On the TechTO stage ×2
David Katz of Benecaid presents Innovation in the Benefits Market
Watch on YouTube ↗
David Katz of Benecaid presents InsureTech, Inside Out
Watch on YouTube ↗First seen on the TechTO stage in 2017. Every talk is searchable — ask the archive about David ↗
Also on the stage ×1
Panels and roundups David appeared on.
In their words
Benefits aren't helping people attract and retain talent anymore. It's an antique, and it's just useless in the way that it's being marketed today — and so you have to find a way to be relevant again.
I realized you can't really be a painter in this world where you're developing these things. Sometimes you have to be a little bit of a sculptor — you have to start with something and chip away at the things that aren't working until you arrive at something that works for the whole value chain.
The amount of work, energy, people, money you put into any partnership or relationship is completely imbalanced with what the larger company is gonna be putting into it for you. You can go six months integrating with the company, but if there's no real commitment to what you're doing, they're gonna walk away — and you've basically blown a chance, and you've lost funding and you've lost runway.
Around the web ×1
Quick answers
Who is David Katz?
A partner at Radical Ventures, the Toronto AI venture firm, where he supports portfolio companies on go-to-market and corporate development. He joined in 2021 as an operating partner after a career founding and running insurance and adtech companies.
What did David Katz do before Radical Ventures?
He began his career as a lawyer, then founded InsLogic, a P&C insurance marketplace acquired by Capital One in 2005. He worked in adtech, including Portfolios.com and EQ Works, before joining Benecaid, where he built the Honeybee digital benefits platform.
What did David Katz talk about at TechTO?
Building a product from inside an existing company rather than starting one. In his November 2017 talk he argued benefits had become an antique, and that anyone partnering with a large company should find their corporate sponsor and test that company's strategic commitment before burning runway on the integration.