[00:00:00.17] Reid Holzworth: IVANS connect was really, really good. And I think a win for me, which was a big win for the overall company, was for me to get up on stage and truly talk about the vision of IVANS. And really for people to truly understand what we're doing, where we came from, and what we're focused on in the future.
[00:00:23.21] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:00:25.65] SPEAKER 2: This is the Insurance Technology Podcast, where we bring interesting people from across the insurance ecosystem to discuss and debate technology's impact on the industry. Join us each episode for insights and best practices from industry stewards and tomorrow's innovators.
[00:00:44.24] Christen Kelley: All right. Well, we are here for the last episode of 2023.
[00:00:51.68] Reid Holzworth: Woo, 2023.
[00:00:54.48] Christen Kelley: Well, no, we were just saying, right, that we're-- I think this is episode 62. And doesn't feel like it's been that long, does it?
[00:01:02.25] Reid Holzworth: That doesn't even make sense. I know, you said that a few minutes ago. I cannot believe that we've done 62 episodes.
[00:01:09.05] Christen Kelley: Yeah.
[00:01:09.71] Reid Holzworth: That's wild. What happened to 2023? 2023 just went by so fast. I know every year it's like that. But I don't know, maybe I was just heads down just grinding. But I don't know. It was just-- went by so quick. I'm looking at the names of the people that we interviewed this year.
[00:01:29.17] Christen Kelley: Yeah.
[00:01:29.68] Reid Holzworth: And I'm like, that was this year? You know, it's crazy. Feels so long ago. But anyway.
[00:01:38.41] Christen Kelley: Yeah, no. So you started this year, it actually worked out well for the show, but you started the year at the Big I's first ever InsurTech Summit and were able to do some onsite interviews. And--
[00:01:53.17] Reid Holzworth: Oh, yeah. Totally. Yeah, that was like-- yeah. Yeah, yes. In Savannah, Georgia. That was fun.
[00:02:01.09] Christen Kelley: Yeah.
[00:02:01.90] Reid Holzworth: We had a good time. Yeah, so we did-- yeah, a few of the names here there, which was great.
[00:02:07.27] Christen Kelley: Yeah. And you and Adam had never met before and became fast friends over beers, I heard.
[00:02:12.66] Reid Holzworth: Yeah, literally I was taking the ferry over to over across the river in Savannah. And I was talking to this couple. They were super nice. And then he walked up. He's like a big tall long hair dude. And I'm like, what's up with this guy? And I was like, hey, man. What's going on? I started talking to him.
[00:02:32.49] And then yeah, it turns out that was him. I was like, well, I'm going to buy a cigar and drink some beers. You can come with me if you want. And he's like, sure. Literally. And then we just hung out all day. It was fun. It was cool. Adam's a cool dude, for real.
[00:02:47.88] Christen Kelley: Yeah, and then so you also met with Bill Devine at the summit. But you guys could have talked for hours. So you ended up going and doing one with him in Hartford.
[00:03:01.96] Reid Holzworth: Well, I men, it's funny, I forgot that. I forgot that we did that first and then we did a second one in Hartford.
[00:03:07.71] Christen Kelley: Yeah, you got your history of the insurance capital.
[00:03:10.77] Reid Holzworth: No, I know. I just think of the one that we did in Hartford. I forgot about the one that we did in Savannah as well. Yeah, totally. That was a good event. That was a great event. It was fun time.
[00:03:23.19] Christen Kelley: Yeah, I think they've done one other one. I think they're going to continue to do them this year, so. Hey, Chip, if you're listening, we'll--
[00:03:31.05] We'll be part of them again. So yeah, so Bill Devine was-- well, as of the last time I looked at our viewership, it was one of our highest watched or highest listened to podcasts, was the one that you guys did around InsurTech, but the evolution.
[00:03:57.80] Reid Holzworth: Totally.
[00:03:59.10] Christen Kelley: Why do you think it was so popular, the one with Bill Devine?
[00:04:05.02] Reid Holzworth: I don't know. I think it was a really good in-depth conversation. Especially his phases of InsurTech, when he got into all of that. I think it was really interesting. And Bill Devine's just a really interesting person. It could also be Travelers. I don't know, just the brand, maybe.
[00:04:28.15] But yeah. I mean, Bill's a really intelligent person that knows a lot about this industry. And I think that carrier point of view is really good. I mean, we're seeing a lot of traffic come in on Casey Kimpton this year already. And same kind of thing. Maybe it's Chubb or whatever. But I mean, Casey is wicked smart. And she really knows. And it's people like her and Devine that are sitting in those seats at the carrier, really understanding the technology and what's going on and being on the buy side of it as well.
[00:05:05.47] They have an interesting lens. So maybe that's it. I don't know, what do you think?
[00:05:08.83] Christen Kelley: Well, I definitely think that that's some of it. But as you think back to where we started this, right, so where did Dennis come from? Well, he came from a carrier.
[00:05:19.42] [LAUGHS]
[00:05:20.24] Reid Holzworth: Totally, yeah. He was a CEO of DNA, yeah.
[00:05:23.65] Christen Kelley: If you look at the episodes throughout the years that we've been doing this, we were staying in this tech track and startups. But then those people that were part of the founding of some of the more traditional technology. And we shied away from doing carriers because there wasn't these people that were getting that involved. It almost was like an innovation lab or something that was on the side.
[00:05:51.66] Now these people are truly part of the business leaders and the strategy for the entire company, so.
[00:05:59.09] Reid Holzworth: 100%. Yeah. No, it's true. And like you said, initially that wasn't the goal. But it really worked. People are really into it.
[00:06:08.51] Christen Kelley: Yeah.
[00:06:09.52] Reid Holzworth: No doubt about it. And it makes a ton of sense, obviously. You know what's been slowing down, and I know I went off on a tangent about this a while back. But not a lot of startups. At first when we started this, we did a lot more startups. But it's just like I feel like they're drying up. I mean, listen, folks, listeners, we get a lot of people that come to us and say, hey, you should speak to so-and-so, and hey, you should speak to me.
[00:06:36.62] And we look at the stuff, and it's just not that interesting, frankly.
[00:06:39.98] Christen Kelley: It's interesting the amount that I get in that, say, we're doing something new with AI, or we're doing something new about machine learning for underwriting. And I almost go back to when I was taking classes to go into marketing. And they're like, if you can put your name in or take another and put it a competitor in and it still holds true, then something's not right. Your competitive advantage is not what you think it is.
[00:07:13.07] So yeah, if you're submitting stuff to be part of the podcast, give us the reason why you're unique.
[00:07:18.89] [LAUGHS]
[00:07:19.46] Reid Holzworth: Yeah, exactly. That's so true. But yeah, no, it's interesting. I don't know. I mean, I feel like next year, we'll switch it up once again. I don't know what that looks like. But we need some new blood in here and go down some other rabbit holes. But it's been good. I mean, this year was really good. We had some really awesome guests on the show. But man, I tell you what, '23 just flew by for me.
[00:07:44.33] Christen Kelley: It did.
[00:07:45.47] Reid Holzworth: That was just heads down, I think. And it's just been so crazy. But it's just gone. Gone.
[00:07:52.43] Christen Kelley: It's gone. Well, it's not gone yet. We have a few more days. But yeah, so we talked about the carriers. But the other, I guess, side or lens that we took on for the first time this year was looking at it from the investor lens. And it was interesting because bringing on two people that are on our parent company's board. But they both brought very unique lenses.
[00:08:19.47] You had already had spoken with Nick before these interviews, but I was just so shocked to hear the amount of things that he has been involved in when it comes to insurance technology over the years.
[00:08:31.86] Reid Holzworth: Oh, yeah. I mean, Nick has been in this industry for a long time. I mean, he knows all the greats. They're all buddies, right. And so, yeah. It's interesting. And like you said, in Jesse's take on the market and where everything's headed and whatnot, even just outside insurance technology I thought was really, really awesome.
[00:08:57.99] Both those guys, they're just good people, once again. And they know our space and they're passionate about our space. Really, really smart people. It's funny, I had somebody come up to me the other day. And they said, hey, man, I listened to the Jesse's. And I'm not going to say-- it'd be even funnier if you knew who it was. But they're like, you know what I found the funniest thing about that? And I was like, what? They're like, that he drives an F-150 as a daily driver.
[00:09:23.28] [LAUGHS]
[00:09:24.57] I'm like, I know, right?
[00:09:26.34] Christen Kelley: I like him even more because of it, yeah.
[00:09:28.50] Reid Holzworth: I know, right? Totally.
[00:09:29.85] [LAUGHS]
[00:09:31.50] But yeah, no, that was awesome. Yeah. And AI we had a lot on. I mean, he was super interesting. He's this really smart dude. And I wasn't able to catch up with him at ITC, because I didn't go. But--
[00:09:48.60] [LAUGHS]
[00:09:50.70] But because he's over there. And so anyways, hopefully we'll hang out soon. But that's an interesting topic. That was interesting timing for him and given that update. That was really cool. Very educational--
[00:10:05.73] Christen Kelley: Yeah.
[00:10:06.00] Reid Holzworth: --of an episode, right?
[00:10:07.62] Christen Kelley: Yeah, for someone who-- I mean, I've never been on the technology side. I will never be a developer. And he was able to explain things in a way that made sense. Because I think AI can seem so intangible and hard to grasp. But it makes sense. And like we were both saying, I think that it's not something that's going away. I think it's going to be one of those things, though, where you're sifting through a lot of noise to find those people a lot that are actually-- it's something real.
[00:10:41.31] Reid Holzworth: Yeah, definitely more to come there, for sure. But it's cool. It is very, very cool. There's a lot of promise there. But more to come, overall. Like you said.
[00:10:52.32] Christen Kelley: Yeah.
[00:10:55.24] Reid Holzworth: Yeah, what's interesting is I think we as a business at IVANS are starting to get a lot more involved with agencies. Just getting a lot more involved and with the-- especially the very large agencies and their tech side. And so I just personally have been spending a lot of time with those people. So maybe there'll be some more of that next year. I was just thinking about Jay from Gallagher. He was a great guest. Short guest, because that was at the thing at Savannah. But I see Jay around. He's an awesome dude.
[00:11:28.63] And that's a very interesting perspective as well on the broker side. Especially--
[00:11:34.54] Christen Kelley: Or I think it's a needed perspective, right? Because they haven't been, at least from conversations that we've had at InsurTech Boston and other events, a lot of agents will feel like they've had that seat at the table because it is the carriers that are investing. But like you said, these large national brokers are investing. They're having directors of innovation.
[00:11:57.17] Reid Holzworth: Yep. Yeah, well Jason Kass and Indie Tech, right. It's a good brand. I like the brand. It's good, right. And it's in Indie, Indianapolis. But anyways, yeah. So I think it's good. I think we'll see some more of that, just because I'm just-- we're out there walking and talking and meeting a lot of really interesting people.
[00:12:17.29] Christen Kelley: Yeah.
[00:12:17.66] Reid Holzworth: So we'll bring we'll bring some of those in. I'd love to bring in some people this next year that aren't even from our industry. Give value back to the listeners in some ways. I don't know what that looks like yet. I think it'd be fun. If anybody has suggestions, let us know.
[00:12:36.77] But yeah, man, I'm just blown away. 60-some episodes. The year is already over. Looking back at all the names of the great people that we interviewed this year. Just, it's crazy. It's so fast. So fast.
[00:12:51.84] Christen Kelley: So to give a little bit of a teaser for next year, we're going to start off the year by switching it up a little bit. And you're going to get interviewed.
[00:13:00.57] Reid Holzworth: I know. I'm a little bit worried about that one, to be honest with you.
[00:13:03.93] [LAUGHS]
[00:13:07.59] Yeah, no. First one up is I'm getting interviewed by one of my best friends and one of our former guests, Jim Hackbarth. So that's going to be a lot of fun. I'm actually excited about that, actually.
[00:13:21.87] Christen Kelley: I am, too, because the feedback that we get, a lot of times, people, they do ask. They are like, Reed's one of these InsurTechs. We should hear his story as well. And so I think internally, people that work for you, work with you have heard your story. But I think it'll be good for the listeners to get more of a deep dive.
[00:13:41.07] Reid Holzworth: Yeah. I think it'll be cool. I have a very fun story. I've been through a lot. So it'll be good. It'll be good for everybody. But I feel like a lot of people have heard my story, though, you know? You say that, but I feel like-- I don't know, I guess not. Whatever. Anyway.
[00:13:58.77] Christen Kelley: I'm sure there'll be something new that Jim will pull out of you.
[00:14:02.10] [LAUGHS]
[00:14:04.11] Reid Holzworth: Stay tuned. Yeah, that'll be fun. And then yeah, we do know some of the guests that we have already lined up for next year. We're not going to put those out there yet, I guess. But--
[00:14:16.11] Christen Kelley: Yeah, we'll definitely go down that agency focus. I think that's becoming-- again, that's another place that we haven't delved too much into but definitely makes sense with the way that InsurTech is going. There is definitely a lot out there for agents. I think the carrier side, we just started to go down that road. I think there's a lot more, again, interesting people that are working for what we would consider traditional carriers.
[00:14:44.72] Reid Holzworth: Totally. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. I do know that we have a carrier technology one coming up in the first of the year. That's going to be a good one. I'm excited about that one. Anyways.
[00:15:04.24] Christen Kelley: Teasing a little bit. Teasing a little bit. All right, so do you have, I guess, something that was a great win for '23? And then maybe something that you're looking forward to for next year.
[00:15:22.46] Reid Holzworth: Great win for me? Oh, man. Oh. That's me yawning. Yawning the '23--
[00:15:28.52] Christen Kelley: Was '23 not that exciting for you?
[00:15:30.52] [LAUGHS]
[00:15:32.26] Reid Holzworth: Hey '24, you know what I'm excited about in '24? Is I'm getting back in the racing game.
[00:15:37.96] Christen Kelley: I had a feeling that was coming.
[00:15:39.52] Reid Holzworth: I'm totally dusting off the cars and everything and I'm totally getting after it again. I've worked really hard over the last couple years. And now things are starting to come together. It's really good. So I'm hoping to do some more of that. We'll see how far it goes, but I'm really excited about that.
[00:15:58.48] A win for me this year was when we brought back IVANS Connect. And that was a really, really great event. I mean, we had InsurTech Boston. We've been doing that for a bit now. InsurTech Boston was great. But IVANs Connect was really, really good. And I think a win for me, which was a big win for the overall company, was for me to get up on stage and truly talk about the vision of IVANS. And really for people to truly understand what we're doing, where we came from, and what we're focused on in the future.
[00:16:36.80] So that was good. And I did a 45-minute long keynote, which is a long time. And I crushed it. It was awesome. It really was. And so I got a lot of great feedback. So for me, that was a great win. IVANS Connect was good. It was good to be able to get the business to a point and where we are all aligned as an organization on what our vision is here at IVANs. Because we've been doing a lot of rebuilding of this organization over the last few years.
[00:17:07.44] So that was a win. Win, win, win. And there's a ton of other stuff. I personally got engaged this year. That was a win. I don't know, I'm sure there's a ton of things that I'm not-- as usual, did not prepare for this meeting that I should have written.
[00:17:26.04] Christen Kelley: But it's supposed to be the stuff that highlights in your head. So that's good. I think that's good. One personal, one professional.
[00:17:32.45] Reid Holzworth: How about you, Kirsten? You're in the thick of it, too.
[00:17:36.08] Christen Kelley: Yeah, you stole my thunder.
[00:17:37.71] [LAUGHS]
[00:17:38.57] Reid Holzworth: Yeah, totally. I totally stole your thunder. Yeah.
[00:17:42.29] Christen Kelley: Because it's 45-minute speech that--
[00:17:43.94] [LAUGHS]
[00:17:45.86] He did all on his own. No, I don't know. The events, I think-- I even say this when you do your podcast in person, too. I mean, how you and I started working together, doing this podcast together, when we were not allowed to be in the same room, so. I think this year, yes, things started to come back in '22. But I think this year, in terms of in person.
[00:18:17.44] InsurTech Boston. While yes, we have been working on that, I think it had a different feel this year. It was definitely more around the networking and bringing new people together. IVANS Connect, being part of it before your organization came into to play to what it is now.
[00:18:43.13] Reid Holzworth: Yeah.
[00:18:43.46] Christen Kelley: I love the way that it's changed. It almost changed from a place that you go to from a user perspective to learn about the nuts and bolts to something where you're thinking more high level. I love being part of events that are like that, getting people to think outside the box.
[00:19:02.21] Reid Holzworth: It's just fun. And there was a lot of really great people there. And the content was just all so well done. Some of these things that you go to all the time, I'm not just saying this because we put it on, but they could be so boring. It's the same old, same old over and over and over again. So it was a great event. Really good. IVANS Connect, Applied Net, ITC.
[00:19:26.03] And then there was something right after that. The next week or something. It was crazy. Yeah. Conference season. All the fun. Yeah. Well, I'm excited for next year. Next year is going to be more of a fun year for me. That's what's up.
[00:19:40.84] Christen Kelley: Well let's hope it's a fun year for everyone. You should be--
[00:19:42.61] [LAUGHS]
[00:19:44.23] Just you.
[00:19:45.53] [LAUGHS]
[00:19:47.74] No, I'm sure that there will be-- we will have lots to talk about when we do this at the end of next year. By the end of next year, geez, I'll probably be into our 80th episode somewhere in there, so.
[00:20:00.43] Reid Holzworth: Wow. That's wild.
[00:20:03.47] Christen Kelley: All right. Well, to all of our listeners, we will hope you have a wonderful holiday. And we will be back in 2024.
[00:20:14.64] Reid Holzworth: Happy holidays, everyone. Thank you for listening. Love this industry. Love you guys. Have a great new year. Celebrate. And we'll be talking to you next year.