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I've spent 25 years in the insurance industry: Fortune 500 carriers, specialty brokers, startups. I've seen the business from every angle.

And here's what I know: the system is broken for small business owners.

Where it started

My co-founder Mike and I worked at one of the largest specialty insurance brokers in the country. After our firm was acquired, we spent several years at the largest broker in the world.

We had a front-row seat to how the industry operates at scale. And what stuck with us wasn't the deal flow or the carrier relationships.

It was watching business owners struggle through a process that didn't have to be so hard.

The problem we couldn't ignore

We saw people wait weeks just to get a quote.

Then wait months to receive their policy documents.

We watched accounts get put on auto-pilot, with customers paying high commissions year after year while getting less and less attention.

For a restaurant owner trying to open their doors, or a contractor bidding on their first commercial job, these delays aren't minor inconveniences. They're barriers. They cost real money and create real risk.

The traditional brokerage model wasn't built for these businesses. It was built for large accounts with complex needs and big premiums. Small businesses got the leftovers: the junior broker, the slow response times, the one-size-fits-all policy.

We kept asking ourselves: if we were starting from scratch, knowing everything we know now, how would we do this differently?

What Knack is

That question led to Knack.

We built Knack to be the insurance partner that small businesses deserve. Not a marketplace that leaves you to figure things out on your own. Not a chatbot pretending to understand your coverage. A real platform backed by real expertise.

Here's what that means in practice:

Speed without shortcuts. You get quotes from multiple carriers in minutes, not weeks. Our platform handles the complexity so you don't have to, but we never sacrifice coverage quality for convenience.

Transparent pricing. No hidden markups. No inflated commissions. You see what you're paying for and why.

Technology that actually helps. Our AI tool, Ask Kytt, can read your existing policies and identify gaps, overlaps, and opportunities to save. It translates insurance jargon into plain language, like having an expert analyst on call 24/7.

Human support when it matters. Technology handles the routine. But when you need guidance on a complex question, when you're filing a claim, when your business is changing and your coverage needs to change with it, you talk to a real person who knows your policy, not just your policy number.

Why now

The insurance industry is at an inflection point.

AI can analyze policies in seconds. Digital platforms can connect businesses with carriers instantly. There's no reason a small business owner should wait two weeks for a quote in 2026.

But technology alone isn't the answer. The companies that have tried to fully automate insurance have learned that trust matters. Business owners want to know that someone is looking out for them, not just processing their transaction.

That's the balance we're building at Knack: the speed and efficiency of a digital platform with the expertise and care of a dedicated partner.

What's next

We're launching with the coverage types small businesses need most (General Liability, Business Owner's Policies, Workers' Compensation, and more), partnering with top-rated carriers to ensure competitive pricing and reliable coverage.

But this is just the beginning. Our roadmap includes deeper AI-powered policy analysis, proactive renewal management, and tools that help business owners understand and optimize their coverage over time.

We're not trying to disrupt insurance for the sake of disruption. We're trying to fix the parts that have been broken for too long.

If you're a small business owner who's been frustrated by the insurance process, we built Knack for you.

Welcome aboard.

John Baxter, CEO & Co-Founder

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From the field

Why We Built This City

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