Insurance software service provider Vertafore is moving up in the world. And, also, they’re moving east – to a new office in a new city, with access to an abundance of talented new staff.
The insurtech company is in the process of relocating its headquarters from Seattle, Washington, to Denver, Colorado, while also amalgamating several of its national offices.
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“We’re in the process of moving. For all intents and purposes, we’ve moved the legal entity … and we’re in the process of consolidating,” said BJ Schaknowski, SVP and chief sales and marketing officer. “We had a look at the company and it made sense to reduce the overall footprint. We’ve reduced our office locations [almost by half] down to seven.”
“We are now the largest privately-held software company in Colorado, already. It’s helped us just recruit top folks into the company.”
Denver, Schaknowski said, was the perfect location to tap into an abundant tech staffing market.
“We announced Denver as the headquarters because, as we had started to grow here earlier on in the year, and even late last year, I’ll tell you: the amount of talent available to us is so amazing,” he noted. “We’ve simply been blown away by the level of resources, the connections we have with the local schools – we’ve just been so impressed with the level of tech talent here in Denver.”
And that talent will allow the insurance software company to continue to grow and offer more products.
“We help agencies and carriers save time, save money, reduce risk, and make money,” he said. “But more specifically, in insurance, we do that through two different ways: the first one is, we really do connect the distribution chain … by streamlining workflow and providing better data, analytics and insights; and secondly, we try to automate insurance, so that our independent agents and our carriers can actually bring the human element of insurance back.”
The aim of the company is to automate the paperwork side of broking, so that agents can have more time to interact with clients and provide insurance know-how, Schaknowski said.
“Vertafore’s position, and my position, is certainly that you will not see the independent agent go away,” he explained. “I think that the nature of the work will change … but the role of the independent agent that won’t change is providing confidence to a relatively uninformed buyer about the different choices they have available and the different needs that he or she may have.”
Vertafore was acquired last year by Bain Capital Private Equity and Vista Equity Partners, in a deal that reportedly valued the company at $2.7 billion.
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