When you’re building out an experimental AI-powered insurance company, it’s probably best to stick with the business fundamentals — and leave the fancy espresso to the baristas.
That’s the lesson being learned by the brain trust at Corgi Insurance, a frenetic insurance startup grabbing headlines for its excessively strict workplace culture, social media gaffs, and most recently it’s bizarre strategy to smother San Francisco in coffee shops operating 24/7.
Unfortunately for Corgi, those latter dreams have lost their buzz. As the San Francisco Chronicle reports, the insurtech venture has recently laid off employees tasked with establishing Corgi-branded cafes across the city. The layoffs come just a week after one of Corgi’s two cafe locations was ordered to shut down after city officials caught it operating without a legal permit (though sources familiar with the matter told the Chronicle most of those impacted by the company’s about-face weren’t involved in that debacle.)
Corgi had initially set a goal of launching 100 new coffee shops in just six months, for a frantic rate of at least 17 a month. After failing to even make a dent in their stated goal, the plans have been significantly altered, and at least two insiders have been sent packing as Corgi embarks on an “internal shakeup.”
