James M. Benham is an accomplished insurance technologist, bootstrapped entrepreneur, and CEO & Co-Founder of JBKnowledge, Terra, and SmartCompliance. He is also a Co-Founder of SmartBid, which was later sold to ConstructConnect. James is the author of the new book "Be Your Own VC" and has extensive experience in technology strategy consulting, custom enterprise software architecture and development, Software as a Service (SaaS) design and deployment, and sales and marketing.

At JBKnowledge, James has served as CEO and Co-Founder since April 2001. The company collaborates with various entities in the insurance industry to provide IT team augmentation, custom software development, and more.

As CEO and Co-Founder of Terra since April 2019, James leads a team that simplifies insurance management operations, offering a comprehensive claims management, policy management, claims benchmarking, and data analytics solution.

Since April 2010, James has been the CEO and Co-Founder of SmartCompliance, which specializes in the certificate of insurance tracking and compliance management software for brokers, insurance consultants, and risk managers. Their software automates COI tracking and collection, streamlining processes and ensuring compliance.

James also holds positions as a Regent on the Texas Southern University Board of Regents, appointed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, and as an Adjunct Professor and Guest Lecturer in the Construction Science Department at Texas A&M University. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree in Accounting and a Master of Science (MS) in Management Information Systems from Texas A&M University.

Ways to Connect with James:

Get a copy of his book through this link: https://jamesbenham.com/book

Full show notes here: https://episodes.thegaspodcast.com/b/james-benham

What’s in this podcast episode?

00:00 Intro

02:31 Who is our guest, and what problem does he solve with his business

05:07 What can he say about working as a team at JBKnowledge

06:53 The story behind his company and the group of people he is collaborating with to make everything happen

10:23 The secret to how he has been able to maintain good relationships with his peers for more than 20 years

13:13 What did one of his teammates tell him that he felt a lot to put on considering his young age at that time

14:40 The outcomes when you are enjoying and interacting with people you work with when growing and scaling a business

16:17 His favorite and biggest lesson that he learned from their growth journey

21:26 The hardest things they've dealt with in their growth and scaling journey

24:28 Details about his book "Be Your Own VC"

25:34 Who are the people on his network that impacted his growth

28:44 Where to follow James to know more about him and his business

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