Laura Bennett and Alex Krooglik, co-founders of Embrace Pet Insurance, which was sold in 2023 for $1.5 billion to JAB Holding Company.

The duo founded Embrace Pet Insurance after graduating from Penn’s Wharton School of Business in 2003 and moving to Cleveland, where they built and grew this e-commerce, specialist insurance company selling pet insurance directly to pet owners — from their first policy sold in October 2006 to insuring over 500,000 pets across the country and handling over 4.6 million claims to date, with more than 1 million in 2023 alone.

Having both stepped away from their business a few years prior, this conversation is a truly reflective one. We cover the crucible moments for the company: 

• effectively creating a new market category and overcoming the complex regulations of pet insurance, 
• the evolution of their relationship as co-founders, 
• the sheer tenacity, persistence, determination and consistency required of entrepreneurship, 
• earned lessons on founder equity and company ownership, 
• becoming one of Jumpstart’s first investments, 
• the significance of immigrants and entrepreneurship in the US, 

...and a whole lot more! I believe Laura and Alex’s story is one that should be familiar to far more in Cleveland than it may be, and I’m very excited to share it with you today!

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LINKS:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/krooglik/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurabennett/
https://www.embracepetinsurance.com/

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SPONSORS: John Carroll University Boler College of Business || Impact Architects & Ninety

John Carroll University Boler College of Business: https://business.jcu.edu/ 
As we’ve heard time and time again from entrepreneurs on Lay of The Land — many of whom are proud alumni of John Carroll University —  success in this ever-changing world of business requires a dynamic and innovative mindset, deep understanding of emerging technology and systems, strong ethics, leadership prowess, acute business acumen… all qualities nurtured through the Boler College of Business!

With 4 different MBA programs of study — spanning Professional, Online, Hybrid, and 1-Year-Flexible — The Boler College of Business provides flexible timelines and various class structures for each MBA Track — including online, in-person, hybrid and asynchronous — to offer the most effective options for you, in addition to the ability to participate in an elective International Study Tour, providing unparalleled opportunities to expand your global business knowledge by networking with local companies overseas and experiencing a new culture.

The career impact of a Boler MBA is formative and will help prepare you for this future of business and get more out of your career. To learn more about John Carroll University’s Boler MBA programs, please go to business.jcu.edu

The Boler College of Business is fully accredited by AACSB International, the highest accreditation a College of Business can have.

Impact Architects & Ninety
Lay of The Land is brought to you by Ninety. As a Lay of The Land listener, you can leverage a free trial with Ninety, the platform that helps teams build great companies and the only officially licensed software for EOS® — used by over 7,000 companies and 100,000 users!

This episode is brought to you by Impact Architects. As we share the stories of entrepreneurs building incredible organizations throughout NEO, Impact Architects helps those leaders — many of whom we’ve heard from as guests on Lay of The Land — realize their visions and build great organizations. I believe in Impact Architects and the people behind it so much, that I have actually joined them personally in their mission to help leaders gain focus, align together, and thrive by doing what they love! As a listener, you can sit down for a free consultation with Impact Architects by visiting ia.layoftheland.fm!

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Past guests include Justin Bibb (Mayor of Cleveland), Pat Conway (Great Lakes Brewing), Steve Potash (OverDrive), Umberto P. Fedeli (The Fedeli Group), Lila Mills (Signal Cleveland), Stewart Kohl (The Riverside Company), Mitch Kroll (Findaway — Acquired by Spotify), and many more.

Connect with Jeffrey Stern on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreypstern/

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