Profile: Ilya Bodner

Meet Ilya Bodner. CEO + Founder, Bold Penguin.

Name: Ilya Bodner

Job: CEo + Founder, Bold Penguin

City: Columbus

Hometown: Columbus

Q: What do you do at Bold Penguin?
The core mission of Bold Penguin is to connect and upgrade the small commercial insurance industry. Our technology empowers all of the stakeholders of the industry - small businesses, insurance brokers, and insurance carriers. Our platform, which we call a terminal, connects with existing systems to power both consumer facing storefronts and producer facing portals through an API-first approach.

Q: What’s a problem you're working to solve?
The small commercial insurance industry is an extremely fragmented, complex ecosystem. It can take weeks of processing and many hours of manual work to quote and bind policies for small businesses. This makes it hard for insurance agents to scale their business and for small businesses to quickly secure the coverage they need.

We’re really focused on building human-centric technology that solves these issues. Our technology uses natural language processing to accurately classify a business, triage the risk, and quickly match it with the best fitting coverage, carrier, and broker.

Q: What’s a lesson you’ve learned that's shaped your work?
Our mantra is “be bold.” This is a lesson I learned early on as an agent and entrepreneur - you must take calculated risks if you want to build something new. We live and breathe boldness in everything we do and aren’t afraid of moonshots. This approach has helped us succeed where others have failed.

Q: What’s a trend in technology or innovation that doesn’t get enough attention?
I don’t think we talk enough about connectivity, not in terms of social or IOT, but in terms of business ecosystems. The insurance industry is a great example of the power of connectivity. Through a web of human relationships and APIs, the entire ecosystem is stronger. Every stakeholder wins.

Q: What’s one moonshot idea that could help make Ohio a world leader in technology and innovation?
Offer a city, state, and other local government tax free zone for starting or expanding a tech company for 5 to 10years. Offer it at "no questions asked" type of level to avoid bureaucracy of getting "approval" to be tax exempt.

Q: What’s a recent book, podcast or news story that you found interesting?
I've been enjoying the Morning Brew. It’s a nice way to start the day and an efficient way to stay current on business and tech news.

Q: What's your favorite place in Ohio?
Can't beat the local Donatos pizza, just feels like Ohio all the time.

Q: What makes Ohio special to you?
It's a comfortable place to raise a family and grow a business, conveniently located close enough to a lot of really important places.

Connect with Ilya on LinkedIn.