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Consolidation Without Chaos: How ALKEME Integrates and Grows at Scale
Introduction
In this episode of the Insurtech Leadership Podcast, host Joshua Hollander sits down with Curtis Barton, CEO and founding visionary of ALKEME Insurance, to explore how ALKEME built one of the fastest-growing brokerage platforms in the country - not by outspending the competition, but by out-integrating them. Curtis shares the unconventional origin story behind ALKEME, his philosophy on alignment, and why firms that invest in people, systems, and technology will define the next era of insurance distribution.
Guest Bio
Curtis Barton is CEO and founding visionary of ALKEME Insurance. He began his insurance career in 1996 and founded Venture Pacific Insurance, a regional brokerage in Southern California, before co-founding Brokkrr, a digital lead generation insurtech platform. Curtis orchestrated the complex merger of seven independent agencies to form ALKEME, championing a people-powered, tech-enabled business model. Under his leadership, ALKEME has grown to a top-25 brokerage with over 1,000 employees across 50+ locations nationwide.
Key Topics
• Integration-first vs. rapid roll-up - Why ALKEME chose to build a unified platform from day one rather than stack EBITDA through fast acquisitions, and how that decision shapes every partnership conversation.
• One class of stock, true alignment - ALKEME issues a single class of equity to every partner - no preferred, no investor stock. Curtis explains why this structure is the foundation of cohesive alignment.
• The compression problem in brokerage multiples - How the spread between entry and exit multiples has collapsed, creating liquidity risk for agencies that relied on financial engineering over operational improvement.
• Why agency owners join (not sell) - Most principals aren't looking for exits - they're looking for resources, technology, and scale they can't build alone. ALKEME's pitch is about what changes after close.
• SOPs, systems, and reinvestment as growth levers - How deploying standardized processes and technology into historically under-resourced agencies unlocks organic growth at the producer level.
• AI as augmentation, not replacement - ALKEME's approach to AI: position producers to be the most valuable asset in the transaction by giving them better tools, not replacing them with automation.
• Building leadership that scales - Why Curtis believes no one is a "forever employee" and how ALKEME constantly evolves its leadership to match the company's growth trajectory.
Quotes
• "We just decided to do our own thing and do it differently. We ended up recruiting nine of my friends out of a cluster that we were all part of that had their own agencies."
• "One dollar of organic can give you seven of inorganic capacity, and you've got to look at it from that perspective."
• "There is no preferred, there is no investor stock. They have the same exact share that I have that any of our partners have. And that's called alignment."
• "Most of these people don't want to sell their agency. They just know that they're going to get outscaled and out-resourced."
• "We were already edging towards a people-powered, tech-enabled business, and we talk constantly about how do we position our people to be the most valuable asset in the transaction."
Resources
• ALKEME Insurance: alkemeins.com
• Curtis Barton on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/curtis-barton-8103682/
Subscribe & Review
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the Insurtech Leadership Podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Leave a review - it helps other insurance and technology professionals find the show.
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By The Insurtech Leadership Podcast
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Introduction
In this episode of the Insurtech Leadership Podcast, host Joshua Hollander sits down with Curtis Barton, CEO and founding visionary of ALKEME Insurance, to explore how ALKEME built one of the fastest-growing brokerage platforms in the country - not by outspending the competition, but by out-integrating them. Curtis shares the unconventional origin story behind ALKEME, his philosophy on alignment, and why firms that invest in people, systems, and technology will define the next era of insurance distribution.
Guest Bio
Curtis Barton is CEO and founding visionary of ALKEME Insurance. He began his insurance career in 1996 and founded Venture Pacific Insurance, a regional brokerage in Southern California, before co-founding Brokkrr, a digital lead generation insurtech platform. Curtis orchestrated the complex merger of seven independent agencies to form ALKEME, championing a people-powered, tech-enabled business model. Under his leadership, ALKEME has grown to a top-25 brokerage with over 1,000 employees across 50+ locations nationwide.
Key Topics
• Integration-first vs. rapid roll-up - Why ALKEME chose to build a unified platform from day one rather than stack EBITDA through fast acquisitions, and how that decision shapes every partnership conversation.
• One class of stock, true alignment - ALKEME issues a single class of equity to every partner - no preferred, no investor stock. Curtis explains why this structure is the foundation of cohesive alignment.
• The compression problem in brokerage multiples - How the spread between entry and exit multiples has collapsed, creating liquidity risk for agencies that relied on financial engineering over operational improvement.
• Why agency owners join (not sell) - Most principals aren't looking for exits - they're looking for resources, technology, and scale they can't build alone. ALKEME's pitch is about what changes after close.
• SOPs, systems, and reinvestment as growth levers - How deploying standardized processes and technology into historically under-resourced agencies unlocks organic growth at the producer level.
• AI as augmentation, not replacement - ALKEME's approach to AI: position producers to be the most valuable asset in the transaction by giving them better tools, not replacing them with automation.
• Building leadership that scales - Why Curtis believes no one is a "forever employee" and how ALKEME constantly evolves its leadership to match the company's growth trajectory.
Quotes
• "We just decided to do our own thing and do it differently. We ended up recruiting nine of my friends out of a cluster that we were all part of that had their own agencies."
• "One dollar of organic can give you seven of inorganic capacity, and you've got to look at it from that perspective."
• "There is no preferred, there is no investor stock. They have the same exact share that I have that any of our partners have. And that's called alignment."
• "Most of these people don't want to sell their agency. They just know that they're going to get outscaled and out-resourced."
• "We were already edging towards a people-powered, tech-enabled business, and we talk constantly about how do we position our people to be the most valuable asset in the transaction."
Resources
• ALKEME Insurance: alkemeins.com
• Curtis Barton on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/curtis-barton-8103682/
Subscribe & Review
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the Insurtech Leadership Podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Leave a review - it helps other insurance and technology professionals find the show.