InsurTechTalk

Cheri Martinen never planned to sell her family's insurance agency. Then she took a meeting that surprised her. In Episode 161 of InsurTechTalk, the fourth-generation agent and Managing Principal at OneDigital shares what made the difference — and drops one of the most practically urgent insights of the season: standard GL policies are now excluding AI-generated content, effective April 2026....

Curtis Barton started ALKEME in the middle of COVID with seven agencies and $25 million in combined revenue. Five years later, it is a $350M+ brokerage operating in 35 states with over 85 acquisitions and backing from GCP Capital and Apollo S3.In Episode 160 of InsurTechTalk, Curtis breaks down the consolidation playbook in a way most people in the industry are not willing to say out loud — why mo...

What if AI's role in insurance claims isn't to replace the adjuster — but to be a second set of eyes that never gets tired? Heather Wilson, CEO of CLARA Analytics, joins InsurTechTalk episode 159 to explain how her company's claims AI platform — trained on roughly 10 million claims over a decade — surrounds every workers comp, auto liability, and general liability case 24/7, looking fo...

AI is everywhere in insurance right now — but is the industry actually ready for it? In episode 157 of InsurTech Talk, Gilad Shai sits down with Jack Siney, co-founder and CRO of FrontRace, to discuss the gap between AI hype and operational reality. Jack explains why most insurance organizations still struggle with disconnected systems, weak data infrastructure, outdated workflows, and incomplete...

What if insurance could pay out automatically — no adjuster, no claim dispute, no waiting? Sid Jha, CEO of Arbol, left a career trading commodities at Citadel to build exactly that. In Episode 158 of InsurTechTalk, Sid breaks down how Arbol went from a blockchain white paper in 2018 to a vertically integrated insurance platform spanning MGAs, a property carrier, and reinsurance — all purpose-built...

Surety bonds are one of the least understood—but most critical—segments in the insurance ecosystem. In Episode 156 of InsurTech Talk, I sit down with Gary Eastman, founder of SwiftBonds, to break down how this “unsexy” category quietly supports trillions of dollars in economic activity—and why it’s becoming increasingly relevant again. Gary started as an attorney doing probate work, discovered cou...

What happens when your core product works perfectly — but your customers still don't stick around? Adam Price, CEO of Kinetic Comp, joins InsurTechTalk episode 155 to unpack one of the most honest startup pivot stories in InsurTech: how Kinetic went from a wearable device company to a $100M+ workers comp MGA powered by claims oversight software — and why that shift was driven entirely by liste...

Most insurance leaders focus on distribution, underwriting, or AI. But there’s a quieter constraint slowing everything down: producer compliance and onboarding. In episode 154 of InsurTechTalk, Gilad Shai sits down with Luis Pino, CEO of ProducerFlow, to unpack the infrastructure layer behind insurance distribution—how carriers, MGAs, and agencies actually get producers licensed, appointed, and re...

In Episode 153 of InsurtechTalk, Gilad Shai sits down with Will Johnson, CEO and Co-Founder of Gyde, to unpack one of the most overlooked—and misunderstood—segments in insurance: health insurance distribution. This conversation goes beyond the AI hype cycle. It dives into the real bottleneck in insurance: the broker. Will shares how Gyde is building an AI-powered platform designed to help agency o...

Episode 152 of InsurTechTalk Kasey Roh--Head of US, Upstage AI: Building the “Perfect Marriage” Between OCR and LLMs. What happens when AI stops trying to boil the ocean—and instead solves one of the most painful, expensive problems in enterprise workflows? In this episode, I sit down with Kasey Roh, Head of US at Upstage AI, to unpack how a focused, infrastructure-first approach to AI is quietly...

InsurTech Under Fire — Resilience, Insurtech, and the Future of Insurance with Kobi BendelakWhat does resilience actually look like? In this episode, we sit down with Kobi Bendelak, who shares an unbelievable story: leading a delegation of 20 startups and 40 people out of Israel during wartime—when all flights were canceled. The solution? A 40-hour journey through the desert, crossing into Egypt,...

What happens when AI doesn’t just support insurance workflows—but replaces them? In Episode 150 of InsurTechTalk, James Benham breaks down what’s really happening inside insurance companies right now:Why ~30% of the workforce is stuck in manual clerical workThe growing shortage of underwriters and adjustersHow AI is reshaping core systems, workflows, and decision-makingWhy most “AI adoption” today...

Episode 149 — InsurtechTalk | Kitt Doucette (Co-Founder, Wildfire Insurance Solution Hub)Wildfire risk is no longer just a catastrophe event—it’s a systemic failure in how insurance understands, prices, and communicates risk. In this episode, Kitt Doucette breaks down why wildfire conflagration is fundamentally different from traditional fire risk—and why the insurance industry must treat it as it...

AI is everywhere in insurance conversations—but what does it actually change inside a brokerage? In Episode 148, I sit down with Anupam Gupta, Chief Product Officer at Applied Systems, one of the largest insurtech platforms serving insurance agencies and brokers worldwide. We discuss how the agency management system (AMS) is evolving from a simple system of record into a system of action—powered b...

InsurTechTalk Episode 147AI, Claims Automation, and the Future of Insurance | Juan (Tuio) on Building an AI-Native InsurerIn this episode of InsurTechTalk, we sit down with Juan, co-founder of Tuio, a fast-growing Spanish insurtech that is rethinking personal insurance using AI, automation, and behavioral data. Tuio launched in 2021 to serve a segment that traditional insurers struggle with: digit...

Episode 146 | Climate Tech, Construction Innovation & Insurance RiskWhat does climate tech have to do with construction and insurance? In the first InsureTech Talk episode of 2026, I sit down with Josh Dorfman — climate entrepreneur and Founder of Planted — to unpack the intersection of climate innovation, supply chain resilience, advanced manufacturing, and insurability. Josh shares:- How Planted...

🎙️ InsurTechTalk, Episode 145 | Inside the Operating Layer of Insurance with XceedanceIn this episode, I sit down with Katey Walker, Chief of Staff at Xceedance, to unpack the part of insurance most people misunderstand—and underestimate: operations. We discuss why Xceedance doesn’t sell insurance or deploy capital, how vertical domain expertise combined with AI is reshaping underwriting, claims,...

🎙️ Episode 144 — AI, Automation, and the Real Work Behind Insurance OperationsIn Episode 144 of InsurTechTalk, I sat down with Sasha Haco, Founder & CEO of Unitary.ai, for a wide-ranging conversation that cuts through the AI hype in insurance. We explore why not every workflow needs AI, why deterministic automation still matters, and how the smartest teams are blending software, RPA, and AI reason...

🎯 From SEO Gold Rush to AI-Driven Insurance FunnelsIn Episode 143, Gilad Shai sat down with Brian Greenberg to unpack one of the most complete real-world journeys in modern insurance distribution. The conversation traces Brian’s path from selling life insurance face-to-face at MetLife, to building and scaling a top-ranking life insurance website during the SEO “golden years,” exiting the operatin...

🎙️ #insurtechtalk Episode 140 I sat down with Lior Keren of Pumpkin to explore the intersection of pet care and insurance.🐾 Pet insurance isn’t just about policies — it’s about trust at the vet’s office. 👉 The Vet Channel — where education, trust, and adoption really happen. This was a fun and fluffy conversation (pun intended 🐶🐱) with real insights for anyone building in the pet care ecosyste...

🎙️ On #InsurTechTalk Episode 141, Stephanie Mier, Chief Insurance Officer for ServiceUp, talks about modernizing Direct Repair Programs (DRP) in the insurance and auto repair industry. Discover how ServiceUp is leveraging technology, AI, and strong partnerships to streamline claims, reduce repair times, and create better outcomes for carriers, fleets, repair shops, and consumers. If you want to un...

🎙️ On #InsurTechTalk Episode 141 (clip 1), Stephanie Mier, Chief Insurance Officer for ServiceUp, joined me to discuss ServiceUp and its game-changing partnership with Clearcover! She highlights why Clearcover is one of their most important partners:Tech & Scale: The technology is highly scalable! 📈 Clearcover played a key role in developing the insurance vertical at ServiceUp. Collaboration: The...

From Dynamite to Reinsurance Tech: The Wild Origin Story Behind INTX Insurance Software. In this episode, we go on an unexpectedly fascinating journey — starting with coyotes and foxes, moving through African farming and UK wildlife, and ending in the heart of what this conversation is really about: insurance, reinsurance, and building modern core systems for carriers. Our guest, Robert Lewis , ha...

🎙️ #insurtechtalk, Episode 138 Dan Bratshpis, the CEO and co-founder of INSHUR, and Gilad Shai discuss INSHUR, the impact of the on-demand economy on the autonomous driving industry, and the new risks that the insurance industry needs to cover. Chapters: 0:01 Introduction 6:32 INSHUR 11:53 Adapting to the market1 7:22 The future of autonomous vehicles and insurance 24:00 Challenges in the TPA indu...

💡 Start small. Measure fast. Let data lead. 🎙️ On #InsurTechTalk Episode 140 (clip 2), Lior Keren from Pumpkin explains why MGAs should pilot early and let real data—not assumptions—drive scale. “It’s easy to try to boil the ocean. Run a pilot, get real data fast. The real data is the king here.” 📊 You can’t optimize what you haven’t validated. #InsurTech #MGA #DataDriven #InsuranceInnovation #P...