We’ve all become familiar with the pushy life insurance agent, the one that bombards you with charts and articles telling you what financial products to buy to safeguard your future. It’s time for a straightforward platform and Fabric is the one-stop-shop built to help new parents organize their family’s financial life. Fabric allows new parents to create a free will and purchase affordable life insurance without meeting an insurance agent or undergoing a health exam. The company was founded in Brooklyn in 2015 and is backed by several prominent investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, Red Sea Ventures, Brainchild Holdings, and BoxGroup.
AlleyWatch chatted with founder Adam Erlebacher to learn more about how Fabric is taking an honest and modern approach to help new parents strategically organize their finances in the best possible way through the platform created for a digitally saavy generation.
Tell us about the product or service that Fabric offers.
Fabric is a one-stop-shop for new parents to organize their family’s financial life. We offer new-parent essentials like a free last will & testament, and simple affordable term life insurance. We believe every family deserves a secure financial future, and we’re passionate about helping our customers get there.
How is Fabric different?
Fabric is different because of our focus on parents and dedication to meeting their needs holistically. Fabric makes it quick and easy for new parents to create a free will and purchase affordable life insurance without the hassle of meeting with insurance agents or undergoing unnecessary health exams.
Fabric also lets customers securely grant access to critical, up-to-date information about their life insurance policy and will with those who need to know. That could include a spouse, beneficiary, family member, attorney or financial advisor.
What market does Fabric target and how big is it?
Fabric operates in the broader financial security market, which includes life insurance and annuities. That industry is about $600B per year in premiums, and investments, which include about $7T in assets.
What is the business model?
Fabric makes money by offering simple and affordable term life insurance, for which we earn a percentage of premiums.
What inspired the start of Fabric?
When you become a parent, nobody gives you a financial roadmap. You’re entrusted with this tiny human and nobody tells you how to protect for your family’s financial future. When I became a dad, I was surprised by how time-consuming and confusing it was to buy life insurance and set up a will. I had to meet multiple times with a salesy life insurance agent, and the process took ten weeks from start to finish.
That experience inspired me to build Fabric, so new parents can take charge of their family’s financial security in a few minutes, without complicated language or pushy agents.
How does life insurance coverage compare for a digitally savvy generation versus previous generations?
Traditionally, getting life insurance meant paper applications, multiple meetings and phone calls— over the course of weeks. And in the past, paper life insurance policies were hidden in file cabinets and manila envelopes. Over $1B of life insurance benefits have gone unclaimed due to lost or misplaced policies.
Fabric takes a completely different, modern approach. If you have a question, you can chat with one of our licensed insurance professionals and fill out an application in minutes – entirely online. We’ve also helped alleviate the issue of unclaimed life insurance benefits, as that’s a tragedy if it happens even once. That’s why we empower our customers to grant their spouse access to their policy details online. That way, beneficiaries always have access to up-to-date coverage information and a direct way to access Fabric support.
What are the milestones that you plan to achieve within six months?
We’ll be focusing on expanding our suite of products for new parents and continuing our rapid growth.
What is the one piece of startup advice that you never got?
It’s important to consider culture from the very beginning. What do you believe in? What are your values? We thought really hard as a team about these questions in our early days, and that choice is paying dividends every day in helping us build a great team.
It’s important to consider culture from the very beginning. What do you believe in? What are your values? We thought really hard as a team about these questions in our early days, and that choice is paying dividends every day in helping us build a great team.
If you could be put in touch with anyone in the New York community who would it be and why?
I’d like to check out the unfinished train tunnels under Hudson Yards that, if ever completed, would extend under the Hudson River and connect to New Jersey. It’s exciting to learn from people taking on audacious, complex, real-world problems, and that’s a big one.
Why did you launch in New York?
New York was the obvious choice for Fabric. It has great technology and design talent, and it’s the financial capital of the world. What I love most about New York is its diversity of people and ideas. It’s a center for fashion, art, food, media, science, medicine and so many other disciplines. It’s that unique mix that makes New York such a dynamic and creative place.
What’s your favorite restaurant in the city?
That’s a tough one, but I really love Chao Thai in Elmhurst.
