q&a with darren douglas, regsearch ceo & founder

In the final of our Q+A blogs with the scale-up businesses on Insurtech Isle of Man’s Insurtech Accelerator Program, we speak to Darren Douglas, Chief Executive and Founder of Regsearch.

Q1 – Tell us a bit about yourself and your business

I grew up in a council estate in Dublin and eventually fell into the world of compliance, which has taken me to many different countries. Working across the UK, Luxembourg, Jersey, and Guernsey has created many opportunities for me to work alongside fantastic people and has opened my eyes to what I could achieve in my career. Regsearch is currently focused on helping companies navigate their way through regulatory change, as regulations are continuously evolving and updating. Regulatory change will always be an issue for companies – which constantly need to filter out the noise and effectively communicate regulatory updates to their workforce. Regardless of your role, it is crucial that every individual within an organisation understands the impact that regulatory changes have. Currently there isn’t a single established hub or central place for companies to go to for information on regulation and how it will impact their business. However, our technology enables companies to stay up to date with any new regulations and connect them with their internal processes, making it simple to implement the required changes. Our vision is to remove inequality through education by encouraging the world around us to learn about regulation whilst also creating rewarding employment opportunities in the compliance sector.

Q2 – Why did you apply for the Insurtech Accelerator Program?

The program presented an opportunity to test our technology in the insurance industry. We’d previously had a fantastic experience working with the F10 team as part of an incubation program in Zurich. It was during this time we learned about the Insurtech Accelerator Program on the Isle of Man. I’d previously never thought of the Isle of Man as fostering Insurtech, but we quickly realised that the Island was moving into this space and open to new ideas and innovative products so decided to apply for the program.

Q3 – How have you found the program so far?

It’s been brilliant and we’ve had a great time. We knew that any program lead by Magdalena was always going to be great, she has been a huge help to all of the start-ups. To my surprise the corporates were very invested and remained engaged and open throughout, which was excellent. I think that demonstrates the respect which characterises the program itself - it’s an amazing program!

Q4 – Have you found anything particularly interesting or challenging on the program?

We found it interesting that the Isle of Man was genuinely open to innovation, as a lot of other jurisdictions promise that, but the Isle of Man is really open to new ideas and discussions. In particular, the world of egaming and medicinal cannabis was something that stood out to us. We had previously been looking into egaming, but medicinal cannabis is something that has never once crossed my mind. Overall, the openness around innovation really surprised me and I enjoyed the exciting conversations I’ve had with the Isle of Man Government, incumbent companies on the Island and the other Insurtechs.

Q5 - How have you found working with the business community on the Isle of Man as a whole?

Prior to the program we kept hearing about how approachable everyone is. I am a very open person, so this was important to me. Everybody was so willing to collaborate, which is shown by the fact that we got to work alongside Hansard, IFGL and Zurich. For us the program has been great on all sides and the Isle of Man is definitely on our roadmap now. If they were to build an F10 type office in the Isle of Man, we would certainly be involved and would be happy to be the test subject for this! I have no doubt the Isle of Man team will deliver on everything they have promised us, and I can’t wait to get back and showcase our technology.

Q6 - What are your future plans for your business?

For us the next step is to have our technology deployed across multiple companies and jurisdictions. Our aim for demo day it to educate people about what our technology does as well as our wider mission as a company. As a revenue-driven, customer-focussed business, we will not be aggressively pushing to sign people up. Instead, we will be trying to engage with people whilst demonstrating our value. Previously, we’ve provided clients with the free version of our technology, allowing them to see the additional benefits of the paid version which demonstrates the true value of our product. Before we leave the Isle of Man, our goal is to make people aware that we exist and that our product helps to solve an important issue in a unique way. We also want to encourage the Isle of Man team to create an environment which would allow us to set up business there in the near future.

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