Age of the MGA Podcast
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.
Episodes
S2E15 | Why Delegated Authority Is Becoming Managed Authority feat. Sam Reeder
Sam Reeder, CEO of Hadron Insurance, joins Age of the MGA live from Scout InsurTech Conference to talk about how modern program business is being built from the carrier side. This conversation surfaces a major operating shift: delegated authority is becoming more actively managed, more data-visible, and more tied to carrier balance sheet discipline than many MGA founders realize.This is not a gene
S2E14 | The Insurance Industry Gets Captives Completely Wrong feat. Matthew Queen
Matthew Queen joins the Age of the MGA crew for one of the deepest operator conversations we’ve had on captives, alternative risk, claims accountability, and why MGA formation is often much closer to captive insurance than most people realize.Matthew breaks down how captives actually work operationally, why they change organizational behavior, and how claims visibility creates better operators. Th
S1E13 | Building Verde: ESG Data, Lloyd’s Capacity, and MGA Discipline feat. James Pallett
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
S2E12 | From Business Plan to Binder: What It Really Takes to Launch an MGA | feat. Sam Knee-Robinson
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 th
S2E11 | Why the Best MGAs Will Survive the Soft Market feat. Joe Zuk, Altamont Capital Partners
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
Why MGAs Build What Generalist Brokers Can’t | S2E10 | Andrew Bate, Co-Founder & CEO of Velaris
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 c
Why Europe Is Still Harder to Scale for MGAs Than the U.S. | feat. William Pitt | S2E9
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 Europea
S2E8 | How Scout Built Something More Valuable Than Every Other InsurTech Event feat. Chris Luiz
* 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 mak
S2E7 | Most MGA Founders Build in the Wrong Order | Vivere on Speed, Systems, and Scale
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
S2E6 | You’re Not an MGA Yet: Legal Reality, AI Risk & What Founders Get Wrong | Greg Hoffnagle
* 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 insur
S2E5 | Why the Real MGA Moat Isn’t Just Tech (And What Actually Is) feat. Tomer Kashi, Co-Founder & CEO
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 sellin
S2E4 | $500M in Losses and the Capacity Gap It Exposed. feat. Patrick Girouard, District Cover
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&apo
S2E3 | Why Most MGAs Get Hiring Wrong (and How It Quietly Kills Scale) feat. Alex Bond, FinPro
If You’re Building an MGA, This Episode Might Save You 12–24 Months of PainIn 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 r
S2E2 | Distribution, Specialization, and Why Most MGAs Stall Early. feat. Rob Jacomen, Founder, ACL & Coveritas
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 E
S2E1 | AI, Distribution, and the Real MGA Bottleneck No One Talks About feat. Kyle Geoghan, Indemn
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 a
S1E19 | Target Markets Inside the Deal Room: Where MGAs Are Actually Built, Funded, and Scaled
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 theor
S1E18 | The MGA Reality Check: Blowing-Up a Product & Rebuilding When the Math Breaks (feat. Anansi)
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 r
S1E17 | Why Most Aviation MGAs Fail...And How This Leader Rebuilt One Into a Market Force - feat. John Songin, President & CUO, Worldlink Specialty
If You Run an MGA, This Might Be the Most Important Interview You Watch This YearIn this episode of The Age of the MGA Podcast, we sit down with John Songin, President & CUO of Worldlink Specialty, the operator behind one of the most interesting and misunderstood niches in the specialty program world: Aviation MGAs.Most people see aviation underwriting as “too small,” “too technical,” or “too
S1E16 | The Hidden Value of Crisis Coverage: Selling Outcomes, Not Policies — feat. Charlie Hanbury
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
S1E15 | The 3 Things Every MGA Founder Must Master to Survive and Scale feat. Amit Verma
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 sugarco
S1E14 | How Rainbow Turned One of the Hardest Insurance Classes Into a Scalable MGA Powerhouse
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
S1E13 | From wearables startup to $85M MGA: How he built one of the fastest-scaling MGAs in the industry feat. Adam Price, CEO, Kinetic
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
S1E12 | The $1B MGA Built on Broker Trust feat. Nick Wright (Pen Underwriting)
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
S1E11 | They Invented a New Insurance Category: Inside the MGA Power Move at PlaceCovr - feat. Bob Clark and Diane Coogan
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 “Locat
S1E10 | Parametric Insurance at Scale: How NormanMax Is Reinventing Embedded Risk - feat. Samuel Broomer
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 tra
Ep. 9 | Why most MGAs fail before they launch...and how to build one that wins. feat. David Gritz, Co-Founder, InsurtechNY
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:✅ W
Ep. 8 | What if your MGA was built like a Silicon Valley tech company? feat. Jacob Landman, Co-Founder, Carma Cannabis Insurance
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 c
Ep. 7 | Why Thore Was Built As a Reciprocal Exchange MGA — And What Most Founders Still Get Wrong - feat. Johnathan Yazdani, Thore Underwriters
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 ba
Ep. 6 | The MGA Boom Is Real...But Most Insiders Are Reading the Data Wrong - feat. William Pitt, Partner, Lexicon Associates
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 insight
Ep. 5 | Why MGAs Are Flocking to This Conference That Banned Thought Leadership feat. Chris Luiz
🎙️ 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
Ep. 4 | Building a 10X MGA: Inside the iTOO Success Story with Justin Naylor, CEO—A Visionary MGA Leader
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 dro
Ep. 3 | They Built the First Fertility Insurance MGA (Flora)—and Made It Affordable for Millions feat. Dr. Christy Lane and Laura McDonald
🎙️ Welcome to the Age of the MGA—Where the Future of Insurance Is Being Written.In this episode, we sit down with Laura McDonald and Dr. Christy Lane, the founders of Flora, the world’s first fertility insurance MGA. These two powerhouse entrepreneurs are redefining what it means to build a category-defining product—one that blends personal mission, community-first design, and hard data-driven ri
Ep. 2 | She Didn’t Just Build a Cyber MGA — She Invented an Entirely New Category, feat. Kirsten Bay, Co-Founder & CEO of Cysurance
🎙️ Welcome to the Age of the MGA—Where the Future of Insurance Is Being Written.In this episode, the crew sits down with Kirsten Bay, Co-Founder and CEO of Cysurance—a bold force rewriting the rules of cyber insurance with a model that fuses prevention, warranty, and embedded risk protection.This isn't your typical "cyber MGA" story.It’s a masterclass in category creation, regulator
Ep. 1 | From Zero to Niche Reinsurance MGA Powerhouse: Inside the Untold Story of Ladder Re - feat. Charles Decrucq and Andrew Matczak
🎙️ Welcome to the Age of the MGA—Where the Future of Insurance Is Being Written.In this premiere episode, Dylan, Doug, and Peter sit down with Ladder Re co-founders Charles Decrucq and Andrew Matczak to dissect the real story behind building a niche reinsurance MGA from scratch.This isn’t your typical origin story.It’s raw. Tactical. Bootstrapped.From cannabis reinsurance to obsessing over profita
Teaser "Trailer" Episode — The Age of the MGA Podcast Begins: What It Is, Who It’s For, and Why It Matters
🎙️ Welcome to the Age of the MGA—Where the Future of Insurance Is Being Written.In this teaser episode, Doug, Dylan, and Peter pull back the curtain on why they launched this podcast—and why now is the defining moment in the evolution of the MGA model.If you’re building, scaling, investing in, or operating within the MGA ecosystem… this show is for you.These aren’t surface-level interviews or fluf
