Startup Spotlight #138: PainWorth

PainWorth helps you resolve your personal injury claim.

Jul 12, 2021

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I got the chance to speak with Mike Zouhri, co-founder and CEO of PainWorth, about what he’s working on at his startup, and any advice he has for emerging entrepreneurs.

In 2019, Zouhri was injured by a drunk driver who fled the scene of the accident. Zouhri was severely injured with permanent damage to his body. As a result of his injuries, he sought out a personal injury lawyer to help him file a claim for damages. He quickly learned that the personal injury process is fundamentally broken. If he spoke to 5 different lawyers, he’d get five drastically different valuations. Frustrated, and with no clear answer on what his case was worth or if he would be compensated at all, he and his team built this case law aggregator so he could get an idea of what his case was worth.

They made it available for free and it took off. They had five million in claims go through the algorithm on our first day. Soon after, Zouhri and his team had lawyers, insurance adjusters, finance litigation companies, mediators, and others using the product and reaching out to them. And so, Painworth was born.

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Startup Spotlight: PainWorth

Problem: Currently, insured individuals have only two options when they need help dealing with an insurance claim: the law library (self-representation) or their local personal injury attorney. As a result, insurance companies spend $145 billion per year on legal fees, negotiating with personal injury attorneys.

Market: Between the US and Canada P&C insurance markets, we have a $208 billion total addressable market and a $196 serviceable addressable market. These metrics don’t include our other client verticals.

Solution: We use data science and a simple interface to put each party’s ‘cards on the table’, letting users know the exact value of their claim if they hired a lawyer and took their case to court. Our product allows claimants and insurance companies to negotiate towards an objective legal benchmark, without incurring the legal fees generally associated, by agreeing on the inputs of the claim rather than fighting over the dollar amount.

Team: Painworth was co-founded by myself (Mike Zouhri) and our technical guru, Chris Trudel. We’ve since brought on 6 more fantastic team members and countless cheerleaders, including former insurance professionals and lawyers.

Recent Success:

Zouhri: Organic growth. We began building a free beta platform for consumers. When you build something out of a terrible accident, it makes for a compelling story. So, we spoke with the media early on and because of this, most of the interest in the company has been digital word of mouth. In fact, it’s led us to recently acquire a US-based partner, ProSe Claims, through our relationship with Ryerson University’s Legal Innovation Zone, and the interest around the product.

Recent Struggle:

Zouhri: Prioritization and time management. There are many opportunities presenting themselves to us from several client verticals. It’s hard to find the time and resources to pursue all of them. Learning which appealing opportunities to prioritize is a tough decision we must make every day.

Founder Advice:

Zouhri: Start by solving the problems you personally face. When you are your own first user, you already have a great understanding of your market, some of the problems they face, and which solutions will make the most sense to them. Experience with the problem is often just as important as experience within a certain industry.

Three Cool Founders You Should Know About:

Zouhri: Here are three founders you should check out next!

Camila Lopez, Founder of People Clerk: PeopleClerk is helping Californians navigate the small claims and doing great access to justice work.
Sonja Ebron, Founder of Courtroom5: Courtroom5 is innovating in the self-representation space.
Erin Levine, Founder of HelloDivorce: HelloDivorce is a great legal tech company changing the way divorce is done.

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