{"href":"https://api.simplecast.com/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbuild-vs-buy.simplecast.com%2Fepisodes%2Fdanil-kolesnikov-co-founder-marin-Z6OOcxUD","width":444,"version":"1.0","type":"rich","title":"Danil Kolesnikov, Co-Founder, Marin","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/f34e8625-6e9b-40c0-aaa1-e18e753e41ac/3f85a8ea-e408-4d2a-962b-fefc0a493f9c/episode_27podcastapple_spotify.jpg","thumbnail_height":300,"provider_url":"https://simplecast.com","provider_name":"Simplecast","html":"<iframe src=\"https://player.simplecast.com/9c446b79-8860-4c96-aefe-f7f394ba8525\" height=\"200\" width=\"100%\" title=\"Danil Kolesnikov, Co-Founder, Marin\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"></iframe>","height":200,"description":"Mang-Git interviews Danil Kolesnikov, previously a founding engineer at Shepherd, a commercial insurance MGA for construction that underwrites on behalf of carriers and distributes through brokers. He explains Shepherd’s thesis that tech-enabled contractors are better risks and should receive better pricing and coverage. The core build-vs-buy decision was whether to buy a policy administration system or build one; Shepherd chose to build due to vendor pricing that takes a percentage of premium (a lasting “tax”) and the need for flexibility and speed. Danil says owning the platform improved onboarding and day-one productivity across underwriting, claims, and compliance, and helped Shepherd deliver quotes in under 24 hours versus weeks for legacy carriers. They also discuss the complexity of commercial lines, a painful Salesforce integration, and how AI shifts the bottleneck from coding to domain understanding and workflow automation. "}