T-24-001 : Haytham Elhawary - Transitioning from Hardware to Insurance
Haytham Elhawary, founder of Kinetic Insurance, discusses his company's evolution from building a wearable hardware device for workplace injury prevention to partnering with Nationwide to offer workers' compensation insurance. He details the technical challenges of creating robust hardware for harsh industrial environments, including saltwater intrusion and battery fires, and the long sales cycles required to sell to enterprise clients like Walmart and Home Depot. Elhawary explains how the company leveraged data from 35,000 workers to prove injury reduction stats, enabling a shift to an insurance-based business model that incentivizes adoption through rebates.