The Baseline Blog

Yesterday, after over 2 years of hard work by my team and our international legal, accounting and fiscal advisors, Baseline serviços de telematica ltda, our wholly owned operatting subsidiary in Sao Paulo, Brazil, has finally been incorporated and is operational as of this morning.

It as an amazing achievement for all of us, a milestone we were eager to achieve. We started our operations in Brazil over 2 years ago. The opening of our Brazilian office will help continue the growth of our successful partnership and commercial operations in Brazil and Latin America.

Our success in Brazil has even led to an unplanned opening of a new base of operations last month in Lisbon, Portugal, in great part due to the linguistic and cultural similarities.

International growth is not always easy to plan and forecast. When well executed, it can be very rewarding.

Above, a picture of the baseline.io team with partners in Sao Paulo in 2016

Tonight, I'm honored to have been invited by our Brazilian legal advisor Anne-Catherine Brunschwig to a Chamber of Commerce Brazil-Canada reception this evening hosted by her firm GT Lawyers.  The event is located at the National Bank's headquarters in Montreal, on the 4th floor, the office of the President.

Our CEO, Paul-André Savoie, will be one of 3 entrepreneurs invited to tell their stories, with the highs and lows, about how they succeeded in this amazing yet very different international market.

I'd like to extend an invitation to my long time business friends and collaborators to attend this evening to learn more about the story behind baseline.io’s international growth achievements, and more specifically about out expansion to Brazil. Click here to sign up and attend at no cost.

The image on the left is a link to one of the marketing campaigns that our partner Porto Seguro, the largest insurance company in Latin America, undertook several months ago to launch this initiative.

By clicking here or on the image, you'll be able to see the incredible work that was undertaken by our team, as well as theirs.

Paul-André Savoie, our CEO, is  pleased to announce the appointment of Miguel Mamede as our new International Account Manager at baseline.io. Miguel will be responsible for further developing the European market as well as supporting our existing customers in the region. They can rest assured that Miguel will use his over 20 years of experience in the insurance and finance industries to deliver a consummate and professional customer experience.

Lyne Potvin, our COO, is pleased to announce the appointment of Stéphane Ouellet to the position of Software Development Manager at baseline.io.

When launching a Usage-Based-Insurance (UBI) solution, it's essential to Try-Before-You-Buy, not only to make sure that it fits your needs as an insurer, but also that of your customers.

Lyne Potvin, our COO, is  pleased to announce the appointment of Melanie Tremblay as our new Director of Operations at baseline.io. Melanie will manage both our Customer Success and Quality Assurance teams, bringing her vast experience to further improve the quality and service levels we provide our clients.

With the proliferation of telematics devices in vehicles tracking us constantly, it sometimes feels like we're being watched all the time. It's hard not to be paranoid or worried about privacy concerns. With all the different things out there constantly monitoring us, from GPS to CCTV, it sometimes feels like Big Brother is spying on our every move.

It's a nice, sunny day. You're driving down the highway, windows open, wind going through your hair, singing along with Springsteen blasting on the radio. It's a great day to be alive. You  see an 18-wheeler driving by in the next lane.. and all of a sudden you notice.....  that there's nobody behind the wheel.. that the truck seems to be driving itself...

For years I've been saying that I need to buy a new car. Frankly, I'm getting sick and tired of needing a tetanus shot every time I take that rust box on four wheels out for a spin. Yes, I know car insurance is going to play a huge role in the make, model and year of the car I do end up buying. I guess no red sports car for me until I check with a few insurers first. 

Will the legalization of cannabis have any impact on car insurance? It's a weird thing to ask, but consider that in states where it has been legalized that insurance claims involving traffic collisions have gone up 3% while at the same time the average premium hike was 3.2% (rather than the average 1.6% in states where it wasn't legalized). It would seem that bump in premiums is due to something. Coincidence?