Dinghy
Flexible business insurance for freelancers.
Start new thread
Edward Woodcock

Dinghy - Freelancer insurance that's faster, cheaper and fairer

by
Dinghy
•

A completely new approach to insurance for freelancers - faster, cheaper & fairer protection. For the first time, freelancers take full control - customising or freezing cover as their work changes. B-Corp Pending, Dinghy is committed to making insurance a social good. Away with faceless corporate tankers! Welcome to flexible insurance with a heart

Add a comment

Replies

Best
Edward Woodcock
Maker
Hi All. I am immensely proud to announce Dinghy, insurance for freelancers. Finally, freelancers have a fair deal when it comes to insurance, with the ability to pause their cover when they’re not working or on holiday. What isn't used, isn't paid for - it's that simple, as insurance should be. My co-founders @ben_wilks, @robghartley and I have collectively been freelancers ourselves for well over a decade - so we have tailored an insurance experience specifically for the needs of this rapidly growing community in the 21st century. Ultimately we are making insurance faster, cheaper and fairer. From our own freelance experience and extensive conversations with fellow freelancers, we found that that insurance wasn't living up to their needs; it was too expensive, faceless and time-consuming. Whenever they wanted to make changes to their policies or find out information, it regularly involved digging out a phone number, waiting on hold and most outrageously - having to pay 'change' fees. We’ve scrapped all that. You can buy a policy in under 2 minutes, with immediate access to your own self-service area for policy documents, and make any policy changes as freely and often as you like with no charges. From talking to freelancers we found several pain points: * Online applications were slow to complete. * The cost was high, with an entire year's payment required up-front. * Making changes was difficult and took too long. * Excessive fees were applied for changing or cancelling a policy. * Equipment claims took too long to resolve (and thus lost earnings). * Policy documents took a long time to arrive (some people needed them that day to start working for their client). * They sometimes have long outstanding invoices and need help chasing them. * They are worried about tax investigations. Insurance started it's life as a social good and a valuable asset for people, which is exactly where we want to take it back to. You pay by the second for the insurance you use; no admin fees, no cancellation charges. You have an online platform for instance access to your documents. Built into our core product is legal help chasing invoices; and expert representation to help you should you have an investigation from the taxman. And if you need to make a claim, we have created a 24 hour business equipment replacement program; available 24/7. How does it work? You make a valid claim anytime 24/7 and we will work to make sure you get a replacement within 24 hours; or instant cash into your account. Truly changing insurance hasn't been easy, but we are so proud of what we have accomplished. Please take a look and try it out. We’d love to hear what you think. Edward Woodcock Dinghy Technology Captain
Ben Matthews
@ben_wilks @robghartley @iamfledge Great work guys! Excited to see this launch 🙌
Ben Wilks
Maker
Thanks @benrmatthews (great name by the way 😃). We’ve worked so hard on this to ensure freelancers are fully protected, thrilled its now out in the wild 🙌
Oliver Rees
Have used Dinghy for a few months and love it. Great UX and instant peace of mind. Great job guys!
Edward Woodcock
Maker
@oliver_rees Thanks Oliver. We love having you on board as a customer.
Tom
@ben_wilks How does Dinghy compare to other UK providers such as Hiscox? Do you have any details on insurance terms and what is/not included? You certainly seem to have competitive rates. Thanks also for your responses on Slack!
Ben Wilks
Maker
@hellotom happy to help! I'm slightly biased but Dinghy knocks the competition out of the park 😃. The list is exhaustive but here goes, Dinghy is….. - Designed and built from the ground up exclusively for freelancers - The first company worldwide to offer flexible, on-demand insurance for freelancers, allowing you to reduce your premiums when you aren't working, whether a weekend away or a 3 month break travelling - No 12 month contract, cancel when you want (but be aware of how Professional Indemnity claims work) - The only company to charge customers in arrears for the insurance they have used in the previous month - No up front costs - Billed at the end of the month to match freelancers cash flow - Interest free monthly payments - Pay only for the insurance which is used each month - Billed by the second, so customers never pay for anything they don't need - Innovative "Freelancer Assist" product included as standard on every policy - Overdue invoices chased on freelancers behalf - Tax investigation assistance, including IR35 and self-assessment - Income covered whilst on Jury Duty - Legal defence incl business vehicles - 24/7 legal advice helpline - Tax advice helpline - 24/7 counselling helpline - Worldwide 24 hour replacement of business equipment (or cash transfer) if selected as a cover - e.g. laptops, tablets etc - Cyber & GDPR Liability - Covers freelancers for GDPR liability and - Provides a specialist breach response team to uncover the source of any hack and keep the regulators informed of the situation - For any freelancers who have access to or hold any customer's data it really is a must have this year - Just 8 questions, get a quote in 40 seconds - Purchase a policy in 90 seconds - Instant documentation and cover - Online account - Alter policy whenever required 24/7 - Claims reporting 24/7 - No hold music…ever - No fees….ever - Mandatory policy covers: - Professional Indemnity/Professional Liability - Exclusively incorporating Freelancer Assist (above) - Optional policy covers: - Public Liability - coffee shop and co-corking cover - Business Equipment - Cyber & GDPR Liability - £0 excess on Professional Indemnity and Cyber Liability to provide zero blockers to a customer informing Dinghy ASAP about a potential claim arising
Tom
@ben_wilks wow. Thank you @ben_wilks
James Hunt
This looks amazing and the UX is top notch - well done 👍 A question - do you have to be from the UK to get the insurance? I meet so many digital nomads / location independent freelancers that this would be suitable for.
Ben Wilks
Maker
@thetwopct Hi James, thanks for the amazing feedback! As you say freelancers/digital nomads often work for different companies around the globe and ensuring Dinghy works for everyone is top of our list. Currently we are only insuring UK/EU based freelancers and their companies but we have ambitions to go much wider very quickly. I'd love to speak to you more about what may and may not work, feel free to message me at ben@getdinghy.com.
Henry Fraser
This is such an important service for anyone doing freelance. As a lawyer, one of the issues that comes up really frequently is whether clients' insurance is suitable for the kinds of liabilities they are taking on under their contracts. Far too often the answer is 'no'. So it's great to see an app which removes some of the obstacles that get in the way of freelancers and small businesses managing their risks properly.
Rob Hartley
Maker
@henry_fraser Thanks Henry. Our goal is to make insurance as user-friendly and seamless as possible, rather than a burden.
Ethan
Looking good, and I can see the usefulness for a freelancer like me. Is it UK only?
Rob Hartley
Maker
@buzzb0x Thanks Ethan. Currently we are only available to UK freelancers (or if they're working overseas they have a UK company). We are looking at other territories - where are you based?
Ethan
@robghartley I'm in France :)
Jesse Middleton
Love this concept. For the future of work to take shape, laws, taxes, basic infrastructure (especially insurance) has to catch up. Would love to learn more about the roadmap and how thos team might work with existing freelancer platforms such as WeWork, Wethos, Splice and Hyr. Of course I'm biased with these few examples but it's also massively important to every freelancer vertical that's out there.
Ben Wilks
Maker
@srcasm Hi Jesse, thanks for your comment and we couldn't agree more about how much services and infrastructure have to catch up to the changing world of work. Our roadmap has several potential branches dependant on what gains traction along the way, but they are all lazer focussed on freelancers and the new way of working. We see insurance as being an invisible service that will be there when you need it offering protection for your work, your health, your belongings and your pay wherever and whenever. I'd love to talk to you more about it I'm on ben@getdinghy.com
Hayden Evans
This looks awesome! Any plans for providing service in the US?
Edward Woodcock
Maker
@hayden_evans Thanks for the kind words Hayden :) Currently we are only available to UK freelancers (or if they're working overseas they have a UK company). However things are in the pipeline as we speak. Could you send us an email at hello@getdinghy.com and we'll send over some more information. :)
Hayden Evans
Edward Woodcock
Maker
Dinghy's slick user experience has been built completely from scratch with a React front-end and Ruby on Rails back-end. We've designed the platform to solve an extremely complicated problem in a beautifully simple way, and allows us to rapidly add-on more benefits to customers as we listen to and respond to their needs. Happy to answer any questions about our tech stack, so please do ask away in the comments!
Carmel King

Really excited to see this live! Well done Dinghy!

I'll definitely recommend Dinghy to other freelancers I know as their customer service is great and great value products

Pros:

Extremely flexible service and excellent value

Cons:

None!

Rob Hartley
Maker
Thanks Carmel :)
Roxyie Curone
You couldn't have come up with a better name?
12
Next
Last