Better Late Than Never For Leo Corcoran
For any middle-aged executive who feels stuck in a career rut, Leo Corcoran is an inspiration. He didn’t establish ClaimVantage until he was going on 49, and last January he sold the enterprise to an American buyer, a few weeks before his 64th birthday. Deal consideration wasn’t disclosed, but Corcoran’s retirement fund will be a lot more substantial than if he’d stuck with the day job.
Operating out of Sandyford, in Dublin, and Portland, Maine, ClaimVantage provides online software for insurers to handle claims processing, as well as absence and accommodation management solutions for large employers.
Before going out on his own, Corcoran was a foot soldier in the US for two other Irish tech firms, AllFinanz and Fineos. In a 2017 interview with Maine Startups Insider, Corcoran recalled: “It was just that things came together. I said, ‘Well, if I don’t do it now, while I’m in my late forties, I sure as hell am never going to do it.’ It was kind of all duck and no dinner. In hindsight, it was very tough, but it was also enjoyable. I have a technical background, and I had to learn business quickly.”
Corcoran’s first challenge was a non-compete agreement after departing Fineos. “It was only for six months, but I was basically going into competition with them, so I didn’t have any customers and I didn’t have a product,” Corcoran told MSI. “I spent $1.2m before I got to my first invoice, which took 18 months. It certainly backs up what everyone will tell you – that you must have twice as much money as you think, and twice as much time to make it happen. That was certainly the case with me.”
After launching as a me-too product in 2006, ClaimVantage pivoted as a software-as-a-service provider in 2010, using the Salesforce platform. That process was expensive and demanding, but Corcoran landed his first big customer in 2012. Other insurers followed suit, and the company grew turnover by 20%, to 30% p.a. in subsequent years.
Majesco, a global provider of cloud insurance platform software, came calling at the end of 2020. Through that year, ClaimVantage’s turnover increased by one third, to €9.6m, and the operating loss was €1m. Roughly half the turnover is recurring, with the balance made up of implementation fees and services. Accumulated losses at end-2020 stood at €5.8m, funded by €6.1m in repayable loan capital, some of it EIIS funding sourced in 2017 through Davy and BDO. That was to help finance ClaimVantage’s expansion into Australia.
ClaimVantage’s annual filing disclosed average pay of €27,000 p.a. for 87 staff – not massive by tech sector standards. Corcoran told MSI his policy was to distribute shares to all staff, with employees owning over 20% of the business.
Corcoran, whose first given name is William, has lived in Portland for the last 20 years and now works for Majesco. In terms of lessons learned, he advised MSI readers to always have a Plan B. “Don’t always rely on Plan A because Plan A can go awry. For example, if somebody would invest a tonne of time in just one customer opportunity, then you have to have a tonne of them. You can’t rely on Plan A – you have to have a Plan B. If I look back, I’ve always tried to have a Plan B, and it’s stood the test of time.”
‘You can’t rely on Plan A – you have to have a Plan B’