Peter McKelvy

Peter is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Northern Re, a New York and Cayman based alternative asset group focused on securitizing risk in the casualty reinsurance space. He is responsible for the firm’s financial strategy and developing a modern tech stack to drive evolution in the space. Peter also serves as the Chairman of Park Agency, the Kennedy family office built on four generations of familial success across public service, philanthropy and business. In that role he works to ensure the long term success of the family as it enters its 5th generation.

Before co-founding Northern Re, Peter spent years as a product leader managing multiple engineering teams at various startups. He joined Uber in its early stage.   Peter established and led the Driver Compliance organization, growing the group from a concept to multiple engineering teams spanning several offices. After five years with Uber, he left to lead product at Boost Insurance, where he was responsible for the company’s strategy and technology build. He and his team created a platform that propelled revenue growth from $0 to $100 million in 3 years.

Peter is committed to volunteering with philanthropic groups including Best Buddies, Special Olympics, and RFK Human Rights.  In his free time Peter enjoys spending time outdoors exploring US National Parks. Peter is a cum laude graduate from Bucknell University and holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.  He is also licensed as a director with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.  Peter and his wife live in New York City.

What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?

My brother and I are co-founders of an alternative asset shop focused on reinsurance, Northern Re so that’s very much a full time job. I’m a morning person so getting up early and focusing on the most important items of the day are critical to staying productive. I also serve as the chairman of our family office now in it’s 4th and 5th generation. Having dual roles can certainly keeps the days interesting but I commit my attention on one job at a time to be most effective.

How do you bring ideas to life?

I am really lucky.  My co-founder at Northern Re is my brother Anthony.  We work in a highly regulated industry, reinsurance, that requires a high level of precision in virtually everything we do – especially in how we deploy capital.  So we tread cautiously in how our technology, instincts, and expertise combine to make us best in class in our space. We spend a lot of time talking to our partners – both on the investor and the insurance side – in order to understand how we can be most effective. Once we identify a need from either side of that equation we look around to understand if someone has solved that or a similar problem either in our industry or in an adjacent one. If there’s something we can take inspiration from then great, otherwise we set to work on developing something new. After that it’s identifying what metrics might indicate success and a lot of whiteboarding on different concepts. Finally we develop a solution and iterate overtime.

What’s one trend that excites you?

Post-pandemic there is deep-seated entrepreneurial energy bubbling up.  We read about the phenomenon of quiet quitting, but the other side of that coin is that in a metaphorical sense people are following Horace Greeley’s adage from the 1800s and “Going West.”  The new west is being an entrepreneur.  It’s going to be really interesting to watch as millennial entrepreneurs continue to establish companies contracting than those that we we grew up. Similar to reinsurance, I believe many sectors are ripe for innovation.

What is one habit that helps you be productive?

I am a proponent of focusing nearly all of one’s mental energy at the task at hand. I’ve found that with a lot going on it’s an efficient way to make sure things get done. It isn’t easy to achieve but helps me concentrate on whatever I am working on while stripping out distractions.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Do the boring thing! At Uber I saw a bunch of really smart people push to work on growth while nobody wanted to touch boring compliance. Growth at Uber was awesome, but taking on global compliance for a new industry was a super hard and interesting problem as well. Since I was the only person working on what would become a key focus area for the company I ended up with a lot of opportunities. I find Anthony and I doing the same thing with reinsurance, it’s definitely not sexy but it’s an underpinning of the world’s financial model and there’s tons of opportunity in the space.

Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you.

In 1926 Ernest Hemingway published his first novel, The Sun Also Rises.  The most famous line in that book is about things happening gradually and then suddenly.  I think there’s an important lesson there about being an entrepreneur.  You have an idea and you toil at it for years.  And then if all the right factors line up you suddenly have proof of concept. I’m a believer that timing is everything, but you need to put in a lot of work in order to be able to take advantage when the timing works out.

What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?

Write things down and come back to them.  We are not wired to remember everything.  I jot notes down and come back to them frequently.  There is something deeply satisfying about whittling down to-do lists.

When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?

I love hiking but I live in New York City.  I get out and walk on the West Side Highway and pound the pavement.  There is quite a bit of inspiration (and distraction) in New York.  Changing the scenery is both easy and quick which allows me to reset and refocus my attention. Plus, it makes my dog happy.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?

Start with a problem, not a solution. It’s basic product management but is super relevant to any industry. Anthony and I identified reinsurance capacity as a huge problem in the industry and then we worked with the major players acutely experiencing that problem in order to create a solution. I’d encourage any entrepreneur to focus the same way – you need to have customers to be successful and the best way to find them is to solve a problem.

What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?

At one point early in my career as a product person I was handed an engineering team and told to start working on compliance. It was wildly nebulous and I didn’t have a ton of experience. Working with developers the team shipped our first feature…and nobody used it. I had presented a solution to a problem that nobody actually had. It goes back to always focusing your attention on customer issues rather than pursuing concepts you’re not sure of. Now at Northern as a first principal everything we do prioritizes a major partner (either on the insurance and investor side). It helps us stay focused on things that really drive impact.

What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?

Less of an idea but more of a concept.  If you have worked in a specific industry for some time and developed expertise you should consider branching out and double-clicking on that expertise.  I spent years learning from talented leaders at Uber and Boost Insurance.  Those experiences taught me a lot and helped inform the entrepreneur I am today.

What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?

Less of an idea but more of a concept. If you have worked in a specific industry for some time and developed expertise you should consider branching out and double-clicking on that expertise. I spent years learning from talented leaders at uber and Boost Insurance. Those experiences taught me a lot and helped inform the entrepreneur I am today.

What is the best $100 you recently spent?

Picked up a discounted unlimited monthly pass at a local yoga studio. I need to exercise several times a week in order to feel my best personally. I’ve been a runner my whole life but it’s cold in NYC in the winters so going to a class a couple times a week gives me a break from freezing. Beyond the positive impacts on endorphins and my overall well being exercise gives me a chance to take my mind off work and quiet the mind for a while.

Do you have a favorite book or podcast from which you’ve received much value?

I recently read Atomic Habits by James Clear.  It’s a relatively short but effective book.  The central thesis is that we don’t need to do big grandiose things to achieve our long term goals; rather we are better off making changes at the margin that in turn help us rewire the way we perform our daily tasks.  It has helped me refocus some of my habits.

What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?

Last week I watched a film called Nyad.  It stars Annette Bening and Jodie Foster.  It’s the true story of a woman, Diana Nyad, who in the early 1980s tried swimming the 110 mile stretch of water between Cuba and Florida.  She didn’t complete the swim and then decided to try again in the early 2010s when she was in her sixties.  She trained hard and failed on multiple attempts until she finally achieved her goal at age 63 in 2013.  We can all draw inspiration from – maneuvering through hazards in life, mental toughness, relentlessly pursuing goals, and recognizing the role of others in propelling us forward.

Key learnings:

• Collaboration is an essential part of being an entrepreneur.  No one does it alone.
• Look for problems that you can solve for your customers or potential customers in order to find a strong business model
• When building, whether personally or professionally, incremental progress is the long term recipe for success.
• Be persistent, and relentless in trying to achieve your long term goals.