Catastrophe Hustle with Michael Balarezo
In this episode of Keep Hustling, host Aaron Gordon sits down with Michael Balarezo to talk through his path from Miami to claims work, Silicon Valley engineering, and a life in Colorado. Michael has seen insurance from both sides of the desk. He started as an all-lines adjuster, then built software for companies that included Google, Amazon, and Disney. In December 2021 the Marshall Fire hit his Boulder home. His family lost nearly everything on the main level and upstairs. The claims and rebuild process that followed felt like a second full-time job for two years.
That experience changed how he treats people in the process and why he co-founded Adjusto, the autopilot for contents claims. He walks through the scramble of evacuation, why the right coverage has to be in place before the smoke reaches the driveway, and how little most consumers are ever taught about their policies. The conversation gets into the hard realities of a claims system built for one house, not a thousand at once, and why the industry needs better tools as disasters arrive every year instead of once a decade. Michael closes with the Galaxy Quest line that became his working rule: Never give up, never surrender.
Get To Know Michael Balarezo
Michael Balarezo is co-founder and CEO of Adjusto. An American software developer, futurist, and insurtech entrepreneur based in Boulder, Colorado, he is building recovery infrastructure for the disaster era.
He has seen personal property loss from every seat. After college he worked claims as an all-lines adjuster, then moved into software engineering in Silicon Valley. He spent eight years in engineering and technical leadership at MightyHive before serving as Global VP of Enterprise Automation at Media.Monks, where he led internal automation and AI strategy.
The Marshall Fire showed him how contents claims break carriers at both ends of the book. Most claims are small, under $5,000, and adjuster time often costs more than the payout. Large losses consume entire teams for months while families wait. When a catastrophe hits, both problems compound. Experienced adjusters get pulled to the fires, and the everyday claims behind them sit and rot in the queue.
That is why Balarezo co-founded Adjusto in 2024 with James Terry and Reid Greer. One platform handles the full severity spectrum. Small claims resolve touchless in hours. Large losses get world-class orchestration backed by the patent-pending FairMatch valuation engine, which pairs adjuster logic with market consumer data, plus TPA-enabled field services. Every claim gets exactly the treatment it needs.
3 Key Listener Takeaways
1. Preparation meets peace of mind. Michael’s calm during the Marshall Fire evacuation came from work done early: documenting possessions and understanding the policy before the crisis arrived. Knowing your coverage and keeping it current is the difference between panic and a plan.
2. Empathy from experience. Moving from adjuster to claimant put him inside the stress and emotional swing policyholders live through. Seeing both sides of the process made empathy nonnegotiable, for people in the industry and for anyone catching one of life’s curveballs.
3. Never give up, never surrender. Whether you are fighting through an insurance claim or rebuilding after a total loss, the episode lands on persistence, adaptability, and a refusal to quit as the hustler mindset that gets you through adversity.
Show Overview
00:00 Getting into insurance in Colorado
04:53 The role of insurance adjusters
07:25 Understanding insurance for big purchases
11:41 Escaping the wildfire emergency
15:40 Insurance and peace of mind
16:22 Importance of early preparation
22:45 Being open about past roles
25:58 Addressing industry challenges with empathy
27:30 Recognizing outdated claims processes