The Age of the MGA Podcast is the definitive playbook to learn how to build, operate, scale and invest in MGAs—told by the entrepreneurs, operators, and capital partners driving the industry forward. Each episode brings together the most elite founders, investors, and experts to give you a behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to build and grow a high-performing MGA—from your first dollar of premium to operational scale.
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ESG has become one of the most loaded terms in business. Some hear it and think politics. Some hear it and think corporate window dressing. James Pallett hears something else entirely: A better way to underwrite risk. In this episode of Age of the MGA, James Pallett, Co-Founder of Verde Underwriting, joins Doug, Dylan, and Peter to unpack how Verde is building a specialty financial lines MGA around ESG data, Lloyd’s capacity, emerging risk, and disciplined underwriting. The key distinction: Verd...
A good insurance product does not automatically become a good business. That is one of the hardest lessons in the MGA world, especially when you are building in a new category, with a new buyer, a new problem, and a market that still needs to be educated. In this episode of The Age of the MGA Podcast, we sit down with TJ Olonilua from Accelerant for a practical conversation about distribution, platform leverage, vendor ecosystems, and what actually helps MGAs scale with more support around them....
Sam Knee-Robinson experience spans across connecting insurance businesses, syndicates, MGAs, and emerging risk platforms with the capital and capacity they need to grow. In this conversation, he explains what actually happens behind the scenes when MGAs try to secure capacity, raise capital, and move from an idea into a real operating business. This episode is a serious conversation about one of the hardest parts of building an MGA: getting the structure, partners, credibility, and timing right ...
Joe Zuk is one of the most respected operators and investors in the MGA ecosystem. As Operating Partner at Altamont Capital Partners, he sits at the intersection of capital, execution, talent, and platform building across insurance and insurance services. In this conversation, he shares what actually separates durable MGAs from businesses that only looked good when the market was doing the work for them. This episode is a serious conversation about what really matters when you are building, back...
Andrew Bate joins Age of the MGA for a conversation about claims, specialization, and what it actually takes to build insurance around real business needs. This is a practical discussion about customer pain, niche program design, distribution constraints, and why MGAs can often build solutions that generalist brokers cannot. It is also a conversation shaped by Andrew’s experience at Safely and his current work with Velaris Insurance, where the focus is purpose-built coverage for professional pro...
William Pitt returns to Age of the MGA for a second conversation focused on the European MGA market and what it actually takes to build across it. This is a practical discussion about fragmentation, distribution, capacity, and why scale in Europe does not work the same way it does in the U.S. It is also a conversation about FAST, network effects, and the longer-term goal of a more integrated European insurance market. What This Episode Covers ✅ Why Europe is still a much harder market to scale a...
* Thank you to our sponsor: Register for the Scout Insurtech Conference at https://www.scoutinsurtech.com/conference and Save 10% with our coupon code "Age of the MGA 2026" Chris Luiz is the CEO of Scout, an insurance ecosystem platform built to connect carriers, brokers, investors, and early-stage companies in a more intentional way. In this episode, the conversation centers on what makes Scout different, how the conference has evolved, and why the real value goes far beyond a two-day event. Th...
Most MGA launches take longer than they should. In this episode of The Age of the MGA Podcast, we sit down with Chris McKechnie and Dani Lefland from Vivere, a new E&S MGA building around an underwriting-first, tech-enabled model. We kicked off the conversation with Vivere’s partnership announcement with Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance and quickly turns into a deeper operator discussion about launch timelines, carrier diligence, core systems, underwriting talent, and claims feedback l...
* Thank you to our sponsor: Register for the Scout Insurtech Conference at https://www.scoutinsurtech.com/conference and Save 10% with our coupon code "Age of the MGA 2026" In this episode of Age of the MGA, we sit down with Greg Hoffnagle, Partner at Holland & Knight LLP. Greg has spent two decades inside insurance law — working across regulatory, corporate, private equity, and insurtech transactions. He has advised early-stage innovators, scaling MGAs, and capital partners navigating compl...
In this episode of Age of the MGA, we sit down with Tomer Kashi, Co-Founder and CEO of SkyWatch and VOOM. Tomer shares how they built a specialty mobility MGA from scratch — starting in commercial drones and expanding into light aircraft and pay-per-mile motorcycle coverage. This is a builder’s conversation about focus, sequencing, and execution. What This Episode Covers ✅ Why they pivoted from selling tech to becoming the MGA themselves ✅ The structural difficulty of writing the first dollar in...
In this episode of Age of the MGA, we sit down with Patrick Girouard, Founder and CEO of District Cover. District Cover is focused exclusively on bringing stable insurance capacity back to America’s major cities — particularly neighborhoods that traditional markets have stepped away from. This conversation explores what it actually takes to underwrite markets others consider uninsurable. What You'll Discover: ✅ Why MGAs must either unlock unique distribution or bring non-commodity product ✅ The ...
If You’re Building an MGA, This Episode Might Save You 12–24 Months of Pain In this episode of The Age of the MGA Podcast, we sit down with Alex Bond, Founder of FinPro, one of the most trusted search partners in the global InsurTech and MGA ecosystem. Most MGAs don’t fail because of product, capital, or ambition. They fail because of early hiring mistakes. Wrong sequencing. Mispriced roles. Big-brand resumes that collapse under startup reality. And founders who underestimate how fast one bad hi...
In this episode of Age of the MGA, the hosts turn the tables and interview Rob Jacomen. Rob has spent years advising MGAs, brokers, and founders on distribution and specialization. This conversation documents why he finally decided to build an MGA himself and what most people misunderstand about why MGAs actually struggle. This is not a product story. It is a distribution and systems story. What This Episode Covers: ✅ Why the broker channel was not prepared for the MGA explosion ✅ How generalist...
In this episode of Age of the MGA, we sit down with Kyle Geoghan, Founder & CEO of Indemn, to explore a different way of thinking about MGAs—one that prioritizes learning, distribution, and clarity before scale. Kyle shares how he built an MGA as a laboratory, not just a business, and what that unlocked along the way. What This Episode Covers: ✅ Using an MGA as a testing ground for distribution and workflows ✅ How AI lowers startup friction without replacing insurance expertise ✅ Why access ...
Most people think MGAs are built in boardrooms, pitch decks, or Slack channels. They’re not. They’re built in rooms like Target Markets. In this on-location mini-episode of The Age of the MGA, we go inside one of the most important deal-making events in specialty insurance to unpack what actually happens when programs get launched, capacity gets secured, and founders make real moves. This is not theory. This is not hype. This is the market, live. You’ll hear: ✅ Why Target Markets is fundamentall...
Most MGAs don’t fail because of underwriting. They fail because they misunderstand where risk actually lives, how hard insurance products are to rebuild, and what it really takes to make the economics work. In this episode of The Age of the MGA, we sit down with Megan Bingham-Walker, Founder of Anansi, to unpack one of the most honest MGA build stories we’ve featured. No pitch decks. No hype. Just the real work behind building — and rebuilding — an MGA. Megan breaks down why last-mile delivery i...
This episode features John Songin, President & CUO of Worldlink Specialty, an aviation MGA he helped rebuild into a market force. He discusses transforming the MGA through focused underwriting excellence and strengthening broker relationships. The conversation also delves into innovative new products, including specialized E&O for the aviation sector and a groundbreaking insurance solution for agriculture drones, highlighting their role in enabling economic activity and attracting new talent to the industry.
Most MGAs sell policies. The great ones sell outcomes. In this episode of The Age of the MGA Podcast, Charlie Hanbury, Founder & CEO of Samphire Risk, reveals how he built one of the most innovative crisis-response MGAs in the market—by focusing on what truly matters when everything goes wrong: speed, expertise, and trust. From Somali piracy to active-assailant incidents, Charlie and the Samphire team have turned chaos into a repeatable system of clarity—proving that in specialty insurance, ...
Most MGA founders fail before they ever hit $10M in premium. Why? Because they never master the three things that matter most: distribution, product, and capacity. In this episode of The Age of the MGA Podcast, Amit (actuary, founder, advisor, and all-around industry legend) breaks down the brutal truths, tactical frameworks, and hard-won lessons that MGA founders need to hear. No fluff. No sugarcoating. Just the reality of what it takes to survive and scale in the MGA ecosystem. What You’ll Lea...
What kind of MGA founder bets everything on restaurants — the most distressed, hardest-to-place class in insurance? Meet Bobby Touran, CEO & Co-Founder of Rainbow. When COVID hit, restaurants were collapsing. Carriers were exiting. Capacity was disappearing. Every signal said: stay away. But Rainbow leaned in. They built an admitted product in a niche everyone else abandoned. They doubled down on tech + human underwriting — creating a digital platform agents love, paired with real relationsh...
What if preventing injuries was just the starting point—and building an $85M MGA was the real story? In this episode of The Age of the MGA Podcast, we sit down with Adam Price, CEO of Kinetic, who shares how an aerospace engineer turned a wearable device company into one of the fastest-growing MGAs in workers’ comp. From pivoting away from hardware to building a claims-first MGA model, Adam lays out the hard-won lessons every founder, investor, and carrier needs to hear—especially when it comes ...
They said MGAs couldn’t scale. Nick Wright didn’t just prove them wrong—he helped build a £1bn gross written premium (GWP) book to make sure they never said it again. If you’re building, investing in, or operating an MGA… stop what you’re doing and watch this. This episode is a tactical masterclass in what it actually takes to build a durable, defensible MGA business—told by someone who’s done it at scale. No fluff. No theory. Just hard-won insights from the front lines of underwriting. 🔑 What ...
Imagine getting a check in the mail just because your town got more expensive or less safe. This week on The Age of the MGA Podcast , we sit down with the founders of PlaceCovr , an MGA that’s launching a brand-new category of insurance: Location Insurance . It’s parametric. It’s data-driven. And it’s built to protect homeowners from the hidden costs of living in a declining town. We cover: What “Location Insurance” really means Why they created an entirely new parametric model to track local ta...
Ready to learn how parametric insurance is being re-engineered for the mainstream? In this episode of The Age of the MGA Podcast, we sit down with Samuel Broomer, President of Embedded Parametric Solutions for NormanMax, to explore the massive unlock happening in the MGA space. Sam breaks down how they’re converting complex parametric products into simple, zero-deductible features that enhance traditional policies—from personal lines to middle-market commercial risk. We dive into: ✅ What "produc...
Want to launch a successful MGA in 2025? Before you pitch a reinsurer or raise a dime, watch this. In this episode of The Age of the MGA Podcast, we sit down with David Gritz—co-founder of InsurtechNY and the InsurTech Fund. He’s helped launch 80+ InsurTech startups and runs the only accelerator built specifically for digital MGAs. Inside this conversation, you’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at: ✅ What actually makes a reinsurer say yes ✅ Why most MGA decks get rejected ✅ The 3 things every fou...
Would you trust a frustrated cannabis operator to disrupt the insurance space? Jacob Landman did more than just trust—he became the operator-turned-MGA-founder who’s taking on the outdated, exclusion-ridden mess that defines most cannabis insurance programs. And in this episode, he breaks down exactly how he’s doing it. From building proprietary underwriting tech in-house… To deploying real AI use cases (not vaporware)… To launching Carma Insurance as a cannabis MGA platform that's ready to scal...
What if writing a billion dollars in premium was actually the easy part? In this episode of The Age of the MGA Podcast, we sit down with Johnathan Yazdani, CEO and co-founder of Thore Underwriters — a reciprocal exchange + MGA hybrid designed from the ground up to remove bias in claims, plug tech into execution, and rethink how underserved markets are insured. What started as a solo leap (with no backing from his former family carrier) turned into a full-blown modern MGA model — powered by smart...
MGAs are on fire. But is the growth hype real? In this episode, the hosts sit down with William Pitt from Lexicon Associates – one of the foremost researchers on the MGA, fronting carrier, and delegated authority space globally. William unpacks the latest data, trends, and real talk behind the explosive rise of MGAs in the U.S., U.K., Europe, and beyond. From capital options and regulatory insights to what new founders get wrong and why the MGA model is built for long-term innovation—this episod...
🎙️ What happens when you build an event for MGAs, founders, and VCs—and intentionally ban the fluff? In this episode of The Age of the MGA Podcast, we sit down with Chris Luiz, CEO of Scout Insurtech, to unpack how a grassroots meetup in Ohio evolved into one of the most respected and deal-focused platforms in the insurance space. From 60-second founder showcases to no pay-to-play stage time, Scout is changing the game for early-stage MGAs, tech startups, and carriers looking for real connectio...
What does it take to scale a specialty MGA from startup to market leader across 10 African countries? This week on The Age of the MGA, we sit down with Justin Naylor, CEO of iTOO Specialty Risks, to uncover the secrets behind one of the most inspiring MGA growth stories in the world. From mastering distribution through brokers, to launching cutting-edge products like cyber, renewable energy, and drone insurance, to building an entrepreneurial culture that brokers and customers love—Justin shares...
