When you listen to today’s podcast episode, you can hear it straight away: this isn’t just a bloke who got lucky with a few insurance jobs. Kurt Saunderson, founder and CEO of Kase Group, has built one of Australia’s fastest-growing insurance and restoration building businesses because he treats it like both a high-performing footy side and a people-first service business.
He is 37, running a multi-brand national group, acquiring businesses, backed by serious investors, and still talking about empathy, training and having a crack. That’s the kind of story we love at The Good Builder because it gives builders a real framework for growth, not just slogans.
From busted shoulders to insurance building
Kurt didn’t plan to end up in insurance and restoration. He was on the tools and chasing American football opportunities overseas when shoulder injuries forced him off the tools and into a very different role. Post-surgery he had a two-kilogram lifting limit for nine months, not exactly ideal for construction, so he pivoted.
He joined AJ Grant, at the time one of the biggest insurance builders in the market, starting as a building repair co-ordinator and then moving into supervision and project management. That’s where he got exposed to the diversity of insurance work: hail, storm, sewerage, impact, fire, the lot.
For someone who likes change, it clicked. Insurance building meant variety, pace and the chance to help people at their worst moment.
“Burn the boats”: why plan B kills momentum
One of the strongest themes in the podcast was commitment.
Kurt runs on a simple philosophy: if you leave yourself a way out, you won’t go all in. He calls it “burn the boats”, the idea that when you arrive somewhere, you commit so fully that going back isn’t an option.
His view is sharp:
- if you are building part-time,
- if you are doing it “around” another job,
- if you haven’t fully backed yourself,
…then why would a client fully back you?
“Jump in, or don’t jump in at all,” is the way he put it.
That level of commitment also shows up internally. He tells his team there’s no plan B, but there is support. “If you’re in, we’ll look after you.” That’s proper leadership language, not pressure, but protection.
Building like a sporting organisation
This was the bit Az wanted him to unpack because it is so transferable to every builder listening.
Kurt says the industry has it the wrong way around: NRL clubs train five days and perform one; construction teams perform five or six days and almost never train.
So at Kase Group they’ve flipped it. Every quarter the whole leadership group comes together for a full training and planning day, strategy on one page, alignment, capability building and then they go to dinner together. That’s the “train, then perform” rhythm.
Why? Because in insurance building you can go from normal workloads to catastrophe workloads overnight. If people haven’t been coached, if they don’t understand systems, if they don’t feel part of one team across different business units, the whole thing breaks.
The sports model gives him:
- clear standards
- constant coaching
- internal promotions first
- and a feeling that everyone wears the same jersey, even if they are in different states or brands.
It’s no surprise he referenced Melbourne Storm; systems, standards, year-on-year performance.
Compassion in a crisis industry
Insurance building is not just patching a wall. Often you’re walking into someone’s worst day: fire, flood, big storm, uncertainty about insurance cover.
Kurt was blunt: if you can’t walk into that and show empathy, you’re in the wrong industry.
That empathy shows up in two ways:
- With customers – answering calls, copping emotion, explaining delays, helping them get through a six-week window wait by putting in a temporary solution.
- With staff – surveys, pathways, moving people interstate if there’s an opportunity, making the business somewhere they want to stay.
Yes, Kase Group works for insurers. But Kurt was clear, the “end result” is still the customer, and if you get that wrong you shouldn’t be in the game.
Growth through acquisitions — but only if the values line up
Kase Group started in 2017. By 2020 they’d split out restoration. Then they brought in long-term private equity, created the broader Kase Group structure and started acquiring.
Recent deals included Adelaide Insurance Builders and Townsend Building Services, with another Victorian business joining soon. That kind of expansion in eight years is quick in anyone’s language.
But the interesting bit was what he won’t buy.
A lot of people chase numbers. Kurt said they walk away from deals if the culture isn’t right or the values don’t match. Even if the revenue looks good.
His non-negotiables:
- culture fit
- aligned values (honesty, transparency, compassion, raising the bar)
- willingness to integrate
Because when you run multiple brands under one group, if one business is underperforming or toxic, they all fail together.
That’s a lesson for any builder thinking about buying a cabinet shop, an insurance arm or a maintenance business to diversify. Don’t buy trouble.
Hire people smarter than you
Kurt was refreshingly honest about scale. He said system and process were fine when the business was “this big.” When it got bigger again, he couldn’t control everything. So he brought in people who could.
He’s now got a strong CEO, commercial officer and investors who are ex-McKinsey. They help train the teams, lift performance and professionalise the group.
There’s zero ego in that. Just a view that the founder doesn’t have to be the smartest person in the room, just the one creating the environment.
1–3–1: teach people to solve their own problems
One of the most practical takeaways from the pod was Kurt’s “one-three-one” rule.
- 1 problem
- 3 possible solutions
- 1 solution chosen by the person closest to the work
So instead of leaders dumping issues upwards, they come with thinking done. Kurt then backs their call. If it’s wrong, they fix it. Nothing is unfixable.
For builders trying to get off the tools or out of the day-to-day, this is gold. It creates initiative, reduces bottlenecks and builds better leaders underneath you.
Communication fixes nine out of 10 problems
When Az asked about relationships with insurers, brokers, loss adjusters and government agencies, Kurt didn’t overcomplicate it.
He said most problems in building are communication problems. Delays, variations, expectations, customer stress, nearly all of it gets better when you tell the truth early and offer options.
That’s the same on a detached resi build as it is on a major insurance claim.
Make mistakes, but learn fast
This is a high-growth group and even they have missed. He openly said they diversified into an area outside insurance and “failed miserably.”
But the important part was what came after: they debriefed, tightened processes and moved on. His mentor, Gavita Garland, reinforced with him that mistakes are lessons, not indictments.
He now tells his team: have a go, bring new ideas, the worst thing that happens is it doesn’t work.
That’s the kind of permission that makes people innovate.
Why this episode matters for builders
Kurt’s story hits a few pain points the industry keeps circling:
- we say people are our biggest asset, but we don’t train them
- we say we want growth, but we don’t fully commit
- we say communication is important, but we go quiet when things blow out
- we say culture matters, but we buy businesses we shouldn’t
Kase Group is proving you can grow quickly, work with insurers, acquire multiple businesses and still lead with compassion and performance. That’s the bar.
And as Az said on the pod, if more leaders in construction said, “make a mistake and learn from it,” we’d have a stronger industry.
Listen to the full episode here.
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