Pet insurance exec Derek Cummins: I have to speak Czech to my shelter dog
Derek Cummins is the co-founder of PetExpert, a pet insurance company that has helped foster major growth in that field in this country in recent years. When I spoke to the Irish-born businessman, the conversation took in pet owners’ biggest fears, how the status of canines has been changing in the dog-mad Czechia in recent years and much more.
What first led you to this country?
“I came to this country originally back in the year 2000.
“I was working in London and I had a boss there who was from the United States. One day he announced that he was going off to the Czech Republic to run an organisation.
“We all said goodbye to him and then he called me and said, Hey, look, I’ve got here and I need you here, because we work very well together – how about coming to the Czech Republic?
“I’ll be honest, I was like, I know where it is, I know about Czechoslovakia and everything, but all I’ve ever known about the place in recent times is people going there for weekends.
“He said, Sure, come along, come along.
“And it was winter. It was October/November time and it was cold [laughs], back in those days; there was snow.
“He took me around, showed me the sights and I just fell in love with the place. I was like, This is fantastic.
“I remember getting the question, Oh you live in the Czech Republic – why?”
“And for me at that stage of my life it was a good time for me to explore.
“But to my friends and family… I remember getting asked the question, Oh you live in the Czech Republic – why?
“It was almost like it was some sort of sentence: Oh, you’ve been sent there.
“But I said, Why not? And I would reel off all the great things about the country and what great opportunity it has.
“And I think, you know, that’s come true.”
In 2017 you cofounded the company PetExpert, which is a pet insurance company. What was the motivation for that move?
“For a number of years I worked for corporate organisations, across Europe and in North America, and during that time I realised that in the Czech Republic there were a lot of dogs, everywhere.”
Hard to argue with that.
“Yes, they are everywhere. People love dogs.
“And I wanted to change from what I was doing, because I’d been working in a corporate environment, very successful. I’d gone through several MMAs, some exits and so on. And I thought, I want to do something for myself.
“And my passion was always dogs. I’ve always had a dog. I come from an Irish family and I’ve had a dog since I was born – there’s all these pictures of me as a child with the family dog.
“When I lived in England I had a dog as well. When I came here I was living in an apartment, so it was hard, and I really missed dogs.
“But I was constantly looking after other people’s dogs. So I thought to myself, I want to do something around pets.
“Pet insurance had been here running for about 10 years, but not very well.”
“I had experience in insurance technologies and I thought to myself, How can I use that knowledge that I have and create something around pet insurance?
“Pet insurance has been running for 35, 40 years in the UK. It is here too, and it had been running for about 10 years, but not very well.
“But it wasn’t so simple as to say, OK, let’s just do a pet insurance product.
"We had to be different. We had to do it right and to do it better.”
In what way were you different from your competitors?
“We did a lot of research at the beginning and we understood what the problems were.
“And the problems were that in a typical, normal insurance – any insurance that most people have – when, unfortunately, a claim happens, you have to pay to remedy it, fill out a claim form and send it to the insurance company.
“The insurance company then reviews that claim – and may, or may not, pay back, depending on whether it matches the terms and conditions.
“But we said, No, when your dog or cat is sick, they’re a member of your family, so you’re under a lot of stress, because you’re concerned.
“And it can be quite catastrophic, even though it’s a small thing.
“We had to take away the stress of that, so we created the technology where the pet owner could go to the vet, have the treatment done – and we would settle the bill directly to the vet.”
So there’s kind of no risk then for the owner?
“No. They’re not out of pocket. They don’t have to wait a long period of time to get their money back.
“All they pay is the excess, or the spoluúčast in Czech.
“And we’ve done that all through tech – through mobile phone, no paper at all – and just made it simple, easy and stress-free.
“Because at that time, the last thing you’re thinking about is the bill. So we just eliminated that problem.
“At the same time, we made it easier for the vets. Because the vets in the past had to fill out forms and everything like that.
“So what we also did is bring the vets into the partnership, built a partnership with the vets and basically made them part of the whole process.
“And that, I have to say, worked successfully.”
It seems to me that Czechs have an extremely sentimental attitude to their pets. I come from Ireland, like yourself, and many people are not that many generations away from farms. Dogs would have had a name, but they maybe wouldn’t sleep inside and they were seen as working dogs. Here they perhaps didn’t have that. I guess that benefits you, right?
“Yes, sure.
“What we’ve seen is there has been a change in attitude.
“Initially what we saw was that outside the cities people did have dogs. The dogs tended to be outside, because it was more of a village environment.
“They lived in a kennel or, God forbid, chained up, which was a bit horrible but that could be the case.
“They were normally mixed breed. If the dog passed away or was sick, they wouldn’t treat the dog because they had no emotional attachment to it.
“And they would get a new dog from the neighbour, for nothing.
“After Covid more and more the dog became a member of the family.”
“That, I have to say, has changed dramatically. And even more so after Covid.
“After Covid more and more the dog became a member of the family, it came inside and, I would say, that’s demonstrated by the clients that we have across the whole of the Czech Republic; it’s not concentrated in the cities.
“So yes, the Czechs really do love their pets. That’s demonstrated by how much they spend on them.
“They have really been brought into the family group, I would say even more so than in other countries.
“And you would, quite logically, insure your family [laughs], so why not insure your pet?”
Is it that case also that you don’t only do health insurance for pets, but also, for instance, insurance for if you lose your dog or cat?
“Yes, that’s right. We’ve changed things around recently and we’ve given people a bit more flexibility, so they can tailor make their insurance a bit better, because one size doesn’t fit all.
“They can add modules to it. There are modules such as if you lose your dog we will pay for the reward or find, or pay for the advertising and so on.
“There are also holistic treatments as an add-on, because obviously some people prefer holistic medicine.
“There’s even one where – and this is quite common – if you go into hospital and you’ve got no-one to look after your dog, we will pay for boarding fees or pay for your dog to be looked after while you’re sick.
“Again, we’re taking a problem away so you don’t have to worry. It’s a member of your family.”
From your research, what are the things that dog owners, for instance, most fear? Is it that the dog will get cancer? Then you’re faced with expensive testing and then treatment.
“One of the biggest fears, and I can say this myself, because it’s actually happened to me, is losing your dog – and if you lose your dog, not finding it.
“It happened to me a few summers ago. My dog – he’s a mixed breed, five kilos – was at a grooming station and decided he was going to make a run for it and was lost for a week, in [Prague district] Stodůlky.”
That was a long week.
“Yes, it was an incredibly long week. Almost giving up hope until we got a phone call – somebody had spotted him somewhere.
“I went and got him and he came running straight to me – it was like something out of a movie, honestly.
“One of the biggest fears, and I can say this myself, because it’s actually happened to me, is losing your dog.”
“So there’s the fear of losing your dog. But there’s also the fear of serious illness.
“A lot of it depends on the breeds, as well, because some breeds are more susceptible to certain illnesses.
“When I see that owners have certain breeds of dogs I will always highly recommend that they have insurance, because it’s part an inherent problem of that breed.
“Certain breeds suffer from neurology issues or cancer and so on.
“And what drives insurance is the fear of high costs. Costs are increasing and they have increased a lot over the years in the Czech Republic.”
Are there some breeds that you won’t insure?
“No. That is one philosophy and one thing that I’ve always stuck to from the beginning: we accept all.
“It doesn’t matter what breed they are, it’s not their fault, they’re a living soul – and we insure all of them.”
Is there a certain age beyond which you will not insure a dog?
“Very good topic this, because some other companies, when the dog reaches a certain age, send you a letter saying, We’re not insuring your dog anymore.
“When I see that owners have certain breeds of dogs I will always highly recommend that they have insurance.”
“No. We don’t do that.
“We insure dogs up to the age of 10, if they’re a smaller breed. But once they’re in the insurance, they’re insured for life.
“You’ll not get from us a letter saying, Sorry, we’re not going to insure your dog because your dog’s too old.”
I’ve seen you say that you deal in “emotional insurance”. But is it always rational to spend money insuring a dog? You know the dog is not staying in your life indefinitely and if it lives to 11 or to 14, is it that much difference? You’re still going to go through hell when the dog dies anyway.
“You know, when people have a dog, they don’t think about their lifespan. They don’t think, My dog’s going to pass away at such and such an average age.
“I have a testimonial concerning a particular breed, which was an English Bull Terrier.
“The dog had cancer. They were insured with us. We helped that pet to live another year and the owner sent us a lovely letter saying that they cherish the last year that they spent with their beloved dog – and they thank us for that.
“That gives you an example of what it means to people.”
Maybe this isn’t your area, but do you know if dog cloning, or pet cloning, exist in this country?
“Oh, I’m not aware of that at all [laughs]. Not at all.
“You know, we are great advocates of responsible breeding. Obviously we’re against any form of puppy farms.
“To insure with us, you’ve got to show the provenance of the dog, where you got it from.
“We have a breeder programme as well and breeders can only be part of it if they’re registered with one of the two Czech kennel clubs which exist.
“But dog cloning I have not heard of before.”
A few years ago you were bought out by an American company called Trupanion. How much has the market grown in recent years, and how much have you contributed to that?
“When we entered the market originally, the penetration of the addressable market – because obviously not all dogs are insurable, because they could be too old or have existing problems – was about half a percent.
“So obviously that was a driver to see market opportunity.
“We estimate now that we’ve penetrated up to about 3.5 percent.
“So definitely in that seven-year period we’ve seen growth, and it’s been driven by us as the market leader, the industry leader.
“We weren’t that when we started; it was another insurance company.
“And we continue to grow double-digit every year.
“Trupanion are the number one pet insurer in North America including Canada.
“They contacted us directly. They’d seen what we were doing, which was a very similar model to them. They only do pet insurance, like us.
“They wanted to springboard into Europe, but they didn’t know much about the Czech market or the Czech Republic as a whole.
“We helped to educate them around that.
“They had identified a nice company that was doing well and that was growing.
“Myself and the founder of Trupanion shared a lot of the same views. We talked about how we both started and it was very similar; we had very similar stories.
“We just had a real sort of togetherness and that has helped us to grow further, using their expertise, into this market and other markets outside the Czech Republic.”
Is there any difference to having a dog here and in the UK or Ireland, do you think?
“I think there’s no difference at all.
“The veterinarians are becoming more and more advanced, as they are in the UK and Ireland.
“Yes, there is a cost difference. In the UK and Ireland the cost of veterinary care is very, very high, which, paradoxically, does drive insurance, because the value proposition there is stronger.
“Here the veterinary care, after the short blip of inflation we had, did push up pricing.
“But we encourage that, because for the fantastic work that veterinarians do in the Czech Republic we believe that they should be charging more.
“They do a great service and they deserve that. I’ve seen how hard veterinarians work.
“People don’t really see that, but I have and I’ve really come to respect the veterinarians more and more for the service they provide for our pets.”
Have you noticed that Czechs will often give their dogs human names?
“[Laughs] Yes! That is true. Even my own dog has a human name. My dog is from a shelter and his name is Pepík [laughs].
“Yes, they do that. And my dog has a Czech name, but there are dogs with English names as well, like Ben.”
Ben is very common.
“Yes. I can’t think of all the names off the top of my head, but that is true.”
Have you also learned dog Czech from having to interact with other owners?
“Actually I had to learn dog Czech with my dog, because when I got my dog from a shelter he was five years old and he had been in a Czech household and I can only speak to him in Czech.
“He doesn’t understand English, but I’m trying [laughs].”
Do you mind me asking, why did you get a shelter dog?
“I’ve always had shelter dogs.
“I’ve now run this business for seven years and I also want to be able to contribute to those who have helped me create that business, and that’s dogs.
“And the best dogs to do that with are the ones who need homes.
“My particular dog was in foster care for 18 months. He came from a very disruptive household.
“And he has issues. That’s the thing – if you take a shelter dog, you don’t know their past.
“But we manage those issues. He’s very scared, he’s scared of particular things, and I feel like I kind of owe that to him.
“I love him very dearly and he really is a member of my family and sometimes he gets sick too.
“He was sick recently. I thought he had quite a serious issue, but again the veterinarians were able to see him quickly and thankfully it turned out not to be cancer.
“We had a cancer scare, on his skin, but thankfully it wasn’t that.
“The veterinarians were fantastic, but I was going through the same trauma as our clients. The same uncertainty – what’s going to happen? Waiting for the tests.
“I was also waiting in that waiting room in Prague 4 waiting to see what the results.
“So I’ve lived it and I know it, and that’s what helps us drive the business the way it is.”
