More than 53 million American adults are their own boss. Freelancers, consultants and contract workers are expected to make up half the nation’s workforce within the next decade — a dramatic shift away from traditional employment models.
San Francisco-based technology startup Bunker, which opened its Madison office in April, aims to help out the gig economy. Bunker’s new digital marketplace, buildbunker.com, offers independent contractors and businesses of all sizes a way to fulfill the insurance requirements necessary to ink a contract for a new project.
Kevin Kiser, head of brand strategy for Bunker, says one of the hardest parts of being one’s own boss is managing the paperwork — which often includes purchasing insurance.
Independent contractors are sometimes required to have policies that protect for general liability, professional liability, worker’s compensation and employer’s liability, among others.
It’s a process that’s often cumbersome and confusing. It can also take several weeks, stalling the project and racking up costs for everyone involved.
Kiser says Madison native Chad Nitschke, co-founder and CEO of Bunker, spent over a year chatting with business owners and service providers in Wisconsin and across the country to better understand the hang-ups and complexities of the current system.
That’s how he came up with the idea. The Bunker platform allows businesses and independent contractors to manage and share insurance requirements in one place. For example, with just a few clicks, an HR professional can input contractor requirements. Then, they notify the freelancer, who can upload proof of existing coverage or purchase a new policy in as little as 10 minutes.
Bunker launched a private beta test of its product in October, and for now, its product is geared toward three distinct markets. There’s the “1099 space,” which includes virtually any business — from energy to health care — that pays people to do temporary work, such as graphic designers, web developers and sales consultants. Bunker also works with franchise owners taking on new franchisees, and property owners who require tenants to have business insurance to lease space.
Kiser says Nitschke’s business relationships in Madison and the insurance industry allowed them to more quickly overcome the financial challenges many Midwestern startups face. “Bridging the gap from Wisconsin to the West Coast, where a lot of the potential funding lies, can be a major obstacle,” he says. “Having investors in California and here in our own backyard really helped us get off the ground and fueled our success so far.”
Kiser is referring to one of Bunker’s earliest investors — American Family Insurance — whose local headquarters is just one of the reasons the company chose the north-side neighborhood for its Madison location. Sitting on Northport Drive, Bunker is one of the first technology businesses to put down roots in the neighborhood, which welcomed a new 20,000-square-foot Willy Street Co-op in August.
“We’re one of the first tech companies to settle on the north side, but hopefully we can get some momentum going,” Kiser says. “It would be great to see a collection of like-minded startups in a shared space that can innovate together.”
Kiser says they’ve already received positive feedback from early beta users and within the insurance industry, praising the system for simplifying the onboarding process, reducing compliance risks and cutting down on manual effort.
The team is now focused on testing and improving the tool to get it ready for a full release, but Kiser says they hope to hire additional people and expand the Madison office over the next several years.
