Nearly half of U.S. unicorn founders were born outside the country, study finds
November 5, 2024
By Verne Harnish
In an industry where many firms rely solely on relationship-based selling, Lamb Insurance Company has differentiated itself with a unique approach to cold calls and developing proprietary software. Lamb, an insurance broker based in New York City, is dedicated to serving nonprofits and social services businesses, as well as real estate and the commercial auto industry.
Now Joshua Lamberg, founder and CEO of Signers National—the parent company of Lamb Insurance Company—is scaling up in a big way, under the guidance of Scaling Up Certified Coach Rich Manders of FreeScale Coaching in Cambridge, Mass.
Lamberg—a former minor league baseball player in the Cincinnati Reds system–founded Lamb Insurance Company as a small retail brokerage in 2008 and has grown it to $80 million in annual revenue with 225 employees. The company has been recognized on the Inc. 5000 and by the Insurance Journal Top 100 Independent Property/Casualty Agencies ranking.
At the end of 2022, Lamberg sold 20% of its business to the private equity firm CVC. “This was a fantastic deal, and with CVC as a partner, we began to incorporate mergers and acquisitions (M&A) alongside what had previously been an exclusively organic strategy,” says Lamberg. About 60% of its growth is organic with the rest through acquisitions.
Here is how he is scaling up
Growing more effective leaders
Lamberg’s work on the “People” side of the company started with himself. He worked with both Manders and Charles Alexander, a former Xerox executive who is on the company’s board, to step out of daily operations and focus on growth.
“Back in 2018, I was still involved in all our major functions—selling, quoting, finding customers, renewing accounts,” he recalls. “But learning to delegate freed me from being the primary producer and allowed me to focus on strategy and growth. The shift was challenging because it meant letting go of the manic ‘hunter’ mentality and trusting others to execute. This change was key to becoming an effective leader.”
Lamberg also created opportunities for his team to grow. “We promoted our best salespeople to sales managers, which is unconventional,” he says. “They were skilled in our unique approach—making cold calls, using proprietary software—so we asked them to continue selling while training others. This approach has worked better with some than others, but it has allowed us to scale.”
At the same time, Lamberg put his team’s personal development front and center. “Books like Scaling Up and Jim Collins’ works have been helpful,” he says. “We’ve also implemented tools like the Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS), which has been fantastic for assessing management effectiveness. Without good managers, scaling is impossible, and Rich and Charlie encouraged me to step back from direct execution and empower my managers.”
Staying focused on strategy
Working with Manders since 2016, Lamberg and his leadership team drafted a one-page strategic plan that has guided decision-making. They set objectives and review the plan each year, focusing on alignment and execution.
One key element of the company’s strategy was branching out from having two branches—an insurance broker and carrier—and adding a third, an underwriting company. The company took this step in 2019.
Relying on organic growth through much of Lamb Insurance’s history, Lamberg added a disciplined mergers & acquisitions strategy, focusing on firms with at least 50% alignment in target niches, after CVC acquired its stake in the company. Signers National acquired Convelo Insurance Group, known for its extensive suite of products in areas such as cyber liability, worker’s compensation and auto liability, in 2019, and Principal Insurance Agency, which has a niche focus on the transportation industry, in 2020.
“Our strategy combines organic growth and disciplined M&A,” says Lamberg. “While many of our competitors buy everything and adopt a financial roll-up model, we focus on our niche—human services, real estate, and commercial auto—and only acquire agencies aligned with those specialties. We’re selective, investing heavily in our own technology, people, and management.”
Embracing execution
To ensure strong execution of the company’s strategy, Lamberg and his team hold daily and weekly huddles, as well as quarterly sessions Manders facilitates to keep everyone aligned on meeting goals.
“During COVID, we started holding weekly town halls, and this has continued,” Lamberg adds. “Each week, someone from the team shares a 10-minute presentation about themselves. Participation is voluntary, but we had 154 people from a team of 225 join last Monday. These sessions have strengthened our culture and communication, fostering openness and transparency.”
To make sure the team meets its key performance indicators (KPIs), the team follows a highly systematic sales process with specific targets (for instance, 75 dials to one prospect, three quotes for every five prospects and two new clients from that entire process). The team uses the company’s proprietary software (named “Caffeine”).
Keeping a close eye on cash
Growing, in part, through acquisitions has required Lamberg and his team to keep a close eye on cash, so they have the funds needed to acquire and integrate targets successfully. Currently, the company is leveraged at less than 4x EBITDA– less debt than the 7-8x EBITDA typical of its competitors.
“Our cash flow is strong, though growing at this pace—between hiring and M&A—creates challenges,” says Lamberg. “We have a solid EBITDA growth, but the combination of new hires and M&A means our cash flow has to be carefully managed.”
With the systems in place to scale, Lamberg has set an ambitious target of growing another 50% in 2024. Lamberg has the confidence that comes with knowing his company has successfully followed its One-Page Strategic Plan since 2016. “While the journey wasn’t always as we initially planned, we have hit our key goals over the years,” he says.
