A Southern California company hatched at California State University-Fullerton’s incubator program has launched its core product.
GoodFetch created an app enabling consumers to comparison shop for home and auto insurance. The app launched last month.
It’s the brainchild of Harvey Kong, a long-time insurance agent with State Farm and Farmers. He no longer sells insurance, but the agency he was a founding partner in, Fulcrum Insurance Center, is still operating in Rosemead.
Kong said he came to the conclusion that the industry was “primed for a sea change of technology” because it’s “highly-regulated” and many companies therefore sell similar products.
Kong started the company from his home in Cerritos, and recently its new office in Carlsbad.
He differentiates GoodFetch from other apps that provide estimates in real time. GoodFetch gives prices, not estimates. So it takes longer than “real time” but still less than 24 hours, he said.
The website is free for consumers. Insurance agents don’t have to pay to provide their prices. Only the agent whom a consumer eventually selects pays to be directly matched to finish the sales process, Kong said. GoodFetch and that agent then split a percentage of the commission. Kong said the split is “dynamic” but never more than 50% of the agent’s first-year commission.
Kong completed the six month program at the incubator late last year. He said he pledged to donate the first $50,000 of profit back to the incubator.
He’s self-funded GoodFetch to the tune of $300,000 since he came up with the idea about two years ago. He’s earned more than $1.6 million from trading stocks, so GoodFetch is a labor of love, he said.
Seeking Funds
An Irvine-based startup with a car focus is looking to go from zero to 60 mph with a $2 million investment.
Historide Inc. is seeking a Series A round of financing for a “quick scale,” founder and Chief Executive Bardia Vahidi said.
His company has developed a social networking platform for all types of vehicle owners and car enthusiasts.
Historide developed an app and website where vehicle owners and enthusiasts come to connect, find useful information, and share experiences. It focuses on the users instead of the vehicles, Vahidi said. The company makes money by selling nonpersonal behavioral data it collects from users to vehicle service providers to connect them to their desired target markets. It also makes money by selling ads.
Vahidi was involved in the vehicle industry for 15 years. He launched and ran an automotive classified site and magazine—both under the auspices of Khodroiran.com, based in Iran—for 10 years. He said he noticed a “lack” of an online community tailored to people who enjoy all things related to vehicles.
He owns a Porsche and BMW.
The company launched the app last fall. It’s received $400,000 in seed money from friends and family, Vahidi said.
Angel Update
Irvine-based Tech Coast Angels invested $3.8 million in 17 deals in the first quarter. That was its best first quarter in the network’s 20-year history, both in dollars and number of companies invested, according to a news release. Southern California companies received 99% of the investment dollars.
Nearly three-quarters of the investments went into companies already earning money from sales. That reflects a trend of angel investment in companies with an already developed “minimum viable product” and traction with customers, according to the release.
Tech Coast Angels has more than 300 members. It’s the largest angel investor group in the U.S., comprised of five regional networks: Orange County, San Diego, Los Angeles, the Inland Empire, and the Central Coast, encompassing San Fernando Valley, Ventura County and Santa Barbara.
Shark Sighting
Placentia-based Thompson Tee Inc. accepted an offer of $700,000 for 25% equity in the company from “shark” Robert Herjavec when it was featured on “Shark Tank” on May 5, co-founder and President Billy Thompson said. The company, profiled in my column May 8, formulated a T-shirt line to help people with axillary hyperhidrosis, or excessive underarm sweating.
Herjavec is a Croatian-Canadian businessman and investor who made his initial fortune by selling an internet security software firm he created.
Thompson said the investment will be used to bring T-shirt production in-house.
Tesloop Expands
A startup that provides intercity travel via shared rides in a Tesla “semi-autonomous” electric car expanded to provide service to Orange County. Culver City-based Tesloop was co-founded by Haydn Seek in 2015 when he was 16. An undisclosed amount of venture financing facilitated the expansion, which is also being rolled out to San Diego.
