Small businesses take big risks but lack the tools, insights, and support that large companies rely on to manage it. Riscrow was built to close that gap. A fast, highly visualized, transparent risk management platform that empowers business owners before, during and beyond insurance.

Our mission: make sophisticated risk profiling and guidance accessible to small businesses, unlock smarter coverage and alternative risk transfer opportunities, and deliver more comprehensive protection through human-led services that were once reserved for enterprises.

What We Wanted to Know

Closed Beta 1 wasn’t about perfecting the product, it was about product market fit and validating our core design bets. Is risk a problem? Coverage fog? Do they care? Would the insights resonate? Would our language reduce friction? Could a small business user make it through, unprompted, and leave feeling more confident, informed, and in control?

Riscrow’s entire premise depends on trust and clarity. The core experience needed to feel familiar but fundamentally smarter and safer than anything they’d seen before.

Our feedback group is small and closed. The intent is to evaluate the solution concept using test data, and provide feedback in a controlled test environment.

What Users Clicked, Skipped, and Shared

The High Risks metric on the dashboard was the universal first click after a quick sign up. Every tester gravitated toward it immediately, asking the same silent question: “What does this say my biggest risks are and do I agree?”

It was the credibility test we couldn’t afford to fail, and we didn’t. In session after session, users nodded, zoomed in, toggled around, and kept going. The platform passed the “do I trust this?” test through intelligent assessments and clarity in the data.

Second stop? Coverage.

Whether they had insurance or not, users wanted to see how their risks were protected. Those without coverage tapped I don’t have coverage to explore a feature that could show what was typically insurable and at what estimated cost. Those with coverage jumped directly to the Update Coverage feature, curious to watch the live risk insights shift based on their update.

One of the biggest moments of surprise: Workers Compensation.

Many testers believed it covered “all employee-related risk.” Seeing that it didn’t, at least not entirely, was a major lightbulb moment. That clarity changed the tone. Users moved from passive exploration to active configuration. A few paused to say, “Wait… that’s not covered?”

Risk Workshop: From Insight to Action

The most engaged users dove into our highly visualized Risk Workshop experience next, eager to understand what needs to be self-managed and what could potentially need new or different protection. This was a powerful behavioral signal: once the system earned trust, users wanted more.

For many, this surfaced a kind of quiet pride. They deferred a few risks they didn’t feel needed their attention right now, flagged others for self-management, and left with a clear sense of how prepared they really were. Several captured a screenshot of their “Custom Shield” configuration and even asked if they could share it with their agent. All of this in minutes, not hours or days.

Others had harder questions, including:

“Why hasn’t my agent ever shown me this?”
“Can I talk to a Riscrow agent for my insurance?”
“Can I get my certificates here?"
“Can I get my workplace posters here?”

The platform, still in MVP form, wasn’t built to answer all of those questions yet, but every question was a signal of product demand, possible partnerships, and opportunity.

Patterns in How Business Owners Think About Risk

While individual reactions varied, the behavioral patterns were clear:

• Trust is built at the top. If the dashboard insights aren’t credible, nothing else matters.

• Risk education works best in response to a user’s own data. When users saw how coverage affected their risk picture, they were more motivated to take action.

• Users want to feel prepared. Even when they deferred risks, there was pride in doing the right thing. Riscrow didn’t just expose gaps, it gave them a plan.

• Visualization and terminology matter. Framing the experience through workshops, shields, and guided updates made risk management feel intuitive, not intimidating.

Where We’re Headed Next

Our best test adopters were small business owners already thinking a few steps ahead. They weren’t risk experts but they were clearly committed to protecting what they’d built. This is something they would be interested in using for their own business, if it were to exist.

As we continue to refine the experience in closed beta, we’re focused on balancing automation with education. Providing clear next steps, actionable signals, and the option to connect with coverage experts and other service providers when needed.

We tracked every insight, click, and comment to continue refining the features and experience, and to shape the way risk management is understood, accessed, and owned by the businesses who need it most.

Up Next: A Look Ahead

Riscrow’s next test release will reimagine the partner experience and introduce a new model of customer connection unlike anything in today’s financial markets. Alongside it, we’ll continue advancing the risk management visualization features and readying the platform and business for a possible production release in the fourth quarter. MVP 2.0 is on the horizon and we can’t wait to share what’s next.