John Miller and Mike Greene meet at RPI
Our Story
The Hi Marley Story
According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, safety and protection come second to basic survival necessities like food, air and water. Insurance is vital for safety and to protect people, their loved ones and their livelihood.
Hi Marley’s founders, Mike Greene, Mitesh Suchak and John Miller, experienced first-hand how carriers can impact people’s lives in a meaningful way, and recognized the power and importance of insurance. They wanted to transform how people think about and interact with the industry. They wanted to make insurance lovable.
Bringing together deep insurance experience, strong industry connections and a desire to meet the evolving needs of carriers and their customers, the co-founders started their second insurance-focused company in 2017, Hi Marley. Hi Marley achieves its singular purpose: to protect people simply through its mission to empower insurance companies to communicate better and ultimately protect what people love.
Our 
story
We started to focus on how can we take this idea of messaging to streamline communication for the entire ecosystem and make the experience simple and lovable.
- Mitesh Suchak
Hi Marley’s story began in 2007 when Mike Greene brought together his mentor, Judy Merante, his college friend, John Miller, and his IBM colleague, Mitesh Suchak, to create Futurity Group, a startup that provided software and consulting services for P&C claims.
The group joined Aon as part of Futurity Group’s acquisition and agreed to stay for three years, which turned into seven years. Mike, John and Mitesh started growing families, but even with job security and young children at home, they were itching to start another company. Over the years, they’d get together and kick around ideas. Once they started ideating around the emergence of chatbots and how that could relate to the insurance industry, something stuck.
Hi Marley began with the vision that it’s possible to enable better customer service and improve communication across the entire insurance ecosystem, starting with text messaging.
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I remember being in a room and someone asked, ‘what if this doesn’t work?’ and I said, ‘that’s not an option.’ John, Mitesh and I are all wired that way—it’s probably a strength and a weakness—we just weren’t going to let failure happen.
- Mike Greene
While the founders appreciated their time at Aon, they knew they had to move on in order to build their own path. They were passionate about changing the insurance industry.
Leaving Aon required a lot of courage. As the trio continued to show their idea to industry executives, they received tremendous feedback that this product could change the industry, giving them the confidence they needed. On April 20, 2017, Hi Marley officially launched as a company.
With a great idea and a few new hires, by November, they were ready to launch and landed their first customer, West Bend.
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Early Product Roadmap
I would read through claims and start realizing these little things affect people’s lives in a very meaningful way. It has really sunk in how important this work is, and my appreciation for insurance has grown.
- John Miller
On December 7, 2017, Mike Greene, John Miller and Mitesh Suchak went to West Bend to kick off the first Hi Marley pilot.
They stayed in a conference room for four days with three claim reps and watched all the claims come through, taking notes and monitoring the conversations. West Bend claims professionals learned quickly, and supervisors had a level of transparency that never existed before.
The pilot demonstrated the value of text messaging. The reps immediately experienced how text messaging could move claims along for customers and how much time they saved by not listening to voicemails and playing phone tag. And claimants commented, “I am a teacher, I can’t talk on the phone during the day, so texting is so much easier to get my questions answered.” The co-founders knew they were on to something.
Read MoreFirst Claim in Hi Marley
Once we landed on Marley, I immediately visualized the dog Marley from Marley and Me—a yellow Labrador retriever who is a source of love protection—fitting perfectly with our mantra: simple, lovable protection.
- Mike Greene
One of the most common questions Hi Marley employees receive is, “where did the name come from?”
One afternoon, Mike arrived at John’s house with post-it notes and markers. John hung up a big piece of paper to use as a whiteboard and they spent the afternoon kicking around ideas for company names.
Mike had a notebook filled with ideas, names and inspiration, including song titles. After a few hours of seemingly getting nowhere, John looked down at his desk, and right in the middle of the open notebook page was the song “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley and the Wailers. Recently, Mike and John’s best friend had been sick in the hospital, and they spent a lot of time going back and forth together to New York. “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley and the Wailers was an important song to them and a source of comfort on these trips. The second Mike saw “Bob Marley,” it clicked— Marley should be the name.
The name was perfect; it was unique, gender-neutral and fit perfectly with the company’s mantra: Simple, lovable protection.
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Evolution of the Company Logo
Protection and love are not words that come to mind when people think of insurance today. Our mission needed to be big, it needed to be powerful, it needed to be something we all believed in and could get behind.
- Mike Greene
Hi Marley was founded with two goals: to transform the insurance industry and create the best workplace culture team members have ever experienced. The founders were adamant about ensuring leadership led by example by behaving in alignment with a shared purpose and set of values.
Ultimately, they came up with inherent values that define the company and make Hi Marley stand out. The first value they landed on was “Be Humble,” which is about being open-minded, empathetic and willing to learn from anyone, anywhere. The founders also thought about working in the insurance industry and being an entrepreneur and how both require calculated risks. This led to the concept of “Max Courage,” which encourages employees to dream big, try new ideas and take measured risks.
The third value, “Ubuntu,” was a term used by Nelson Mandela that means, “I am because we are,” and is much more than teamwork. It’s the belief that true success is being part of a purpose much bigger than any single individual or company. This feeling and belief is something the founders want employees to bring with them to work every day, to help them feel inspired, gain a true sense of ownership over their work and pride in collaboration and helping others realize their true potential.
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Why Our Founders Love Insurance and Want to Transform the Industry
Mike Greene
We started Hi Marley shortly after I lost my best friend. He and his wife found out they were pregnant right after his leukemia diagnosis, which prevented him from getting life insurance. He overcame that and inspired us all by building a multi-million-dollar business from his hospital bed. Our insurance industry is important, and can do better to proactively protect people, their time, their livelihood and ultimately protect life.
John Miller
When we first started Hi Marley, we talked a lot about what makes a lovable insurance company and what that looks like. Insurance is one of our most important utilities if you think about it; it impacts people in really meaningful ways and is so important to their lives. For such an important utility, I wanted to see insurance at the forefront of technology and innovation. It was clear digital communication was evolving across all industries, and it was exciting to see the immediate impact and value our MVP brought to the market.
Mitesh Suchak
When a storm damaged the roof of my home, getting it repaired required me to communicate with the whole insurance ecosystem and it took eight months to reach a resolution...We knew from our professional and personal experiences that people could dislike this industry. So, we started to focus on how can we take this idea of messaging to streamline communication for the entire ecosystem and make the experience simple and lovable.
Mike Greene
We started Hi Marley shortly after I lost my best friend. He and his wife found out they were pregnant right after his leukemia diagnosis, which prevented him from getting life insurance. He overcame that and inspired us all by building a multi-million-dollar business from his hospital bed. Our insurance industry is important, and can do better to proactively protect people, their time, their livelihood and ultimately protect life.
John Miller
When we first started Hi Marley, we talked a lot about what makes a lovable insurance company and what that looks like. Insurance is one of our most important utilities if you think about it; it impacts people in really meaningful ways and is so important to their lives. For such an important utility, I wanted to see insurance at the forefront of technology and innovation. It was clear digital communication was evolving across all industries, and it was exciting to see the immediate impact and value our MVP brought to the market.
Mitesh Suchak
When a storm damaged the roof of my home, getting it repaired required me to communicate with the whole insurance ecosystem and it took eight months to reach a resolution...We knew from our professional and personal experiences that people could dislike this industry. So, we started to focus on how can we take this idea of messaging to streamline communication for the entire ecosystem and make the experience simple and lovable.
Mike Greene
We started Hi Marley shortly after I lost my best friend. He and his wife found out they were pregnant right after his leukemia diagnosis, which prevented him from getting life insurance. He overcame that and inspired us all by building a multi-million-dollar business from his hospital bed. Our insurance industry is important, and can do better to proactively protect people, their time, their livelihood and ultimately protect life.
John Miller
When we first started Hi Marley, we talked a lot about what makes a lovable insurance company and what that looks like. Insurance is one of our most important utilities if you think about it; it impacts people in really meaningful ways and is so important to their lives. For such an important utility, I wanted to see insurance at the forefront of technology and innovation. It was clear digital communication was evolving across all industries, and it was exciting to see the immediate impact and value our MVP brought to the market.
Mitesh Suchak
When a storm damaged the roof of my home, getting it repaired required me to communicate with the whole insurance ecosystem and it took eight months to reach a resolution...We knew from our professional and personal experiences that people could dislike this industry. So, we started to focus on how can we take this idea of messaging to streamline communication for the entire ecosystem and make the experience simple and lovable.
Mike Greene
We started Hi Marley shortly after I lost my best friend. He and his wife found out they were pregnant right after his leukemia diagnosis, which prevented him from getting life insurance. He overcame that and inspired us all by building a multi-million-dollar business from his hospital bed. Our insurance industry is important, and can do better to proactively protect people, their time, their livelihood and ultimately protect life.
John Miller
When we first started Hi Marley, we talked a lot about what makes a lovable insurance company and what that looks like. Insurance is one of our most important utilities if you think about it; it impacts people in really meaningful ways and is so important to their lives. For such an important utility, I wanted to see insurance at the forefront of technology and innovation. It was clear digital communication was evolving across all industries, and it was exciting to see the immediate impact and value our MVP brought to the market.
Mitesh Suchak
When a storm damaged the roof of my home, getting it repaired required me to communicate with the whole insurance ecosystem and it took eight months to reach a resolution...We knew from our professional and personal experiences that people could dislike this industry. So, we started to focus on how can we take this idea of messaging to streamline communication for the entire ecosystem and make the experience simple and lovable.
Marley Milestones
1995
2004
Mike Greene joins IBM with Judy Merante and meets Mitesh Suchak
2007
Mike Greene, Mitesh Suchak and Judy Merante leave IBM to start Futurity Group
2008
Mike Greene convinces John Miller to join Futurity Group as a consultant to build the software aspect of the company so it can extend beyond consulting
Early 2017
John Miller, Mike Greene and Mitesh Suchak start putting plan into motion for a new company
June 2017
The three founders put money together and open a joint bank account, started fundraising from friends and family and hired engineers
November 2017
Hi Marley is ready to launch
2018
Hi Marley moves to first office space at 77 Franklin Street, Boston, MA
May 2022
Company moves to 10 Post Office Square, Boston, MA and forms the Insurance Advisory Council
March 2023
First-ever Hi Marley Customer Forum
