Brendan Burdette and Ryan Connor·June 8, 2026

How to De-Risk the Personal Guarantee | Brendan Burdette and Ryan Conner Interview

This episode is an expert/advisor interview rather than a standard buyer-operator story. Brendan Burdette (former State Department diplomat turned insurance consultant at Hiscox) and Ryan Connor (former lawyer turned insurtech/fintech startup operator) are co-founders of Braddock Road Insurance Corporation (Brick), a managing general agency offering personal guarantee insurance (PGI) for SBA small business acquisition loans. The product covers 50% of the outstanding loan balance — paid directly to the lender — after corporate assets are liquidated following a default, effectively cutting the worst-case personal exposure in half. The guests explain how PGI is designed to bring mid-career, asset-rich would-be ETA buyers off the sidelines: people who are deterred not by lack of deal flow or operational skill, but by the existential risk of pledging a family home to a $2-5M SBA loan. The episode covers underwriting mechanics, lender relationships (Live Oak Bank was a key compliance partner), pricing structure (roughly 1-2% of loan value per year, declining as the loan is paid down), the MGA/delegated-authority model, seller equity-rollover use cases, and multi-guarantor partnership dynamics. The company was newly launched at the time of recording and still underwriting its first policies.

Deal facts

notes: No acquisition deal discussed. Guests are founders of Braddock Road Insurance Corporation (Brick), which offers personal guarantee insurance (PGI) for SBA loans. Ryan Connor previously held a personal guarantee of ~$2.7 million at a prior company. Hypothetical pricing discussed: ~1-2% of loan value per year (e.g., $10k-$20k/year per $1M of loan). Policy covers 50% of outstanding loan balance after corporate asset liquidation.

Why this business

Brendan had always been interested in the ETA/search fund space since business school but was deterred by the personal guarantee risk for his family. Ryan had lived through a $2.7 million personal guarantee at a prior startup and lost sleep every night over it. Together they identified a gap: personal guarantee insurance existed in other countries but not in the US SBA market, and they set out to build a product to reduce that psychological and financial burden for would-be entrepreneurs.

What's working

First-to-market PGI product for SBA loans in the US, with delegated underwriting authority from an A-minus-rated insurance carrier partner
Worked closely with Live Oak Bank's legal and credit teams to ensure full SBA regulatory compliance
50% coverage structure aligns incentives by preserving skin-in-the-game while cutting catastrophic downside risk in half
Product addresses a well-documented pain point: mid-career, asset-rich would-be buyers who self-select out of ETA due to fear of losing family assets
Annual policy structure gives borrowers flexibility to cancel when no longer needed as loan balance and business risk decline
Lenders view the payout as additional effective collateral, making covered loans safer for the bank
Managing general agency (MGA) structure gives Braddock Road delegated underwriting authority, so renewal decisions stay with the founders rather than a distant carrier

What's hard

New insurance products are a massive regulatory and operational lift; cyber is cited as the only truly new insurance category in 20-30 years
Cannot guarantee they will always renew a policy if business performance deteriorates significantly — annual underwriting creates renewal uncertainty for struggling borrowers
Cannot eliminate all consequences of default: if a borrower still owes more than their net worth after the 50% payout, they can still be wiped out
Product does not protect against seller fraud or undisclosed liabilities — guests emphasize that trust in the seller is irreplaceable
Pricing cannot be publicly advertised due to insurance regulations; requires custom quotes
Company is pre-revenue/early stage at time of episode — still in the process of underwriting first policies
Multiple competitors are entering the market simultaneously

Notable quotes

I had a personal guarantee. And it was for about $2.7 million. I didn't have $2.7 million to my name at the time and I woke up every morning thinking about it and then would kind of lose sleep at night every night.

What we do is we come in and we write a very simple check that covers a portion of what you owe directly to the lender itself. We're not going to be able to save all your assets. We're not going to be able to get you out of trouble, but what we do again is turn down that risk from a 10 to a five.

We want the skin in the game to exist. We just don't want the downside risk to be potentially catastrophic. That's what we're trying to take away with this insurance policy.

After 2-plus years of part-time searching across a number of industries in my geo, my search has ended in keeping my day job. It was a failure to tolerate risk. I could have closed on a number of deals, but I never solved for the house. With a young family, I was not willing to put my primary residence on the line for an SBA loan and potentially make us homeless.