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At our 2025 offsite, we had the rare privilege of hosting Scott Stephenson, former Chairman, President, and CEO of Verisk, for a candid fireside chat with our CEO, Attila Toth.
More than a guest speaker, Scott has been a mentor to our founders and a steady source of insight and encouragement on our journey.
Over two decades, he led Verisk through extraordinary growth: doubling revenue, quadrupling market cap, and shaping one of the most respected analytics companies in the world. Named one of Forbes’ Most Admired CEOs, Scott helped define the modern insurance ecosystem.
But what stayed with our team long after the session wasn’t the accolades. It was his clarity, humility, and deep conviction that great companies aren’t defined by vision—they’re defined by execution.
Here are three takeaways that stuck with us:
Trust is a survival skill
Scott opened with the story of the 1949 Mann Gulch wildfire, where only 3 of 16 elite smokejumpers made it out alive. The team leader lit an escape fire and lay down inside it. He shouted for the others to follow, but no one did.
“They were a team on paper,” Scott said, “but they’d never trained together. They didn’t trust each other enough to act as one.”
The lesson? In high-stakes environments, technical talent means little without trust. Success depends on how quickly and cohesively a team can move together.
Thinking isn’t doing
Smart teams often confuse planning with progress. As Scott put it:
“Thinking about something, even deeply—and talking about it with others—feels like you’re doing the work. But you’re not.”
Insight without execution is just potential energy. The companies that thrive aren’t the ones with the most ideas; they’re the ones that ship, iterate, and improve with discipline.
Leadership is a mindset
Scott began his career as an engineer. Leadership wasn’t on his radar—until curiosity led him to explore it. His message: leadership isn’t a job title, and it’s not reserved for MBAs. It belongs to those who take responsibility, act with principle, and stay grounded in reality.
Why it mattered
Scott didn’t come to ZestyAI to celebrate the past. He came to challenge us. To remind us that in an industry facing rising losses, regulatory pressure, and rapid change, progress isn’t driven by buzzwords or strategy decks. It’s driven by clarity, trust, and the discipline to do the hard work.
That message hit home. As we scale ZestyAI, our ambition isn’t just to innovate; it’s to lead with purpose. To build the new standard for risk analytics. One that helps insurers price with precision, expand access to coverage, and strengthen the resilience of entire communities.