Mr. Waizmann, what inspired you to become an entrepreneur 15 years ago and to establish a comparison portal for dental supplemental insurance?

Maximilian Waizmann: I have always been someone who wanted to create — I could hardly imagine a classic employment career even during my school days. After high school, I completed a banking apprenticeship at Stadtsparkasse München, but I quickly realized that traditional bank sales were not for me. My father, as an insurance broker, had founded a similar company a few years earlier. It was natural to join the family business — unfortunately, the cooperation didn't develop as hoped, and in 2009, my wife and I decided to establish Versicherungsmakler Experten GmbH and the comparison portal zahnzusatzversicherung-experten.

What makes the topic of dental supplement insurance so interesting?

Maximilian Waizmann: The topic is overall very demand-driven. Firstly, we have about 70 million members of statutory health insurance in Germany. All these people essentially have a huge coverage gap, especially when it comes to dental prostheses. Anyone who has ever needed a dental implant knows what I'm talking about: the statutory contribution here is about 500,- Euro for the care of a single tooth gap. The provision of a dental implant with ceramic reconstruction costs between 2,500 and 3,000 Euros. If you look at the oral health studies that are regularly conducted, the need is clear. We also notice this in daily advisory practice - many people only realize how important this protection is when serious treatments are needed at the dentist. But also in other areas, high costs can sometimes arise, for example, in the care of children with braces or when it comes to dental preservation measures like root canal treatments. With our specialized team of currently 5 people, we advise GKV patients nationwide and help them find the optimal dental supplement insurance.

What sets your comparison portal apart from other market participants?

Maximilian Waizmann: Generally, it's first that insurance costs the same everywhere – in other industries, it's always about price. Not with us, the insurance costs the consumer always the same, whether they conclude directly with the insurance company, at a local distributor, or on a comparison portal on the Internet. It is really astonishing that many consumers are not aware of this. One of our main advantages is certainly the years of built expertise and specialization. You have to imagine: one doesn't earn particularly much from a single dental insurance – a salesperson can earn up to 10 times as much commission if they sell private full health insurance (full-KV) or a well-endowed life insurance policy. Accordingly, many colleagues unfortunately treat dental supplement insurance as a 'stepchild'. It simply "isn't worth" putting a lot of effort into it - and there are incredibly many tariffs and differences. This is also shown, for example, by the annual study by Stiftung Warentest, where almost 300 tariffs were evaluated most recently. Those who do not deal with it daily simply find it difficult to advise their clients optimally. In addition, we also support our customers in case of claims, especially when there are problems or complaints.

Which marketing strategies and channels do you currently find most promising?

Maximilian Waizmann: In online sales, one, of course, cannot bypass Google. That was and is our main marketing channel. Here we go both via paid advertising (AdWords), although this share has decreased more and more over the past years. You can clearly feel the increasing competition. 15 years ago, the market for dental supplement tariffs was still relatively manageable. There were a few insurances with good tariffs and a handful of online brokers and even Check24 – at least in terms of dental supplement insurance – had not yet played a role at that time. Today, virtually every insurance company has a marketable dental supplement product. This leads to enormously high click prices in the ad area. Therefore, we are glad that we bet on a sustainable content and SEO strategy very early on. But I also consider YouTube a very exciting marketing channel, which we want to expand in the future.

What are your goals for the future? Where do you see your company in 5 years?

Maximilian Waizmann: We have had good growth rates in the past years – but the market for dental insurance is unfortunately limited. So, currently, we are planning to open up for other insurance areas. Currently, we are planning a new online portal specializing in the distribution of occupational disability insurance, also a very interesting specialty market. I hope that we will also be among the top 3 online portals in the next 5 years and possibly even offer one or another additional branch in the insurance area.

What do you see as the main technological challenges & opportunities for the future?

Maximilian Waizmann: I see 2 very exciting topics here for us. On one hand, the topic of CRM systems and marketing automation. We are currently introducing a powerful CRM system in our company, which will help us lower our costs and significantly increase our productivity. Many things that were done manually in the past can be automated today. The second point is currently on everyone's lips: clearly the topic of AI. It is absolutely insane what development we have seen here in the last 12 months. In 5 years, AI will certainly be indispensable from hardly any company. Many questions that arise again and again from customers and prospects can be answered automatically by chatbots, and that in a quality never seen before. Applications and policies can be checked and processed automatically. Marketing costs can be saved through automated content creation, and so on. We are currently examining how and where we can use AI so that our employees can focus even more on their core topics.

Mr. Waizmann, thank you for the interview. Do you have any advice for young founders in the insurance industry?

Maximilian Waizmann: As someone who successfully founded 15 years ago, I can only advise young founders: know your market and your target group. Networks are essential – look for mentors and make valuable contacts. Put the customer at the center, listen to feedback, and offer excellent service. Be diligent, and then success will come on its own.

One thought on the subject of innovation: I would advise young founders to focus more on the "basics", i.e., on marketing strategies that work. Of course, innovations are also needed, but you don't always have to reinvent the wheel just to impress investors (which apparently isn't too difficult to do). In recent years, we have really seen some startups come and go. And often I could only shake my head when I read about how much investor money had been destroyed. The prominent example "Wefox" is supposedly about to go bankrupt and/or be dismantled. So "boring" marketing strategies that demonstrably work are sometimes allowed.