-Introduction
What does a mid-sized brokerage have that it cannot actually use? A specialized book and the data behind it, and none of the underwriting, capital, filing, and admin machinery it would take to turn that book into a program it owns. The ten largest firms solved this by buying MGAs. Cole Riccardi built Authentic to rent that machinery to everyone else, and nine of the top ten retail brokerages now work with him on digital programs anyway. In this conversation he explains why he refuses to call Authentic a software company, what he got wrong in the first two years, and why he went after Main Street before he went after the hard market.
Guest Bio
Cole Riccardi founded Authentic in 2022 after five years at Aquiline Capital Partners, where he invested across the insurance value chain and became convinced that nobody was building affinity insurance programs at scale. He built the company with a co-founder and COO who spent fifteen years as an actuary at AmTrust and a CTO who came out of six years at Amazon, and the platform was architected as multi-carrier, multi-tenant, and multi-product from the first day. Authentic runs out of New York and Dayton, Ohio, is backed by FirstMark Capital, and now sits behind six carriers with programs spanning Main Street, energy, and inland marine.
Key Topics
-Programs should not be limited to the top ten - The largest brokerages own their own MGAs. Riccardi's argument is that everyone else already has the book and the data, and only lacks the machinery, which is a rentable problem.
-An MGA that gives its software away - Riccardi is emphatic that Authentic never wanted to sell software and makes its money in the transaction flow. The technology is what makes it a better trading partner, not the product.
-Affinity is product creation, not just distribution - For PushPress, Authentic went through the entire book and built four or five custom class codes that mapped to CrossFit gyms and similar facilities, rather than rating them off generic fitness codes.
-Main Street first, on purpose - Rather than chase hard-market classes where premium comes fast, Authentic built a sizable Main Street book to prove that the configured programs were what moved business over, not market scarcity.
-Same infrastructure, new practices - A Chubb energy underwriter joined with a thesis about independent power producers being underserved on casualty. That program launched in May, and an inland marine practice was announced the day of this recording.
-The captive he overbuilt - Riccardi is direct that as a first-time founder he overcomplicated the early years by building custom captive cells on the back end. The captive still exists and takes smaller slices, but it is no longer the pitch.
-Fast nos and the right to win - Authentic has no trucking underwriter and no capacity partner who will raise a hand for it, so brokers asking about long-haul trucking get turned down quickly rather than strung along.
Notable Quotes
"We never wanted to sell software. I always wanted to be in the transaction flow. We make money as an MGA today. That's always how we will make money."
"Nine of the top ten work with us today on digital programs."
"We've actually gone after Main Street to start and built up a pretty sizable book there. We wanted to do that so we could prove to ourselves that our technology mousetrap mattered and we weren't just writing business because it was hard to find markets elsewhere."
"Can we challenge the status quo that MGAs need twelve points to operate? If you're built on modern systems, I don't think you do."
Resources
Guest:
Authentic: https://authenticinsurance.com/
Authentic, For Brokers: https://authenticinsurance.com/brokers
Cole Riccardi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cole-riccardi-63a243127/
Host & Organization:
Joshua R. Hollander on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuarhollander/
Horton International (USA): https://www.horton-usa.com/
Insurtech Leadership Podcast (LinkedIn Showcase): https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/insurtech-leadership-show
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