Scout InsurTech Interview with Andy Sharpe

Andy Sharpe is the Founder and CEO at meshVI, where he focuses on building technology to modernize commercial auto and transportation insurance workflows. Andy was interviewed by Michael Fiedel, Founder and COO at PolicyFly and Co-Founder at Scout InsurTech.

Andy, at a high level, where do you think the insurance industry is falling short when it comes to managing the policy lifecycle?

“On the commercial side, I would say the biggest shortcoming is connectivity, or more accurately, the lack of it. We still have too many systems that do not talk to each other very well. You have agency management systems, rating platforms, policy administration systems and carrier portals, and they all operate in their own silos. That creates friction at every step of the policy lifecycle. 

The more we can move toward APIs and even AI agents communicating with one another, the more efficient the industry will become. Right now, too much information is passed manually through emails, spreadsheets and PDFs. Someone sends a document, someone else rekeys it, and then someone checks it again. That process is slow, expensive and prone to errors.

This becomes especially painful when you look at change requests. In transportation, those happen constantly. Vehicles get added and removed. Drivers change. We call this 'Active Policy Operations' or APO. The industry is great at 'passive' policy management—binding and renewing—but fails at the 'active' daily changes that actually keep a fleet running. Fleets expand and contract based on seasonality or business growth. The current process is not built to handle that level of ongoing change efficiently. The more we can automate and streamline those communications, the better off everyone will be, from agents to underwriters to the end customer.”

What does a more living, breathing version of insurance actually look like in practice?

“We are starting to see that vision come to life right now. We are seeing that vision come to life with meshVerified. It’s our live certificate API, and the response from the industry has been incredible. That concept ties directly into what you mean by living and breathing insurance.

In our world, we focus on the wheels business, anything with wheels. That includes commercial auto, trucking and logistics. These policies are never static. They change every week, sometimes every day. Drivers are hired or let go. Vehicles are bought, sold or taken out of service. Routes and operations shift based on contracts and demand.

But the industry still treats these policies like frozen documents. You bind a policy, generate a PDF and then spend the next 12 months sending endorsements back and forth through email. 

Think about how we manage drivers. We used to check MVRs once a year, which left us blind to violations for 364 days. Now, 'Continuous MVR Monitoring' is standard. We are simply doing the same for the policy itself. meshVerified is Continuous Policy Monitoring. Why verify a subcontractor's insurance once a year when you can monitor it live?

If a fleet changes today, that change should be visible today. Not two weeks later after a long email chain and multiple follow-ups. A certificate of insurance should always show the current state of risk. That is what living insurance looks like to me. Data that moves at the speed of business and accurately reflects what is happening on the ground.”

What are some of the gaps in strategy and operations that often prevent carriers and MGAs from achieving a more dynamic policy experience?

“One of the biggest gaps is the continued reliance on unstructured data. The industry still runs on spreadsheets, PDFs, and emails. That creates chaos. Someone sends in a vehicle schedule as a spreadsheet. Someone else forwards it. Then it gets manually entered into a system. Then there are questions about missing fields or formatting issues. That back and forth wastes a lot of time.

We have focused heavily on turning that unstructured chaos into clean, trusted data. For example, when we ingest a submission, every VIN has to be 17 digits. We automatically validate the year, make, model and vehicle value. We do the same with driver information, which is especially important in Lloyd’s markets where driver details are heavily scrutinized.

By the time that data reaches an underwriter or carrier, it is already verified and structured. That eliminates all the follow-up emails asking what is missing. Strategically, companies need to invest in systems that can handle structured data from the start rather than relying on manual processes downstream.

Operationally, another gap is requiring heavy technical integrations just to get started. If it takes six months of IT work to connect systems, most organizations will delay or abandon the project. That is why we designed our platform to work with something everyone already uses, email. You simply enter the email addresses of the required stakeholders, and we automatically communicate all vehicle and driver changes. No complex integrations required.”

Who actually benefits when insurance data becomes real-time and transparent?

“Everyone across the value chain benefits. Agents save time because they are not rekeying information or chasing down missing data. They can focus on advising clients instead of doing administrative work.

Underwriters benefit because they receive clean, structured submissions. They spend less time cleaning spreadsheets and more time evaluating risk and pricing accurately. That leads to better underwriting decisions and faster turnaround times.

But the biggest beneficiary is the customer. In transportation, a certificate of insurance is essentially a license to operate. If it is wrong or outdated, a truck might not be allowed into a facility or to pick up a load. That can delay shipments and cost companies real money.

Having live, trusted data prevents those issues. It builds trust between all parties. Customers know their information is accurate. Agents know they are providing reliable documentation. Carriers know they are pricing the right risk. Transparency creates confidence across the entire ecosystem.”

Why does deep domain expertise matter when rethinking the policy lifecycle?

“Because you cannot build good solutions if you do not understand how the business actually works day to day. Transportation is very different from property or professional lines. The frequency of change is much higher. The data requirements are more complex. The operational workflows are unique.

If you do not understand those nuances, you end up building tools that look good on paper but do not actually solve real problems. We designed our platform around how agencies and carriers really operate. That is why we focus so much on email ingestion. Agents are not going to log into five different systems to rekey data. They are going to forward an email. So we built around that reality.

Domain expertise allows you to meet users where they are. Instead of forcing people to change their workflows, you design solutions that fit naturally into what they already do. That is how you drive adoption and real impact.”

Looking ahead, what excites you most about where the industry is headed?

“The momentum. We are seeing carriers, MGAs and brokers finally wake up and prioritize automation and real-time data. It is no longer a nice-to-have. It is becoming a requirement to stay competitive.

There is a lot of energy in the market right now. Customers expect faster service. They expect accuracy. They expect technology to work the way it does in every other part of their lives.

If you fast-forward five years, success looks like insurance finally feeling modern. Policies update in real time. Data flows automatically between systems. Agents spend more time advising and less time doing data entry. Underwriters focus on risk instead of paperwork.

That is the future we are building. We are moving from a world where insurance is a gatekeeper to one where it’s an accelerator. When you replace 'paperwork' with 'live data,' you don't just stop fraud—you speed up the entire supply chain.”

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