AI is moving from helping people do their jobs to performing more of the work itself.

That creates a new question for insurance: when AI takes an action, makes an error, or produces an outcome that causes harm, who owns the risk?

Jeremy Epstein, Founder & CEO of Mayflower Specialty, joins the Age of the MGA to unpack how his team is approaching that problem.

The conversation goes well beyond whether AI is simply another cyber exposure. Jeremy explains how Mayflower thinks about underwriting AI based on what the technology is actually being allowed to do, the authority it has, the humans and controls surrounding it, and how consequential a failure could become.

The discussion also gets into coverage ambiguity, D&O, professional liability, employment-related exposures, regulation, distribution, claims, and what it takes to build a new insurance category while the underlying technology is still changing.

IN THIS EPISODE:

✅ How Mayflower thinks about underwriting what AI actually does inside a business
✅ Why AI liability is not simply another version of cyber risk
✅ How authority, human oversight, controls, models, and consequentiality affect the exposure
✅ Where D&O, professional liability, and employment-related risks can intersect with AI
✅ Why existing policies can create ambiguity over which coverage responds to an AI-related loss
✅ Why stronger AI capabilities may require stronger controls
✅ How brokers and insurers are navigating a category that is still being defined
✅ Why Jeremy is deliberately selective about the risks Mayflower takes as the MGA grows

For serious MGA founders, operators, investors, and ecosystem partners, this episode matters because Mayflower is building around a risk that is already developing but is far from fully understood. That means making decisions about underwriting, coverage, distribution, controls, appetite, capacity, and growth without waiting for the market to become perfectly clear.

Jeremy's approach is not to try to insure every possible AI exposure. It's to define where Mayflower believes it can underwrite responsibly, work with the right risk partners, and build from there.



GUEST INFORMATION
Jeremy Epstein
Founder & CEO of Mayflower Specialty

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaepstein00002/
Website: https://mayflowerspecialty.com/


CONNECT WITH THE HOSTS
Doug Ver Mulm
CEO, Turris
https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglasvermulm/

Dylan Brand
President, Typhoon Risk
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanbrand/

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

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



THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSOR, TURRIS

Turris helps insurance carriers, MGAs, brokers, and agents automate producer onboarding and appointments, compliance, payments, and other back-office workflows.

The platform is being built to bring financial and compliance infrastructure together in one place: helping insurance teams reduce manual work while creating a better experience for their distribution partners.

Learn more about Turris: https://www.turrisfi.com/


CHAPTERS

00:00 — Introduction
07:22 — Jeremy’s Path From Underwriting to Mayflower
11:45 — Why Mayflower Is Building Around AI Risk
14:16 — Creating a New Insurance Category
19:25 — How Do You Underwrite AI?
22:38 — Why AI Risk Is Different From Cyber
28:10 — Where Existing Coverage Meets AI
32:07 — Coverage Gaps, Claims & Controls
46:18 — Where AI Risk Goes Next
51:57 — Choosing Which AI Risks to Underwrite
01:04:33 —  The Legacy Jeremy Wants Mayflower to Build 

How fast can an MGA grow before the business starts outrunning the systems underneath it?

In this episode of Age of the MGA, Nyles Oppenheimer, Chief Revenue Officer at Cover Whale, joins Doug Ver Mulm, Dylan Brand, and Peter Tilbrook for a practical conversation about what it actually takes to scale an MGA without sacrificing the discipline that makes the model work.

Nyles talks openly about Cover Whale's own experience growing quickly, learning from mistakes, and eventually reaching a point where the business had outrun the infrastructure it had built.

That opens up a much bigger conversation about MGA growth.

When does technology create real leverage and when do founders expect too much from it?

How do you use AI, telemetry, and data without removing the insurance knowledge and underwriting discipline underneath the decision?

Can a weak upfront risk decision really be fixed during claims?

And what happens when the growth expectations attached to outside capital move faster than the underwriting economics of the business?

Alex Bond, Founder and Managing Partner of FinPro, joins the conversation with another perspective on capital and growth: why aggressive growth expectations can come into conflict with underwriting discipline and capacity realities.


WHAT THIS EPISODE COVERS

• Why Cover Whale learned that an MGA can grow too quickly
• What happens when growth outruns operating infrastructure
• Why technology does not replace insurance experience
• How AI, telemetry, and data can augment underwriting
• Why underwriting discipline still matters in a technology-enabled MGA
• Why bad upfront risk selection cannot simply be repaired during claims
• Why the source of investment capital matters
• How venture-capital growth expectations can collide with MGA economics
• Why capacity, underwriting, distribution, claims, technology, and growth cannot be managed in isolation

For MGA founders and operators, the question isn't simply how fast can we grow?

It's how fast can we grow without breaking the model that makes the business sustainable?



FEATURED GUESTS

Nyles Oppenheimer
 Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), Cover Whale
 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nyles-oppenheimer-8267617/
 Website: http://www.coverwhale.com/

Alex Bond
 Founder and Managing Partner, FinPro
 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexbondfinpro/
 Website: http://www.wearefinpro.com/



CONNECT WITH THE HOSTS

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

Dylan Brand
 President, Typhoon Risk
 https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanbrand/

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


🎧 Subscribe to Age of the MGA on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.

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



THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSOR, LORO!

If you're launching an MGA, consider Loro to digitize any product in record time, and distribute across an unlimited number of intermediaries.

With Loro, take your insurance products online anywhere in the world, immediately, for FREE.

Loro is an online platform, which enables Insurance Companies, Managing General Agencies and Brokers to transact business online, providing the full customer journey.

Loro gives distribution power, either through brokers or direct to consumer. With Loro Connect, sell your insurance product on any website immediately.

Loro is trusted by clients on four continents, and was in Cohort 11 of the prestigious Lloyd's Lab.

https://www.loro.io




CHAPTERS

00:00 — Introduction
09:46 — Nyles Oppenheimer's Path Into Insurance
12:43 — What Successful Insurtech Companies Understand About Insurance
15:00 — Building Distribution and Underwriting Discipline
18:57 — Why Technology Does Not Replace Experience
23:29 — Using AI, Telemetry and Data in Underwriting
32:00 — Why Claims Performance Starts With Underwriting
33:49 — The Agent's Role in Claims Advocacy
42:00 — Alex Bond Joins the Conversation
47:46 — Not All Investment Capital Is Equal
50:09 — Do VC Growth Expectations Fit the MGA Model?
52:44 — What Cover Whale Learned From Growing Too Quickly
54:29 — Can an MGA Write $1 Billion in Year One?

Patti Harman is Head of Content at ITC Vegas (InsureTech Connect), where she helps shape the topics, speakers, and conversations brought to the insurance industry.

In this episode of Age of the MGA, Patti joins Doug Ver Mulm, Dylan Brand, and Peter Tilbrook to look at something MGA founders can easily underestimate: what can happen when the right people in insurance actually get in the same room.

For an MGA, relationships are not separate from building the business. They can connect founders to capital, customers, capacity, carriers, technology partners, and people with experience they do not yet have.

Peter shares how attending ITC led to Loro meeting its first venture investor and one of its biggest customers. Patti explains why creating those cross-ecosystem conversations is intentional—and why insurance businesses cannot operate in silos.


WHAT THIS EPISODE COVERS

✅ How the right insurance conversation can develop into a real business relationship
✅ How Loro met its first venture investor and one of its biggest customers through ITC
✅ Why MGA founders looking for capital should seek investors who understand insurance economics
✅ Why MGAs depend on relationships across capital, capacity, carriers, technology, and distribution
✅ How ITC approaches content around industry pain points and emerging risks instead of relying only on product pitches
✅ Why AI is creating new insurance risks alongside new opportunities
✅ Why transferring institutional insurance knowledge to younger professionals matters
✅ How founders can approach a large industry event without needing every meeting planned in advance

For serious MGA founders, operators, investors, and ecosystem partners, this episode matters because an MGA does not get built in isolation. The people around the business can become investors, customers, strategic partners, sources of capacity, and experienced operators who challenge the model.

The lesson is not to network for the sake of networking. It is to understand which relationships the business actually needs and create the right conversations around them.



ABOUT THE GUEST

Patti Harman is Head of Content at ITC Vegas (InsureTech Connect). She brings a background covering insurance and disaster restoration and, in this episode, explains how ITC approaches industry content, emerging risks, ecosystem relationships, and creating opportunities for different parts of insurance to learn from one another.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pattiharman/

Website: https://vegas.insuretechconnect.com/



STAY CONNECTED AND 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: ITC Vegas (InsureTech Connect)

ITC is the largest global gathering, networking platform, and knowledge base of innovators, industry incumbents, and investors in the insurtech arena.

We aim to connect members of our ecosystem and enhance the insurance industry via unparalleled content and transactional opportunities throughout the year and at our yearly events in Singapore & Las Vegas.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Intro
05:17 Patti Harman joins the show
07:02 Patti's path through insurance
10:25 What makes industry content worth paying attention to
17:07 How ITC relationships turn into real opportunities
20:14 Why insurance businesses cannot operate in a silo
24:14 AI risk and the lessons from cyber
27:31 Connecting startups with investors and strategic partners
28:12 Bringing MGAs, funders, and insurance startups together
31:37 How to prepare for ITC Vegas
40:00 Capacity Connect from the MGA perspective
48:09 The investors MGA founders should meet
56:34 Investing in the Next Generation



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.

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

Register for the Scout InsurTech Conference: https://www.scoutinsurtech.com/conference

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:
https://www.scoutinsurtech.com/conference

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:
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:
https://www.scoutinsurtech.com/conference

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/

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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/

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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.