How Hinterland Accelerated Underwriting Speed, Accuracy and Growth with Kalepa

Hinterland, a fast-growing MGA based in Denver, Colorado and founded in 2019, set out to build a modern, disciplined underwriting operation that could stand out in a competitive market. As submission volume surged and schedules grew more complex, Hinterland needed a scalable, disciplined underwriting operation that could maintain speed, accuracy and consistency - without growing headcount at the same pace.  

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With Kalepa, Hinterland moved from an email-based, manual workflow to a structured, centralized underwriting process that enables faster decisions, clearer prioritization, and helps the team grow profitably while delivering strong service to brokers. 

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The Challenge: Rapid Growth, Rising Volume, and No Centralized Workflow

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"Previously, we were spending 15 to 20 minutes evaluating a submission, only to decline it five minutes later or find out that we didn't have enough information." Said Doug Thierjung, CIO at Hinterland.

As Hinterland experienced rapid growth, their underwriting operations struggled to keep up with the increasing submission volumes. The team faced several critical pain points:

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Fragmented Workflow: Underwriters worked primarily out of Outlook with no centralized submission management tool, making it difficult to track and prioritize accounts effectively.

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Triage Difficulties: With submission volume growing significantly, underwriters struggled to prioritize which accounts to work on and ensure top broker relationships received appropriate attention.

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Manual API Processing: Running APIs and modeling on accounts had to be done individually for each location. For large schedules with multiple locations, this manual process became unsustainable as the company scaled.

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Research was time-intensive and fragmented: Underwriters spent considerable time conducting manual research on properties and businesses, pulling data from multiple sources without a centralized view.

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"The biggest thing is the volume of submissions," explains Sierra Kudirka, VP of Underwriting at Hinterland. "We were having to run APIs individually, which obviously can take time. Running APIs individually is not sustainable as you grow."

Hear from Doug Thierjung, CIO at Hinterland on his experience implementing Kalepa:

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The Solution: A Centralized, Decision-Ready AI Underwriting Platform

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Hinterland implemented Kalepa as their centralized underwriting platform - turning scattered data, siloed processes, and inbox overload into a single, structured system that supports speed, accuracy and profitable growth. 

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Centralized Submission Management

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Kalepa replaced Hinterland’s Outlook-based workflow with a unified submission system that streamlines intake, clearance, and prioritization. Submissions are automatically ingested and processed, with structured data extracted from SOVs, loss runs, ACORD forms, and other unstructured documents within minutes. Kalepa’s AI technology then applies rules based on guidelines, appetite, and likelihood to bind to ensure higher-value submissions rise to the top, while those outside guidelines are automatically deprioritized or declined.

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"We're now able to bake rules into Kalepa, so we can sort things based on effective date and top broker," Sierra notes. "We're servicing brokers that bring us a lot of business, so our good brokers aren't being lost in the submission flow."

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Batch API Processing

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Kalepa’s third-party data integrations eliminated the need for manual, individual API calls. Entire schedules can now be processed at once, and loss data is automatically extracted from broker-provided loss runs. This shift generates significant time savings across the underwriting team.

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"We were having to run a lot of these APIs prior to Kalepa individually, so now we can batch run for an entire schedule within Kalepa. That helped cut down on time." - Sierra Kudirka 

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Enhanced Property Underwriting Capabilities

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For property-focused underwriting, Kalepa centralized several critical data points to support more efficient and accurate decision-making. The Submission Summary and Premises Viewer offer a single, consolidated view of total insured value (TIV), territory, business operations, building proximity, and location-specific insights. Underwriters can easily analyze exposures and drill deeper where needed, all within one platform.

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"Property underwriting is such a detail-driven part of the business," Sierra highlights the impact. "Because Kalepa is able to centralize key data - values, COPE information, hazards at locations, losses, APIs - underwriters can decide on terms a lot quicker, and our underwriting is more accurate."

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Risk Intelligence

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Kalepa’s data extraction and analysis capabilities surface critical insights that might otherwise be missed. The platform pulls together values and COPE data, hazards, losses, third-party data, legal filings, and broker-provided documentation - much of which would typically require manual Google searches or time-consuming research across multiple systems.  By centralizing all of this information, Kalepa eliminates fragmented research and reduces the risk of overlooking key details. Underwriters spend far less time gathering information and gain a complete, decision-ready picture of every risk.

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The Results: Faster Turnaround, Better Decisions, Consistent Growth

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Kalepa allowed Hinterland to scale their underwriting operations without compromising quality or needing proportional headcount increases. 

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Operational Efficiency 

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Work that once took several hours now takes a fraction of the time, allowing underwriters to respond faster, review more accounts, and apply guidelines with greater consistency.

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"With the volume that we're seeing, and the volume of properties, [Kalepa] basically turns what would have been a 3 or 4 hour project for one person into 15 to 20 minutes maybe. So, it's a huge ROI for us." - Doug Thierjung

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Improved Broker Satisfaction

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Top wholesale brokers responded positively to Hinterland's improved speed and service:

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“CRC and RPS were excited when they heard we implemented Kalepa - they knew we’d be able to get to their submission a lot quicker and they’re pleased with our turnaround times.” - Sierra Kudirka 

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Better Underwriter Focus

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What used to be hours of manual triage, modeling, and research is now automated. Kalepa automates repetitive, time-consuming work while ensuring underwriters can focus their expertise where judgment truly matters.

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“Underwriters struggled with prioritization before. Kalepa helps dials them in on where they should be focusing.”- Sierra Kudirka 

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Profitable Scalability

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With Kalepa, Hinterland was able to maintain its portfolio quality standards even as submission volume and gross premium written grew significantly. The platform also reduced the risk of missing critical exposures or loss history, while helping the team apply underwriting guidelines more consistently across all accounts - strengthening both discipline and accuracy.

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"It really comes down to enabling our scalability," Sierra reflects. "We're now able to grow strategically and profitably because we can improve the consistency of our underwriting and the service to our brokers, which ultimately keeps the business running."- Sierra Kudirka 

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A Foundation for Profitable Growth

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For Hinterland, Kalepa isn't just a tool - it's the foundation for strategic, profitable growth.

When asked what advice she'd give to others evaluating Kalepa, Sierra said:

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"If you are looking for long term growth, I definitely think it's inevitable and would help tremendously if a company is trying to continue to grow in size like we are. Kalepa helps keep a business around long and helps them grow because you're growing smart and its the backbone of the business."

Ready to see how Kalepa can accelerate your profitable growth? Contact us to schedule a demo.