![](https://cdn.leadersedge.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/30220832/leaders-edge_image-library_innovation.jpg)
Accelerating Innovation
![](https://cdn.leadersedge.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/30220832/leaders-edge_image-library_innovation.jpg)
When startups and insurers get together, they learn from each other.
Liberty Mutual Benefits is one of the sponsors of Pulse@MassChallenge. It’s a Boston-based incubator that’s focused specifically on digital healthcare startups. We selected that, from the Liberty Mutual Benefits standpoint, because it’s tightly aligned with our strategic focus of helping companies manage disability and wellness. It was a unique opportunity to get access to and view many startups and then narrow it down to a couple that were a mutual match.
One of the startups we’re supporting is VIT, which looks to bring connected devices and analytics into the workplace. This is a product that helps to monitor back health. It’s a unique idea. Back injuries and back health are drivers of disability and workers comp claims. For us, it’s being able to partner with them and their technology and their thinking. They get access to a very large company, get some consulting, and can put their ideas into real practice. It is this mutually beneficial kind of relationship that’s key. It facilitates that learning process.
The other one is Gain Life. It’s a behavioral change company that uses digital therapeutics to help unlock the intrinsic motivation to provide personalized, evidence-based behavioral change. I find that a fascinating one. Many insurtech startups out there are geared at transactional types of things. Here’s one that’s getting at how you use technology to make behavioral changes, which can be some of the hardest things to unlock.