Bessie Schwarz, the co-founder and CEO of Floodbase, is the kind of Silicon Valley climate founder the establishment media loves to profile, and she’s been blunt about a core problem: new products often fail because people don’t understand how they actually solve real problems for regular Americans. Conservatives should listen when someone from inside the industry admits messaging and user understanding are the biggest hurdles to adoption, because that honesty exposes a wider pattern of overhyped solutions that never get past the PowerPoint.
Floodbase markets itself as a practical tool, using satellites and artificial intelligence to map flooding in near real time and to build parametric insurance products that pay out quickly after a disaster, rather than waiting for slow claims processes. This is the kind of technological innovation that, in theory, can reduce losses and speed recovery — but theory and practice are two different things when everyday homeowners and small businesses are involved.
Forbes reports that a staggering share of flood-related losses remain uninsured, a reality the industry quietly points to as justification for new approaches like Floodbase’s but also a warning sign about relying on complex, data-driven products to substitute for common-sense risk management. If 83 percent of losses go uninsured, you can’t fix the problem by naming your product with slick branding and hoping people will trust an algorithm over their bank account. The market demands clarity, affordability, and results — not lectures from climate entrepreneurs.
Schwarz’s admission that the hardest thing her company faces is helping people “understand how new products can solve problems for them” should be a wake-up call to investors and policy makers who pour subsidies and PR into every trending startup. Conservatives have long argued that real accountability comes from actual customers choosing to pay for a product because it works, not because venture capitalists or bureaucrats declare it fashionable. When firms can’t explain immediate, tangible benefits, they shouldn’t expect taxpayers or small-business owners to bear the risk.
There is a place for technology in disaster response — Floodbase’s work with reinsurers and governments shows parametric insurance can be useful for targeted, institutional deployments — but that role should not be an excuse for permanent government bailouts or endless public subsidies for unproven private ventures. The conservative case is simple: let the market reward products that clearly reduce costs and improve outcomes, and stop letting glossy climate narratives mask poor product-market fit.
At the end of the day, hardworking Americans want solutions that protect their property and livelihoods, not another startup pitch about algorithmic superiority. If Floodbase and companies like it want broad adoption, they’ll do what every successful business does — explain plainly how customers win, prove it with results, and stand or fall in the marketplace. Conservatives should support innovation that respects taxpayers, champions accountability, and puts real people ahead of virtue-signaling.
