Vertafore Insurance Podcast

SPOILER: An Agency’s Valuation Increases..

Carey Wallace, Founder of AgencyFocus, has an intriguing background. She cut her teeth in startup early-on after helping take a company public shortly after finishing undergrad. Since then, she's gone on to launch two more startups, both in the insurance analytics space. Her most recent venture is focused on helping agencies increase their valuation with......better data.  

Meet Carey and hear:

• Who is Carey Wallace and why has AgencyFocus taken off?
• Her belief on the importance of an agency's data in 2023 and beyond
• How data and valuation are linked
• The biggest data challenges she helps under-valued agencies overcome
• A few things you can do to improve your data maturity

 

A Startup Accelerator For Indie Agents ONLY

Pat Cline, Director of Accelerator Operations at 101 Weston Labs, is building a new kind of accelerator. This accelerator doesn't help carrier insurtech, MGA insurtech or, honestly, any insurtech other than solutions meant to drive change for indie agents. Its partnership with the Independent Insurance Agents of North Carolina state association is what truly makes it powerful.  

Meet Pat and hear:

• First, what is an accelerator and how is 101 Weston Labs different
• Why 101 Weston Labs & IIANC is a match made in heaven
• A look at the first cohort of insurtech solutions
• The 12 week startup bootcamp and annual event
• Where 101 Weston Labs is headed in the future

Making Insurtech A Profit Center, Not Cost Center

Steve Anderson, CEO of Catalyit, joins us to discuss 2023 insurtech trends across almost 500 agencies from his recent 2023 State Of Tech Report. In this episode, you'll learn:

- the #1 tech issue facing agencies in 2023

- the average number of solutions an agency uses (and why)

- how to turn your tech from a profit center into a cost center

- a simple process for selecting the right tech for your agency

Commercial Insurance Made Easy

Becky Monfre, VP of Digital Accounts at Coterie Insurance, joins us to talk about how Coterie is making small commercial Insurance easier. She has been in the industry her entire career and understands the value of speed and efficiency for commercial insurance.  As the head of digital distribution, she loves helping agents to embed small commercial insurance capabilities on their website. 

Meet Becky and hear:

• What is Coterie Insurance claim to fame?
• How Coterie is able to help agencies get a bindable quote in 2 minutes 
• The importance of having a strong process for this hard market.
• The impact of the Customer Journey
• How Coterie helps you matian the vital relationship peice with your customers. 

Click below to watch.

 

How To Increase Your Team’s Capacity

Tom Parratt, Chief Operating Officer at Sheally Insurance Group, can tell you down to the second how long it takes for someone to answer and log a call. In fact, it was the time saved on this activity that brought them to Vertafore's My Personal Lines Suite. Listen as Tom shares how his background in professional soccer has helped him achieve operational excellence in a fast-growing North Carolina agency.

Meet Tom and hear:

• How he ended up in insurance after his successful career in professional soccer
• His philosophy around operational excellence
• Why data is a carrot not a stick
• How his Vertafore tech suite helps his team work 2.1X faster

Will blockchain ”Netflix” insurtech?

Garrett Droege, SVP Director of Innovation at IMA Financial Group, is someone you can always count on to question the status quo. He researches and experiments with bleeding edge tech to help position his firm successfully for the next wave of adoption. That includes Virtual Reality, web3...and blockchain. 

Meet Garrett and hear:

• How he ended up researching the bleeding edge of insurtech
• What is blockchain and how it helps decentralized data challenges
• The evolution of The Smart Contract
• Hurdles we must overcome to truly adopt blockchain tech
• How to prepare your agency 

#1 Way To Make Your Data More Reliable

Zac Sutherland, Owner of Sutherland Insurance, joins us from Canada…eh! A few years ago, he become so frustrated with the inaccuracy and manual nature of his agency’s reporting that he took matters into his own hands. Fast forward, he now has a real-time look into his agency’s operations with just a few clicks. How’d he do it? Click play to find out.

Meet Zac and hear:

• The story of Sutherland Insurance
• The biggest challenges Zac faced around reporting
• Mistakes he wish he wouldn’t have made on his data journey
• How he built data visualization he trusts 100%
• The KPI’s he watches every week

What is AgencyOne...

Today, you'll hear from not one, but all three of our incredible Product VPs on the future of Vertafore. Imagine a world where your tech stack works seamlessly on the front-end and back-end. Goodbye excessive manual entry. Goodbye completely separate multiple interfaces and logins. Goodbye redundant data silos. That's the mission of AgencyOne.

You’ll walk away with:

• What are the biggest tech challenges facing agencies right now
• What is AgencyOne
• How does AgencyOne solve for these challenges
• How will our Product VPs work together to build AgencyOne

What can you expect this year and into 2024

End Your Sales/Service War

David Foster, Founder of Three Arbor Insurance, is one of the most humble people you'll meet. You wouldn't guess he owns a successful multi-million dollar agency...that's still growing by leaps and bounds. Today, he shares why his focus on culture and process have been his secret weapons.

Tune in to meet David, plus:

• Hear why David started a scratch agency
• What it took to end the sales and service war behind closed doors
• How he built a tech stack that truly empowers his people
• - and more!

There’s a lot to unpack in this episode.

Meet Teresa Chia, Vertafore’s New CFO

We are continuing to build an amazing team here at Vertafore. The newest addition to the Big Orange? Teresa Chia, our Chief Financial Officer. This CFO is one you should know. She hails from the insurance industry! Her perspective on insurtech acquisitions and mergers is not to be missed.

You’ll walk away with:

• Who is Teresa Chia
• Why in the world she chose the insurance industry
• An inside look at the logistics of insurtech mergers and acquisitions
• Why Vertafore is part of her long-term plan
• Where she sees the insurtech M&A space headed in 2024