Contextualising the data and changing the lens - with Ilya Preston, Co-Founder & CEO, PAXAFE

The Insurance Coffee House

“Bringing in somebody who understands the art and science of underwriting from the insurance industry would be a huge benefit”, says Ilya.

Ilya shares his journey from large industrial engine manufacturer to corporate consultancy roles with KPMG and PWC through to co-founding PAXAFE, an AI-enabled, device agnostic risk management platform to reduce product loss, improve operational efficiency and optimise decision making for pharmaceutical shippers and carriers.

“Part of the reason why we started PAXAFE is because we see visibility differently, we see visibility as primarily a machine problem, not a human problem”, explains Ilya, as he highlights the importance of supply chain visibility and contextualising the wealth of data.

With the 30-strong team split between the U.S, Mexico and India, Ilya discusses the products and benefits on offer to customers and stakeholders as well as the ambitious growth plans.

For a small tech-driven business, Ilya shares how the timeframe to make decisions - and having confidence in them - is much shorter. “You don't have the luxury to analyse 10 different ways and which path you should take.”

He describes the culture and values at PAXAFE and how they will maintain those as they look to double or treble the team throughout 2023.

“Our next phase of growth is going to require conscious investment into culture and people. Building a people team is step one. Step two is not skimping on our interview process. We have a really robust three step process, we call it the 3C's – core, capacity and capability.”

Ilya concludes by advising anyone looking to launch their own start-up, saying, “It’s all relative to what you're trying to solve, but spend all of your time understanding the intricacies and nuances of the problem”

Connect with Ilya on LinkedIn, email [e-mail] or find out more about Paxafe

The Insurance Coffee House Podcast is hosted by Nick Hoadley, CEO, Insurance Search, the Executive Search Consultancy for growing Insurance and Insurtech businesses across the globe.

To discuss identifying & attracting the very best talent to your team or being a podcast guest, reach out to Nick via [e-mail] or connect on LinkedIn

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