We had the good fortune of connecting with Justin Buren and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Justin, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I had worked for my family’s insurance agency for years and we had been struggling to figure out the financing mechanism to transition ownership between the generations. So the opportunity came up for me to take a small segment of clients and some team members and create my own agency. I was either too naive or too much of a risk taker to say no. I wanted to create a more modern insurance experience leveraging technology and outsourced resources to make the buying process more digital, smoother and most importantly more transparent for our insureds. Insurance can be a black hole for people whereby they have no idea what’s going on and when they’ll get what they requested or for how much, and our goal is to have less surprises for the clients. We’re still an independent insurance agency that accesses multiple companies whereby a client can outsource the shopping to us, but we try to make the process more efficient and clearer by focusing on the conversations and let technology focus on the data collection and quoting.

What should our readers know about your business?
Our dedication to quality and not trying to be all things to all people. Most of the answer to this question is in the very first question, but I’ll add that we try to be very niched in the business clients we work with. We recognize that if we leverage technology to be more efficient and spend more time with our insureds on non-data collection/quoting work then we better have good stuff to add and talk about with them. Here, specializing in their industry gives us more insight and knowledge about what issues and risks they face. We specialize in social/human services, skilled contractors and specifically licensed chemical applicators, IT/Technology firms, Fitness Centers and lastly the food/beverage industry.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
For me I’d stay somewhat local to Westerville area and focus on the food first. We’d do dinner at Asterisk Supper Club, brunch/lunch at Northstar Cafe, and breakfast at Westerville Grille. Gotta grab a coffee from Espresso Air.

We’d throw some axes at Dueling Axes either downtown or New Albany, walk around one of the Columbus Metro Parks, maybe stop by PINS Mechanical for some arcade/duck bowling and if it works out, we’d catch a Columbus Crew game.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My mentors, Jeff Buren and Tim Buren who allowed me to do my own thing.

Some loyal clients: Sam at Weed Man Lake Norman, Jess & Paul from Dueling Axes, Mindy and Andrea from Cincinnati’s Optimum Residential Environments.

My business partner, Jim Waterwash and our TEAM, specifically Lynne Moore and Ryan Firestone who’ve been with us since we started and have been battling with us and for us!

Chris McAtee from INS Capital who has been a valuable resource and partner.

Website: www.insocialra.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-buren-33103197

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/insocialra

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