How Pie Insurance Grows With Purpose
Sometimes, the best way to grow is to return to your roots.
That’s the approach Pie Insurance takes to organizational scale. As the company has grown, it’s been committed to preserving why it was founded in the first place.
“Pie’s strength is that it’s never lost sight of why we exist: to make insurance affordable and accessible for small businesses,” Director of Product Design Aubrey Altmann said. “Even as we’ve scaled, that mission anchors decisions across teams.”
With values rooted in ownership, integrity and a genuine sense of curiosity, Pie’s people are central to achieving its mission.
Senior Manager of Premium Audit Ashika Weekes said that’s why her employer ensures its growing and remote workforce stays connected.
“What I’ve seen is intentionality around connection, which is especially important for a distributed company,” she said. “It helps maintain that sense of community even when we’re not in the same physical space.”
This emphasis on connection means that Pies mission underpins every aspect of its operations, making it possible for the scaling company to ‘protect its roots’ as it evolves.
About Pie Insurance
Pie Insurance offers commercial insurance for small businesses.
How Pie Insurance’s Mission Is Reflected in Employees’ Day-to-Day Work
When Altmann joined Pie, its designers often focused on solving short-term problems — but under her leadership, things are changing.
“My role is focused on transforming that mindset: building a foundation for long-term growth with a unified design system, AI-driven innovation across experiences and a culture that values experimentation and continuous improvement,” she said.
Every design decision that Altmann and her teammates make centers around making insurance simpler, smarter and more human for small businesses.
“I often ask, ‘Does this design make someone’s job easier, faster or clearer?’” Altmann said. “If not, we re-evaluate. That purpose, reducing friction for the people who power small businesses, is what makes the work meaningful.”
Like Altmann, Weekes said that as her employer scales, she’s only seen Pie double down on its mission. One of her responsibilities involves complex audit work that ensures the company’s pricing policies are fair for small business owners.
“Behind every audit is a business owner trying to do right by their employees while keeping their business viable,” she said. “Getting the audit right means they’re not overpaying or underpaying for coverage. That matters.”
Since joining Pie in 2021, Senior Payroll Channel Manager Philip Elms’ responsibilities have grown to include creating and executing the company’s go-to-market strategy within the payroll channel, including commission and compensation arrangements, partner activation and new partner acquisition.
Pie’s mission guides how his team supports the company’s partners, who are responsible for ensuring small business employees are compensated for their hard work.
“By removing friction in our submission, underwriting and binding process, we make it easy for our partners to deliver solutions to their clients,” Elms said. “We’re continually working toward the goal of being the number one place they look so that more businesses can benefit from what Pie has to offer.”
How Pie Insurance’s Mission Shapes Its Culture
One key way Pie keeps its mission in center stage? Hearing directly from customers.
During companywide all-hands meetings, Pie invites agents to share their stories about working with Pie. Agents and small business owners are also invited to speak at team summits and share how Pies’ products have shaped their day-to-day work.
“Hearing those stories directly, not just through metrics or reports, keeps the mission tangible and reminds everyone why the work matters,” Altmann said.
Weekes added that the company is also intentional when it comes to helping its remote team members connect. The company’s #snaps Slack channel allows employees to recognize each other’s hard work in real time.
“Pie celebrates in ways that feel authentic to who we are as a distributed company,” Weekes said.
“Pie celebrates in ways that feel authentic to who we are as a distributed company.”
Pie’s mission-driven culture has even inspired Weekes to incorporate traditions from previous employers, like supporting families during the holidays and hosting backpack drives alongside the company’s Culture Ambassadors team who helps organize companywide initiatives.
Leadership is often the first to support such programs, reinforcing their commitment to company values.
“Leaders don’t just talk strategy; they dive into the details to truly understand the pain points our users and teams face,” Altmann said. “That curiosity and empathy set the tone for transparency and trust.”
The Systems and Processes Helping Pie Insurance Scale
As Pie scales, it’s focusing on communication. The company’s universal decision-making framework, for example, ensures departments can stay up to date on changes that impact the business.
“It creates transparency around decisions and gives people visibility into what’s happening across the company, not just in their own area,” she said. “It also allows for more collaboration with people who may not be part of your normal day-to-day work.”
Pie also uses shared documentation templates, such as product opportunity briefs, discovery briefs, and structured scoring frameworks for prioritization. Standardized rituals across teams, including monthly product reviews, retros and “Metrics Walks,” promote a continuous focus on quality, performance and user impact.
“It’s less about the tool itself and more about building a predictable rhythm of connection across disciplines,” Altmann said.
Transparency is baked into career growth, too, as Pie offers structured career progression frameworks to help employees understand what they need to do to advance in their roles.
“These aren’t just operational tools; they’re about transparency and making sure people understand how to succeed here,” Weekes said.
What Pie Insurance Employees Are Looking Forward to Most
Pie leaders know that a growing company means ample opportunities for employee growth, too. Just ask Weekes.
“Premium audit can be technical and complex, but it’s meaningful work, and I want people to see a future here — opportunities to develop their skills, take on more responsibility and become specialists in their field,” Weekes said. “When you invest in people and create structures that support their growth, that’s purpose-driven.”
Elms said that he’s looking forward to seeing the company retain its scrappy, agile nature as it scales. He said this will be reflected in the ways in which the company shows up for its partners, iterates, and improves its customer and partner experience.
“The purpose of Pie has been to deliver affordable insurance to small businesses that are often underserved, and we remain excited about the journey, both the wins and the challenges ahead,” Elms said.
“The purpose of Pie has been to deliver affordable insurance to small businesses that are often underserved, and we remain excited about the journey, both the wins and the challenges ahead.”
Altmann believes that Pie is at a critical inflection point in its growth journey, as it moves from modernization to true innovation. As Pie sets its sights on 2026, it’s building the foundation needed to operate at enterprise scale without losing sight of its mission, giving its people endless opportunities to make a difference.
“From a design perspective, that’s where growth meets purpose — scaling the business while making life easier for the small businesses that rely on us,” Altmann said.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is it like to work at Pie Insurance?
Employees describe Pie as a mission-driven, people-centered workplace where connection, transparency, and curiosity guide decisions. Even as the company scales, Pie keeps its small-business-focused mission at the center of daily work.
How does Pie Insurance support career growth and development?
Pie offers structured career progression frameworks, transparent expectations, and opportunities to take on more responsibility, develop new skills, and become specialists in key areas like design, audit and partner support.
What values shape the culture at Pie Insurance?
Pie’s culture is rooted in ownership, integrity, curiosity and authentic connection, reinforced through traditions like employee recognition in Slack, all-hands sessions with customer stories, and leadership that listens closely to team and user pain points.
How does Pie keep its distributed workforce connected?
Pie intentionally builds connection through companywide initiatives, customer storytelling at all-hands meetings, and channels like #snaps, where employees can recognize and celebrate each other’s work in real time.
What types of work might I do at Pie Insurance?
Employees work on mission-critical initiatives such as designing long-term scalable systems, ensuring fair pricing for small businesses, simplifying partner workflows, improving customer experiences and building structured processes that support predictable, high-quality work.
