Profiles in Risk

Tony chats with Spencer McDonald, CEO at Expert Insured, a systems providers focused on MGAs, Wholesales, and Carriers. They offer a modern Policy Admin System at a priced that is reasonable from a startup MGA to organizations with 1,000+ employees. It includes documents, policies, accountings, everything all in one. A end-to-end solution for the MGA space.

Expert Insured: https://www.expertinsured.com/
Spencer McDonald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mcdonaldspencer/

I chat with MJ Saffer, Founder & Owner at EthosVAS, they help insurance agencies scale without losing margins or risk compliance issues through highly specialized Virtual Assistants. They build custom back-office solutions using trained, compliant virtual staff supported by proven processes. All with a strong focus on compliance.

MJ Saffer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mj-saffer/
EthosVAS: https://www.ethosvas.com/

I chat with Jon Dewald, CEO at HelixIntel, they are building the predict and prevent engine for equipment breakdown and P&C. Their platform connects insurance companies directly with the maintenance departments of the large commercial property risks they insure in a way that helps prevent losses before they happen. It can lower preventable losses by up to 70%.

Jon Dewald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-dewald-942b2916/
HelixIntel: https://helixintel.com/

Tony chats with Yo Sub Kwon, Co-Founder & CEO at Voltaire, a technology provider that automates the writing of claims correspondence. They help make the fastest way to close the claim the highest quality one. It generates accurate and compliant letters, in as little as 30 seconds.

Yo Sub Kwon: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jchysk/
Voltaire: https://voltaire.claims/

I chat with Vinod Kumar, Head of Product Marketing Agentic Location Intelligence at TomTom. They have evolved from a navigation company to a B2B company offering location technology that can be invaluable for auto insurance. A fascinating conversation!

I chat with Bobbie Shrivastav, Co-Founder & CEO at Solvrays, they allow back office operations unifying data, documents, and systems so that when work comes in it makes it easy to understand, decision, and complete. All on top of the systems you already use, without having to rip and replace.

Bobbie Shrinivas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbieshrivastav/
Solvrays: https://www.solvrays.com/

I chat with Raj Utraja, Founder & CEO at Persisto.ai, they are a Commercial Underwriting platform that empowers you with AI Agents that work as your Junior Commercial Underwriters. They can analyze the files like a human would, assess the risk, rate, and send it back to the broker. A very interesting conversation!

Raj Utraja: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajnishutraja/
Persisto.ai: https://persisto.ai/

Steve Johnson, Founder & Chief Product Officer at Insured.io and author of the Insurance UX Survival Guide. They are a complete customer experience platform, providing all of the channels that an insured might use to interact with an insurance company, as a bolt-on solution to any carrier management system. It allows you to easily deploy a policyholder portal, inbound and outbound text messaging, AI virtual agents, FNOL, etc. It allows smaller carrier to rival the experience of larger carriers at a significantly lower cost.

Steve Johnson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-johnson--/
Insured.io: https://www...

Tony chats with Dylan DiMarchi, Co-Founder & CEO at Eventual, they are the NY based insurtech behind PremiumLock, they provide a 3-year price guarantee for US admitted homeowners insurance policies. Since 2021 the price of home insurance dramatically accelerated and it's becoming a huge deal, PremiumLock helps homeowners have predictability.

Dylan DiMarchi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylandimarchi/
Eventual: https://eventualclimate.com/

Tony chats with Kat Gordienko, Co-Founder & CEO at Builty, a building permits intelligence platform that translates permits into usable data and risk signals. This is a whole new way to underwrite property and it's very interesting!

Kat Gordienko: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katgord/
Builty: https://www.builtydata.com/

Tony chats with Sean Eldridge, Co-Founder & CEO at Crosstie, they are a workflow automation platform bringing to life the best AI solutions to reduce the admin burden for claims and service pros helping create a better experience for clients and policyholders.

Sean Eldridge: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seangeldridge/
CrossTie: https://crosstietech.com/

Tony chats with Mark Tepper, Co-Founder & CEO and Andrew Anderson, Co-Founder & Head of Sales at OraClaim PIR Final. They are an AI native platform specifically built for responding to and defending claims of any kind that have significant exposure. The enables great collaboration between defense attorneys and claims teams.

Mark Tepper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-tepper/
Andrew Anderson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyandersonai/
OraClaim: https://oraclaim.com/

Tony chats with Rafael Broshi, Co-Founder & CEO at Notch, an AI platform to build agents for complex use cases where the cost of mistakes is very high. The platform guarantees no hallucination and is deterministic instead of probabilistic.

Rafael Broshi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rafael-broshi-435a77105/
Notch: https://www.notch.cx/

Tony chats with Edgar Harutyunyan, CEO at Wamy, an AI Claims analyst for property insurance claims. It can bring down claims handling time from 20 hours to a few minutes.

Edgar Harutyunyan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edgar-harutyunyan-b600a8368/
Wamy: https://www.wamy.com/

Tony chats with Juan Garcia Fernandez, Co-Founder at Tuio, an AI-Native insurtech carrier in Spain targeting the younger generation. A very interesting origin story and a must listen-to episode!

Juan Garcia Fernandez: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juanga2/
Tuio: https://www.tuio.com

Tony chats with Mehdi Lhadj, Co-Founder & CEO at Floapi, they are a Montreal based company doing automation for MGAs and Agencies. They integrate into your AMS/BMS and phone systems and help eliminate manual and repetitive tasks.

Mehdi Lhadj: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mehdi-l-08b847204/
Floapi: https://floapi.ca/en/insurance-broker-automation/

Tony chats with Suren Pillai, Digital Marketing Consultant at Insurance SEO SEM, they are a digital marketing agency focused on insurance SEO. After leading SEO lead generation for AXA and Sompo he now makes those services available to all areas of insurance.

Suren Pillai: https://www.linkedin.com/in/surengyana/

Tony chats with Steve Pieroway, Principal at Benevolent Marketing, a marketing firm specialized in helping insurtechs. We also discuss the 2026 Benevolent Insurtech Trust Index and its findings.

Steve Pieroway: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevepieroway/
Benevolent Marketing: https://benevolentmarketing.com/

Tony chats with Mitch Cohen, Founder & CEO at ClearLine, a crisis communications readiness and response platform. They help companies manage reputation risk at the enterprise level. A very interesting conversation on an area of risk we don't think about often.

Mitch Cohen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cohenmitch/

Tony chats with Kelvin Johnson, CEO at Brevity Pitch. They offer a platform for people to practice high-stakes conversations with avatars that sound like a real human. They also offer AI roleplays and coaching. This can be a huge difference maker for sales teams!

Kelvin Johnson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelvin-johnson-cpa/
Brevity Pitch: https://www.brevitypitch.com/

Video Version: https://youtu.be/Lg5U44rmwAI

Tony chats with The Salty Adjuster, host of the newest podcast in the insurance world, hosted by an anonymous adjuster with lots of heart. A fantastic conversation.

The Salty Adjuster: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-salty-adjuster/id1896769744

Tony chats with Joel Plofsky about his career from actuary to a long career on the systems side and product side. A fascinating conversation with great advice for the next generation.

Joel Plofsky: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelplofsky/

I chat with Hayden Robinson, Venture Manager at Creative Destruction Lab. They operate in 10+ countries and have 16+ locations across the world. They are a startup accelerator and incubator specialized in a number of streams including Risk which includes all things risk and insurance. A new cohort starts soon, so you want to apply now! Watch it on the Insurance Nerds YouTube Channel or listen to it on the Profiles in Risk Feed on your favorite podcast app.

Hayden Robinson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haydenhillrobinson/
Creative Destruction Lab: https://creativedestructionlab.com/

Tony chats with Illia Pinchuk, Founder and CEO at DICEUS, they help insurers, MGAs, and Captives providing back-end and front-end solutions including Underwriting Workbench, Policy Administration, General Ledger, and Group Administration Services.

Illia Pinchuk: https://www.linkedin.com/in/illiapinchuk/
DICEUS: https://diceus.com/insurance/

Tony chats with Jens Nasstrom, Head Founder & Head of Science at Precuro,  they provide Cognitive Risk Intelligence for claims. What exactly does that mean? They provide a new variable in claims. Claims can have the same injury, same diagnosis, and somehow one resolves in three weeks the other one becomes a painful three year long claim. The different isn't the injury, it's the mindset. That's what Precuro is measuring. This is especially important for Disability and Worker's Compensation. A fascinating conversation you should not miss!

Jens Nasstrom: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jensnasstrom/
Precuro: http://www.l...

I chat with Natalie Arroyave, Host of Adjuster Hour & Director of Corporate Engagement at RISE and we chat about our podcasts, her career, claims, RISE, and much more. Such a fun conversation between two people who are passionate about insurance, from very different backgrounds!

Natalie Arroyave: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nataliearroyave/
Adjuster Hour: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLavr4C_rE5tsyuWedurJsQ-sDLRVGzg68

Tony has an awesome career chat with Scott Johnson. Scott's dad was a State Farm agent for 37 years. Scott started his career in claims, and then grew into sales and eventually sales management. He's been killing it in Sales Management for decades now! So much to learn on this episode!

Scott Johnson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-johnson-6113a850/

Video Version: https://youtu.be/_FspFMqskYk

Tony chats with Josh Graham, CEO & Founder at Ehab, they have created a weather modeling tool which helps businesses to tailor forecasts to what they do. A fascinating conversation you should not miss!

Josh Graham: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshmcgraham/
Ehab: https://ehab.co/

Video Version: https://youtu.be/OHeSV2-ybBU

I chat with Dan Kies, Client Executive at Camunda, a software company focused on agentic orchestration. They’ve been doing orchestration for a long time and now they have better tools to do it with and are focused on doing it for claims and complex underwriting.

Dan Kies: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-kies/
Camunda: https://www.Camunda.com

Video Version: https://youtu.be/en5W2IPPcAQ

Tony chats with Douglas Escobar - PIR Ep. 817, a long-time insurance professionals who helps others invest in Real Estate. He makes a great case that Real Estate is a perfect fit for the skillset of insurance pros.

Tony chats with Will Kastroll, Owner at Harbour Insurance and Co-Founder & CEO at OrangeAI. Exclusively on Profiles in Risk, Will announces the creation of an insurtech created by agents, for agents, building the first fully Agentic AME (Agency Management Ecosystem), more than an AMS! An incredible conversation!

Tony chats with Jennifer Doty, Speaker & Author Helping Leaders Get Unstuck about her career, transitions, the people who helped, her books, and so much more.

Jennifer Doty: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-sierveld-doty/ and https://jenniferdoty.com/

Tony chats with Jamie Ballot, Insurance Communications Expert about his career from publishing to insurance communications and we nerd out about how the industry can communicate better. A fascinating conversation!

Jamey Ballot: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesballot/

On Profiles in Risk - Ep. 813, I chat with Conor  Cunneen - IrishmanSpeaks. What a wonderful conversation! If you need speaker to motivate salespeople and so much more, you really can't go wrong with going Irish! And when you do hire him to keynote your next big conference send me a media pass because I'm dying to see him live! ☘️ 🇮🇪 WATCH IT NOW ON THE INSURANCE NERDS YOUTUBE CHANNEL OR LISTEN ON THE PROFILES IN RISK FEED ON YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST APP #Motivation #insuranceagenttraining 

Cono Cunneen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/irishmanspeaks/?skipRedirect=true

Tony chats with returning guest Bob Frady, Co-Founder & CEO at PropertyLens. Bob is on his second round as an insurtech co-founder after a successful exit from HazardHub. We talk about his PropertyLens which is basically a CarFax for homes, and much more. A GREAT CONVERSATION YOU CANNOT MISS!

Bob Frady: linkedin.com/in/bobfrady/
Property Lens: https://www.PropertyLens.com

Video Version: https://youtu.be/4O24O0Y8Z-I

Tony chats with Jared Kaplan, Co-Founder & CEO at indigo, they are dedicated to MedMal and they are building an incredibly innovative MGA platform that blends the best new tech to disrupt an old school-industry. An incredible episode!

Jared Kaplan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jared-kaplan-683412/
indigo: https://www.getindigo.com/

Video Version: https://youtu.be/PO_rTvMsThE

Tony chats with returning guest Jeff Arnold, Founder of RightSure and Prolific Author of multiple books. Jeff describes himself as "the luckiest hillbilly in the world". From his childhood in rural Kentucky he ended up running, buying, and selling insurance agencies, writing books, and having an extremely influential career and life. What a great conversation! A must listen to episode!

Jeff Arnold: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rjefferyarnold/
RightSure: https://www.rightsure.com/
Jeff Arnold: https://jeffarnold.com/
Author Page on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B077V1LZR2?ccs_id=5de4...

Bill Devine, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Naitiv Partners, they are a brand new company positioned around the concept that the financial industry, including insurance, has a challenge implementing AI. It's a not a tech problem, it's a business problem! This was a FASCINATING conversation you cannot miss!

Bill Devine: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-devine-047b571/
Naitiv Partners: https://naitiv.com/

Video Version: https://youtu.be/8z8D1cCvIFw

I chat with returning guest Chris Luiz, CEO at Scout Insurtech about their upcoming conference May 26-27 in Columbus, OH. Beyond that we chat about the AMAZING organization he has built. Scout Insurtech is MUCH more than a conference and this episode is a MUST listen to! See you in Columbus!

Chris Luiz: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-luiz/
Scout Insurtech: https://www.scoutinsurtech.com
Chris Luiz prior Ep: 638: https://youtu.be/k0e0268emks?si=v9VDdzXEylPrrUlo

Tony chats with Sridhar Ravilla, Author of "Transformation that Lands". After 21 years in IT leadership at AT&T, Sridhar took some time off to reflect on everything he had seen. What made sense? What didn't make sense? Took some time to try to see the forest for the trees and understand the patters of projects that succeed, and crucially projects that don't succeed. A fascinating conversation for anyone involved with innovation, implementation, change management, operations, and more.

Sridhar Ravilla: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sridharravilla/
Transformation that Lands: https://amzn.to/3QpAZRI

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