Why I'm plotting a platform for DIY captive insurance

Jessie Grenfell
Jessie Grenfell

I've been a little obsessed with the concept of captive insurance ever since I built Salesforce solutions for a captive insurance company. It’s a niche market, so you likely haven’t heard of it, but that’s exactly what made it an ideal fit for me, a builder of niche solutions.

Captive insurance effectively allows businesses to become their own insurance provider. In a captive insurance setup, a company can create its own insurance entity— a “captive” insurance company— and pools premiums with other captives (legal requirement for insurance, though the model isn't strictly limited to legal insurance entities). At the end of the year, any unclaimed premiums minus management fees... go right back to the businesses. Bloody brilliant.

So I've been plotting a software platform that let's people manage their own captive insurance agencies. Member, premium & claims management, blockchain for policy smart contracts, a member portal- everything a group would need all in a slick, extendible, configurable package. All very much in my wheelhouse.

What I like about this plan is that it makes a traditionally capital-intensive solution accessible to people working together. That's the kind of solutions I'm working towards. Decentralization will be a common focus of mine.

Jessie Grenfell

Jessie Grenfell

Jessie has spent 20+ years architecting and delivering software for organizations where complexity is the norm — financial services, insurance, nonprofits, and regulated industries where getting it wrong isn't an option. She specializes in the hard problems: unique operational workflows, cross-system integrations, and the kind of compliance requirements (HIPAA, CCPA, SOC 2) that most developers treat as someone else's job.

At Codality, she leads every principal engagement from discovery through delivery — because she's seen what happens when that thread gets cut.