the company to Intuit, Inc for $10 million and in the summer of 2000, Aldrich transitioned from his role as general manager, QuickenInsurance, to general manager, Quicken.com (www.quicken.com). The reason Aldrich sold Quicken Insurance to Intuit was because he was having problems convincing insurance carriers to join his services. In selling the company to Intuit, …

…gave it a brand recognition for suppliers and customers to join or purchase insurance services. It also gave him the ability to generate traffic to the site so more consumers can purchase insurance. Also, QuickenInsurance is heading the right direction by their vertical portal business, revenue, and cost model. New and emerging business models need to be evaluated to ensure all organizations continue to collaborate and compete while remaining successfully within their own specific industry.