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Jun 6, 2019
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Why we are building a global safety net
Written by Sondre in the SafetyWing HQ in San Francisco
There’s an old parable of a traveler who came upon three men working. He asked the first man what he was doing and the man said he was laying bricks. He asked the second man the same question and he said he was putting up a wall. When he got to the third man and asked him what he was doing he said, "I am building a cathedral".
Knowing what we are building is useful, not just for the inspiration of knowing the big picture, but for seeing how each small step adds up to something worthwhile. It matters whether the foundations are stone or sand if it is to last a thousand years.
What is a global safety net?
The biggest problem digital nomads and remote workers deal with is the lack of security and income stability they used to get through their home country and employers. These benefits are not available for people that are location independent. Our goal is to build a global safety net to address that.
Our first brick was our first product: Nomad Insurance.
This travel medical insurance is tailored to the pioneers of the new world — digital nomads. Since this community is mobile and not primarily geographically defined, we made sure the product functions globally, no matter where you are and no matter where the road takes you.
We continue to build the foundations with our second product: Remote Health, a comprehensive health insurance product that allows companies to offer insurance benefits to their entire team. This includes freelancers, contractors, full-time and part-time employees. If you’re self-employed, you can purchase it for yourself and your family.
Why are we building it?
The Internet brought a new method of communication and coordination that is rendering the old and expensive structures obsolete. We should expect the same pattern of fragmentation and reconstitution to happen in our countries. In fact, it’s fair to say it is already happening.
Even in strong safety nets like Norway’s, freelancers fall between the cracks and cannot access the support systems made for full-time employees, like unemployment protection, sick leave and pensions. The freelancer world is still a wild west, and the community is rapidly growing. I am confident that this change is long overdue.
While I still believe countries will exist in the future, their function and purpose have yet to adapt to support the more location-independent lifestyle of people working online. The current structures are already inadequate, and many are looking for a more accessible, global solution.
What is our goal?
The global safety net we are building is for anyone that wants to be location independent. Most of our users already work online as freelancers, entrepreneurs, remote workers and digital nomads. To complete the safety net they need, we will be adding the following bricks — income stabilization, remote retirement, global life insurance, disability coverage, and virtual healthcare.
In the end, we want to offer it all as a single membership.
We believe that, in order to succeed, we must also build a trusted community of peers. We are gathering people interested in building a country online and living a more borderless life. Ultimately, we want to create the experience of always having your village nearby, wherever you are in the world.
Every brick that will build our safety net has so far been in the domain of countries. We want it to exist on the internet, available to everyone, no matter where they are. In the long run, we are building something that will grow into the first country on the internet.
Sondre Rasch
CEO at SafetyWing
Sondre co-founded SafetyWing together with Sarah Sandnes and Hans Kjellby.
Born in Bergen, Norway, he studied economics and computer science, before starting work as a policy advisor for the government of Norway advising on social policies. After getting frustrated with the slow pace of government change, Sondre first founded SuperSide (YC W16), a platform for freelance designers. It was here he discovered the lack of a safety net for online remote workers. SafetyWing was then born with the aim of building a global social safety net.
Sondre Rasch
CEO at SafetyWing
Sondre co-founded SafetyWing together with Sarah Sandnes and Hans Kjellby.
Born in Bergen, Norway, he studied economics and computer science, before starting work as a policy advisor for the government of Norway advising on social policies. After getting frustrated with the slow pace of government change, Sondre first founded SuperSide (YC W16), a platform for freelance designers. It was here he discovered the lack of a safety net for online remote workers. SafetyWing was then born with the aim of building a global social safety net.