Today we’d like to introduce you to John Pergande.
John, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Started in 1999 as a venture capital backed company providing online insurance sales and service to banks and online financial services companies. Our first customers were banks like Chase, Citibank and Wells Fargo. Today we are a diverse company with three divisions across a broad spectrum of insurance services. We have a 50 state insurance agency that operates as a wholesaler (our customers here are other insurance agents), a retailer (direct to consumers), and as a software and services provider.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Struggles? Trying to make money in a low margin business. Board struggles as we moved from idea, to working company, to needing to rework the corporate strategy.
Selling insurance online in 2000 was not possible in most respects as consumers were not willing to give up online the key “confidential” info we needed like social security number and birth date in order get a firm and final insurance quote. Today it is much more likely that consumers will provide that info, but even Progressive still only sells about 8% of their policies online. Beginning in 2003 we shifted our business model to provide service to insurance agents instead of trying to sell direct to the consumer.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Insurance quoting, sales and service. We are an insurance agent licensed in 50 states and have the ability to service all of your personal or commercial insurance needs from a consumer-friendly site. And we will never market to you. You can use our service for free. If we can ever help, let us know and only then will we contact you via phone or email.
What were you like growing up?
I grew up in Green Bay Wisconsin. Yes, I am a Packer fan. We had Packer players as assistant coaches, and had the kids of players on our teams.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.InsureZone.com
- Phone: 817-704-2200
- Email: marketing@insurezone.com
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