New CEO, Same Great Warranty Plans

Upsie was founded in 2015 by Clarence Bethea. After seven years of planning, building the brand, growing his team, and serving customers, he is passing the torch. Will Anderson, Upsie’s CPTO has already begun transitioning to CEO and will officially take over on April 2, 2022.

“It’s time,” Bethea told Twin Cities Business. “I’m the guy who gets the startup from zero to one. That’s where I get my joy, my energy.”

In an interview with Coleen Buck, Bethea continued, “Now we’re at the place where we’re a mature company. We’ve got HR. Like I always say that once you have HR and once you have finance you’re kind of a mature company at that point. But those are not things that necessarily excited me because we were kind of no longer in this dog fight anymore everyday. It was an industry that actually started to embrace us.”

Bethea was referring to an invite to speak at the 13th Annual Extended Warranty & Service Contract Innovations conference. He accepted and blew the crowd away with Upsie’s unique customer-centric approach to service in the warranty industry.

Traditionally, warranty providers did everything they could to make warranties difficult to use. This includes saving and storing a receipt, waiting on hold for hours, and paging through terms and conditions (if you have them) to prove that your claim is covered. Some warranties are still like this! However, when Clarence started Upsie, he made sure that Upsie would be a smarter way to warranty that benefited the consumer. This meant online receipt storage, clear coverage outlined before you buy, 24/7 customer claims, and quick repairs.

Every step Clarence and the team have taken has been to see his vision through. Then, in 2019, Will Anderson joined the Upsie team and quickly proved himself to be a champion for the consumer, as well as a valuable leader. Over the years, he has recruited a tremendous team of developers, led the complete redesign of Upsie’s back-end architecture and was a key decision maker in strategy and planning.

As time passed, it became clear to Clarence that his time to step down was approaching. It also became clear to him that Will would be the perfect person to lead Upsie through the next phase of explosive growth. When he approached the board, they agreed that Will should be appointed the next CEO.

“I couldn’t be more honored to step in to lead Upsie in our next explosive growth phases,” Anderson told Twin Cities Business. “I’m so thankful to Clarence for busting through so many brick walls to get Upsie to this point and the singular focus he had on building a company focused on grace with our customers and each other. What he’s done has been amazing.”

Will Anderson is originally from Massachusetts and attended college at NYU. Before moving to Minnesota, he worked at Casebook PBC as Director of Product Management and Dealogic as CTO. He now resides in St. Paul with his wife, three children and dog.

The transition has already begun, and Will officially takes over as CEO on April 2, 2022. But Clarence won’t be far away. “You’re not getting rid of me. I just won’t play an active role in the day-to-day operations anymore. I’m going to take a step back to focus on the overall strategy,” Bethea said. He is transitioning to Executive Chairman and will sit on Upsie’s board.

Outside of work, Clarence will focus on spending more time with his wife, daughter and son in Dallas, TX. You’ll see him speaking on more panels, appearing at startup events, and acting as an advocate and mentor for underserved founders. He also sits on the boards of Saint Paul and Minnesota Foundation and Beta.

If you have any questions about this transition, please don’t hesitate to contact us.