Our Story

Hi Marley's story began in 2007 when Mike Greene brought together his mentor, Judy Merante, his college friend, John Miller, and his IBM colleague, Mitesh Suchak, to create Futurity Group, a startup that provided software and consulting services for P&C claims.

The group joined Aon as part of Futurity Group's acquisition and agreed to stay for three years, which turned into seven years. Mike, John and Mitesh started growing families, but even with job security and young children at home, they were itching to start another company. Over the years, they'd get together and kick around ideas. Once they started ideating around the emergence of chatbots and how that could relate to the insurance industry, something stuck.

Hi Marley began with the vision that it's possible to enable better customer service and improve communication across the entire insurance ecosystem, starting with text messaging.

While the founders appreciated their time at Aon, they knew they had to move on in order to build their own path. They were passionate about changing the insurance industry.

Leaving Aon required a lot of courage. As the trio continued to show their idea to industry executives, they received tremendous feedback that this product could change the industry, giving them the confidence they needed. On April 20, 2017, Hi Marley officially launched as a company.

With a great idea and a few new hires, by November, they were ready to launch and landed their first customer, West Bend.

On December 7, 2017, Mike Greene, John Miller and Mitesh Suchak went to West Bend to kick off the first Hi Marley pilot.

They stayed in a conference room for four days with three claim reps and watched all the claims come through, taking notes and monitoring the conversations. West Bend claims professionals learned quickly, and supervisors had a level of transparency that never existed before.

The pilot demonstrated the value of text messaging. The reps immediately experienced how text messaging could move claims along for customers and how much time they saved by not listening to voicemails and playing phone tag. And claimants commented, "I am a teacher, I can't talk on the phone during the day, so texting is so much easier to get my questions answered." The co-founders knew they were on to something.

One of the most common questions Hi Marley employees receive is, "where did the name come from?"

One afternoon, Mike arrived at John's house with post-it notes and markers. John hung up a big piece of paper to use as a whiteboard and they spent the afternoon kicking around ideas for company names.

Mike had a notebook filled with ideas, names and inspiration, including song titles. After a few hours of seemingly getting nowhere, John looked down at his desk, and right in the middle of the open notebook page was the song "Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley and the Wailers. Recently, Mike and John's best friend had been sick in the hospital, and they spent a lot of time going back and forth together to New York. "Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley and the Wailers was an important song to them and a source of comfort on these trips. The second Mike saw "Bob Marley," it clicked— Marley should be the name.

The name was perfect; it was unique, gender-neutral and fit perfectly with the company's mantra: Simple, lovable protection.

Hi Marley was founded with two goals: to transform the insurance industry and create the best workplace culture team members have ever experienced. The founders were adamant about ensuring leadership led by example by behaving in alignment with a shared purpose and set of values.

Ultimately, they came up with inherent values that define the company and make Hi Marley stand out. The first value they landed on was "Be Humble," which is about being open-minded, empathetic and willing to learn from anyone, anywhere. The founders also thought about working in the insurance industry and being an entrepreneur and how both require calculated risks. This led to the concept of "Max Courage," which encourages employees to dream big, try new ideas and take measured risks.

The third value, "Ubuntu," was a term used by Nelson Mandela that means, "I am because we are," and is much more than teamwork. It's the belief that true success is being part of a purpose much bigger than any single individual or company. This feeling and belief is something the founders want employees to bring with them to work every day, to help them feel inspired, gain a true sense of ownership over their work and pride in collaboration and helping others realize their true potential.