At 24 years old, James Noble is the founder and managing director of his own insurance firm – an impressive feat by any standards. Even more impressive is that when Noble started his company, Bracknell-based
car insurance broker MyFirst, he was a golf caddy with no experience in the industry.
Insurance Business caught up with this young business leader to find out what drew him to the world of insurance, and how he managed to learn the ropes and set up a successful business.
What made you decide to launch your own insurance business?
When I got to the age of 17, 18, I was going through the process of insuring my first car and I realised that the industry underserved young people in that particular sector. I realised that you’re really left to your own devices when it comes to choosing the right policy first time round. If you were to use a comparison site, you’re given a lot of options but it’s down to you to choose which policy suits you best. I found that really difficult, because I didn’t know anything about insurance and there were various things like excesses and telematics, and I didn’t know enough about it to make an informed decision.
I thought there was a really big gap in the market for a business that catered specifically for young people and made the process easier for them, but also put an emphasis on advice and guidance and really got them through the process as well as finding them the correct product.
How did you go about starting the business?
Prior to launching the business, I was actually a golf caddy. I’d met quite a few business owners through caddying, and I got them all together, sat down with them and explained that I thought there was a gap in the market and that I really wanted to launch my own business. They told me to go off and do my research on the industry, so I went and did my
CII qualifications and really spent a good couple of years learning the insurance industry inside and out, and then went back to them and said: “I think I’ve got the knowledge in place to go and do it now.” They all invested into the idea initially, so I founded the business at the start of 2014 with an ambition to serve specifically young drivers, and we’ve really gone from strength to strength.
What was it like going into the industry with no experience?
It was a challenging process, because I was a complete rookie to the insurance sector when I first started. Fortunately, I was a member at the same golf club as Richard King, who founded ingenie – a really big young driver broker – so I was able to spend some time and a few hours on the phone with him discussing what I wanted to do, and just getting an idea of how he’d gone about founding his company.
MyFirst had partnered up with 10 insurance services which oversee all our FCA regulation – they were really helpful in terms of making sure that before I launched I understood the industry and the compliance side of it. I spent a lot of time with their compliance officer, and it took a long time to get my head around it, but once I did it was a really nice transition, because I had the network I’d built up through caddying, and they had always said they would back a business if I launched it. So I got my first round of investment in through those guys, who were effectively friends and people I’d worked for. That was really nice, and we built up a really good panel of different investors from different backgrounds.
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