CEO · Co-founder · Author · Host

Insurance technology, from the inside.

I've spent twenty-five years building software that runs inside insurance carriers, MGAs, and TPAs — and the last seven holding a microphone in front of the people building the rest of the industry.

CEO, JBK Co-founder, Terra Author, Geek Out (2026) Host, InsurTech Geek Podcast 400+ Keynotes
James M. Benham, InsurTech operator, author, and keynote speaker
25
Years operating

Bootstrapped JBK since 2001.

177
Podcast episodes

159 guests, 7 years on record.

400+
Keynotes delivered

ITC Vegas, RISKWORLD, NetDiligence, WCI.

2
Books published

Geek Out (2026) · Be Your Own VC (2022).

The new book

Geek Out

Ten Years of InsurTech, Told by the People Who Built It.

Geek Out — James M. Benham

Seven years inside the InsurTech revolution — told through 177 podcast conversations with the founders, CIOs, investors, and operators who built it. What actually worked. What publicly failed. What the industry eventually got right.

Drawn from The InsurTech Geek Podcast: 159 guests, roughly 1.3 million words of transcript, recorded live as the industry moved. The first book to tell the full arc — from the 2019 funding peak to the 2022 correction to the carrier-led transformation underway today.

Read more Launch updates & bulk orders

In final manuscript · Publishing 2026.

Trusted by the industry

Where I've been on stage

RIMS RISKWORLD TechCrunch Wall Street Journal TEDx TAMU Insurance Journal CIO Review Texas A&M
Speaking

Four keynote topics

Tailored for carrier, broker, venture, and association audiences.

The Podcast

The InsurTech Geek Podcast

Co-hosted with Rob Galbraith — seven years of conversations with the operators actually building this industry.

Who's on

Carrier CIOs and chief underwriters, founders at every funding stage, venture investors, reinsurance modelers, regulators, TPA executives. 159 guests across 177 episodes.

What we cover

AI in underwriting and claims, embedded distribution, parametric and climate risk, the MGA wave, the public-market repricing, the carrier-side innovation work that doesn't make headlines.

Where it's going

Still publishing bi-weekly. Friends-of-the-show program returning the most important repeat guests in 2026 and 2027 as the industrial-adoption era plays out.

Visit insurtechgeek.com →
Get in touch

Let's talk.

Speaking inquiries, podcast guest pitches, book press, or just want to compare notes on what's happening inside the insurance industry — I read everything that comes in.

Contact James