In this episode, Marc Frenkel, CFO of Coterie Insurance, discusses his path from investment banking and insurance finance to helping scale a tech enabled MGA focused on simplifying commercial P&C insurance for small businesses.
Marc began his career in investment banking at Rothschild, where an early insurance restructuring assignment introduced him to the complexity of the industry. He later worked at AmTrust Financial and FinLync before joining Coterie, where he saw an opportunity to work on a meaningful problem in small business insurance.
Coterie focuses on micro commercial insurance, serving very small businesses, solo entrepreneurs, side hustles, and local service providers that are often underinsured or unaware of their commercial insurance needs. Marc explains why this part of the market has historically been difficult to serve and why technology, data, and agents all matter in making the model work.
What Coterie Is Solving
A big theme in the conversation is the friction in small business insurance.
For many micro commercial customers, the insurance need is real, but the premium is small. That makes the traditional underwriting process difficult because agents may need to gather a lot of information for a policy that generates limited commission.
Marc discusses how Coterie uses technology, data, and publicly available information to make the process faster and more efficient. Marc describes the goal as helping agents quote and bind coverage more efficiently while reducing the amount of manual work required to understand the business.
The discussion also highlights a counterintuitive point: Coterie is not only competing with other insurance providers. It is also addressing underinsured businesses and low awareness of commercial insurance needs.
CFO Lens: Scaling an Insurtech MGA
Peter and Marc discuss the metrics that matter when scaling an insurtech MGA.
Marc explains that while EBITDA matters, the deeper operating model depends heavily on loss ratio. Because Coterie does not retain balance sheet risk, it relies on capacity providers that need confidence in the quality of the premium being written.
That makes underwriting discipline central to the business.
Growth is important, but Marc emphasizes that not all growth is equal. Growing with poor quality premium may create short term revenue, but it can damage capacity relationships and undermine the business later. For Coterie, quality growth means expanding premium while maintaining the loss ratio and protecting the trust of capacity providers.
Capital Strategy and Quality Growth
The conversation turns to how capital allocation changes as a company moves from startup mode to scale mode.
Marc describes how investment decisions looked different when Coterie was earlier stage and not yet profitable. At that time, payback period mattered heavily because the company had to preserve cash and manage toward break even.
Now that Coterie is profitable and better capitalized, the company can think more strategically about long term value creation. Marc discusses investments in technology, platform capabilities, and product expansion, including how existing distribution, data, and infrastructure may create an advantage in adjacent opportunities.
A key idea is capital efficient growth: finding opportunities where the company can expand without creating unnecessary complexity.
Building the CFO Office
Marc also shares what he focused on after joining Coterie.
He joined during a difficult period for insurtech and the broader venture market, when capital was no longer easy to raise. That shaped his early priorities as CFO. The goal was to build a plan to reach cash flow break even, reduce reliance on capital markets, and give the company more control over its own destiny.
The discussion covers forecasting, contribution margin, fixed and variable expenses, board communication, and KPI discipline.
Marc also explains why finance needs the right level of data granularity. Looking at the business only in total can hide important dynamics. Coterie sells through partners, so understanding performance at the partner level helps the team identify where growth is slowing, where competition may be increasing, and where the product or distribution strategy needs to adjust.
Key Takeaways
• Micro commercial insurance is a large market, but historically difficult to serve efficiently
• Coterie uses technology, data, and agents to reduce friction in quote to bind
• For an MGA, loss ratio is a critical constraint because it supports capacity provider trust
• Quality growth matters more than simply growing premium
• Capital allocation changes as a company moves from cash preservation to profitable scale mode
• CFOs need to understand where granular data improves decisions and where it creates unnecessary noise
• Reaching cash flow break even can change a company's strategic flexibility and control over its future
Chapter Summary
(01:47) Marc Frenkel shares his career path from Rothschild and AmTrust Financial to FinLync and Coterie Insurance.
(03:10) Marc explains the small business insurance problem Coterie is solving and why micro commercial P&C insurance is hard to serve efficiently.
(05:37) The discussion turns to how Coterie uses technology, data, and agents to improve quote to bind.
(10:09) Marc outlines the CFO metrics that matter in an insurtech MGA, including premium growth, loss ratio, capacity, and underwriting discipline.
(13:59) Peter and Marc discuss quality growth and why bad premium can create problems later.
(16:15) Marc explains how Coterie thinks about capital allocation, product expansion, and long term investment priorities.
(21:32) The conversation turns to investors, capacity providers, risk appetite, and board communication.
(23:10) Marc discusses building the CFO office, including reporting cadence, forecasting, systems, and finance maturity.
(28:12) Marc shares how finance uses data to understand business performance at the right level of detail.
(32:20) Marc reflects on risk, judgment, and the need for finance leaders to move between risk on and risk off modes.
(34:49) Marc shares the lucky break that led him to Coterie and how a principled stand changed his career path.
Resources
Coterie Insurance: https://coterieinsurance.com
Marc Frenkel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-frenkel-66287931
Stay Updated:
Please visit Brio360 for other episodes and resources on driving value creation
https://brio360.com
Follow our host:
Peter Ho
https://linkedin.com/in/peterhocm
Know a great guest for Value Drivers? Pitch founders, CEOs, CFOs, operators, or investors with standout capital allocation and scaling stories:
[email protected]
Please note that information provided in the podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and is not a recommendation to take any particular action, nor an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or services presented. It is not investment advice. Brio360 does not provide legal or tax advice.
