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Dean Norris
Founder & CEO
Dean founded Founders Circle after seeing the same problem repeatedly: ambitious startups were being treated as vacancies to fill, rather than businesses to understand.His career began in recruitment across Big Four consulting firms, Tier 1 banks and global insurers. He later moved into startup hiring and found the work he cared about most: helping founders turn ambitious plans into the teams and partnerships needed to execute.
Today, Dean works alongside founder-led InsurTechs, MGAs, AI-native brokers and investors across the UK, Europe and the US. His remit extends well beyond hiring. He helps businesses build leadership and specialist teams, sharpen their go-to-market strategy, unlock insurer and capacity relationships, access investment and working capital, and make the right connections at the right moment.
The People Behind the Circle
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James Gardner
Partner, Dad, Recruiter. Building teams for scaling InsurTechs, MGAs and AI-native brokers across the UK, EU and US.
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Danish Arora
Insurance Commercial Associate with an entrepreneurial background, bringing a fresh perspective to Insurtech and MGAs. Passionate about aligning talent with innovation, I operate as an embedded partner—combining commercial insight and a founder’s mindset to help businesses build high-performing teams and drive sustainable growth in a rapidly evolving insurance landscape.
We connect the people who move insurance forward.
Helping ambitious ventures access the talent, capacity, capital and customers they need to grow.