Smart Firefighting Podcast

Episode 232: Innovating Wildfire Solutions: The American Family Insurance & XPRIZE Partnership with Stephanie Mueller

Published

Guests: Stephanie Mueller

Topics: Wildfire

Episode notes

How can we decrease the frequency and severity of wildfires?

Hello Smart Firefighting Community!

Welcome to another episode of covering real world innovations via interviews with fire service and technology industry experts that empower YOU to develop your very own Smart Firefighting strategy!

In this episode:

How American Family Insurance & XPRIZE are joining forces to combat wildfires with cutting-edge tech

Protecting homes and ecosystems through innovation and collaboration

Investing in startups to create effective wildfire detection and suppression solutions

Find out from Stephanie Mueller - the Programs and Partnerships Director for American Family Ventures.

American Family Insurance has teamed up with XPRIZE to combat the devastation caused by wildfires. By investing in innovative technologies and supporting startups, they aim to protect homes and reduce wildfire impact.

So take a listen to hear about this partnership that connects them with top innovators and researchers to find effective detection and suppression solutions.

Head to www.smartfirefighting.com to discover how SFF accelerates innovation for emergency responders, to find out when our next event is, or review our curated resources!

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Chapters

  1. 0:00 Kevin's intro at the FDIC 2024 XPRIZE booth
  2. 0:36 Announcing the American Family Insurance and XPRIZE partnership
  3. 1:10 Why American Family Insurance joined XPRIZE
  4. 2:33 What success looks like in five to ten years
  5. 3:56 American Family Insurance and its customers
  6. 5:32 American Family Ventures and investing in startups
  7. 7:05 Home hardening and property technology
  8. 8:13 The XPRIZE teams and the wider ecosystem
  9. 10:19 How startups can get involved
  10. 12:15 Madison and the Badgers
  11. 13:00 Outro

Questions answered in this episode

What is the XPRIZE Wildfire Initiative that American Family Insurance is partnering on?

Stephanie Mueller says it is a collaboration focused on driving innovation to address destructive wildfires. At FDIC 2024, they announced 20 teams advancing in the space-based detection and intelligent track, one of two tracks in the competition.

Hear it at 0:40

Why did American Family Insurance decide to partner with XPRIZE?

Stephanie Mueller explains that XPRIZE is unique in pulling together collaboration and focusing on innovation, which are core to their own strategy. They feel compelled to address issues their customers and communities face, and the partnership helps them be part of the overall movement to address destructive wildfires.

Hear it at 1:44

What does success look like for the XPRIZE Wildfire Initiative in five to ten years?

Stephanie Mueller says they hope to see a meaningful decrease in the amount and destruction of wildfires, with destructive fires eradicated or reduced to a minimal, manageable level. The goal is quick, swift, and decisive mitigation so wildfires can be attacked before they become massive.

Hear it at 3:08

How does American Family Ventures support wildfire innovation?

Stephanie Mueller says American Family Ventures invests in startups on behalf of American Family Insurance and other limited partners. They constantly explore new technologies for investment opportunities and connect product teams with founders to see if innovations can solve urgent problems in underwriting, pricing, and product design.

Hear it at 6:01

How can startups working on wildfire solutions get involved with American Family Insurance?

Stephanie Mueller encourages early stage founders to reach out to American Family Ventures or XPRIZE. They are happy to talk with as many founders as possible to understand who is emerging in the space and where technology is headed, and they can point people in the right direction even if it is not a direct fit.

Hear it at 10:57

Transcript

Machine transcript of the published audio. Names may be misspelled and some sections are missing.

Ep 232 transcript

Innovating Wildfire Solutions: The American Family Insurance & XPRIZE Partnership with Stephanie Mueller

Speakers: Kevin Sofen, Stephanie Mueller

Source: Whisper medium.en machine transcription of the published Podbean audio (no original transcript found in Drive), lightly cleaned. Speakers were separated by voice clustering and then checked and assigned by hand at every speaker change. Gaps where the model returned no usable text are marked [inaudible m:ss].

[0:00] Kevin Sofen: Welcome to our Smart Firefighting podcast miniseries hosted at FDIC 2024. You will hear some stories from XPRIZE, AT&T FirstNet, and some other first responders. There are some great insights on wildfire technologies, connectivity during first responder operations, health and wellness, and much more. Enjoy the show. We are live at FDIC, the fourth podcast in this little miniseries, alongside Stephanie Mueller with American Family Insurance. How are you doing, Stephanie?

[0:34] Stephanie Mueller: I'm doing really good. Thanks for having me.

[0:36] Kevin Sofen: Of course. So what brings you to Indianapolis Lucas Oil Stadium?

[0:40] Stephanie Mueller: Yeah, so we're here for our first visit at the FDIC conference announcing our partnership with the XPRIZE wildfire organization. we announced the 20 teams that are advancing to the next round of the XPRIZE space-based detection and intelligent track. There are two tracks, but this is the first one that has some finalists moving on. So we were here announcing them and celebrating them and also sort of bringing our partnership to life here at the conference.

[1:10] Kevin Sofen: That's awesome. And yeah, I've had the fortune of working with Andrea Santi and Jay and kind of learning about the impetus and the kind of the origin of XPRIZE, which has all these different kind like moonshot type initiatives that they go after. But this one is particular around the kind of the issues of these mega wildfires, these big wildfires that happen. And I would imagine that insurance is fairly interested in these wildfire that have continued to be a challenge. But yeah, I'd love to know kind of, how did American Family Insurance get involved with XPRIZE and why American Family Insurance and XPRIZE?

[1:44] Stephanie Mueller: Yeah, it's a great question. So American Family Insurance decided to join in partnership with XPRIZE because we feel like it's critically important, the collaboration that XPRIZE is bringing together to drive innovation forward for our communities and the ecosystems. And we feel that XPRIZE is really unique in the way that they're structured and pulling that collaboration together and really focusing on the innovation, which are core tenets of our strategy as well. And we just feel like really compelled to address some of these issues that our customers are facing and our communities are facing and it makes a lot of sense for us to be in this space with XPRIZE to help them move this along and really be a part of the overall movement to really address these destructive wildfires.

[2:33] Kevin Sofen: Destructive wildfires, that's the word, not mega wildfires. Yeah, and I really commend everyone and the work that they're doing and your involvement. And while it all sounds great and I'm excited about it, what I'm really excited about is what it looks like in five, 10 years. And I'm interested in sort of what does success look like? If these programs and these 20 teams, and of course thinking 20 of them, some of them will fall off, a couple of them will hopefully turn into something that's really helping first responders. What do you think a successful XPRIZE Wildfire Initiative looks like in five, 10 years?

[3:08] Stephanie Mueller: Yeah, it's a great question. And I think we are really looking forward to seeing a meaningful difference and the amount of wildfires, the overall amount, you know, the decrease in destruction and how much it impacts communities and our ecosystems and really trying to eradicate the destructive wildfires. Of course, we need fires in general as part of our natural ecosystem to have some, but, you know, really the massive destruction be eradicated and be at a much more minimal, manageable level where we feel like we can get ahead of them, we feel like the mitigation is quick and swift and decisive and really, you know, being able to attack these issues quickly without them becoming massive.

[3:56] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, and I'm interested, I mean, from a, further to that, just kind of double-click into American Family Insurance more, I mean, I feel like I've seen it through as a consumer on commercials and whatnot, but from a first responder standpoint or even just, you know, again, this whole conversation of wildfires, you know, like, could you speak more on like, what's the wildfire impact on insurance and why is this something that is so critically, you know, high on the priority list of American Family Insurance?

[4:22] Stephanie Mueller: Yeah, so overall, you know, American Family Insurance has a 96 year legacy of serving our customers and our communities. We pride ourselves on being very customer driven, multi-product and really anchored in our best in home strategies. we do really have a lot of our resources and strategy focused on that best in home and how we can really improve the lives of our consumers and focus on pioneering innovation in and around the home. So it's just rooted in strong service to customers and overall, I feel like, you know, we try to tackle some of the most challenging things that are facing our customers and that's certainly wildfire, home, you know, proactive protection in general. So that's, it's definitely one of the reasons that we're focused on this. One of the ways that we feel like, you know, this is adjacent to what, you know, our firefighters and fire communities are dealing with today. And we feel like this impact on our customer that we can play a role in will ultimately have this long-term effect on communities and fire agencies. Yeah.

[5:32] Kevin Sofen: And as your, as just kind of, again, it's not just XPRIZE, it's not just American Family Insurance, there's a lot of groups, but I'm interested in sort of, how are you looking at these sort of new solutions to kind of ideally move the needle? You know, we're not just hosting this XPRIZE initiative, just because, you know, we're not just kind of hosting this to kind of look good and get clicks on Instagram. We're doing this because we want to make a difference, but you know, what's the lens and how are you looking at this to be able to kind of, again, support your end users?

[6:01] Stephanie Mueller: Yeah, so one way that comes to mind right away is our American Family Ventures firm. And so we invest in startups on behalf of American Family Insurance and about a couple dozen other limited partners, and we're constantly exploring new technologies for investment opportunities and ways that we can bring value to other carriers in our fund, but also into our product and into our customers. So we're always looking for investable opportunities but we really want to generate ideas and innovations that can really solve a lot of urgent problems. And so we're always having product donors meet with founders of new technologies to see if there's a match that can really like advance things along and underwriting and pricing and product design. So there's a lot of reason for us to be focused on innovation, be here, understand the property technology space and really invest in it and help it move forward.

[7:05] Kevin Sofen: You mentioned just property technology there, and I've heard around the wildfire space, they talk about home hardening and safeguarding and kind of improving the home. Like what, could you expand upon that a little bit more? What does that mean in your words?

[7:17] Stephanie Mueller: Yeah. a lot of different ways to be in and around the property technology space, but there's technologies inside and outside of the home. There's a number of partnerships that we've worked on, invested in, worked with that can be proactive in nature in terms of protection and safeguarding. There's other technologies that are more mitigation focused, thinking fire, water, and other perils. And then there's an exterior outside the home. So thinking wildfire mitigation or protection, crime, safety, things like that. So there's a lot of different ways to think about what's included in the prop tech space as a buzzword. There's a lot there to sift through. But again, we're really looking at the lens on what's the impact to our customer? How can we really get ahead of it? What's meaningful to them and will make the biggest difference in their future and safety?

[8:13] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, I love it. And it's April 2024 when you talked about sort of what the future ultimately looks like. But I am sort of interested in kind of this, as this unfolds, you got these 20 teams and then there's the other track. What are you most excited about? You know, it's something and kind of like even kind of the reason, the reason why, you know, American Family Insurance is doing this and it's sort of a, obviously it's to better support the end users. But on top of that, of like, you know, what's even kind of being here at FDIC and talking around this, around this, what's been some of the excitement of kind of the different stakeholders and what are your thoughts on that?

[8:46] Stephanie Mueller: Yeah, well, there's a lot of leaders in this space that are all centered here today. So, I mean, it's been great to see so many different companies and innovators and local agencies all here, you know, for this purpose. But I think overall, the partnership has some really key benefits for us, we get a global view of how innovators and companies are tackling wildfires proactively. We get exposed to new methods of detection and suppression to really think about, do we want to invest there, partner there, bring it to our consumers. So you know, getting first eyes on some of that new technology, whether it be hardware, software, data, AI, whatever it is that can allow us to jump into that space and learn about it and really get ahead. It also allows us to grow our network of innovators, researchers, data scientists, corporations to really help us along in this path. There's others who are leading this field into the future and we want to be part of that as well so that network effect is also really big and important as we continue down this path. as well. So, I think there's so many reasons to be involved. That's just a few of them, but we're really excited about what we'll see coming out of the program, the innovation that these companies and founders are bringing to the table and how it could impact our customers and policyholders as well.

[10:19] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, that's awesome. And I know, I'm sure they, I'll put the XPRIZE link in the show notes, but if people want to get involved, people want to learn more, again, if whether they're startups or even customers, and I realize if you're a startup working on this particular issue, I mean, XPRIZE is a moment in time that's happening, but this problem isn't going away, and I'm sure kind of the interest in trying to work in this, and you mentioned American Family Ventures, and, you know, is there any sort of messages you would say to people that are thinking about this problem and want to get involved, you know, how can people get involved with the work that American Family Insurance, American Family Ventures is doing in the future?

[10:57] Stephanie Mueller: Yeah, it's a great question. I think the venture capital community is a great starting point for companies that are at earlier stages, whether depending on which funding path they decide to go on but it certainly is a community of strategic resources that we can point them to. So certainly we're happy to talk with new founders emerging in this space. We like to talk with as many of them as we can to get a beat on who's coming up in the space and where technology is headed. So yeah, we're happy to talk with those who are in the early stages. I think XPRIZE, even though this track is often running, they have more tracks that are developing, more submission opportunities, and there's a lot of connections that they have with gas and electric companies, with the IBHS, with a number of different organizations that we can point and direct people to as well. So the resources are big and wide through this whole collaboration. So I think, yeah, definitely XPRIZE and American Family Ventures are, I think would be great starting points. We're happy to talk and point you in the right direction if it's not us. But yeah, there's a lot of resources to tap into companies involved here that I think could be helpful.

[12:15] Kevin Sofen: I love it. And when we were texting early, it was great to see the 608 area code. I went to Madison and I love all things Madison.

[12:22] Stephanie Mueller: Badger proud.

[12:23] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, go Bucky. Go Badgers. I am a proud Badger and I truly love that city. And just the isthmus in between Mendota and Monona is a wonderful place.

[12:32] Stephanie Mueller: It certainly is. It's a wonderful community. American Family Insurance is headquartered there, but we are based everywhere now in the US. So we have a lot of locations, but that is definitely our home base and we're proud of it.

[12:47] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, right on. Well, on Wisconsin, go Bucky. It's definitely really great talking with you and I look forward to following everything with American Family Ventures, American Family Insurance, the whole XPRIZE initiative. So keep up the great work and look forward to staying in touch.

[12:59] Stephanie Mueller: Thanks for having me.

[13:00] Kevin Sofen: Of course. Thank you so much for listening to the Smart Firefighting podcast today. If you enjoyed what you heard and got any value, please drop us a rating, leave us a comment or reach out to us on social media. Have a great day and together, we can advance the future of smart firefighting.