98point6's Robbie Cape launches The Instrument to reimagine insurance for profit

The Instrument is an early-stage Seattle startup, incorporated in March 2026, whose website says only "insurance reimagined" on theinstrument.ai.

Backed by venture studio Pioneer Square Labs; no funding amount was announced.

Cape co-founded and ran virtual primary care startup 98point6 as CEO for six years, spent 11 years at Microsoft, co-founded family-scheduling app Cozi, and most recently helped launch sustainable chicken restaurant Mt. Joy in Seattle, which he left in May 2025. His job search nearly ended with him taking a role at a healthcare company in Utah.

He revealed the startup on LinkedIn on 16 June 2026, naming three reasons for insurance: Gottesman, whom he described as the kind of tough, authentic venture investor he wanted beside him; an industry that reminds him of healthcare in its complexity and potential for disruption; and money. "For the first time in my career, I chose an opportunity without a mission to repair the world at its core," Cape wrote. "Generational wealth gets created here in ways that most industries simply don't match. I found that compelling. More compelling than I'm comfortable admitting." Co-founders: CTO T Van Doren, employee No. 1 at 98point6, and chief product officer Matt Witcher, employee No. 8.

Cape explicitly chose profit over mission for the first time in his career — and publicly, which frames the company's operating logic.

Insurance's complexity mirrors healthcare, the industry where he already scaled a venture-backed startup for six years.

The venture-studio pairing — a matured idea, a studio backer, and a founder with two exits' worth of operating scar tissue — lowers cold-start risk.

The founding team reassembles 98point6's early DNA: its employee No. 1 as CTO and employee No. 8 as CPO.

Second-time founders optimise for different variables: a hard problem, a partner who challenges them, and honest economics — and saying the economics part out loud is itself a filter for who joins.

As of 16 June 2026, The Instrument is several months old: incorporated in March, three co-founders, a tagline and a domain. "Several months in, I'm more excited than the day we shook hands," Cape wrote of the PSL partnership. What the product actually does remains undisclosed.