- Key Insight: Learn how live 'Shark Tank' pitches accelerate adviser vetting of benefits tech.
- Supporting Data: $50,000 investment available; only five startups will pitch at the symposium.
- Forward Look: Expect adviser-first diligence and faster vendor adoption over the next benefits cycle.
- Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review
It's one thing to showcase industry solutions, but it's quite another to actually seed an investment in one of them. Welcome to
The annual conference for brokers and advisers will be held Feb. 2-3 in Savannah, Ga., where industry veteran Al Lewis has agreed to pony up cash for a winning startup that has what it takes to swim with the sharks and make some serious waves.
The competition is limited to five diverse contestants who will pitch their solution to a powerhouse panel of four judges and live audience. After each pitch, judges will ask about their business model, outcomes, scalability and market fit before deliberating on whether
This year's panel of judges include award-winning broker Nancy Giacolone, president of NDG Consulting, and employee benefits practice leader of Leavitt Group Northwest, who's returning as a judge from last year's competition; Lewis, who is backing the $50,000 investment through his Validation Institute; and Jack Roland, a senior investment analyst at Archetype. A fourth judge likely will added, though details weren't available at press time.
"This year, we're introducing an exciting twist: In addition to securing a meeting with the sharks, contestants will also be pitching for a potential $50,000 investment," reports
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While getting in front of the right advisers usually takes months of outreach and vetting, Fox says Benefits Shark Tank offers founders a shortcut to that glacial process with a live discovery experience in front of their target audience.
Since the benefits market is shifting fast, she says advisers need tools that give them more flexibility and better outcomes for clients, which the conference aims to elevate every year. She
For the founders who will step onto the stage, she believes their respective value propositions aren't just business ideas — they're personal missions. "It takes guts to put yourself in front of an audience and pitch something you've poured your life into," Fox says. "But that courage is exactly what drives innovation."
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If there's a difference of opinion between the judges and audience and no unanimous choice, Lewis says there could be two winners who split the prize money for their respective companies.
"I think it's an opportunity to broaden the horizon a bit for attendees to figure out what's coming, what's changing in health benefits and where we need to be focused," says CancerNavigator CEO Adam Bradley, who will be pitching the startup he co-founded with his brother Spencer in 2022. As the name suggests, his company helps cancer patients find high-quality care when they're mired in the fog of a new diagnosis with very little data.
Referencing an old expression that 80% of vendors and advisers are honest, but 80% of business goes to the other 20%, Lewis hopes this competition will help even the playing field by raising the decibel level to draw the attention of more industry practitioners. Showing that some vendors are simply better than others should help allay concerns employers have
"The beauty of this is if you're an adviser in attendance, you can see the contestants in action for yourself like in any shark tank, but you don't really have to trust your own judgment because of the audience poll, or you could confirm your own judgment, so it takes making a good selection up to the next level," he says.
