# Fernstone Builds Out NYC Founding Team to Automate Commercial Insurance

**Author:** Zero G Talent
**Published:** 2026-11-14
**Category:** marketing
**Tags:** yc-hiring, insurtech, fintech, artificial intelligence, software engineering, sales

[Read on Zero G Talent](https://zerogtalent.com/blog/fernstone-builds-out-nyc-founding-team-to-automate-commercial-insurance)

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Commercial insurance brokerages spend significant manual labor on recurring administrative workflows: tracking claims, handling policy renewals, verifying compliance, and issuing certificates of insurance. [Fernstone](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-companies/fernstone), an AI-native insurance brokerage backed by Y Combinator, is building software to automate these operations. The company provides a risk management platform that handles policy management, claim tracking, COI issuance, and automated alerts.

Founded in 2025 and backed by a $500,000 Seed investment from Y Combinator's F25 batch, the company is now establishing its operational base in New York City. Fernstone has opened four founding roles across engineering, operations, and sales, aiming to convert standard brokerage workflows into agent-led software processes.

## The Platform and Market Scope

Fernstone operates as a retail brokerage powered by an internal risk management platform. Commercial insurance involves high document volume and complex compliance rules, requiring brokers to constantly coordinate between policyholders and carriers. Fernstone automates this coordination by parsing policy documents, tracking open claims, generating COIs on demand, and surfacing risk alerts when coverage terms change or lapse.

By uniting modern data models with automated workflows, the company aims to reduce policy placement overhead and manage client portfolios without the linear headcount growth required by traditional brokerages.

## Leadership with Enterprise and Growth Roots

Fernstone was founded by operators with backgrounds across technology, enterprise sales, and high-growth marketplaces:

- [Bryant Le](https://zerogtalent.com/people/bryant-le), CTO, previously worked in engineering at Google. He also acquired and operated an Australian raffle company, where he doubled profits by building modern software tooling.
- [Luke Button](https://zerogtalent.com/people/luke-button), CEO, previously led a growth team at Founders Fund-backed Traba, served as Head of Growth at Antimetal, and co-founded Contrast, which was acquired. He studied philosophy at St. John's University.
- [James Chen](https://zerogtalent.com/people/james-chen), CEO, previously created and scaled the enterprise function at Traba from zero to 25% of company revenue. A former national collegiate debate champion, he also worked at Boston Consulting Group after graduating from the University of Chicago.

Together, the founders combine marketplace scaling experience with enterprise operational mechanics.

## Building in New York City

While Fernstone maintains headquarters in San Francisco, its current hiring wave is concentrated entirely onsite in New York City. The open roles target early-career and mid-level operators who can define the operational playbook while working alongside engineers.

On the product side, the company is hiring a [Founding Engineer](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/fernstone/founding-engineer-112215) ($120,000 – $180,000) to help set technical architecture. The engineer will work directly with internal operators, build across interface, application logic, data models, and infrastructure, and develop AI systems that interpret insurance documents to automate multi-step tasks.

On the go-to-market and operations side, the company is assembling a commercial team to place coverage and build repeatable pipeline systems:

- The [Founding Growth & Ops Lead](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/fernstone/founding-growth-ops-lead-111987) ($90,000 – $130,000) will own an entire vertical, partnering directly with insurance carriers to place coverage, transact on policies, and translate operations into scalable, agent-led workflows.
- The [Founding Sales Development Representative](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/fernstone/founding-sales-development-representative-111398) ($65,000 – $90,000) joins as the team's first dedicated outbound hire to prospect via phone, qualify accounts, and build closing systems.
- The [Growth & Operations Analyst](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/fernstone/growth-operations-analyst-112216) ($65,000 – $90,000) will run outbound channels, source and enrich prospective business leads, and close incoming accounts.

## Current Job Openings

All open roles are full-time and based onsite in New York City.

| Role | Location | Work Mode | Salary |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Founding Engineer](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/fernstone/founding-engineer-112215) | New York City | Onsite | $120,000 – $180,000 |
| [Founding Growth & Ops Lead](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/fernstone/founding-growth-ops-lead-111987) | New York City | Onsite | $90,000 – $130,000 |
| [Growth & Operations Analyst](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/fernstone/growth-operations-analyst-112216) | New York City | Onsite | $65,000 – $90,000 |
| [Founding Sales Development Representative](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/fernstone/founding-sales-development-representative-111398) | New York, NY, US | Onsite | $65,000 – $90,000 |

[See all open roles at Fernstone](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-companies/fernstone)

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*Source: [Zero G Talent](https://zerogtalent.com), the job board for space, defense, AI, robotics and frontier-tech companies.*