From the desk of ‘Zenefits Settles’: Feeling Déjà vu

The once upon a time perfect startup that has gotten into a mess over its violations of insurance rules has now settled with Texas, making it the 9th state (think: Arizona, Delaware, Minnesota, New Jersey, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Washington) that settles with the startup to allow it to continue and sell insurance to small businesses. The settlement comes with a hefty fine of $550,000. Recall: Zenefits recent endeavor at rebranding as a ‘compliant-saint’ includes the free-for-Salesforce-users licensing compliance app that would prevent agents from selling if they weren’t properly certified to do so. Word on the street is that Z2, which is launching tomorrow, will empower brokers in more ways than one. We shall see.