Meeting Title: Ian-Jake GTM Playbook Chat Date: 2025-09-03 Meeting participants: Jake Nathan, iberrigan
WEBVTT
1 00:09:39.080 ⇒ 00:09:40.579 iberrigan: Hey, what’s going on, brother?
2 00:09:41.540 ⇒ 00:09:42.289 Jake Nathan: Ian, how are you doing?
3 00:09:42.290 ⇒ 00:09:43.479 iberrigan: Sorry I’m late.
4 00:09:44.120 ⇒ 00:09:46.160 Jake Nathan: All good, man. How’s the day going?
5 00:09:46.740 ⇒ 00:09:47.940 iberrigan: Good, man.
6 00:09:48.800 ⇒ 00:09:50.120 iberrigan: Good, good.
7 00:09:50.550 ⇒ 00:09:53.440 Jake Nathan: Where are you, calling in from today?
8 00:09:53.950 ⇒ 00:09:59.579 iberrigan: I’m at Jones. It’s a coffee shop, on 11th Street.
9 00:09:59.760 ⇒ 00:10:01.620 iberrigan: 11th and Sabine…
10 00:10:02.160 ⇒ 00:10:02.920 Jake Nathan: Nice.
11 00:10:03.500 ⇒ 00:10:13.740 iberrigan: Yeah, I had to move outside, because I didn’t want to be, like, talking in front of people, and then also, like, the Wi-Fi wasn’t working, so I had to go grab my mobile hotspot.
12 00:10:15.090 ⇒ 00:10:25.459 Jake Nathan: Oh, nice. Do you have, like, a dedicated, like, not just, like, the iPhone, but, like, a legit one? Oh, let’s go. I need to get one of those. Are those… would you recommend?
13 00:10:25.920 ⇒ 00:10:33.250 iberrigan: I mean, it costs monthly, but, you know, my company pays for it, so I recommend it if you can expense it.
14 00:10:33.250 ⇒ 00:10:37.029 Jake Nathan: Yeah, maybe I need to get Uzam on that.
15 00:10:37.030 ⇒ 00:10:39.479 iberrigan: And do you mostly… do you work from…
16 00:10:39.550 ⇒ 00:10:41.060 Jake Nathan: Coffee shops, usually?
17 00:10:41.240 ⇒ 00:10:50.819 iberrigan: Yeah, or my home office. I just had a cleaning crew come through. I have a monthly cleaning group for… and I didn’t want to be working while they were doing that, so…
18 00:10:50.820 ⇒ 00:10:51.270 Jake Nathan: Gotcha.
19 00:10:51.270 ⇒ 00:10:56.090 iberrigan: I had to leave the house, but yeah, I usually like, I usually like bouncing around and just working from different places.
20 00:10:56.700 ⇒ 00:10:57.530 Jake Nathan: Nice, dude.
21 00:10:58.820 ⇒ 00:11:04.459 Jake Nathan: Well, cool. Well, yeah, did you… I think I saw… did you have a chance to look at the loom of.
22 00:11:04.460 ⇒ 00:11:05.460 iberrigan: Yeah.
23 00:11:05.460 ⇒ 00:11:23.529 Jake Nathan: Okay, cool. Does that, format kind of work for you as far as, like, basically just talking about, like, 3 big problems, and the goal is, like, someone reading it, they would nod their head and be like, okay, yeah, this is totally me, and kind of the next natural step would be, okay, I need
24 00:11:23.530 ⇒ 00:11:28.659 Jake Nathan: Ian, in this situation, and then, like, on the tech side, like, Brain Forge to hop in.
25 00:11:29.120 ⇒ 00:11:37.810 iberrigan: Yeah. Yeah, I basically just, like, thought about 3 main pain points.
26 00:11:38.300 ⇒ 00:11:46.670 iberrigan: I will say, like, I started thinking about it, like, probably too much, because, you know, every agency is a little different.
27 00:11:46.670 ⇒ 00:11:47.020 Jake Nathan: Oh my god.
28 00:11:47.020 ⇒ 00:11:48.879 iberrigan: I can kind of start with…
29 00:11:49.280 ⇒ 00:11:52.940 iberrigan: what I’ve seen, how… how,
30 00:11:53.240 ⇒ 00:12:10.229 iberrigan: you know, there’s rarely a type of agency that goes after every type of, product or business that they can all at once. Some of them are all-encompassing, but, you know, what I’ve found, majority of them kind of have, like, a focus. Either they’re, like, a personal lines
31 00:12:10.720 ⇒ 00:12:20.019 iberrigan: agency, or they’re a commercial lines agency, or they just say they can do both, plus life and health, plus employee benefits. Like, they’ll just, like, say, oh, we can do all of it.
32 00:12:22.280 ⇒ 00:12:39.099 iberrigan: Those tend to not very work very well until they’re very, you know, built out and pretty large, so that they can actually house all of those type of services, or, you know, have vendors, third-party vendors that can handle all those ancillary items.
33 00:12:39.480 ⇒ 00:12:43.999 iberrigan: But, I guess, like, I can go at it with…
34 00:12:44.500 ⇒ 00:12:58.439 iberrigan: you know, my… the most experience I do have is… is in commercial, you know, property and casualty insurance sales, and, like, how my firm is organized, and then I can also touch on, you know, what I would see being a…
35 00:12:58.440 ⇒ 00:13:05.160 iberrigan: Pain point for someone going after personal lines, so, like, home and auto insurance, you know, where they’re selling
36 00:13:05.470 ⇒ 00:13:11.480 iberrigan: a shit ton of those policies every day. Like, I used to sell those, and I would sell 5 to 7 a day.
37 00:13:11.730 ⇒ 00:13:16.699 iberrigan: Whereas now, I might… I might do 5 to 7, 5 to 10 deals a year.
38 00:13:17.340 ⇒ 00:13:18.690 iberrigan: So… Yeah.
39 00:13:18.900 ⇒ 00:13:19.650 iberrigan: You know.
40 00:13:19.880 ⇒ 00:13:24.750 Jake Nathan: It’s a different bowl game, yeah. Well, yeah, anything, like.
41 00:13:24.930 ⇒ 00:13:34.380 Jake Nathan: truly, like, you can just blab, and I’ll… I can try to turn it into something that… that works. So yeah, like, wherever you want to start, like, let’s start, and I’ll ask follow-up questions, and we’ll just get into it.
42 00:13:34.870 ⇒ 00:13:40.140 iberrigan: Okay, so… let me go to my name, real quick. So…
43 00:13:41.390 ⇒ 00:13:46.620 iberrigan: bring you onto this screen, too, so I can… I don’t know, I like to see you while I’m talking to you.
44 00:13:46.740 ⇒ 00:13:47.830 iberrigan: Yeah.
45 00:13:48.500 ⇒ 00:13:49.250 iberrigan: Zero.
46 00:13:51.380 ⇒ 00:13:53.340 iberrigan: Alright, so…
47 00:13:55.860 ⇒ 00:14:05.720 iberrigan: Yeah, kind of like, so the number one issue, I would say, for a small, like, non-traditional firm would probably be…
48 00:14:05.850 ⇒ 00:14:23.220 iberrigan: you know, not a super labor-intensive firm where they have a shit ton of CSRs or account executives, which is pretty much a common problem, because those seats are expensive to fill. You don’t want to pay someone a salary unless the book of business can justify paying the guy who’s
49 00:14:23.220 ⇒ 00:14:29.029 iberrigan: Producing all the business, and then also all the support staff. The margins are really slim.
50 00:14:29.060 ⇒ 00:14:36.139 iberrigan: So that’s why I see AI implementation and technology stacked being, like, so important for small
51 00:14:36.300 ⇒ 00:14:41.519 iberrigan: Firms, because you’re gonna have… Increasing numbers of firms that are
52 00:14:41.870 ⇒ 00:14:45.140 iberrigan: That are operating with a lot less people.
53 00:14:45.250 ⇒ 00:14:58.600 iberrigan: Therefore increasing the margin, you know, I think that’s where I kind of want to be in the next year or so. So, I’d say the pain points are gonna be a lot to do with the support of the book. So, like.
54 00:14:58.750 ⇒ 00:15:04.310 iberrigan: You know, processing, compliance tracking, and certificate of insurance issuing.
55 00:15:06.010 ⇒ 00:15:17.510 iberrigan: you know, some accounts tend to be more certificate-heavy, we say, in the industry, you know, so like a construction client, which are the majority of my clients I go after, that’s just the vertical I focus in.
56 00:15:17.640 ⇒ 00:15:24.580 iberrigan: And a lot of other firms tend to focus in those… those high-risk areas, because less volume
57 00:15:24.810 ⇒ 00:15:38.769 iberrigan: is needed to equate to more commission revenue. So, you know, you could have a smaller, you know, a smaller concrete contractor who maybe does a couple million in revenue a year. They’re gonna generate, say, you know.
58 00:15:39.190 ⇒ 00:15:52.709 iberrigan: they might spend 150K in insurance a year. That 10% of that, you know, is $15,000 in commission revenue for a firm that’s doing the insurance. Versus if you have, like, a…
59 00:15:52.820 ⇒ 00:16:12.419 iberrigan: you know, you could say, what’s a less risky business? Say you have, like, a CPA that’s doing the same amount, couple million in revenue a year. They’re mostly clerical, that’s the risk exposure there, and so that’s gonna generate a lot less premium dollars, which is less revenue for someone like myself, or an insurance firm.
60 00:16:12.470 ⇒ 00:16:21.559 iberrigan: When you do the very litigious, high certificate, high touchpoint type of clients, yes, there’s more commission involved, which is great, but…
61 00:16:21.600 ⇒ 00:16:25.899 iberrigan: It becomes a burden because you need a lot more support staff,
62 00:16:25.910 ⇒ 00:16:43.539 iberrigan: for certificate issuing, you know, every job they’re doing, they’re gonna have requirements to add this person as an additional insurer. Oh, show us you have general liability at this level, tell us you have workers’ comp, show us you have commercial auto, show us you have this. Oh, we need these forms and endorsements to be shown. We need to be listed as
63 00:16:43.540 ⇒ 00:16:50.540 iberrigan: You know, we need waivers of subrogation, we need, primary non-contributory language to prove that your insurance will come and
64 00:16:50.540 ⇒ 00:16:56.360 iberrigan: in primary versus being secondary to ours as the general contractor. You know, there’s all these different…
65 00:16:56.360 ⇒ 00:17:06.070 iberrigan: Things that are required, and most contractors, they rely heavily on their insurance broker or their firm that they partner with to provide all this shit.
66 00:17:06.359 ⇒ 00:17:16.329 iberrigan: Consistently, quickly, turnaround’s gotta be fast, so that they can get on the jobs, they can bid the work, they can get awarded the contracts, and, you know, continue to do their business.
67 00:17:16.970 ⇒ 00:17:22.670 iberrigan: It’s not just construction where that’s a thing, you know, it’s any… it’s… it’s any…
68 00:17:23.170 ⇒ 00:17:30.789 iberrigan: Type of business that’s doing a bunch of deals, signing a bunch of contracts, and insurance is just a piece of that.
69 00:17:30.950 ⇒ 00:17:32.180 iberrigan: So…
70 00:17:32.310 ⇒ 00:17:50.249 iberrigan: I think there’s a… there obviously are tools out there, whether they’re AI-driven or not, you know, it’s really just, like, basic technology that’s, you know, helps, pre-fill and autofill certificates so that you can get them issued out in, you know, in a quickly… in a quick time frame.
71 00:17:50.490 ⇒ 00:17:53.270 iberrigan: I know there’s also a lot of…
72 00:17:53.400 ⇒ 00:18:05.209 iberrigan: like, VA use for stuff like that. There’s a lot of, like, you know, pay a fraction of what you would pay an American CSR to do this, and you can have four
73 00:18:05.470 ⇒ 00:18:10.250 iberrigan: Filipino individuals issuing your certificates on your firm’s behalf.
74 00:18:10.720 ⇒ 00:18:15.360 Jake Nathan: It gets a little dicey there, because you gotta have a license to…
75 00:18:15.380 ⇒ 00:18:30.740 iberrigan: you know, execute some of that work, but there’s a lot of, I’ve been to a lot of conferences for technology in the InsurTech space, and a lot of it is, oh, AI, we do AI certificate issuance, and in reality, they’re just paying some Filipino
76 00:18:31.070 ⇒ 00:18:43.570 iberrigan: you know, support team to… to just do shit like that for a fraction of the cost, and then they just charge on… take a margin, off the top. That’s very common, at least the last few years.
77 00:18:44.160 ⇒ 00:18:47.840 iberrigan: From what I’ve seen, we use it at my firm, you know, we have a,
78 00:18:48.100 ⇒ 00:19:04.469 iberrigan: product called PACRA, and essentially it’s just a third world COI issuance team, and instead of us having to hire more Americans and pay them, you know, 80,000, $90,000 salary just to do basic admin work.
79 00:19:04.680 ⇒ 00:19:14.990 iberrigan: we go that route, because it’s a lot cheaper, and it works, for the most part. There’s some issues there, but I think there’s a big opportunity with that.
80 00:19:15.800 ⇒ 00:19:19.650 iberrigan: for… as far as the AI goes,
81 00:19:20.450 ⇒ 00:19:26.709 iberrigan: I think, like, AI… I’ve already been kind of doing this with just basic stuff like ChatGPT, but…
82 00:19:26.910 ⇒ 00:19:36.160 iberrigan: kind of just analyzing contracts whenever, you know, my clients get awarded a new contract for a job. I’ll use ChatGPT to scrape the…
83 00:19:36.350 ⇒ 00:19:42.620 iberrigan: the contract, and just kind of give me the insurance requirements from within it. And from there, I can just kind of, like.
84 00:19:42.620 ⇒ 00:19:55.849 iberrigan: you know, compare that to the current policies we have in force for the client, make sure everything is adequate and compliant, so that then I can issue a COI, or I send it to my team to issue a COI, stating, hey, you’re good to go, here’s the COI,
85 00:19:55.850 ⇒ 00:20:06.049 iberrigan: the cert holder goes, you know, here’s the person asking for the insurance, put their name and address, blah blah blah, you know. And that’s sped things up a lot for me, having to compare and contrast things.
86 00:20:06.080 ⇒ 00:20:15.179 iberrigan: I think there’s, you know, the opportunity to track the compliance over time, and just, you know.
87 00:20:15.680 ⇒ 00:20:22.819 iberrigan: Help issue those certificates and make sure a team, a brokerage can do that with a very lean support staff.
88 00:20:24.280 ⇒ 00:20:36.659 iberrigan: that’s… that’s always gonna be an issue. You’ll… you’ll run into that a lot with insurance firms. They’ll be like… or clients of certain insurance brokerages, they’re gonna say, like, hey, I need my certificates faster. Sometimes it’s…
89 00:20:36.780 ⇒ 00:20:54.610 iberrigan: you know, a one-day or two-day turnaround for a certificate, that’s just unacceptable. You know, with these third parties I use, we can get it out within an hour, you know? With AI, realistically, if an email came in asking for a COI and they gave the correct forms, I feel like something like that could be turned around within minutes.
90 00:20:56.630 ⇒ 00:20:57.040 Jake Nathan: Yeah.
91 00:20:57.120 ⇒ 00:21:07.429 iberrigan: I think that’s a little… a little selling point there. It’s not the biggest pain point, but it is definitely a very common one, for the commercial scene. Definitely commercial insurance only.
92 00:21:09.950 ⇒ 00:21:13.150 Jake Nathan: Yeah, so that’s… so, yeah, what I’m kind of getting from you is, like.
93 00:21:13.300 ⇒ 00:21:16.909 Jake Nathan: One of the first problem is that,
94 00:21:17.080 ⇒ 00:21:23.879 Jake Nathan: The higher risk insurance, a lot of times, can be support heavy, so that means, like you’re saying, having to
95 00:21:24.080 ⇒ 00:21:43.629 Jake Nathan: get, and, like, they’re support heavy, and speed is everything, so that kind of creates a problem, because there’s a ton of operational work, so for you, the margins are lower, and then, speed is everything, so if you’re… if you’re not turning around things really quickly, then your clients are upset, and so that’s a place where, right now, like you’re saying.
96 00:21:43.740 ⇒ 00:22:01.160 Jake Nathan: I mean, the traditional way was just, you have an admin do it, then now companies are shifting to offshoring it because the… they’re realizing the work isn’t as high-skilled, and then kind of, like, the next frontier is how can you use technology to even speed that up and make it even faster and cheaper.
97 00:22:01.160 ⇒ 00:22:03.560 iberrigan: Yup. Yeah, I think there’s a…
98 00:22:03.700 ⇒ 00:22:20.999 iberrigan: there’s a little bit of a negative connotation surrounding… I mean, obviously, if I was gonna go try to sell my services to a large construction company, and I’m like, oh, we use offshore labor to issue certificates within 30 minutes. Like, that last part would be like, oh, fast certificates? That’s cool, but…
99 00:22:21.210 ⇒ 00:22:40.030 iberrigan: you’re paying some, you know, people who don’t even speak very good English to do this, that’s kind of a red flag. Whereas if you were to be able to sell, hey, yeah, we use AI, we issue certificates within 5 minutes, and it’s all technology-based, and it’s in-house, I feel like that would be like, damn, like, okay, I like that. Or, you know.
100 00:22:40.030 ⇒ 00:22:47.500 Jake Nathan: Yeah, yeah, that sounds… that sounds better. Like, oh, okay, yeah, that’s more sophisticated than, hey, I’m just paying this guy…
101 00:22:47.710 ⇒ 00:22:51.569 Jake Nathan: He does, yeah, he can’t… yeah, okay. That, yeah.
102 00:22:51.810 ⇒ 00:22:59.709 iberrigan: Yeah, and I think, I can’t remember the exact name of the product, but I think it was probably…
103 00:23:01.210 ⇒ 00:23:20.300 iberrigan: Yeah, Coverdesk. So, Coverdesk was… I saw them at a conference last year, at a InsureTech, Verti4 InsurTech conference, if you care. Essentially, they are the ones that are kind of saying, oh, we offer scalable solutions to help insurance agencies operate more efficiently.
104 00:23:20.550 ⇒ 00:23:25.840 iberrigan: Handle a variety of back office tasks, data entry, insurance, busy work, blah blah blah.
105 00:23:26.080 ⇒ 00:23:33.359 iberrigan: and they come across as, like, an AI solution, but in reality, it’s just like, oh, pay X amount and you get 20 full-time
106 00:23:33.950 ⇒ 00:23:41.640 iberrigan: VAs, or, oh, you can pay for 10, or if you only need 5, or you only need them part-time, you know, they have all these different ways of going about it, but…
107 00:23:41.790 ⇒ 00:23:45.700 Jake Nathan: Anything… anything within their suite of offering.
108 00:23:45.760 ⇒ 00:23:51.340 iberrigan: I think is, like, all little… You know, service-heavy, data entry.
109 00:23:51.760 ⇒ 00:24:08.549 iberrigan: admin-y tasks that don’t require much brainpower that eventually should be fully replaced by AI technology, in my opinion, and just kind of managed from a very high level, from someone who knows how to make sure it’s all operating effectively, which would be Brainforge, I guess, in this sense.
110 00:24:09.210 ⇒ 00:24:12.240 iberrigan: But it’s really not rocket science. It’s just…
111 00:24:12.250 ⇒ 00:24:19.299 Jake Nathan: Yeah, just like a workflow that you just have, like, not a very fun workflow, but just a workflow that you have to map out.
112 00:24:19.300 ⇒ 00:24:20.320 iberrigan: Yeah.
113 00:24:20.320 ⇒ 00:24:24.369 Jake Nathan: That makes… yeah. And it seems like, the other thing is it’s… it’s…
114 00:24:24.670 ⇒ 00:24:30.330 Jake Nathan: Relatively easy, probably, but it’s also, like, you have to be extremely detail-oriented, like, you can’t
115 00:24:30.860 ⇒ 00:24:33.450 Jake Nathan: You can’t really mess up on something like that.
116 00:24:33.450 ⇒ 00:24:48.530 iberrigan: Yeah, yeah, because, I mean, yeah, there’s a thing called… well, and I’m sure you’ve heard of it, like, an E&O exposure, you have an errors and omissions insurance policy to protect you as an insurance brokerage, or any type of professional service, you know,
117 00:24:48.710 ⇒ 00:25:04.149 iberrigan: Utam carries it for Brain Forge, as, you know, my suggestion, and he also needs it, you know, it’s just on his contracts for some of his clients. But, you know, that’s there to protect you in case you fail at doing your job.
118 00:25:04.330 ⇒ 00:25:15.429 iberrigan: But I feel like it’s a pretty straightforward thing, and then just having someone monitor it to make sure it’s accurately producing these certificates is, you know, good. And it’s all based on
119 00:25:15.700 ⇒ 00:25:30.079 iberrigan: a PDF policy that exists, that it can… that technology should be able to refer to that, spit out whatever coverages are there, and, you know, be able to reference that on a certificate of insurance. Like, it’s not… it’s not rocket science at all. It’s just…
120 00:25:30.080 ⇒ 00:25:36.510 iberrigan: relaying information that already exists in one PDF file, making sure it’s accurately portrayed there.
121 00:25:36.580 ⇒ 00:25:38.780 iberrigan: For the… for the COI.
122 00:25:38.860 ⇒ 00:25:43.550 iberrigan: But yeah, that was one, I think, big opportunity there.
123 00:25:44.250 ⇒ 00:25:51.580 iberrigan: And I think another one, so on the more, like, on the internal side.
124 00:25:52.200 ⇒ 00:26:05.720 iberrigan: for insurance brokerage is, like, the underwriter submission bottlenecks that exist. Like, so if I… I have XYZ Construction saying, you know, whether I went to them or they came to me, they need insurance, they need…
125 00:26:05.720 ⇒ 00:26:15.519 iberrigan: all these types of insurance coverages, they already have stuff with this guy, they don’t like him, he’s slow, whatever. It’s expensive, I think I’m paying too much. Okay, great, come to me.
126 00:26:15.780 ⇒ 00:26:33.419 iberrigan: I gotta get all this information, I gotta fill out supplemental applications, I’ve gotta fill out accord form applications, I have to secure loss history from their existing insurance policies for the last 5 years, how many claims have they made on these coverages that I’m shopping for them?
127 00:26:33.420 ⇒ 00:26:38.279 iberrigan: You know, there’s a lot of, like, things that come into play for a full submission package.
128 00:26:38.280 ⇒ 00:26:40.290 iberrigan: that I then would take to the…
129 00:26:40.360 ⇒ 00:26:45.519 iberrigan: The markets to secure quotes for the insurance they need, or they’re asking for.
130 00:26:45.680 ⇒ 00:26:59.990 iberrigan: all of those things that I have to do, or my team has to do to collect that information, put it where it’s asked for in all these apps, and blah blah blah, to then send out to Hope to get quotes back, that whole process is very clunky.
131 00:27:00.840 ⇒ 00:27:04.239 iberrigan: You know, there’s people that have tried to…
132 00:27:04.340 ⇒ 00:27:22.500 iberrigan: solved that for, God, probably for 20-plus years at this point, to try to create ways of just, like, quote, click, and bind, they call it. It’s like, go on an online platform, click a few times, answer some questions, and then boom, here’s some quotes, ready to go, like, click here and, you know…
133 00:27:22.560 ⇒ 00:27:34.399 iberrigan: talk to this company, and they’ll provide this pricing, or whatever. Like, those things are all way, way in the future. I don’t think anything’s… there’s no way of that being foolproof and perfect, especially when you have
134 00:27:34.400 ⇒ 00:27:43.160 iberrigan: you know, not cookie-cutter businesses, like, specific contractors in the trades and in construction, very litigious, high-risk stuff. If it’s not, like.
135 00:27:43.800 ⇒ 00:28:01.960 iberrigan: literally a Starbucks or, like, fixed property for, like, a building that’s very basic, like a retail building. It’s hard to just plug and play and have something ready to, you know, bind. It’s… it requires a lot of interaction and back and forth, and, oh, answer this question, oh, are they doing this type of work?
136 00:28:01.980 ⇒ 00:28:18.139 iberrigan: oh, are they… are they subcontracting a lot of the work out? Are they self-performing this work? What part of their trades are they actually doing? You know, how many floors high are they performing this work? Are they performing work underground? Are they doing this? There’s just so many different things.
137 00:28:18.140 ⇒ 00:28:22.870 iberrigan: But I think there definitely is a huge opportunity to use AI
138 00:28:22.870 ⇒ 00:28:32.659 iberrigan: and technology to kind of, like, make that process of what I have to gather and submit in order to just get pricing back a little bit easier or less redundant.
139 00:28:34.050 ⇒ 00:28:53.449 iberrigan: you know, because I may have all the information that I need for a submission, or a majority of it, just by maybe a conversation, or during my meeting with the client. Like, if we discuss these things, like, having a way to kind of capture that data and transcribe it into these applications, or something like that.
140 00:28:53.530 ⇒ 00:28:59.520 iberrigan: Or take, you know, some carriers require that you fill out their specific application.
141 00:29:00.010 ⇒ 00:29:08.479 iberrigan: Before they can bind coverage. Like, even if you have another application for the same type of, you know, insurance, if it’s not their
142 00:29:09.000 ⇒ 00:29:19.109 iberrigan: their standardized form that they created that they need completed and signed by the insured in order to find coverage, like, they might make you just copy all the shit you already have.
143 00:29:19.280 ⇒ 00:29:29.569 iberrigan: over to that form, and it’s like, that’s kind of where… it’s just such an old-school industry, and it’s just… it’s clunky, and that’s kind of what Utam and I were trying to…
144 00:29:29.750 ⇒ 00:29:33.039 iberrigan: Start building a couple years ago was, like, that whole
145 00:29:33.140 ⇒ 00:29:37.440 iberrigan: Just… just taking information you already have on a… on a risk.
146 00:29:37.440 ⇒ 00:29:44.090 Jake Nathan: and trans… like, moving that information and pre-filling an application, you know? Like, that’s so basic, the concept.
147 00:29:44.340 ⇒ 00:29:51.249 iberrigan: It was just to make it work, it was a lot a couple years ago to think about, but it’s becoming increasingly easier, I think.
148 00:29:52.550 ⇒ 00:29:53.110 Jake Nathan: Yeah.
149 00:29:53.110 ⇒ 00:29:59.940 iberrigan: And there’s some tools out there that are trying to build that piece of technology, but…
150 00:30:00.570 ⇒ 00:30:03.919 iberrigan: And yeah, sorry if I’m rambling, I’m just trying to make sure I get…
151 00:30:03.920 ⇒ 00:30:15.900 Jake Nathan: Yeah, this is perfect. And, one thing I wanted to ask, too, while we’re talking is, do you… since your expertise is in construction, like, do you…
152 00:30:16.260 ⇒ 00:30:34.519 Jake Nathan: would it be helpful for you? Do you think, like, making it actually, like, even more niche instead of just, like, all commercial insurance? Like, 3 problems holding construction, or commercial insurance for construction back? Or is that… do you, will you be approaching other markets, so you want this to kind of be…
153 00:30:34.670 ⇒ 00:30:38.640 Jake Nathan: And also, a second kind of…
154 00:30:38.780 ⇒ 00:30:48.430 Jake Nathan: statement there is, if… if we can also make this, like, this probably won’t be our first… our only conversation, like, we could start with a broad commercial insurance, and then, like.
155 00:30:48.430 ⇒ 00:30:59.970 Jake Nathan: hey, we see, like, you see an opportunity in construction, we’ll make a construction-specific playbook on… maybe it’s, like, specifically on the support side or something, so that… that’s also an option.
156 00:31:00.120 ⇒ 00:31:04.470 iberrigan: Yeah, that’s… that’s a good… I think…
157 00:31:05.360 ⇒ 00:31:24.629 iberrigan: I think some of these… some of these things could apply to just a wide variety of verticals within commercial insurance, but, you know, like, my expertise and what I’ve been through time and time again is gonna be in the construction and trades. But I mean, I think it does apply across the board, like.
158 00:31:24.840 ⇒ 00:31:27.229 iberrigan: If it’s not a cookie-cutter risk.
159 00:31:28.180 ⇒ 00:31:41.729 iberrigan: And if an insurance brokerage… so I guess I could take a step back, because I forget… I don’t know how familiar you are with the insurance world, like, I guess not many people are, unless they’re really in it, but it’s… it’s… there’s a lot of shit.
160 00:31:41.860 ⇒ 00:31:49.729 iberrigan: But, like, so, think about the companies, like, I’m sure you’ve heard of, like, Travelers, the Hartford, like, like,
161 00:31:49.940 ⇒ 00:31:59.340 iberrigan: State Farm, GEICO, you know, big, big household names. They have, you know, personal insurance products, but they also have commercial, too, so…
162 00:31:59.970 ⇒ 00:32:03.079 iberrigan: What you have to do if you’re an insurance brokerage, you have to…
163 00:32:03.300 ⇒ 00:32:12.089 iberrigan: get an appointment with those carriers to be able to write business directly with them. And in order to get those appointments, you have to be able to promise volume.
164 00:32:12.230 ⇒ 00:32:29.850 iberrigan: That’s the only way to get appointments to go directly to these carriers to access their products and write insurance for your clients. So, for a small brokerage, or someone who’s not doing a lot of volume, you can’t just go to GEICO and be like, oh, I want an appointment, and then just immediately be able to write all your auto insurance through them for your clients.
165 00:32:30.120 ⇒ 00:32:44.330 iberrigan: There’s aggregators and companies that exist to help you basically get access to those types of carriers, but then there’s also a route called wholesaling, and it’s… you go to wholesale brokers that have access to those markets.
166 00:32:44.490 ⇒ 00:32:56.989 iberrigan: And all you do going through a wholesaler is you end up paying fees to them and giving them a portion of your commission in order to place through them. But I place majority of my business through wholesalers, like, 95%.
167 00:32:57.030 ⇒ 00:33:04.250 iberrigan: And the number one reason why that is, is because a lot of my construction and very high-risk insurance
168 00:33:04.250 ⇒ 00:33:20.679 iberrigan: clients are only gonna be able to be written by, you know, not the big names, not the GEICO, the Travelers, the this. They’re having to go excess and surplus markets, which are very, you know, they’re… they’re not admitted carriers in certain states, they’re very…
169 00:33:20.770 ⇒ 00:33:37.669 iberrigan: They’re… they’re, like, a lot of syndicates and a lot of insurance that’s… it’s gonna be a little more costly, but it’s… it’s just because the risks are so great, they’re not gonna just, like, standard carriers won’t touch that, unless it’s, like, a restaurant or, you know, something very basic.
170 00:33:37.860 ⇒ 00:33:46.190 iberrigan: So that’s another thing. There’s, like, different methods of how you go to market, depending on what kind of risk you’re trying to place.
171 00:33:46.340 ⇒ 00:33:50.889 iberrigan: And so… I think there’s…
172 00:33:51.170 ⇒ 00:33:56.989 iberrigan: It’s just an even clunkier process when you’re trying to go through a wholesaler, because you’re…
173 00:33:57.070 ⇒ 00:34:05.499 iberrigan: I’m already a broker, I’m already a middleman as an insurance broker. I’m going then to another insurance broker who’s a wholesale broker.
174 00:34:05.500 ⇒ 00:34:30.000 iberrigan: who then takes everything I’ve packaged up and submitted to them, and they’re sending it out to their markets to see who comes back with, you know, options. And they’re delivering that to me, and then I’m reviewing that, and then I’m delivering it to the client, and then if it’s… they’re like, okay, let’s move forward, I’m then delivering that bind request to the wholesaler. The wholesaler’s then passing that request to the carrier, and it’s like, okay, anytime I need to make a change or make an update, I have to go to my
175 00:34:30.000 ⇒ 00:34:33.880 iberrigan: Wholesaler, they have to go to the market and the carrier to notify.
176 00:34:33.920 ⇒ 00:34:34.940 iberrigan: And so…
177 00:34:35.230 ⇒ 00:34:47.090 iberrigan: I think that whole submission process for a broker who’s doing high-risk, litigious stuff that normally goes excess and surplus through a wholesale market, that process could very well be,
178 00:34:47.120 ⇒ 00:34:57.180 iberrigan: You know, improved upon, as far as just, like, how much tedious bullshit has to go on in order for them to get what they need to get the deal done.
179 00:34:57.260 ⇒ 00:35:04.800 iberrigan: So… Yeah, that’s… that’s a very… that’s kind of a more niche thing.
180 00:35:06.170 ⇒ 00:35:12.490 iberrigan: and it’s just totally different. I think… I think the more I talk about this, the more I’m realizing I’m gonna have to, like, segment…
181 00:35:13.570 ⇒ 00:35:27.349 iberrigan: personal lines insurance, commercial insurance, just in general, and then, like, very, you know, high-risk commercial insurance placements. Like, those 3 are gonna be 3 different approaches for what’s gonna be, you know, needed.
182 00:35:27.490 ⇒ 00:35:28.860 iberrigan: From the tech side.
183 00:35:29.780 ⇒ 00:35:30.430 Jake Nathan: Yeah.
184 00:35:30.430 ⇒ 00:35:33.940 iberrigan: I should have thought about that beforehand, but I’m kind of just as I’m trying to.
185 00:35:33.940 ⇒ 00:35:36.420 Jake Nathan: to speak to you about it, it’s coming to me.
186 00:35:38.240 ⇒ 00:35:49.160 Jake Nathan: Okay, yeah, that’s… I mean, like I said, I think Utam, you know, I know y’all are good buddies, and I think he’s super interested in trying to work together, so I’m sure this won’t be, like, our first.
187 00:35:49.160 ⇒ 00:35:49.770 iberrigan: One time thing.
188 00:35:49.770 ⇒ 00:35:52.579 Jake Nathan: So, I’m,
189 00:35:53.040 ⇒ 00:36:07.629 Jake Nathan: And then at the same time, just for both of us, I think it’s helpful just to… like, we… I could probably ask you… I… this is super just fascinating to me, one, like, I… this is really interesting. But, to try to get, like, something out just to…
190 00:36:07.790 ⇒ 00:36:22.640 Jake Nathan: to get something started, to get the ball rolling. So, either… so, like, the… so far, there’s kind of been two problems. One is the support heavy, like we just talked about, then the underwriting submission bottleneck, and then the third thing that you’re saying with wholesalers, I think…
191 00:36:22.720 ⇒ 00:36:31.349 Jake Nathan: Like you’re saying, that’s a… that’s actually… like, usually the more specific, the more niche, the better, because even if it’s not gonna get, you know, maybe…
192 00:36:31.520 ⇒ 00:36:33.489 Jake Nathan: That shrinks the…
193 00:36:33.600 ⇒ 00:36:43.020 Jake Nathan: TAM of, like, how many people would actually read it, but the people who do read it are like, whoa, this… this is super helpful. So that’s actually… that’s actually a really good thing.
194 00:36:43.020 ⇒ 00:36:56.010 Jake Nathan: In this specific case, we can kind of… I’m, I feel like I’m almost playing ChatGPT here, but, like, there’s a few different directions we could go. One is, I do think, like, a playbook specifically on the support, like, you were talking about the…
195 00:36:56.090 ⇒ 00:37:00.749 Jake Nathan: like, certificate heavy, like, that could be…
196 00:37:00.860 ⇒ 00:37:20.239 Jake Nathan: one piece of content, or that’s, like, option A, I would say, is, like, I think we could just kind of go into more detail about that. Option B is maybe we could have a third problem that’s a little bit less niche than wholesalers, because the first two problems that we talked about were more broad. So that… Yeah. Do you see what I’m saying?
197 00:37:20.240 ⇒ 00:37:20.700 iberrigan: Yeah.
198 00:37:20.700 ⇒ 00:37:22.390 Jake Nathan: Which, which sounds better to you?
199 00:37:22.750 ⇒ 00:37:35.429 iberrigan: Well, there was also a third… a third one that I kind of thought about that could also… could also just, like, yield a good result, but, let me just get that one out so you have it. Yeah. So…
200 00:37:35.830 ⇒ 00:37:53.169 iberrigan: And this… this goes hand-in-hand with, like… and I’m trying to keep it to commercial insurance right now, because… because we can go into personal later, but that’s a whole different approach, like… Totally. Like, when I’m starting my agency, I’m gonna do commercial, like, almost exclusively, for the most part, because
201 00:37:53.170 ⇒ 00:37:56.370 iberrigan: Personal lines books require a lot more support.
202 00:37:56.370 ⇒ 00:37:57.860 iberrigan: staff and service.
203 00:37:57.890 ⇒ 00:38:05.180 iberrigan: way higher touch, touch points, you know. But for the commercial book.
204 00:38:05.240 ⇒ 00:38:16.420 iberrigan: And I plan to go, like, all wholesale to start, because I don’t… I can’t promise volume, I don’t want direct appointments, I don’t want to manage all those relationships, I’m just gonna… I already have wholesaler contacts, I’m gonna push all my business through them.
205 00:38:16.490 ⇒ 00:38:29.009 iberrigan: And just give away a piece of the commission to just make sure I get placements. Boom, boom, boom. But the third… the third issue is, like, I think renewal strategy and, like, policy comparison. So…
206 00:38:29.730 ⇒ 00:38:44.689 iberrigan: Renewals, obviously, a big part about why insurance brokerages are so lucrative, and it’s a proven model that continues to build a bunch of, you know, a bunch of reoccurring revenue, is the fact that you get renewal business if you keep your clients on the books.
207 00:38:44.890 ⇒ 00:38:59.280 iberrigan: So, every year, you know, a policy is gonna always be a 12-month term for the most part. There are some nuances, but for the vast majority of policies are 12-month terms. On occasion, you’ll get a commercial auto that might be 6 months, but for the most part, 12.
208 00:38:59.680 ⇒ 00:39:02.449 iberrigan: Like, why it’s a pain?
209 00:39:02.880 ⇒ 00:39:06.999 iberrigan: Is, you know, 2-3 months before the renewal.
210 00:39:07.470 ⇒ 00:39:26.380 iberrigan: dates, you have to then resubmit everything as if it were a new risk, essentially, from the very beginning, like when you shopped a new business to a wholesaler. They’re gonna reach out, 2 to 3 months, 90 days or so, they’ll say, hey, this is a first attempt at renewal solicitation for XYZ account. We need, you know.
211 00:39:26.380 ⇒ 00:39:39.749 iberrigan: A completed supplemental application with the new exposures and new data, if they’ve changed operations, what are their revenue projections, what are their payroll projections looking like for the upcoming 12 months, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, and then…
212 00:39:39.780 ⇒ 00:39:51.870 iberrigan: loss history needs to be re-ran and re-provided to make sure there weren’t any losses, if they had any coverage placed with different carriers and, like, not through that wholesaler, there’s all those things, but…
213 00:39:51.960 ⇒ 00:39:55.670 iberrigan: So the renewal process being…
214 00:39:55.820 ⇒ 00:40:06.709 iberrigan: every 12 months, that gets annoying, because you have to redo applications, re-provide more information. There should be autonomous outreach to your clients, telling them, hey.
215 00:40:07.040 ⇒ 00:40:11.800 iberrigan: As we all know, or should be expecting, your renewal’s coming up, you know?
216 00:40:11.800 ⇒ 00:40:34.510 iberrigan: where are we at on these items? Like, what does this look like for you? You know, there’s also, in conjunction with renewals, there’s audits every year on your general liability. For the most part, they’re auditable policies, meaning at the end of the 12 months, they’re gonna audit you to see what the projections were that you provided 12 months ago, how they compare with what your actual numbers were at the end of the term.
217 00:40:34.620 ⇒ 00:40:44.339 iberrigan: If you go over what you projected, you’re gonna be charged an additional premium. And a lot of times, that’s a big pain point for clients, because they don’t anticipate having to come out of pocket
218 00:40:44.700 ⇒ 00:40:54.419 iberrigan: just because they had a good year, they’re like, fuck, now I gotta pay, you know, 25, 30 grand additional premium, and if I don’t pay within 60 days, I’m… my new policy’s canceled. It’s like…
219 00:40:54.830 ⇒ 00:41:02.900 iberrigan: It surprises people, and it… there’s a lot of guys in the industry, in my position, that will help them under-project.
220 00:41:02.980 ⇒ 00:41:16.979 iberrigan: their earnings, or their payroll, or however their policy is rated, so that the price is lower up front to win a quoting battle, or to just make them look better, you know? And then 12 months down the line, they’re like, what the fuck? Why do I owe all this money?
221 00:41:17.240 ⇒ 00:41:21.249 iberrigan: Oh, it’s because, you know, we under-projected. It’s like, okay.
222 00:41:21.900 ⇒ 00:41:25.450 iberrigan: On the contrary, if you over-project on general liability.
223 00:41:25.760 ⇒ 00:41:29.240 iberrigan: You won’t get any credit back if you… if you underperform.
224 00:41:29.360 ⇒ 00:41:36.640 iberrigan: So, there’s, like, a balancing act. You’ll only ever be charged more if you under-project, you’ll never get credit back, it’s fucked, but…
225 00:41:37.130 ⇒ 00:41:38.830 iberrigan: It’s just the way it is.
226 00:41:39.140 ⇒ 00:41:46.749 iberrigan: workers’ comp insurance is a little different, it goes both ways, so you’ll get credited back or the other way, but GL and any other line, it’s like, no.
227 00:41:46.850 ⇒ 00:42:05.530 iberrigan: So there is strategy involved. It’s a human-to-human connection, it’s a conversation surrounding the, you know, a consultative approach to how you place your insurance program, how you build it, what your goals are, where you’re headed. It requires some check-ins, and, like, I think it’s important to note that.
228 00:42:05.670 ⇒ 00:42:10.500 iberrigan: it’s not just, like, a one-and-done thing, see you in 12 months, you know what I mean?
229 00:42:10.900 ⇒ 00:42:11.980 iberrigan: Yeah.
230 00:42:12.240 ⇒ 00:42:21.750 iberrigan: So, the renewal strategy and comparing quotes and policies once you get options in, comparing them to your expiring term.
231 00:42:21.810 ⇒ 00:42:35.539 iberrigan: and program, like, all that kind of stuff, there’s a lot of opportunity, I think, for technology there. I personally have built a custom GPT that helps me compare quotes on renewals to the existing policies, where I just put them both in.
232 00:42:35.680 ⇒ 00:42:44.960 iberrigan: you know, I know what I need to look for. ChatGPT’s plenty smart to go in and say, hey, these are forms that are different, these endorsements look different, your sublimit on, you know.
233 00:42:45.250 ⇒ 00:43:03.929 iberrigan: loss to rented property was 50,000. You might want to keep that in mind. It’s something important to know, blah blah blah. You know, there’s just a bunch of different stuff, that it helps me kind of just, like, get to a good new starting point, instead of just going and comparing them side by side manually.
234 00:43:04.350 ⇒ 00:43:19.929 iberrigan: Policy comparison and renewal strategy is definitely an opportunity. There’s obviously tech that’s being built to do just that one thing. I think everybody in tech insurance is trying to just fix one problem really well.
235 00:43:20.180 ⇒ 00:43:23.470 iberrigan: Nothing kind of, like, encompasses it all.
236 00:43:23.750 ⇒ 00:43:25.070 iberrigan: But, you know.
237 00:43:25.410 ⇒ 00:43:34.319 iberrigan: That’s… I think that’s anything, right? Like, nobody’s really trying to go solve every problem, no demand. They find one big pain point, and then do it better than anyone else.
238 00:43:35.420 ⇒ 00:43:36.090 Jake Nathan: Yeah.
239 00:43:36.470 ⇒ 00:43:42.829 iberrigan: But I feel like Brainforge’s approach is like, you know, honestly, it’s like, whatever your issue is, we have a solution to build around it, so…
240 00:43:44.780 ⇒ 00:43:48.780 Jake Nathan: Yeah, cause to me, I feel like it would actually be…
241 00:43:49.080 ⇒ 00:44:05.599 Jake Nathan: I, like, I totally understand a SaaS vendor saying, hey, I want to work on one problem, because that way they can make their SaaS work for a bunch of people, but it’s actually better for Brainforge, like you’re saying, to go, wait, actually, instead of having to deal with one SaaS with renewals.
242 00:44:05.600 ⇒ 00:44:15.899 Jake Nathan: one SaaS with, cert… certifications, like, if you just had one integrated data pipeline that was able, like, if it could basically flow through the entire
243 00:44:15.920 ⇒ 00:44:18.079 Jake Nathan: workflow, that’s…
244 00:44:18.080 ⇒ 00:44:19.369 iberrigan: To me, it would be…
245 00:44:19.660 ⇒ 00:44:27.789 Jake Nathan: preferred versus, like, okay, now I’m gonna have to… because, like you’re saying, the… one of the, the problem is when you have all these different
246 00:44:27.900 ⇒ 00:44:45.020 Jake Nathan: solutions is now you’re having to constantly, like, like you were saying, when you had to… like, if you’re dealing with wholesalers, now you have to, like, copy and paste stuff into their forms to do. Like, that… that happens with SaaSes all the time, so if you’re able to integrate all of them into, like, one workflow, so you’re not
247 00:44:45.200 ⇒ 00:44:47.370 Jake Nathan: Like, constantly. So, and yeah, that’s.
248 00:44:47.370 ⇒ 00:45:04.350 iberrigan: data management, and yeah, because, like, agency management systems are, like, you know, they’re like CRMs, but they’re focused strictly on managing your policies, your forms, your client, all your endorsements that you change throughout the year, your client data.
249 00:45:04.350 ⇒ 00:45:23.740 iberrigan: those are all… there’s so many different kinds. All of them have different integration opportunities for other platforms that most people use in insurance brokerages, but I feel like a lot of times, they just don’t interact properly. There’s missing shit here, this gets dropped there, that’s not transferable, this doesn’t download, this data doesn’t go to this platform.
250 00:45:23.740 ⇒ 00:45:30.060 iberrigan: that does the certificates, then the… this one that stores all the policy data doesn’t transfer to the… this one. It’s like…
251 00:45:30.130 ⇒ 00:45:42.500 iberrigan: I feel like, yeah, somehow bridging all those gaps and making everything work seamless, where you’re not having to re-pull information, and if something is available here, it should be easily available there, like…
252 00:45:42.700 ⇒ 00:45:47.909 iberrigan: You know, that… I… everywhere I’ve worked, it’s been broken, like, somewhere…
253 00:45:48.190 ⇒ 00:45:56.109 iberrigan: shit just is not great, and I’m doing things that I know are not necessary. Like, they should all be working well together,
254 00:45:56.600 ⇒ 00:45:59.489 iberrigan: And I think that’s the beauty of, like.
255 00:45:59.880 ⇒ 00:46:17.100 iberrigan: Where you guys can come in is, like, you know, these… whether it’s a large, well-thought-out, blown-up agency that’s been around for 10 years or not, that agency’s gonna have a lot harder time backpedaling and reducing all of that clutter and getting to a point where they can smoothly transition into a whole new…
256 00:46:17.100 ⇒ 00:46:26.739 iberrigan: suite of products that works well together, like, that’s… it’s almost impossible. Once an agency’s built out to a certain extent, and they have clients, it’s really hard to do that. I’ve been through it before.
257 00:46:26.860 ⇒ 00:46:33.120 iberrigan: Unless you’re starting from day one and building everything with you guys being, you know, the captain of the ship.
258 00:46:33.290 ⇒ 00:46:39.639 iberrigan: It’s… it’s gonna be a situation where they’re like, this sucks, I need your help to make this not suck as much.
259 00:46:39.910 ⇒ 00:46:44.290 iberrigan: In some way, shape, or form. Like, everybody’s gonna have multiple pain points.
260 00:46:44.420 ⇒ 00:46:49.230 iberrigan: And I feel like it’s… it’s kind of a good situation, because there’s not just, like, a one…
261 00:46:49.600 ⇒ 00:47:03.800 iberrigan: fix-all solution that exists where someone who has an existing agency and a million-dollar book can just be like, oh, yep, everything’s gonna go into this now. We’re doing away with all this other tech. Everybody uses, like, 7 pieces of technology.
262 00:47:04.720 ⇒ 00:47:05.050 Jake Nathan: Yeah.
263 00:47:05.050 ⇒ 00:47:06.779 iberrigan: Work well together, so…
264 00:47:06.780 ⇒ 00:47:15.039 Jake Nathan: Yeah, yeah, that… well, yeah, now that you said that third piece, I think that actually… I think we… yeah, I think the…
265 00:47:15.400 ⇒ 00:47:34.980 Jake Nathan: this is, like, kind of a perfect first playbook of… this could kind of apply to anything in commercial insurance, and then I think the next step is, you know, like, we start with this, and then, like, I’m just… my brain’s already churning with a million ideas, but, like, one of them, like I was saying, was, like, maybe…
266 00:47:35.470 ⇒ 00:47:47.079 Jake Nathan: creating a very similar playbook, and then making it even a little bit more construction-focused, since that’s your expertise. Another rabbit hole for sure is, like, interfacing with wholesalers. I think that’s, like.
267 00:47:47.230 ⇒ 00:47:56.780 Jake Nathan: super niche, but, like, the perfect, like, people… I… I can’t imagine there’s that much good content out there about… about that. And then…
268 00:47:57.300 ⇒ 00:48:05.429 Jake Nathan: This might be more of a general topic, but just, like, trying to think of all the different ways, like you’re saying, for those support-heavy
269 00:48:06.040 ⇒ 00:48:09.840 Jake Nathan: Contracts, like, all the different ways you could use technology to…
270 00:48:09.970 ⇒ 00:48:13.399 Jake Nathan: To help save time, like you’re saying, certificates, are there…
271 00:48:13.900 ⇒ 00:48:20.119 Jake Nathan: like, going even more specific, are there any other workflows? So I think there’s… there’s a lot here, is what I’m saying. So, yeah.
272 00:48:20.460 ⇒ 00:48:21.650 Jake Nathan: It was definitely, like.
273 00:48:21.790 ⇒ 00:48:28.990 Jake Nathan: a ton of good stuff, and I’m excited to kind of, like, watch through the video again, look at the transcript, and kind of come up with a playbook.
274 00:48:29.590 ⇒ 00:48:32.219 iberrigan: Cool, man. Yeah, I… I’m…
275 00:48:32.350 ⇒ 00:48:41.889 iberrigan: interested to see where it goes to, because, like, I could talk about all of my experiences for days, and it would just be nice to know that
276 00:48:42.380 ⇒ 00:48:54.240 iberrigan: something’s… something is available, and especially for someone in my position who’s just now starting to build their own agency, like, being able to implement this stuff day one, I think it’s literally gonna make it…
277 00:48:55.400 ⇒ 00:49:14.730 iberrigan: like, a bigger impact than it would an existing business that already has, like, their own way of doing things, and they’re profitable, and whatever, you know? Like, for me, it’s gonna be like, holy fuck, I’m gonna be able to scale this thing way quicker, way more efficiently, with a lot less, payroll. So…
278 00:49:14.730 ⇒ 00:49:20.100 Jake Nathan: Yeah, which sounds great for, like, yeah, it seems like you’ve set yourself up in a good position, which is exciting.
279 00:49:20.350 ⇒ 00:49:21.880 iberrigan: Yeah, I’m stoked.
280 00:49:23.330 ⇒ 00:49:38.499 iberrigan: Man, that’s awesome. Yeah, so what do you want me… are you… am I just gonna wait on you to kind of do your thing, put something together, and then we can go into further depth with whatever you want to do next, or do you want me to do some work on the side, or what?
281 00:49:39.010 ⇒ 00:49:48.620 Jake Nathan: Yeah, I think, first step is, yeah, like, I’ll take some time, like, read, like, watch this video again, read through the transcript, and kind of come up with,
282 00:49:48.700 ⇒ 00:50:00.780 Jake Nathan: a document, and then I’ll send it to you and Utom, and we’ll basically refine it until we feel like it’s in a place where you’d be comfortable, like, we’d be comfortable sharing it on our socials, and you’d be…
283 00:50:00.810 ⇒ 00:50:12.390 Jake Nathan: comfortable, like, hey, as you’re starting to build your book of business, like, this is, like, an asset that you’d actually send to… to prospects. And then, yeah, I think, like, from Utom’s perspective, what I…
284 00:50:12.400 ⇒ 00:50:21.880 Jake Nathan: what I think is he, like, he’d love to work with you as much as possible, so, like, as you’re building out your business, like, if there are, like, like we talked about, if…
285 00:50:21.890 ⇒ 00:50:35.259 Jake Nathan: I think this could be, like, a recurring kind of thing that we do where we create a ton of different assets, and ultimately, I mean, I… my gut feeling says that, and I’m curious your perspective, like, what kind of…
286 00:50:35.490 ⇒ 00:50:47.879 Jake Nathan: content you read, but my gut tells me that there’s not, like, you know, world-class content about this, it’s kind of siloed around the place, and so I think if we, like, kind of continue to make good
287 00:50:48.090 ⇒ 00:50:52.570 Jake Nathan: Assets, like, that… that could be, like, a huge competitive advantage for both of us, really.
288 00:50:52.660 ⇒ 00:51:05.460 iberrigan: Yeah, I believe that, for sure, because it’s… there’s just generalized, like, oh, we do certificates, and then I get cold emails on, like, oh, we can automate your certificate issuance, you know, make it easier on you. It’s like, okay.
289 00:51:05.460 ⇒ 00:51:06.020 Jake Nathan: Yeah.
290 00:51:06.020 ⇒ 00:51:11.529 iberrigan: There’s fucking… everybody does one thing in InsureTech. No one does, like, a whole…
291 00:51:11.590 ⇒ 00:51:31.550 iberrigan: all-encompassing, hey, let me restructure the formate… like, the backbone of your agency, and all of the tools that are used, and refine those, and make things work better. Like, that… I feel like that’s just, like, something… if you went and tried to sell that right now to any agency that exists, they’d be like, so you’re telling me you can make us more profitable.
292 00:51:32.060 ⇒ 00:51:39.499 iberrigan: More efficient, make our tech stack work fluidly together, and reduce our staff that we need to operate at the same
293 00:51:39.620 ⇒ 00:51:43.930 iberrigan: you know, the same goals as far as, like, revenue we have, like.
294 00:51:44.060 ⇒ 00:51:49.239 Jake Nathan: yeah, where do I sign, you know? Yeah, yeah, totally. So, I think this could…
295 00:51:49.300 ⇒ 00:52:04.390 Jake Nathan: Yeah, this is… this is awesome. So, yeah, I think… and, out of curiosity, just because, this will help me, like, what, like, in your world, what websites, people, like, what do you consume content-related for your…
296 00:52:04.390 ⇒ 00:52:10.950 Jake Nathan: Like, for commercial insurance? Like, what do you check on the daily, or weekly, or… Do you?
297 00:52:11.520 ⇒ 00:52:15.060 iberrigan: Dude, honestly, I don’t.
298 00:52:15.170 ⇒ 00:52:29.059 iberrigan: I really… I think it’s gonna change a little bit, because now that I’m diving into, like, building my own thing, I think it’s important that I do more research, but, I think there is this one YouTube channel that I do look at a lot,
299 00:52:29.410 ⇒ 00:52:31.660 iberrigan: Let me pull up, just to make sure I have it.
300 00:52:31.670 ⇒ 00:52:33.000 Jake Nathan: Yeah.
301 00:52:38.660 ⇒ 00:52:44.959 iberrigan: Agency… Oh, it’s called, Better Agency.
302 00:52:45.500 ⇒ 00:52:49.350 iberrigan: And it’s this guy… He basically is,
303 00:52:49.570 ⇒ 00:53:00.230 iberrigan: it’s the only sales-driven insurance AMS for, property and casualty insurance agencies, so it’s… this guy actually has a SaaS product, but…
304 00:53:00.230 ⇒ 00:53:13.030 Jake Nathan: Nice. He has a lot of cool videos where he discusses, you know, using VAs, or he’ll discuss, like, mind up a cold-blooded Killer, and, like, you know, talking to really high-performing agents, and, like, bottlenecks, and, like, he…
305 00:53:13.030 ⇒ 00:53:19.480 iberrigan: Agency success stories and failure stories, like, things like that. How to market it properly, like, what’s worked for me.
306 00:53:19.760 ⇒ 00:53:28.090 iberrigan: blah blah blah. How to do… how to get more leads, and convert more, and stuff like that. That’s the only guy I think I’ve really,
307 00:53:28.620 ⇒ 00:53:32.569 iberrigan: focused on, but I’m actually thinking about building my…
308 00:53:32.580 ⇒ 00:53:48.880 iberrigan: agency using his AMS system, because I’ve heard a lot of good things, and it’s very modern, and it’s… a lot of integrations are available, so it’s not clunky and old, like the legacy products that majority of old-school brokerages are stuck with using and can’t swap.
309 00:53:50.440 ⇒ 00:53:51.480 Jake Nathan: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
310 00:53:52.310 ⇒ 00:53:57.640 Jake Nathan: That’s cool. Well, yeah, thanks for sending it to me. I’m always just curious. So, yeah, looks like he has a…
311 00:53:57.880 ⇒ 00:54:04.760 Jake Nathan: he’s definitely dialed in on the YouTube front. It seems like he hasn’t posted as much recently, but it looks like he got acquired, maybe?
312 00:54:05.240 ⇒ 00:54:19.690 iberrigan: Yeah, I mean, I wouldn’t doubt it. I bet you Verti4? Verti4, it might help you to know that, Verti4 is the biggest monopoly, like, the biggest monopoly player in the InsurTech industry. Any, any product, any…
313 00:54:19.690 ⇒ 00:54:25.719 iberrigan: any agency management system, insurance-specific CRMs.
314 00:54:25.720 ⇒ 00:54:26.660 Jake Nathan: Huh.
315 00:54:26.660 ⇒ 00:54:32.579 iberrigan: anything policy management, all of that, Verti4 gobbles it up. They just buy it, everything.
316 00:54:32.830 ⇒ 00:54:33.770 iberrigan: Interesting.
317 00:54:33.770 ⇒ 00:54:43.040 Jake Nathan: Interesting. So they’re… Yeah. Okay. So they’re, like, the all… like, they try to be your CRM, your… your… like, they just try to basically make your entire business run on it?
318 00:54:43.260 ⇒ 00:55:02.189 iberrigan: They try to… yeah, they’re just gobbling up market share, and they’re huge. I mean, anything that comes out that’s, like, somewhat revolutionary, I feel like Verti4 tries to buy out. Yeah, that’s interesting. And they suck. They’re slow, and big, and just, like, old school. It’s just, like, they’re trying, they’re trying to get there, but…
319 00:55:02.470 ⇒ 00:55:04.270 iberrigan: It’s just not… it’s not it.
320 00:55:05.160 ⇒ 00:55:05.670 Jake Nathan: Yeah.
321 00:55:07.070 ⇒ 00:55:19.639 iberrigan: And, also another common CRM for, like, insurance agencies is Agency Zoom. Might be good to look at. It’s a Verti4 product as well. You can probably just find on Verti4’s website.
322 00:55:19.900 ⇒ 00:55:28.339 iberrigan: you’ll see all the shit that they try to say they can do. Yeah. But yeah. Cool. That’s, that’s, that’s it, man.
323 00:55:28.340 ⇒ 00:55:28.880 Jake Nathan: Yeah.
324 00:55:29.020 ⇒ 00:55:44.389 Jake Nathan: Sweet. Well, yeah, this is a super fun chat, excited to, like I said, hopefully, like, next week or two, I’ll get back to you with, kind of a first draft, and we can go from there, but I really do feel like, like, you were just, talking today, like, there’s probably, like.
325 00:55:44.390 ⇒ 00:56:03.020 Jake Nathan: 5 different rabbit holes we could go down, which is exciting, because I think that’s, like, it’ll be awesome to have something to get the ball rolling, but I think it’ll be, like, every additional asset that we create, it’s like, man, imagine, like, going to somewhere like, hey, here’s, like, 5 really in-depth, like, industry assets you can look at. They’re like.
326 00:56:03.120 ⇒ 00:56:14.589 Jake Nathan: okay, you don’t… I don’t have to just… like, the sales conversation, I think, would be, like, even easier, because you’re like, hey, like, I’m not trying to prove to you that I know stuff, like, I’m… I’m a thought leader in this already, so…
327 00:56:15.080 ⇒ 00:56:22.940 iberrigan: Yeah, yeah. One last thing, just because I feel like it’s very relevant. I was approached by this company.
328 00:56:23.050 ⇒ 00:56:25.289 iberrigan: It’s a guy who…
329 00:56:25.290 ⇒ 00:56:32.419 Jake Nathan: he had a construction SaaS product that he sold, I think it was, like, $600 million, and then now he’s embarking on a…
330 00:56:32.450 ⇒ 00:56:37.330 iberrigan: a project called Equal Parts. Go to equalparts.ai.
331 00:56:37.630 ⇒ 00:56:39.940 Jake Nathan: Okay. Essentially, it’s a…
332 00:56:40.000 ⇒ 00:56:51.710 iberrigan: It’s basically, he’s building… he’s taking all the knowledge he has and everything he’s been through building that previous, construction-specific SaaS product, and now he’s building an AI-driven commercial insurance agency.
333 00:56:53.010 ⇒ 00:57:07.060 iberrigan: And so, they approached me, they wanted me to be one of the founding members. I actually did away with it. I should have probably hopped on it, because now they’ve already gone through two acquisitions. They bought out two small, independent agencies here in Texas.
334 00:57:07.180 ⇒ 00:57:16.209 iberrigan: But they’re, you know, they’re just ramping up, they’re gonna get a fuck-ton of funding, and I think when you scroll down on their page to the technology portion.
335 00:57:16.610 ⇒ 00:57:25.450 iberrigan: If you, if you see that on… you see, like, the little, like, half circle where it’s, like, quoting management, client data analysis, agency management system, blah blah blah.
336 00:57:25.450 ⇒ 00:57:25.890 Jake Nathan: Yeah.
337 00:57:25.890 ⇒ 00:57:43.080 iberrigan: So it’s just, essentially, their whole goal here, their concept, is they’re just gonna deploy AI tools to adjust the data and provide insights that can help you cross-sell, upsell, you know, risk management, blah blah blah blah, so you can just focus on maintaining the relationships with your customers. So,
338 00:57:43.380 ⇒ 00:57:51.340 iberrigan: I think they’re onto something there, and there’s not many… there’s nothing like this. This is, like, the first of its kind, from what I understand.
339 00:57:51.510 ⇒ 00:57:53.960 iberrigan: And I think this is kind of…
340 00:57:54.140 ⇒ 00:58:00.119 iberrigan: where I could be doing a smaller version of this with a lot less money, essentially, is, like, my goal.
341 00:58:00.530 ⇒ 00:58:10.999 iberrigan: Because this guy knows that this is… there’s value here, being able to start something and really implement the tech from day one, and not just add it in because you’re such a legacy company.
342 00:58:11.250 ⇒ 00:58:12.290 iberrigan: So…
343 00:58:12.780 ⇒ 00:58:19.629 iberrigan: this kind of helps the vision there, if you see that. Like, the insurance solutions that they offer, and stuff like that.
344 00:58:20.370 ⇒ 00:58:26.840 Jake Nathan: Yeah, is this… so is this a, software, or is this, like you’re saying, an agent… like a…
345 00:58:26.990 ⇒ 00:58:27.790 Jake Nathan: An agency.
346 00:58:27.790 ⇒ 00:58:31.740 iberrigan: So it’s really an agency,
347 00:58:32.210 ⇒ 00:58:47.649 iberrigan: it’s really just an agency, and I think what it is, is they are… their goal right now is to literally just go and find people who have independent agencies that they own, that are willing to sell, or, you know.
348 00:58:47.990 ⇒ 00:59:00.730 iberrigan: like, allow them to be bought out by equal parts so they can ingest their tech, or, you know, deploy their tech stack and help them, you know, turn themselves into a bigger operation. And so, it’s kind of, like, not…
349 00:59:01.220 ⇒ 00:59:06.840 iberrigan: it’s not a SaaS product, and it’s not, like, a traditional agency. I think it’s more of a private equity play.
350 00:59:07.200 ⇒ 00:59:10.650 iberrigan: Yeah, that makes sense. But I mean… but I mean, these guys are…
351 00:59:11.310 ⇒ 00:59:17.540 iberrigan: They… they were trying to come to me to help them understand what it takes to place commercial insurance.
352 00:59:17.650 ⇒ 00:59:31.460 iberrigan: For clients. Like, they don’t even know that, they just know that there’s such a fucking huge opportunity with technology and insurance, because it’s such an antiquated industry, with a lot of shitty, mundane, redundant tasks. So…
353 00:59:31.460 ⇒ 00:59:32.000 Jake Nathan: Yeah.
354 00:59:32.590 ⇒ 00:59:35.639 iberrigan: Yeah, figured that would be cool for you to have, too. But yeah.
355 00:59:35.640 ⇒ 00:59:36.120 Jake Nathan: Totally.
356 00:59:36.120 ⇒ 00:59:38.130 iberrigan: I could go for days, but we’ll stop there.
357 00:59:38.130 ⇒ 00:59:44.370 Jake Nathan: Okay, man, that sounds good. Well, thanks for chatting, and I’ll keep you posted on that first draft.
358 00:59:44.530 ⇒ 00:59:46.159 iberrigan: Alright, brother, sounds good.
359 00:59:46.340 ⇒ 00:59:46.819 Jake Nathan: Alright, Jim.
360 00:59:46.820 ⇒ 00:59:47.710 iberrigan: Thanks.
361 00:59:47.710 ⇒ 00:59:48.320 Jake Nathan: Bye.