Mario Berta is the Philippine Country Manager of Igloo, a Southeast Asian insurtech that raised a $19M Series B early this year. Before Igloo, he was the co-founder and CEO of FlySpaces.
👋🏼 How would you explain your job to someone outside tech?
In my opinion, The Country Manager job (regardless of the industry, business, and geography) is very much the same. The only differentiating factor is the stage of the company you are working for:
Specifically, at Igloo, my job, on top of the ones above, is educating the market about the value of insurance and helping my HQ to create innovative and socially impactful products for the Philippines.
🧐 What's something about you or your job that would surprise us?
The insurance industry has not been disrupted in like 300 years, even more so in the ASEAN region, where it is still a very traditional industry, run by traditional professionals sold in a very traditional way.
We want to put the word "innovative" in front of the word "traditional" (innovative industry, with an innovative professional and innovative way of selling it).
For me, it is shocking to see the amount of innovation that can be done in this industry to improve it from a financial perspective from stakeholders to consumers regarding access to products, affordability, and social impact.
🏆 What has been the biggest highlight of your career so far?
Well, the vast majority of my professional life was outside my home country (Italy) and out of Europe.
I have been lucky enough to work with tremendous people across the planet and brave enough to keep taking on more challenges.
I would say that being able to be associated with big names, brands, and great people in the region where you operate is something that Is very personally rewarding (aside from the financial returns, of course)
🔍 What's a startup trend or space you're watching this year?
I am not a big fan of all the hype of Crypto, Web3, Metaverse, etc... with that, I do not mean there is no potential.
But you can't be an expert on everything and put time and money into everything (unless you have lots of capital). Hence, personally, I focus on the 2/3 areas I have been exposed to in the past and know and enjoy working on: insurance, real estate, and financial markets.
💼 What advice would you give someone starting out in your industry?
I would give two general pieces of advice regardless of the industry:
1) Find the right and complementary partner in your journey
2) Hire people smarter than you overall (if possible) or at least in some specific areas which are not your forte
🗣 What's one thing you can keep talking about for hours?
Traveling!
🎥 What's your favorite movie/TV show?
Movie: Rush. And as a consequence, my favorite show is F1 Drive to Survive, then Billions and Suits.
🍨 What's your go-to ice cream flavor?
Although I am Italian, I am not a big ice cream eater.
Funnily enough, I come from the region where the best ice cream is made (Piedmont). To give you an idea, in Asia, you have the brands Venchi and Grom, which are very popular — both are from my hometown.
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