Harper recently launched!

Launch YC: Harper: AI-native commercial insurance brokerage

"Transforming how businesses get the coverage they need."


Founded by Dakotah Rice & Tushar Nair

Hey everyone! Meet Dakotah and Tushar. They're building Harper, an AI-powered commercial insurance brokerage transforming how businesses get the coverage they need. Since acquiring their first customers in October, they’ve already grown to write over $6M in annualized premiums across 35 states.

The Team

Dakotah and Tushar have known each other since they started their careers at Goldman Sachs, where Tushar led ML/AI engineering teams automating services for the commodities desk while Dakotah worked on the Technology, Media, and Telecommunications Team in Investment Banking. He then spent time at Carlyle and Coatue.

Tushar spent nearly 9 years at Goldman before leaving to found Poolit with Dakotah, a fintech company that scaled to $100M AUM. While looking for their next project, they started thinking about the highest-impact solutions for LLM-based AI tools.

They decided to blend Dakotah’s family history in insurance and entrepreneurship with Tushar's technical expertise in automation to build the world’s first AI Native Commercial Insurance Brokerage.

The Problem

Commercial insurance is drowning in operational inefficiency:

  • Manual processes that limit broker productivity
  • Complex, redundant applications
  • Information asymmetry and limited market access

These antiquated systems create terrible customer experiences and prevent traditional brokerages from scaling.

The Solution

The Harper founders built an insurance brokerage with a suite of AI solutions that they use internally to enhance their sales, operational, and service interactions. Harper Hub, their flagship tool, can:

  • Complete forms automatically
  • Find optimal carriers and underwriters
  • Manage client communications seamlessly

This creates an infinitely scalable brokerage that delivers superior service with significantly higher margins.

The Vision

At Harper, they believe that every legacy professional services business will have an AI-Native counterpart that will operate more efficiently, generate more revenue, and grow faster than incumbents. The founders want to become the largest insurance brokerage in the world with the best NPS. The commercial insurance brokerage market represents over $100B in annual commissions.

Learn More

🌐 Visit www.harperinsure.com to learn more.
🤝 If you know any businesses with complex insurance needs, please reach out to the founders via email.
👣 Follow Harper on LinkedIn & X.

Posted 
March 14, 2025
 in 
Launch
 category
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