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. TJ brings a rare perspective because he has lived both sides of the table: building inside a startup MGA environment and now helping support a broad network of MGAs through Accelerant’s member services and strategic partnerships work.

The conversation starts with TJ’s experience helping build a crypto insurance product and quickly turns into a much bigger discussion about why distribution has to be solved early, why new product categories cost more to educate than most founders expect, and why modern MGA platforms are becoming more than sources of capacity.

This is a practical episode for MGA founders, operators, investors, vendors, and ecosystem builders trying to understand how distribution, capital, operations, community, and vendor strategy all connect.

What this episode covers:

✅ Why MGA founders need to nail down distribution before building too far ahead
✅ What TJ learned from building a crypto insurance product in a new category
✅ Why adoption costs more than most founders expect when the market needs education
✅ How Accelerant thinks about member centricity and operating support for MGAs
✅ Why modern MGA platforms are becoming more than capacity providers
✅ How Accelerant’s risk exchange connects MGAs, reinsurers, capital, and portfolio management
✅ What Accelerant looks for when evaluating new and existing MGA opportunities
✅ Why vendors need specific MGA pain-point solutions, not broad technology promises

For serious MGA founders, operators, investors, and ecosystem partners, this episode matters because it gets underneath the surface of what makes an MGA business work. The product matters. The underwriting matters. But if the distribution path is weak, the vendor ecosystem is noisy, or the operating support around the MGA is thin, the business can stall before the opportunity ever gets a fair shot.

About the Guest
TJ Olonilua works at Accelerant, where he is involved in strategic partnerships, member services, and ecosystem support for Accelerant’s MGA community. His background includes large insurance carriers, brokerage, and early-stage MGA building, including work on a crypto insurance product designed to protect digital asset holders from hacks, thefts, and exploits.

Connect with TJ on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tjolonilua/

🔗 Stay Connected & Follow the Movement:
🎧 Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube

📲 Follow Age of the MGA on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/age-of-the-mga/

🧠 Connect with the Hosts:
Doug Ver Mulm
https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglasvermulm/

Dylan Brand
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanbrand/

Peter Tilbrook
https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-tilbrook-50832336/

Thank you to our sponsor:  Register for the Scout Insurtech Conference at https://www.scoutinsurtech.com/conference
 and save 10% with coupon code Age of the MGA 2026

The Age of the MGA exists to document how this market is actually being built.

Not the theory.
Not the press release version.
The real decisions, constraints, tradeoffs, and lessons that determine which MGAs endure.

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 general conversation about fronting or insurance startups. Sam explains why “trust but verify” is becoming the working model for carrier-MGA partnerships, why real-time data and claims visibility matter, and why founders need to understand the capital allocation decisions behind every balance sheet they ask to support them.


WHAT THIS EPISODE COVERS

• Why delegated authority is shifting toward managed authority
• Why “trust but verify” matters early in an MGA-carrier relationship
• How delayed data and weak claims visibility create real oversight problems
• Why startup MGAs are difficult carrier bets, even when they carry the next big opportunity
• What founders often misunderstand about insurance balance sheets
• Why patient capital gives program carriers room to invest before scale arrives
• How Hadron thinks about channel conflict across multiple MGA programs
• Why building a specialty insurance company requires builders, not just experienced employees

WHY THIS EPISODE MATTERS

For serious MGA founders, operators, investors, and ecosystem partners, this episode matters because it explains what modern carrier trust actually requires. Sam makes clear that capacity is not just a relationship or a pitch deck outcome. It depends on data, oversight, underwriting discipline, claims transparency, capital alignment, and a real appreciation for what sits on the insurance company balance sheet.

Founders who don't understand that are pitching to carriers without understanding what they're actually asking for — and that gap shows up faster than most people expect.


ABOUT THE GUEST

Sam Reeder is the CEO of Hadron Insurance. Before Hadron, he worked across insurance and reinsurance investment banking, corporate development, M&A, Bermuda reinsurance, Lloyd’s, ILS, and internal MGA operations.

That background gives him a carrier-side and capital-side view of what program business actually requires. His perspective is valuable because he is not only evaluating MGAs from the outside; he is building the infrastructure and balance sheet discipline behind a modern specialty insurance platform.


GUEST INFORMATION

Sam Reeder
CEO of Hadron Insurance
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-reeder-76b2a131/
Website: https://hadroninsurance.com/


ABOUT AGE OF THE MGA

Age of the MGA explores how modern MGAs, carriers, claims organizations, and insurance infrastructure businesses are actually being built.


STAY CONNECTED & FOLLOW THE MOVEMENT

Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2uVEpdtXoKX0jJW8Y944mY?si=1f03ea37bde44fe7

Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/age-of-the-mga-podcast/id1807008219

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AgeoftheMGA

Follow Age of the MGA on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/age-of-the-mga/


CONNECT WITH THE HOSTS

Doug Ver Mulm

https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglasvermulm/

Dylan Brand

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanbrand/

Peter Tilbrook

https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-tilbrook-50832336/


THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSOR

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Save 10% with coupon code: Age of the MGA 2026



CHAPTERS

00:00 Intro
03:58 Sam Reeder joins the show
05:05 From Validus to Hadron
06:31 Building with the Altamont ecosystem
08:15 How Hadron looks at challenged insurance businesses
09:37 Why Hadron thinks beyond the hybrid fronting label
10:29 How Hadron uses reinsurance strategy
13:05 Delegated authority becomes managed authority
14:45 Why startup MGAs are difficult carrier bets
18:10 Hiring builders inside an insurance startup
20:10 Building the foundation before scale
22:10 Managing program overlap and channel conflict
24:00 Why MGA submissions cannot disappear into a black hole
29:15 Alignment, commissions, and skin in the game
34:35 What MGA founders miss about carrier balance sheets
39:55 Sam Reeder on legacy and building Hadron

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. The conversation also dives into insurance regulation, the IRS, McCarran-Ferguson, founder networking, and how publishing expertise helped build authority in a highly specialized insurance niche.

This episode is especially valuable for MGA founders, program operators, alternative risk builders, underwriting leaders, and anyone trying to understand how modern insurance structures actually get built.


WHAT THIS EPISODE COVERS

• Why captives and MGAs share the same operational foundations
• How claims visibility changes company behavior
• Why networking compounds founder opportunity
• The real operational role of captives
• Insurance regulation vs IRS interpretation
• Why insurance is more decentralized than banking
• Building authority through specialization and publishing
• Alternative risk financing and program creation

WHY THIS EPISODE MATTERS

Most people talk about captives as tax structures.

Matthew explains them as operating systems.

This conversation reframes captives as a founder/operator tool that changes incentives, improves claims accountability, and creates tighter alignment between underwriting, operations, and risk ownership.

For MGA builders, it also creates a clearer understanding of how program business, alternative risk, and insurance entrepreneurship overlap.


GUEST INFORMATION

Matthew Queen
Insurtech Founder & Captive Insurance — Tricura Insurance Group
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/queenmatthew/
Website: https://tricurainsurance.com/


ABOUT AGE OF THE MGA

Age of the MGA explores how modern MGAs, carriers, claims organizations, and insurance infrastructure businesses are actually being built.

STAY CONNECTED & FOLLOW THE MOVEMENT

Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.

Follow Age of the MGA on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/age-of-the-mga/

CONNECT WITH THE HOSTS

Doug Ver Mulm:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglasvermulm/

Dylan Brand:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanbrand/

Peter Tilbrook:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-tilbrook-50832336/

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSOR

Register for the Scout InsurTech Conference:
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Save 10% with coupon code: Age of the MGA 2026

FINAL CHAPTERS
00:00 — Surprise Guest Introduction
05:00 — Matthew Queen’s Captive Insurance Background
12:00 — Why Captives and MGAs Are So Similar
23:00 — Networking, Publishing, and Founder Opportunity
28:00 — Writing the Captive Insurance Book
35:00 — Captives, Claims, and Operational Accountability
44:00 — Insurance Regulation, the IRS, and McCarran-Ferguson
50:00 — Why Insurance Is More Stable Than Banking
57:00 — Building Tricura Insurance Group
01:04:00 — Closing Discussion

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: Verde is not using ESG as a marketing label.

They are using it as a risk signal.

James explains how ESG-related data can help reveal the quality of a company’s risk management, improve speed of decision, sharpen underwriting appetite, and prevent the broad-brush underwriting mistakes that often cause good risks to get missed.

The conversation also gets into one of the most important topics for any MGA founder thinking beyond one market:  Lloyd’s coverholder status.

WHAT THIS EPISODE COVERS

- How Verde uses ESG data as an underwriting edge
- Why ESG does not mean only writing “green” businesses
- How better risk signals can lead to faster underwriting decisions
- Why Lloyd’s coverholder status matters for global MGA growth
- What makes the coverholder process valuable, complex, and time-consuming
- How Verde is approaching emerging risks like digital assets, fraud, social engineering, and intangible asset protection
- Why insurance can unlock capital, financing, and business growth
- The founder story behind leaving established underwriting careers to build Verde

There is also a valuable lesson here for founders:

The best MGA businesses are rarely built around broad ambition alone.

They are built around a sharp thesis.
A specific market view.
A clear underwriting advantage.
And the discipline to say yes and no faster than everyone else.

ABOUT THE GUEST

James is the Co-Founder of Verde Underwriting, a Lloyd’s coverholder focused on specialty risk and financial lines.

Verde was founded in 2023 by James Pallett and James Reynolds after they identified an opportunity to use ESG data as a genuine underwriting edge.

The business focuses on complex and emerging risk areas, including financial lines, management liability, crime, fraud, digital assets, and intangible asset protection.

CONNECT WITH JAMES

James Pallett:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-pallett-904809197/

STAY CONNECTED & FOLLOW THE MOVEMENT

Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.

Follow Age of the MGA on LinkedIn:
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CONNECT WITH THE HOSTS

Doug Ver Mulm:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglasvermulm/

Dylan Brand:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanbrand/

Peter Tilbrook:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-tilbrook-50832336/

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSOR

Register for the Scout InsurTech Conference:
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Save 10% with coupon code: Age of the MGA 2026

This conversation is a useful look at how a modern specialty MGA can build around a clear underwriting thesis, a focused product strategy, and the right capacity infrastructure.

Verde’s approach is a reminder that differentiation is not just about having a niche. It is about having a clear view of risk, the data to support that view, and the operating discipline to make better underwriting decisions.

For MGA founders, operators, capacity partners, and brokers, this episode offers a practical look at what it takes to build a specialty insurance business with credibility, focus, and long-term staying power.

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 before the market will trust you with capital. Sam walks through how capacity conversations work, why personal trust and track record still matter, how incubator platforms are changing the path for early-stage MGAs, and why a softening market creates both opportunity and pressure.

What this episode covers:

✅ Why capital follows trust, track record, and credible execution
✅ Why starting an MGA requires both niche expertise and insurance fluency
✅ The hidden operational friction between a business plan and a live binder
✅ Why incubators, platforms, and accelerators are becoming more important
✅ How a softening market changes the opportunity set for new MGAs
✅ Why weak execution gets exposed faster when market tailwinds fade
✅ How stronger partner alignment can make MGA relationships more durable

For serious MGA founders, operators, investors, and ecosystem partners, this episode matters because it gets underneath the idea of “launching an MGA.” The real work is not just writing a business plan or finding someone willing to back an idea. It is proving that the team, underwriting thesis, infrastructure, capacity strategy, and partner structure can hold up in the real world.

About the Guest
Sam Robinson works in Global Capital Solutions arena, with a focus on Lloyd’s capital, emerging risk solutions, and capacity support for MGAs and related insurance platforms. His work sits at the intersection of capital, reinsurance, market structure, and early-stage insurance business building.

Connect with Sam on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-knee-robinson/

🔗 Stay Connected & Follow the Movement:
🎧 Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube

📲 Follow Age of the MGA on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/age-of-the-mga/

🧠 Connect with the Hosts:
Doug Ver Mulm
https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglasvermulm/

Dylan Brand
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanbrand/

Peter Tilbrook
https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-tilbrook-50832336/

Thank you to our sponsor: Register for the Scout Insurtech Conference at https://www.scoutinsurtech.com/conference and save 10% with coupon code Age of the MGA 2026

The Age of the MGA exists to document how this market is actually being built.

Not the theory.
Not the press release version.
The real decisions, constraints, tradeoffs, and lessons that determine which MGAs endure.

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, backing, or scaling MGAs:  claims discipline, underwriting feedback loops, founder quality, patient capital, and the reality of operating through a changing market cycle.  It is not theory.  It is a clear look at how good MGA businesses get built and how weak ones eventually get exposed.

What this episode covers:

✅ Why claims are the battlefield where an MGA’s underwriting thesis gets validated or exposed
✅ What Joe looks for in teams, conviction, and execution when evaluating opportunities
✅ Why the soft market will reward disciplined MGAs and expose weaker operators
✅ What founder-first capital actually looks like in insurance
✅ Why entrepreneurship in this industry is rewarding, but not for everyone
✅ How AI could improve claims handling, coverage analysis, and underwriting feedback loops
✅ Why insurance is still one of the best industries for curious, ambitious builders

For serious MGA founders, operators, investors, and ecosystem partners, this episode matters because it connects the pieces that actually drive outcomes.  Joe does not talk about growth in the abstract.  He talks about how underwriting, claims, capital, talent, and timing interact in the real world, and why discipline matters more when tailwinds start to fade.

About the Guest
Joe Zuk is an Operating Partner at Altamont Capital Partners, where he focuses on corporate and business development across the firm’s property and casualty insurance portfolio.  Before Altamont, he served as Managing Director of Corporate Development & Strategy at Orchid Underwriters and previously led corporate development and strategy work at Atlas General, where he also helped build out property and commercial divisions.

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joezuk/

🔗 Stay Connected & Follow the Movement:
🎧 Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube

📲 Follow Age of the MGA on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/age-of-the-mga/

🧠 Connect with the Hosts:
Doug Ver Mulm
https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglasvermulm/

Dylan Brand
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanbrand/

Peter Tilbrook
https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-tilbrook-50832336/

Thank you to our sponsor:  Register for the Scout Insurtech Conference at https://www.scoutinsurtech.com/conference
 and save 10% with coupon code Age of the MGA 2026

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 property managers.

What This Episode Covers

✅ Why Andrew originally underestimated how hard insurance program building really is
✅ How slow claims can become a customer problem, not just an operations problem
✅ Why claims handling is often part of the actual product experience
✅ Why generalist brokers often hear the same pain repeatedly but cannot build around it
✅ How MGAs can create purpose-built programs for specialized industries
✅ Why embedded distribution still runs into an education and prioritization problem
✅ Why the best insurance products start with business needs, not stale policy logic

Why This Matters for MGAs
If you are building, operating, or investing in MGAs, this episode is powerful because it gets to the real work underneath product and distribution. It is a conversation about solving actual business problems, not just placing coverage, and it shows where MGA value creation really starts when the market has repeated unmet needs.

About the Guest
Andrew Bate is an insurance founder and operator whose work has focused on specialized coverage for the vacation rental and property management market. Formerly with Safely and now building Velaris Insurance, Andrew brings a practical perspective on claims, specialization, product design, and what it takes to create insurance programs that better match real customer needs. Velaris positions itself as a single coverage program built for professional property managers.

Website:  https://velarisinsurance.com/

Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/aebate/

🔗 Stay Connected & Follow the Movement:
🎧 Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube

📲 Follow Age of the MGA on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/age-of-the-mga/

🧠 Connect with the Hosts:
Doug Ver Mulm
https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglasvermulm/

Dylan Brand
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanbrand/

Peter Tilbrook
https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-tilbrook-50832336/

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"

Chapters:

00:00 Intro
11:30 Andrew on underestimating insurance complexity
21:05 Why claims speed changed the customer experience
24:55 Solving the customer problem before formalizing the system
33:30 Why MGAs can build what generalist brokers cannot
38:20 Embedded distribution and the education bottleneck
51:45 Building insurance around the business need

This podcast exists to help MGA builders think more clearly about what actually works, what breaks, and what it really takes to build durable businesses in this market.

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 across than the U.S.
✅ What makes a pan-European MGA model harder in practice than it sounds in theory
✅ Why local MGA businesses and global capacity markets create a structural mismatch
✅ How FAST is being built as a network-effects platform, not just an association
✅ Why regulatory variation still shapes MGA growth and operating decisions in Europe
✅ Where AI may create underwriting efficiency gains for MGAs before large carriers
✅ Why the long-term opportunity is bigger than one event or one organization

Why This Matters for MGAs
If you are building, operating, or investing in MGAs, this episode is powerful because it gets past surface-level talk about market opportunity and into the real constraints underneath expansion.  It is a conversation about structure, not slogans, and it helps explain what serious growth across the European insurance market actually requires.

About the Guest
William Pitt is a leader focused on delegated authority and the European MGA ecosystem.  In this conversation, he shares his perspective on FAST, the realities of pan-European MGA growth, and the structural forces shaping how MGAs, capacity providers, and insurance innovation connect across the region.

Connect with William on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-pitt-671a7413/

🔗 Stay Connected & Follow the Movement:
🎧 Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube

📲 Follow Age of the MGA on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/age-of-the-mga/

🧠 Connect with the Hosts:
Doug Ver Mulm
https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglasvermulm/

Dylan Brand
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanbrand/

Peter Tilbrook
https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-tilbrook-50832336/

* 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"

This podcast exists to help MGA builders think more clearly about what actually works, what breaks, and what it really takes to build durable businesses in this market.

* 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.

This is also a timely episode because Scout is the sponsor for this conversation, and much of the discussion focuses on the Scout InsurTech conference, the kind of people it is built for, and why serious operators in the MGA and insurtech ecosystem should pay attention.

What This Episode Covers:

✅ why Chris says Scout is an ecosystem company, not just an event company
✅ how Scout curates rooms around people who can actually make decisions
✅ why early-stage companies need qualified access more than booths and noise
✅ how Scout helps make the right introductions before the conference even starts
✅ the tension between growth and preserving curation as Scout scales
✅ why insurance is still a relationship game, not a one-time event game
✅ how enterprise insurance sales really work, including budgets, sponsors, and timing
✅ what to expect from this year’s Scout InsurTech conference, workshops, MGA programming, and social events

For MGAs, ecosystem partners, and insurtech founders, this episode matters because it gets into a real question: what actually makes an industry event worth your time? Chris gives a clear answer. It is not size. It is not noise. It is quality of access, repeated engagement, and putting the right people in the room.

About the Guest
Chris Luiz is the CEO of Scout. He works across insurance, technology, and innovation, helping connect carriers, brokers, investors, and emerging companies through year-round programming and the Scout InsurTech conference.

🔗 Stay Connected & Follow the Movement:
🎧 Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube

📲 Follow Age of the MGA on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/age-of-the-mga/

🧠 Connect with the Hosts:
Doug Ver Mulm
https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglasvermulm/

Dylan Brand
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanbrand/

Peter Tilbrook
https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-tilbrook-50832336/

This podcast exists to help builders think more clearly about how modern MGAs and the broader insurance ecosystem are actually built.

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 loops. 

This is a practical episode for MGA founders, operators, investors, and ecosystem builders trying to understand what actually slows a launch down and what it takes to build a more durable platform from day one. 

What You’ll Learn

✔ Why Chris believed a good MGA program should not take 9 to 12 months to launch
✔ Why Vivere thinks InsurTech 1.0 got the order wrong
✔ What “underwriting-driven, tech-enabled” actually means in practice
✔ Why Vivere chose to build its core systems in-house
✔ How carrier due diligence can quietly add weeks to launch timelines
✔ What Dani is watching on the operations side as the platform scales
✔ Why claims visibility should inform underwriting, pricing, and future data inputs
✔ How Vivere is thinking about adding new lines of business without losing discipline 

This is the kind of episode that makes MGA builders think harder about sequencing, control, and what really creates operating leverage early.

👉 Watch the full conversation and subscribe for more real MGA operator insight.

Stay Connected & Follow the Movement

🎧 Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts & YouTube
📲 Follow Age of the MGA on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/age-of-the-mga/

Connect with the Hosts:

Doug Ver Mulm → https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglasvermulm/
Dylan Brand → https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanbrand/
Peter Tilbrook → https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-tilbrook-50832336/

Connect with Our Guests:

Chris McKechnie → https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-mckechnie-21aa3a2/
Dani Lefland → https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-lefland/
Vivere website → https://www.viverepartners.com/ 
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🌀 Sponsored by Typhon Risk — The MGA’s Strategic Growth Partner

Most MGAs don’t stall because of lack of ambition.
They stall because operations don’t scale with intent.

Typhon Risk helps MGAs build the operational backbone required to grow with discipline—from underwriting and claims to distribution and vendor strategy.

🔹 Learn more → https://www.typhonrisk.com
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