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Michael Witte

CEO and Founder at Equal Parts

Austin, Texas, United States

MW
LinkedIn
Why they matter

Built RigUp into a $3B company, now leads a freshly-funded insurance agency roll-up targeting 25 acquisitions and $1B in premiums by 2026.

Background

Michael Witte is the co-founder and CEO of Equal Parts, an Austin-based platform that acquires independent insurance agencies and layers on AI-driven technology, capital, and operational support. Before insurance, he spent about 15 years in oil and gas, co-founding RigUp (later rebranded Workrise) in 2014 and scaling it from a two-person startup to a $3 billion company, serving as COO and later CEO. He launched Equal Parts in March 2025 to apply a similar relationship-driven roll-up playbook to the fragmented independent insurance agency market.

Notable deals

  • 2021
    Co-founded RigUp (later Workrise); as COO, helped close a $300M Series E at a $2.6B pre-money valuation and drove expansion beyond oil and gas into construction and renewables
  • 2025
    Founded and launched Equal Parts, an AI-native platform acquiring independent insurance agencies
  • 2025
    Led Equal Parts' acquisition of Strategic Insurance, a 2,500-client Albuquerque, NM agency
  • 2026
    Closed Equal Parts' $23M Series A led by Inspired Capital, bringing total acquisition capital raised to $50M

Call-prep brief

Background

  • Co-founded RigUp (rebranded Workrise) in 2014; served as COO from 2014, then CEO from Feb 2022, scaling it from a two-person startup to a $3B vertical marketplace with 500+ employees and 15 acquisitions.
  • Applied that relationship-driven roll-up playbook to insurance, founding Equal Parts in March 2025.

Current Focus

  • Equal Parts acquires independent P&C agencies, providing tech, capital, and back-office support while agency owners keep client relationships.
  • Raised a $23M Series A (Feb 2026, led by Inspired Capital, with Equal Ventures, Max Ventures, Genius Ventures) — $50M total acquisition capital to date.
  • 2026 targets: acquire 25 agencies, reach $1B in premiums within 24 months.

What He Cares About

  • Frames insurance's core issue as a "connectivity problem" (disconnected underwriting, AMS, CRM systems), not a pure tech gap.
  • Wants technology to amplify human relationships, not replace them — explicitly avoids a pure-consolidator narrative.

Recent Moves

  • Oct 2025: acquired Strategic Insurance (Albuquerque, NM).
  • Feb 2026: closed $23M Series A.

Potential Sensitivities

  • Roll-up is under 18 months old — integration pace and acquired-agency retention are largely unproven at scale.
  • No direct insurance-carrier or brokerage operating background pre-Equal Parts; leans on co-founders for domain/AI expertise.
  • Reported 40%/50% revenue/EBITDA lift figures on acquired agencies are self-reported and early.

Questions to Ask

  1. What's the actual signed vs. LOI-stage acquisition pipeline heading into H2 2026 versus the 25-agency target?
  2. How are earnouts and equity retention structured for selling principals and their relationship managers post-close?
  3. Is the reported 40%/50% revenue/EBITDA improvement organic within acquired agencies, or driven by add-on acquisitions?

Outreach draft

Subject
Equal Parts' agency roll-up strategy
Hi Michael, I've been following Equal Parts' momentum — the Strategic Insurance acquisition last fall and your $23M Series A close in February both stood out, especially given the parallels to the RigUp/Workrise playbook. We're doing some work in the insurance distribution space and I'd love to get your read on how the independent agency M&A market is shaping up heading into the back half of 2026, particularly around integration pace and retention economics for acquired principals. Would you have 20 minutes in the next couple of weeks for a call? Best, [Placeholder Name]

Linked companies

Sources

Strongest evidenceStructured data7 public sourcesVerified2026-08-10How the grades work