Lightship Neuroscience (GIA 2023)
Lightship Neuroscience Co-Founder, Zechari Tempesta
Lightship Neuroscience: Taking a proactive approach to safer driving
Answers provided by: Zechari Tempesta, Co-founder | Lightship Neuroscience
Founders are vital to the success of an Insurtech Start-up. Can you tell us a little about your background?
I have a graduate degree in Biomedical Engineering, and during my training I focused on electrophysiology (the recording and analysis of electrical signals in the body), cognitive neuroscience, and computer programming. I spent time at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo and at UCSF in Dr. Adam Gazzaley’s neuroscience lab.
What motivated you to start Lightship Neuroscience?
Tragedy and decades of pioneering neuroscience work in Major League Baseball inspired the creation of Lightship. I have lost family members on the road and, like many of us across the country, my co-founders have also been affected by road trauma. We did not set out to be an Insurtech company, but the more we asked "who actually cares about safety and risk, and is motivated to do something about it" the more we were pointed towards the insurance industry.
Who else is on your team?
My two other co-founders are Dr. Wesley Clapp and Dr. Brian Miller. They were trained at UCSF, UC Berkeley, and Duke.
We would love to hear more about Lightship Neuroscience. Can you talk about Lightship’s mission?
At Lightship, we are creating the Neuroscience of Safe Driving, a proactive approach to a safer future. Our mission is to stop crashes, injuries, and road fatalities using lessons from neuroscience.
What approach is Lightship taking in order to solve this problem and help make driving safer for the future?
We help our partners understand each driver's unique safety challenges with a quick assessment, then prepare an individualized pathway to safety and success through targeted learning. To do this, we build custom driver assessment and training tools for our partners based on their critical road exposures. These tools are administered off-the-road on a smartphone, tablet, or computer and are centered around driver decision-making, hazard recognition, situational awareness, risk perception, and distractibility. The four parts of the driver journey we help with are: pre-hiring, new-hire training, remedial training, and ongoing safety training.
Our approach focuses on being proactive rather than reactive, amplifies driver engagement in safety, and maximizes the impact of the safety tools the fleets are already invested in. The cherry on top? All of this is done outside of the cab, allowing drivers to make mistakes behind a screen instead of behind the wheel.
Can you talk a little bit about Lightship’s intersection with the insurance industry?
Currently we help identify, monitor, and mitigate risk for self-insured commercial fleets, most of whom are in group captives. We have partnerships with transportation-focused captive management groups, insurance brokers, and risk management groups.
Can you talk about your target customers and why they are interested in your solution?
Our customers are commercial fleets and our largest footprint is in Trucking. We also have opportunities in last-mile delivery, construction, motorcoach, emergency services, paratransit, and with contractors.
Commercial fleets are experiencing a number of serious challenges, including the high cost of insurance, massive payouts from nuclear verdicts, high driver turnover, and an aging workforce. Road collisions, injuries, and deaths continue to rise and distracted driving is now an epidemic. The cause of most collisions are labeled "driver error", in fact, NHTSA research tells us over 70% of collisions are caused by poor neurocognitive performance. Transportation companies and insurers alike are desperate for a solution that improves driver performance.
What gives Lightship a competitive advantage within the industry, or rather, what makes your company unique?
A core advantage is the founding team’s unique expertise in cross-domain innovation and proven track record of bringing neuroscience-based analytics into new markets. Outside of the team, we are understanding the driver at the individual level, focusing on their specific challenges, and maximizing their engagement in safety. We also have unique insight because our data source is new to the industry and a leading indicator of safety.
What highlights/updates can you share about Lightship Neuroscience? What exciting things are happening?
This has been an exciting fall for Lightship. We have a growing number of fleets under contract and I had the privilege of presenting the Neuroscience of Safe Driving at a number of prestigious safety and captive loss-control conferences across the country. Not swaying too far away from our academic roots, we recently finished phase one of a study with the University of Iowa investigating distracted driving and its impact on road safety.
How has Lightship Neuroscience grown/pivoted/changed since your time at the GIA?
When entering GIA we believed we could get a foothold in the industry by understanding individual risk and wait on developing risk mitigation tools. Over time it became clear that while industry expressed it would be helpful to know who the high performers and high-risk drivers are, they really needed practical guidance on what to do with the higher risk drivers. Since GIA, we have built out risk mitigation tools and strategies to offer a more complete solution to customers.
We have also identified who our target audience and buyer is for the stage of our company. We were not for everybody early on and it took time to identify who our first movers were and build connection and trust in that community.
What impact has the GIA had on Lightship?
We came from a world outside of insurance. Brains, baseball, tech, and cross-domain innovation were our forte. We needed an industry sounding board and education, which GIA was perfect for. Iowa also happens to be the home of some amazing trucking companies, insurance regulators, and transportation-focused insurance brokers - so just by dumb luck or fate landed into a community that was able to uplift, guide, and accelerate our vision. GIA was, and continues to be, a tremendous partner on our journey.
Where do you see Lightship headed in 2025? What can we expect to see from Lightship in the upcoming year?
We will continue manageable growth, learning and improving at every step of the way. I will continue to share The Neuroscience of Safe Driving at safety and captive loss control conferences. And finally, we look forward to publishing some white papers and continuing our investigation at Iowa.
What else do you want people to know about Lightship Neuroscience?
In addition to commercial drivers, we are also passionate about younger driver safety and a safe transition to autonomous driving. We expect to be an active player in both of these areas as we mature.
How can the GIA community continue to support Lightship?
We would welcome any introductions to fleets, transportation-focused reinsurers, brokers, MGAs or strategic investors. We are also open to talking about opportunities in distracted driving, non-standard auto, young driver, and autonomous vehicle technology.
What’s the best way for someone to contact you if they would like to learn more?
