Executive Briefing
Agenda
What shifted, why it matters, and what the data looks like
Why legacy carriers are structurally locked out
Purpose-built carrier infrastructure for the inverted market
The offer, the team, and how to engage
Open questions. Anything goes.
97%
of fronting carriers were built for a market that's shrinking.
Source: Slingshot analysis of 107 U.S. carriers
Section 1: The Inversion
Frequency
Rare events
Severity
Catastrophic loss
Premium
Per policy
Every piece of carrier infrastructure --- actuarial models, data pipelines, staffing ratios, regulatory frameworks --- was built around this assumption.
Frequency
500K+ transactions/year
Severity
Embedded micro-risk
Premium
Per policy average
Youth sports. Event cancellation. Gig worker coverage. SaaS platform add-ons. Insurance at the point of checkout. Growing 30%+ annually.
Embedded Insurance Market
Sources: Fortune Business Insights, industry reports, Slingshot original analysis. 35%+ CAGR projected.
$20M
Minimum program size
State National, Fortegra, Markel, Concert
$3M
Typical first-year embedded book
120,000 policies at $25 each
The Real Cost of a Carrier Relationship
5-6 vendors. Nobody owns the whole picture.
The Pattern
Payments in 2009
20-page bank applications
Weeks to months for approval
$50,000+ setup cost
Nightmare technology
Insurance in 2026
6-month carrier onboarding
$20M minimum programs
$200-500K to set up an MGA
Excel + email + fax
Stripe didn't just capture existing payments demand. It created new demand by making infrastructure accessible.
Payments: $2 trillion. Insurance: $3+ trillion. The economics per transacted dollar are juicier.
Section 2: The Carrier Gap
Case Study
$35B
Company value
$100M+
Invested in iptiQ
Selling
Current status
They built on top of existing carrier economics. The architecture was wrong. Unlimited capital cannot fix the wrong foundation.
Bolt-On
Legacy core system (1990s)
AI layer (bolted on)
API wrapper
Reporting patch
AI can only be as good as the data it touches.
Purpose-Built
Unified data model
AI-native operations
Carrier economics for $25 policies
Every data object has a birth certificate
Architecture determines outcomes.
The distinction your carrier hopes you never ask about.
When your carrier sends you a bordereau, is that number the snapshot --- the number at the moment of calculation --- or the restated number, quietly adjusted after the fact?
Most carriers don't distinguish. Numbers get adjusted. You don't know which version you're looking at.
0% of 107 carriers analyzed distinguish between snapshot and restated data.
On a $20M MGA Program
Manual reconciliation
5 people, 3 weeks every quarter
$200K
Trapped collateral
Reinsurer can't verify data
$1-5M
Knowledge loss from turnover
Every departure resets to zero
Unquantifiable
Compliance risk
Every audit is a fire drill
Unquantifiable
Total annual cost
$500K-$2M
On top of the 5% carrier fee you're already paying.
Section 3: The Architecture
Created via API integration, checkout flow
2026-04-11T14:23:07Z | Source: partner-api-v2
Ingestion engine → Validation → Underwriting → Binding → Bordereau
5 custody events | 0 modifications | 0 restatements
v1 (original) --- no modifications
All prior versions accessible | Full diff available
3 access events logged
MGA admin (2x) | Reinsurer query (1x) | Full audit trail
30 seconds to answer "where did this number come from?" Not 30 days.
Day 1 performance equals Year 5 knowledge.
Every underwriting decision, every claims pattern, every risk assessment, every exception --- stored as structured knowledge that persists regardless of who is sitting in the chair.
Economics
$15
Legacy carrier cost per policy
Fine at $5,000 premiums. Fatal at $25.
<$1
AI-native cost per policy
$3M programs become profitable.
This is what makes sub-$20M economics viable. This is what makes the inverted market accessible.
What happens when multiple MGAs share a carrier that learns from all of them?
See how your loss ratio, frequency, and pricing compare to anonymized peers. Intelligence you cannot build alone.
Negotiate with aggregate GWP. One book gets one data point. Twenty books get 20x the negotiating power.
Individual program data structurally separated from aggregate intelligence. Guaranteed by architecture, not contracts.
Not an ecosystem pitch. No Slack channels and quarterly webinars in exchange for your logo.
The Team
Ethan
Co-Founding CEO
Chief Actuary at Palomar ($10B carrier). $2B premium. 500 employees. Writes production code. The actuary-engineer combination that doesn't exist in insurance.
Justin
Rally Ventures
20+ years in embedded finance. Invested in this space since before Stripe was Stripe. Applying the payments playbook to insurance.
Brock
Co-Founder / First Customer
Built Vertical Insure. Experienced every carrier pain point from the MGA side. Co-founded the solution. Not just a co-founder --- the first customer.
The Slingshot Model
Launchpad
SaaS founders & new entrants
MGA entity creation
Product design
Regulatory pathway
Category education
API integration
Reinsurance placement
5.5%
of GWP. No upfront cost.
90-day launch guarantee
Operator
MGA founders, $5-50M programs
Everything in Launchpad, plus:
Artifact-based data trust
Snapshot vs. restated reporting
Institutional memory engine
Automated reconciliation
Progressive risk retention
5%
Same price. Different century.
Clean Exit data guarantee
Collective
High-performing MGAs, $50M+
Everything in Operator, plus:
Peer benchmarking
Aggregate reinsurance leverage
Auditable data sovereignty
Governance seat (founding)
4.5-5%
Negotiated by program.
Benchmark performance guarantee
Today (Legacy)
50-state licensing
Statutory capital
Regulatory compliance
That's it. The paper.
With Slingshot
50-state licensing
Statutory capital
Regulatory compliance
+ AI-native technology platform
+ Artifact-based data trust
+ Automated reconciliation
+ Institutional memory engine
+ Reinsurance optimization
+ Progressive risk retention
+ Collective benchmarks
Same price. Different century.
"Show me the lineage of a single data object. In this meeting. In 60 seconds."
"Is this bordereau number the snapshot or the restated version?"
"What is my cost per policy? Can you profitably serve a $3M program?"
"If I leave, what format does my data arrive in, and when?"
"Who can see my data, and what structural guarantee prevents misuse?"
Ask these to every carrier you talk to. Including us.
Year 1 Only
36 mo
Locked carrier fee rate. Rates will increase as collective value compounds.
Ethan Direct
Personal onboarding, actuarial review, and reinsurance introductions from a $2B carrier veteran.
Governance
A seat at the table. Real authority over curation standards and membership criteria. Once filled, they don't reopen.
10 programs maximum in Year 1. Capacity constraint, not marketing number.
Pick the one that matches where you are.
Model embedded insurance revenue for your specific platform.
30 min, no commitment
Your engineering team evaluates integration and data architecture firsthand.
48hr provisioning
Birth certificate protocol, live. Actuary to operator. Architecture, not marketing.
With Ethan directly
slingshot.com
ethan@slingshot.com | justin@slingshot.com
Replay sent to all registrants within 24 hours.