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Scout InsurTech Interview with Ricono

Writer's picture: Andrew DanielsAndrew Daniels

Ricono is a software company. They seek to power accounting and finance for insurance distributors. Andrew Daniels sat with Co-Founder and CEO, Judson Norton, to learn more about how Ricono is impacting the industry.





What is Ricono's client focus?


Currently, we're 100 percent focused on independent agencies, brokers and producers. Within that, we address any brokerage that experiences the pain points we're solving. We have done a tremendous amount of research, validation and delivery into this channel and have come away with the conclusion that what we’re doing applies to agencies of all shapes and sizes. 


What does your product do?


Our most developed product today centers around the billing experience for independent agencies, specifically the agency bill process. We've taken a different approach compared to others tackling billing problems by thinking more broadly than just billing itself. It's about all the things producers and account managers have to do to collect everything they need to bind policies, including premium. We’ve also taken an agnostic view regarding partners embedded on the platform, like premium finance and payments companies. Rather than driving our own financing or payments processing experiences, we focus on connecting existing industry players.


How much capital have you raised?


We don’t have anything to share at this moment.


Was the company born from within or outside the industry?


The company was almost entirely born from within the industry. All three of us co-founders have around 20 years of experience in insurance and have encountered the pain points we’re solving firsthand. We’ve all also been around tech a lot, particularly since the beginning of this most recent insurtech wave over the last 10-15 years. And between the three of us, we’ve built three companies from scratch, purchased companies and/or helped build companies as advisors. 


What growth metrics have you accomplished over the last 12 months?


Although it feels silly to share numbers at this stage since we're in the “zero to something" phase, we've accomplished a few key milestones: We have a full working product with some major premium finance and payments integrations, and we have significant volume already moving through the platform. 


We're also engaging with big partners and have some exciting opportunities in the pipeline. 


Within your domain, what is the current challenge that the industry is facing?


The challenges fall into two categories:


  1. The familiar one: Insurance workflows are scattered across multiple systems, with data living in disparate places. This makes it difficult to process business efficiently.

  2. The lesser-known challenge: The insurance agency realm is far behind other industries in terms of accounting and finance. While other industries talk about strategic finance initiatives, insurance agencies often lack even basic financial capabilities. Addressing this gap is critical.


How does Ricono take a unique approach to providing value?


Our uniqueness lies in two areas:


  1. Product Design: We see ourselves as a workflow solution first and foremost. And within that, our design process is focused on creating products and features that minimize change for our customers. Very often, this means we have to design features that can be used regardless of the specific operating procedures an agency employs. We work hard to avoid locking agencies into specific workflows or forcing them to change who they do business with. 

  2. Customer Obsession: While many companies claim to prioritize customers, we've made it part of our DNA. For instance, our product development process is heavily influenced by customer pain points. If we haven’t heard a current or prospective customer express a need, we likely won’t prioritize it.


What inspired the team to start this company?


Personal experiences were the main inspiration. Most of the team has encountered these problems in major ways during their careers. From my perspective, I ran an agency for six years, and three of those years were spent on a full accounting reconstruction. Despite the effort, we only achieved about 25 percent of what I expected. The issue wasn’t the project itself but rather the lack of capable systems and solutions. After years of searching for a suitable product and finding none, we decided to build one ourselves.


Can you share any goals for the next 12 months?


Growth is a priority, but we’re focusing on manageable growth that doesn’t compromise customer satisfaction. Hitting our targets while maintaining high customer satisfaction is key.Personally, I’d love to see us release three or four new products in the next year. That said, our primary focus will always be listening to the market—engaging with partners, platforms and carriers to understand their challenges and opportunities and evolving our offerings accordingly.




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