What is Arena?
Mar 1, 2025
Why We’re Building Arena: A Transparent Journey to Reinvent Health Insurance Sales
A behind-the-scenes look at how Arena is partnering with real advisors to build the future of AI-powered lead reactivation in health insurance.
The Problem We Couldn’t Ignore
Health insurance advisors across the U.S. are sitting on thousands of aged leads—real people who showed interest, but slipped through the cracks.
Cold calls? Less than 2% answer rate.
Emails? Often lost in spam.
Texting? Boasting a 90% open rate and 45% response rate.
The question wasn't whether texting worked—it was about the absence of agentic AI systems.
Enter Arena
Arena is building TARA — the Text Automated Reactivation Agent — a powerful AI designed to revive aged leads through intelligent, compliant SMS conversations.
But unlike generic automation tools, TARA is being built with the industry, for the industry.
A Strategic Partnership, Not Just a Product
At the heart of Arena’s approach is a real-world collaboration with Gonzalo Gonzalez, a top-performing health insurance advisor who has successfully scaled his business while staying fully compliant with SMS regulations.
Gonzalo isn’t just giving us feedback—he’s actively working with us to shape the platform, drawing on years of experience navigating the legal and ethical standards of outreach in health insurance. His on-the-ground insight ensures every feature we build reflects the real challenges and real constraints agents face daily.
Together, we’re building a tool that doesn’t just automate conversations — it empowers advisors to:
Reclaim lost revenue from dead leads
Operate within strict SMS compliance frameworks
Deliver thoughtful, high-converting messages at scale
Book more qualified appointments with less manual effort
Built by Experts, With Advisors
We’re not a faceless SaaS team guessing what agents need. Arena is built by a hands-on, experienced founding team working side-by-side with real producers:
Dmitri Jarkov, COO
Co-founder and operator focused on delivering meaningful systems that solve practical sales problems.
Ali Muhammad, CTO
Co-founder and systems architect leading the development of our AI and compliance logic, ensuring the technology is scalable, secure, and state-specific.
Gonzalo Gonzalez, Business Partner
Top-performing health insurance advisor and lead strategist, bringing deep field experience and compliance insights directly into our roadmap.
Why This Matters
Most automation platforms throw in templated sequences and call it AI. Arena is different.
We’re encoding the nuances of real sales conversations, tuned to the laws and needs of individual states, powered by natural language understanding — not canned scripts.
We’re not promising magic. We’re offering a system built by people who understand the trenches, who know what it’s like to waste thousands on leads that go nowhere, and who want to fix that.
What We’re Building Together
With our advisor-partnered model, we’re ensuring:
Every message sent meets SMS and insurance compliance standards
Agents stay protected from spam penalties and carrier filtering
Conversations adapt based on geography, policy type, and buyer signals
Lead qualification is accurate, fast, and human-like — without the burnout
Meet TARA: The Text Agent With a Sales Mindset
TARA isn’t just a chatbot. She:
Qualifies leads based on underwriting rules
Engages dynamically instead of spamming
Books qualified appointments directly in your calendar
Knows the difference between Texas and California regulations
Join Us on This Mission
We’re building Arena out in the open — transparent, honest, and focused on solving the real problems advisors face.
If you’re a health advisor ready to reclaim your time, maximize your database, and stay ahead of compliance without lifting a finger, Arena might be what you’ve been waiting for.
Want to learn more or follow our journey?
Claim Your Unfair Advantage →
We’re not just building software. We’re building a better way to sell insurance — with you.