When you’re building out an experimental AI-powered insurance company, it’s probably best to stick with the business fundamentals — and leave the fancy espresso to the baristas.
That’s the lesson being learned by the brain trust at Corgi Insurance, a frenetic insurance startup grabbing headlines for its excessively strict workplace culture, social media gaffs, and most recently it’s bizarre strategy to smother San Francisco in coffee shops operating 24/7.
Unfortunately for Corgi, those latter dreams have lost their buzz. As the San Francisco Chronicle reports, the insurtech venture has recently laid off employees tasked with establishing Corgi-branded cafes across the city. The layoffs come just a week after one of Corgi’s two cafe locations was ordered to shut down after city officials caught it operating without a legal permit (though sources familiar with the matter told the Chronicle most of those impacted by the company’s about-face weren’t involved in that debacle.)
Corgi had initially set a goal of launching 100 new coffee shops in just six months, for a frantic rate of at least 17 a month. After failing to even make a dent in their stated goal, the plans have been significantly altered, and at least two insiders have been sent packing as Corgi embarks on an “internal shakeup.”
Real estate agents familiar with the Corgi’s dealings told the Chronicle that the company was taking a scattershot approach toward expansion, chasing multiple new storefront leases simultaneously, even as internal strategies vacilated wildly.
“They were pretty much talking to everybody in the market at the same time,” one source told the paper.
The whole thing underscores the reckless abandon with which investors have rewarded startups for even mentioning “AI.” Valued at an eye-watering $4 billion just two years into its lifespan, Corgi was recently accused of repackaging open source software and passing it off as something new to build the foundation of its business.
Corgi’s founders deny that — of course — but the drama underscores the degree to which American venture capital has rewarded some of the most hare-brained startups with mountains of cash.
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