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Strategic Communications Advisory For Visionary Founders
Conversation
Highlights
Most startups fight for existing demand. They walk into sales meetings claiming to be 10% better than the market leader, immediately falling into product comparison traps. Coalition took a different path.
In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Joshua Motta, CEO and Co-Founder of Coalition, shared how they became North America’s largest cyber insurance provider by creating an entirely new category – one that transformed how businesses think about digital risk.
The Counterintuitive Insight
After experiences at the CIA, Goldman Sachs, and Cloudflare, Joshua reached a surprising conclusion: cybersecurity isn’t a technology problem. In fact, technology created the problem in the first place.
“The thought that you could add even more technology to fix the vulnerabilities that the initial stuff, I mean, it was just all circular in a pipe dream,” Joshua explains. “The real epiphany was this is a risk management problem.”
This insight led Coalition to pioneer “active insurance” – a new category that would fundamentally change how businesses approach cyber risk.
Creating Demand Instead of Fighting For It
Rather than competing within the existing cyber insurance market, Coalition chose to create an entirely new category. As Joshua describes, “Businesses that compete for demand fall into product comparison conversations really quickly against the existing leaders in the category.”
Their approach was systematic:
1. Place a differentiating word in front of the category (“active insurance”)
2. Use that modifier to highlight fundamental business model issues
3. Educate customers on category differences after shifting demand
The Distribution Paradox
Instead of building their own distribution network – a common startup approach – Coalition made an unexpected move. They leveraged existing insurance brokers, convincing them to adopt this new category.
“We didn’t have to go and build our own. We just had to convince the existing channel that we’re an entirely different solution,” Joshua notes. “I’m not trying to tell you a story of how we’re 10% better than a traditional cyber insurance company. We’re 10 times better.”
The Education-First GTM Motion
Coalition recognized that their fundamental challenge wasn’t product marketing – it was education. “The core problem of our business is an education problem,” Joshua explains. “You adopt technology as a company and you get the benefits immediately, but there are new risks that come along with it that people can conveniently forget about.”
This insight shaped their entire go-to-market strategy. Through webinars, in-person sessions, marketing materials, and executive storytelling, they focused on helping businesses understand cyber risks before trying to sell insurance.
The Category Creation Timeline
Interestingly, Coalition spent their first four years building a new category without formally articulating it. It wasn’t until they hired their CMO that they explicitly named what they were already doing.
“We intuitively knew it probably from day one, but it didn’t actually come to saying it and naming it until we hired a phenomenal CMO,” Joshua reveals. “Who was able to look at us and be like, ‘you guys are creating an entirely new category of business.'”
The Results
The strategy worked. In just eight years, Coalition surpassed incumbents who had been in the market for over 20 years. Today, they’re the largest cyber insurance provider in North America, with 96% of their business on this continent.
Perhaps the most telling sign of their category creation success? Other insurance companies are now adopting their terminology – even slightly modifying it to “proactive insurance” to avoid direct copying.
The Future Vision
Coalition isn’t stopping at cyber insurance. They’re expanding internationally and broadening their vision to become the dominant insurance company for digitally native businesses. As Joshua puts it, “The main assets of a digital business are the technology, the data and the people… How do we build the future of insurance where all the growth is going to be, which is the insurance of intangible assets?”
By creating a new category instead of competing within an existing one, Coalition has positioned itself to define the future of business insurance in a digital world.
Actionable
Takeaways
Create categories, don't compete for existing demand:
Instead of fighting for market share in an existing category, Coalition created a new category of "active insurance." This allowed them to shift the conversation from product comparison to category versus category, where they could define the rules and measures of success.
Focus on education over pure product marketing:
Coalition recognized that their core challenge was an education problem - helping businesses understand cyber risks, insurance coverage, and the value of active risk management. This informed their go-to-market strategy across all channels.
Leverage existing distribution channels effectively:
Rather than building their own distribution network, Coalition convinced independent insurance brokers to adopt their new category of insurance by demonstrating 10x improvement over traditional products.
Build category awareness through multiple channels:
Coalition deployed a comprehensive strategy including webinars, in-person sessions, broker training, marketing materials, website content, and executive storytelling to establish their category.
Ensure your category definition enables growth:
When creating a new category, ensure it's either sufficiently broad to accommodate future expansion or intentionally narrow to drive focus. Coalition chose "active insurance" to allow expansion beyond cyber while maintaining their core differentiation.
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