How One MGA Went From Concept to First Bind in 22 Days

Every MGA founder has the same story. You've identified a market gap. You've secured capacity. You've assembled a team with deep domain expertise. And then you hit the wall: technology.

The traditional MGA launch timeline looks something like this: 4-6 months to select and implement a policy admin system. 2-3 months to build integrations with your capacity providers. Another 2-3 months for broker portal development, document generation, and compliance configuration. By the time you're ready to bind your first policy, 12-18 months have passed, you've spent $500K-$2M on technology alone, and the market opportunity that inspired you may have already shifted.

This is the story of how an MGA broke that pattern.

The Opportunity

In late 2025, a team of three experienced specialty insurance professionals identified an underserved niche in the European professional liability market. Specifically, they saw an opportunity in technology professional indemnity for mid-market SaaS companies — a segment too small for the major carriers to build bespoke products for, but too complex for the generalist PI markets.

They had capacity from a Lloyd's syndicate. They had a distribution strategy (direct-to-broker via API, plus two aggregator partnerships). What they didn't have was a technology platform.

Day 1-5: Product Configuration

Using Stere's product builder, the founding team configured their first product without writing a single line of code:

• Coverage structure: Professional indemnity with cyber liability extension, configurable sub-limits, and optional intellectual property defence coverage
• Rating model: 12-factor algorithm incorporating revenue band, client concentration, technology stack risk score, claims history, and jurisdiction
• Underwriting rules: Automated acceptance for risks scoring below threshold, referral rules for edge cases, and hard-decline criteria for out-of-appetite submissions
• Document templates: Policy wordings, schedule, statement of fact, and broker-facing quote summary

The entire product configuration — from coverage design to bindable product — took 5 working days. The actuarial team provided the rating factors; the underwriting team defined the rules; the product builder turned it into a working insurance product.

Day 6-12: Distribution Setup

With the product configured, the next step was connecting it to distribution channels.

Broker API: Stere's standard API endpoints meant that any broker with API capability could integrate in hours. The team published their API documentation and developer sandbox on day 6. By day 10, two brokers had completed sandbox testing and were ready for production.

Aggregator integration: The two aggregator partnerships required connecting Stere's API to each aggregator's standardised request/response format. Stere's universal adapter handled the translation layer, mapping the aggregators' submission schemas to the MGA's product structure. Both integrations were live by day 12.

Broker portal: For brokers who preferred a web interface over API, Stere's white-label portal was configured with the MGA's branding, product-specific question sets, and quote comparison tools. This ran in parallel with the API setup.

Day 13-18: Testing and Compliance

The team ran a structured testing phase:

• Rating accuracy: 200 test submissions verified against the actuarial model, achieving 100% consistency
• Document generation: Policy wordings reviewed by legal counsel, automated document assembly tested across all coverage combinations
• Regulatory compliance: FCA permissions verified, fair value assessment documented, product governance framework approved
• Capacity provider review: The Lloyd's syndicate reviewed the live system, tested the API, and approved the platform for production binding

Day 19-22: Soft Launch

On day 19, the MGA went live with a controlled soft launch:

• Day 19: First API submission received from lead broker partner
• Day 20: Three quotes generated, one indication accepted by broker's client
• Day 21: Underwriter review of the accepted quote (standard risk, within automated authority)
• Day 22: First policy bound. Premium: £12,400. Time from submission to bind: 4 hours.

The Numbers After 90 Days

For context, a comparable MGA launched 18 months earlier using a traditional policy admin platform. At their 90-day mark, they had bound 31 policies and spent £340,000 on technology.

What Made It Possible

Three factors distinguished this launch:

1. Product builder, not custom development. Insurance product configuration shouldn't require software engineers. When actuaries and underwriters can directly translate their expertise into a working product, the timeline compresses from months to days.

1. Pre-built distribution infrastructure. The API layer, aggregator adapters, and broker portal already existed. The MGA configured them; they didn't build them.

1. Compliance by design. Regulatory requirements — document standards, disclosure rules, audit trails — were baked into the platform, not bolted on as an afterthought.

The Broader Lesson

This MGA's story isn't unique because of their market insight or their team's expertise — though both were exceptional. It's notable because the technology was not the bottleneck.

In an industry where technology has historically been the primary constraint on speed-to-market, removing that constraint changes the economics of MGA formation entirely. When you can go from concept to first bind in 22 days at a fraction of the traditional cost, you can afford to test hypotheses, enter niche markets, and iterate on products in ways that were previously impractical.

The best insurance ideas shouldn't die in implementation. They should die in the market — quickly, cheaply, and with data to explain why. That's what modern infrastructure enables.

Stere's turnkey SaaS core gives MGAs everything they need to launch: product builder, API distribution, AI underwriting, policy admin, billing, and claims.