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Clio
Did you know "Clio" means glory in Greek?
Clio's name originates from the Greek Goddess Clio. The app's core values revolve around the idea that one should not just sustain one's finances but achieve financial glory. Clio is a platform designed to help you master your finances; whether you are a wealthy individual or a struggling college student, Clio is your solution to achieving your goals and attaining financial glory.
Fall 2023
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Clio is an insuretech app designed for Millennials and Gen Z to help them achieve their financial goals by using round-ups and weekly contributions to fund their life insurance policies, encouraging creative applications of insurance as a tool, and providing reliable educational content to users.
The Project
I created Clio for an entrepreneurship class titled "Business Plan Development and Decision Making." The assignment was quite broad; each group in class was to create a business of any persuasion and develop a business plan throughout the semester utilizing the tools and methods taught in class. Samuel Nelson, the current Director at UNL's Center for Entrepreneurship, was my professor for this class and will forever be one of my favorite professors; he understood my extensive background in startups and went out of his way to challenge me to keep growing. His confidence in my abilities has greatly impacted my work; because he believed in me, I felt comfortable exploring an insuretech startup despite knowing I have a lack of formal financial education as a marketing and management major.
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I have a brief history of working with fintech and insuretech startups during my time at Assurity Ventures and Thrivent Financial, and it has been a discipline I find fascinating, so I wanted to explore my abilities within the insuretech space and challenge myself to grow by working on things outside my comfort zone. Not only does Clio propose a complete change in the way customers can fund their accounts, but it also proposes a near-complete overhaul of what we consider "traditional insurance" products and platforms by creating new Universal Life products and stressing the importance of financial education to help users make informed financial decisions.
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This is the largest startup project I have completed on my own, and I am as proud of Clio as I am of AccessibilityBuddy. I may argue this is better than my work on AccessibilityBuddy as I have taken more time to learn about SaaS businesses, improved as a writer and entrepreneur, and held two additional professional internships and two leadership positions since that project in Fall, 2021.
Clio Business Plan
Clio is by far the most extensive business plan I've created. It includes detailed marketing and sales plans and well-researched and market-supported financials.
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Clio's business plan was written via a platform called LivePlan, which is why the formatting is very different from my typical business plans and is 70 pages long. I generally make my business plans succinct, but because of the complex nature of Clio and my excitement to explore parts of the business planning process I have less experience with (such as the financials), the plan necessitated significant and precise language.
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I really enjoyed LivePlan and look forward to exploring its capabilities in the future. Its forecasting and benchmarketing capabilities were incredibly helpful in the business planning process. Learning new business planning and operations tools is so beneficial, and I'm glad this platform was required for class.
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Something I expected to struggle with was the use of AI in my business plan writing. I was apprehensive about the AI feature in LivePlan because I was initially concerned that my skills might be less valuable if AI could write a business plan. I have been discovering AI, as we all have, and learning how to use it as a tool. I quickly learned that AI has many capabilities and is excellent at inspiring some ideas, but it does not write business plans well. With that discovery, I dedicated time to learning how to best navigate AI and use it as a tool to get the most helpful information. It was a valuable lesson to learn that AI is a great tool, not a threat, and I am now comfortable both using and not using it.
Clio Pitch Deck
**Please note that Wix cannot include animations and transitions*
Notes
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The team
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I initially took on a team because I have been very focused on developing and improving my leadership and management skills. I knew my team had very different skills and interests, so I was excited to use my strengths-based management principles to lead the team through our exciting project. I thought that this would be a great opportunity to use my position as the group leader to facilitate the project and gain additional experience. However, I was not expecting my team to neglect me and the project, making me the sole contributor. Over halfway through the semester, my professor told me I could "fire "my team for their lack of contribution. In hindsight and in future instances, I will use that advice. I did not want to "fire" them over halfway through the semester because that meant they would have had to develop a completely new idea and start over from the beginning, including the entire customer discovery process. I believe in holding people accountable, and I failed at doing so in this project. Though these kinds of teams can be frustrating, I appreciate the learning experience, and I am still thrilled with my work. However, from this experience, I have a better understanding of how to balance one's personal goals and the reality of people's actions. A wise person in my life tells me "Don't light yourself on fire to keep other people warm;" though I prefer collaborative work with diverse people and skills to solo work, I am determined to implement that sentiment in my life.
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Whose head is on your slideshow?
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That is my professor, Dr. Nelson. I try to use every project as an opportunity to create stretch goals and grow my skills. I have done numerous formal pitches and business plans, but I am rarely pitching to peers and professors who appreciate storytelling and humor. It is not the first time I have included a professor in a slideshow, and it certainly landed with the audience. The challenge for me was to translate my extremely formal and extensive business plan into a short, humorous, story-telling style pitch; insuretech startups aren't exactly exciting to college students, so I wanted to create a pitch so great, even 20-somethings got invested in an insurance platform. ​
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This pitch seems different than your others... why?
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Clio is full of bright colors and patterns, and the pitch uses casual language, all of which are unusual for me. I typically pitch to judges and for competitions, so I have historically taken a much more "clean" and formal approach, expecting strict professionalism to support my entrepreneurial excellence. However, I have been on a journey of empathy and self-growth, so I wanted to explore my ability to relate to others, even through a seemingly "informal" story-telling style pitch. I would argue that it is not "informal" or "unprofessional" but tailored to the audience and relatable enough to inspire college students to use Clio. As with most of my pitches, the majority of the content is spoken, so the pitch deck serves as much more of a supporting visual to the pitch.
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Speaking of visuals... what does Clio actually look like?
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Clio is nearly as bright and colorful as the pitch! This video (presented on the right for desktop and below for mobile) was playing on a loop on the second screen while the pitch deck was presented on the first screen. This presentation allowed the audience to see the app while they learned about what Clio does and how it works. Though not required for class, I like to go the extra mile, and I knew it would make my pitch easier because I didn't need to take time to describe features​ so I could spend more time on the business plan, strategy, and benefits.
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