Atlas Pet Company

As Alter’s business took off, so did he. No longer making the products (which are still handcrafted) himself, he, his black lab Atlas, his girlfriend and her black lab piled into a sleeper van and began a year-long adventure around the country. (When we last spoke with him, he had clocked 33,000 miles and visited 40 states.) Alter continued to run the company from the road, aka his “work trip,” in between hikes.

In 2018, fortuitously, Alter tuned into an episode of the eCommerce Fuel podcast where Layr co-founders Andrew Egenes and Phillip Naples were being interviewed about commercial insurance for e-commerce companies. The eye-opening episode resulted in Alter calling Layr to discuss business insurance policies.

“I wasn’t even in the market for commercial insurance, but realized when I heard them on the podcast how much I was at risk. I contacted them immediately and got insured a couple days later,” Alter says.

Covering the E-Commerce Business Insurance Bases

After discussing Atlas Pet Company’s unique business model (e-commerce run out of a car), the Layr team walked Alter through several ways in which he might require commercial insurance coverage. For one thing, they encouraged him to add his vehicle and everything inside of it, including expensive camera equipment and computers, to the policy.

It would really put us out to go for a trail hike and for my computers and cameras to be stolen, so the van is insured like a plumber’s truck—if any of my tools are stolen, they are covered.

SAM ALTERCEO at Atlas Pet Co.

“It would really put us out to go for a trail hike and for my computers and cameras to be stolen, so the van is insured like a plumber’s truck—if any of my tools are stolen, they are covered,” Alter explains. “Layr was very good at communicating all of that.”

Layr Presents E-Commerce Companies with Comprehensive Coverage

Atlas also needed to be covered for product liability. While the pet products are as durable as can be, Layr pointed out that something unfortunate could still happen or the products could be used in an unintended way that could end up putting Atlas in a bind with one of its customers.

“It is our job to make sure our e-commerce clients like Atlas Pet Company have a business insurance program that can easily scale with their companies. Layr helps them identify the current and potential future events that may occur when their customers interact with their products and company and protect them against any risks,” says Phillip Naples, CEO of Layr.

Atlas Pet Company now maintains general business liability, property, commercial auto, and product liability insurance policies through Layr. Should any future issues arise, Layr’s coverage includes $1 million in legal fees.

Quick and Easy Platform for Business Insurance Updates

Layr simplifies every aspect of obtaining and maintaining small business insurance. Alter appreciates the general casual nature of the conversations he has had with Layr and the fact that he can easily update Atlas’ policies. “The communication is always really fast with Layr. That’s a good sign to me, that they are taking care of things. Especially with insurance, if you have a question, you don’t want to wait around for days to figure it out,” he says. “It’s nice to feel like I can ask questions and become more educated in insurance than if I had to research everything myself online. It’s simple to add new things to our policy and I can get a new policy in a couple days.”

The e-commerce company is growing quickly and will need to make additional changes to its commercial insurance policies soon. Later in 2019, Alter plans on parking his company permanently in Denver where he is setting up an office and adding a warehouse. “I won’t be shopping around for other commercial insurance because Layr makes it so easy. I trust them.”