Hi, my name is

Jeff Hojka.

I solve the problems insurance agencies have carried for 40 years.

0+ Years
0+ Agencies
0+ Carriers
0% Faster

Software architect and entrepreneur based in Matteson, Illinois, with over 35 years of experience building mission-critical platforms for independent insurance agencies. President of Khojant LLC, architect of The Marathon System, and creator of the Download Wizard -- the carrier reconciliation engine that turns hours of manual work into minutes.

Learn more about me Beyond the Code →
Jeff Hojka
01.

About Me

I am Jeff Hojka, President of Khojant LLC and the architect behind The Marathon System -- a cloud-hosted office suite that has been serving independent insurance agencies since 1982.

The Marathon System traces its roots to Jurgen Daartz, who founded Marathon Software Company in 1982. I joined in the late 1980s, rebuilt the system for DOS, then for Windows, then migrated it to a fully cloud-hosted platform -- and I have carried that work forward ever since, serving agencies across the country since 1982.

My most significant recent achievement is the Download Wizard -- a carrier-agnostic statement retrieval and reconciliation engine. It automatically pulls commission statements from carriers via portal automation, email, SFTP, REST API, or inbound webhook, converts any format (PDF, XLSX, CSV) into matched transaction data, and surfaces only the exceptions that need human attention. Agencies using it report going from hours of manual reconciliation work to minutes. 13+ carriers are configured and live. No carrier enrollment required.

Over more than three decades I have built deep expertise across the full insurance agency operations stack: accounting, premium financing, document management, company statement reconciliation, and automated carrier data retrieval. I am passionate about solving operational problems that cost agencies real time and money -- and building systems that keep working for decades, not just quarters.

On the technical side, my work spans cloud infrastructure on AWS, Ubuntu Linux, and Windows Server to application development in Clarion, Python, FastAPI, React, TypeScript, and PostgreSQL. I have a consistent record of same-day client support and long-term agency relationships -- some spanning over 20 years.

I am not someone who gives up on a problem. My clients say it better than I would -- they tell me I am the best they have worked with because I am always willing to find the solution, no matter how long it takes. I am shy enough that it is not easy to repeat that. But after 40 years, I have learned to let the work -- and the people who depend on it -- speak for themselves.

By the Numbers

  • 100+ agencies served since 1982
  • 13+ carriers configured
  • 95% faster reconciliation
  • 40+ years serving agencies
  • Same-day client support

Languages

  • Python / FastAPI
  • TypeScript / React
  • Clarion (Softvelocity)
  • C / C++ / C#
  • SQL / PostgreSQL

Technologies

  • AWS S3 / IAM
  • Windows Server / Ubuntu Linux
  • HyperV / Active Directory
  • Playwright / asyncssh / httpx
  • Nettalk / TSPlus / REST / SOAP
02.

Where I've Worked

1990 — Present

President & Lead Architect

Khojant LLC · Matteson, Illinois
  • Architect and sole developer of The Marathon System -- a cloud-hosted office suite serving 25 independent insurance agencies, combining Agency Management and Premium Financing in one integrated platform running since 1982.
  • Built the Download Wizard: a carrier-agnostic reconciliation engine that retrieves carrier commission statements automatically via portal automation, email, SFTP, REST API, and inbound webhook -- then converts and matches them against the agency's live book of business. Result: 95% faster reconciliation, 13+ carriers live, no carrier enrollment required.
  • Rebuilt the system three times across four decades: DOS (through 2002), Windows (through 2020s), and now a fully modern web platform on FastAPI, React, TypeScript, and PostgreSQL.
  • Led the migration of The Marathon System from on-premise to a fully cloud-hosted solution using TSPlus, Windows HyperV / Server 2019 / Ubuntu Linux, Active Directory, and AWS S3.
  • Set up and managed domains from scratch -- A records, MX records, DNS propagation, nameserver configuration. Not clicking through a wizard; understanding what each record does and why it matters.
  • Configured SSL certificates before Let's Encrypt made it easy -- generating CSRs, working with certificate authorities, manually installing and chaining certificates, and debugging the failures when something was wrong. The kind of experience that only comes from doing it the hard way before the tooling existed.
  • Installed, supported, diagnosed, and repaired every version of Windows across the full span of the platform -- from the early versions through Windows 11 and Server 2019. Not just development experience -- real-world agency support, meaning every possible configuration, hardware failure, and driver conflict, fixed on the clock.
  • Maintained long-term client relationships spanning 20+ years, with same-day response to 95% or more of all support requests.
Python / FastAPI React / TypeScript PostgreSQL Playwright Clarion AWS S3 Windows Server 2019 Ubuntu Linux HyperV Nettalk TSPlus REST / SOAP
Education

Illinois Wesleyan University

Bloomington, Illinois
  • Studied at Illinois Wesleyan University, building a foundation in computing and problem-solving that informed more than three decades of professional software development.
“We’ve been with The Marathon System for over 20 years. The support is outstanding and the software keeps getting better. It’s the backbone of our entire operation.”
Scott Anderson Anderson Insurance Brokers · Wheaton, IL
03.

A Career in Technology -- The Timeline

I have never stopped learning new technology. What follows is an honest record of that journey -- from the machines I learned on to the platform I ship today.

1980s

Early Computing -- TRS-80, PDP-11 & Apple IIc

The foundation
  • Started programming on a TRS-80 by entering programs one line at a time from printed listings in magazines -- a space lander, a Star Trek-style game where @ represented a Klingon. No copy-paste. No internet. Every character typed by hand, every syntax error found by eye.
  • Saved programs to a cassette tape recorder. If the tape failed on load, you typed it all again. That is how you learned to not make mistakes.
  • Worked on a PDP-11 minicomputer -- a machine that shaped how an entire generation thought about operating systems, memory, and process management.
  • Also learned on an Apple IIc -- a machine that brought computing into a more approachable form factor and introduced a different way of thinking about human interaction with software.
  • Lived through the full evolution of storage media: cassette tape to floppy disks to diskettes to Iomega Zip drives to flash drives. Each transition meant figuring out new drivers, new formats, and new ways things could fail.
  • Worked on green phosphor monitors -- not black and white. Green on black. People who were not there always get that wrong.
  • Built almost every computer used for development -- sourcing components, assembling hardware, configuring IDE and SCSI controllers, seating PCI cards. Understanding the machine from the inside out was not optional. It was how you kept the work moving.
  • These machines had no safety net. You learned by doing, by breaking things, and by fixing them before anyone noticed.
TRS-80 PDP-11 Apple IIc BASIC Assembly IDE / SCSI / PCI
Late 1980s

Xenix -- Unix on x86

Before Linux, there was Xenix
  • Worked on Xenix, Microsoft's port of Unix to x86 hardware -- a serious multiuser operating system at a time when most personal computers were still single-tasking.
  • Gained foundational experience with Unix file systems, shell scripting, process management, and the command-line discipline that still informs how I work today.
  • This is where I learned vi -- and never left. The vi editor has been central to how I read and edit code ever since. Speed, precision, no mouse required.
  • Set up Multimux systems with dedicated phone lines to link agency offices together -- early WAN networking before the internet made any of this easy. If it broke, you figured it out yourself.
  • Xenix introduced me to the idea that software could serve many users reliably -- a principle that runs through everything I have built since.
Xenix Unix vi Shell Multimux Dedicated Lines
1982

Marathon System v1 -- The Original

Jurgen Daartz · Marathon Software Company · Founded 1982
  • Jurgen Daartz founded Marathon Software Company in 1982 and wrote the original premium finance system in DBL running on a PDP-11 -- purpose-built for the accounting realities of independent insurance agencies.
  • The agency management side was developed by Bob Von Moss, giving the platform its two-product foundation: finance and agency management.
  • The platform was later migrated from the PDP-11 to Unix using DBL by Omtool -- a port to Xenix that preceded my involvement. Supon took over the finance system after Jurgen; Rico followed for a period after that.
DBL PDP-11 Xenix / Unix DBL by Omtool Jurgen Daartz Est. 1982
Late 1980s — 2002

DOS Era -- Marathon System v2

DBL · Synergy DBL · C · The second rebuild
  • Joined Marathon Software when the system was running on Xenix and also had to work on DOS. First task: get it stable under DOS using config.sys settings -- SHARE, DOSVERSION, and the other tunables that determined whether a real-world DOS machine would cooperate. No documentation. Figure it out.
  • Used BBSs as the primary source of technical knowledge -- this was how developers found answers, shared code, and solved problems before the internet made information free. If you needed to know something, you dialed in and found someone who knew.
  • Learned DBL and took over the finance system after Rico. Took sole development responsibility for both the finance system and the agency system by 1990.
  • Learned C and wrote programs dealing with graphics -- low-level pixel manipulation and screen rendering, the kind of work that teaches you exactly how a computer thinks about memory and display.
  • When Synergy DBL became available, combined C and DBL in a way nobody else had. The C layer appeared to be the primary system -- menus, UI, control flow -- but underneath it ran on a DBL loop driving the finance engine. Two languages, one seamless platform.
  • Before reaching for any library, built a custom indexed file system from scratch -- flat files with a 6-segment array structure, then three layers of tree-based indexes mapping down to each segment. Hand-built data management at the lowest level. Most developers never have to think about this.
  • After proving the concept, moved to ctree and rtree for production ISAM file management -- then TPS with Clarion, then PostgreSQL. The full arc of data storage, lived in order.
  • Used OS/2 as the primary development machine -- true preemptive multitasking, protected memory, rock-solid stability. The right tool. The market went a different direction. That is a different story.
  • Compiled with the Watcom compiler, UI built on cscape. Wrote the user manual for every version of the system, cover to cover, for every release. If you build it, you document it.
DBL Synergy DBL C ctree / rtree cscape Watcom OS/2 DOS BBS
2002 — 2020s

Windows Era -- Marathon System v3

Clarion for Windows · From Watcom/DBL to Clarion · The third rebuild
  • Rebuilt the Marathon System for Windows starting in 2002 -- a complete platform rewrite targeting the GUI era and the changing expectations of agency owners.
  • Set up and managed domains from scratch -- A records, MX records, DNS propagation, nameserver configuration. Understanding what each record does and why it matters, not clicking through a wizard.
  • Configured SSL certificates before Let's Encrypt made it easy -- generating CSRs, working with certificate authorities, manually installing and chaining certificates, and debugging the failures when something was wrong.
  • Added the online customer portal with Two-Factor Authentication, credit card payment processing, and document management via AWS S3.
  • Led the migration to a fully cloud-hosted solution using TSPlus, HyperV, Windows Server 2019, Ubuntu Linux, Active Directory, and Nettalk WebServices.
  • Installed, supported, diagnosed, and repaired every version of Windows across the full span of the platform -- every possible configuration, hardware failure, and driver conflict, fixed on the clock.
Clarion for Windows TSPlus AWS S3 HyperV Nettalk DNS / SSL 2FA
Web Learning

Modern Front End -- Learning the Web Stack

HTML5 · CSS3 · JavaScript · Web Development Bootcamp
  • Completed a web development bootcamp to formalize front-end skills -- HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, responsive design, and REST API integration. Forty years in software does not automatically teach you the modern web. I went and learned it properly.
  • Applied those skills directly to real projects: the Khojant and Marathon websites, rebuilt from the ground up -- fully responsive, dark/light mode, separated CSS and JavaScript, Google Analytics, structured schema markup.
HTML5 CSS3 JavaScript REST APIs Responsive Design
Current

Marathon System v4 & Download Wizard

Python / FastAPI / React / TypeScript / PostgreSQL · The fourth rebuild
  • Rebuilding The Marathon System as a full modern web platform: FastAPI backend, React / TypeScript / Vite frontend, PostgreSQL database, async SQLAlchemy ORM, Alembic migrations, and a background scheduler.
  • Built the Download Wizard on this stack -- automated carrier statement retrieval via Playwright portal automation, email, SFTP, REST API, and inbound webhook. 13+ carriers live. 95% faster reconciliation. 100+ agencies served since 1982.
  • Came back to Linux as the production server environment -- Ubuntu on the backend, familiar ground after the Xenix days.
  • Used AI collaboration (Claude) as a development partner -- directing architecture, reviewing code, and accelerating delivery while maintaining full ownership of every decision.
Python / FastAPI React / TypeScript PostgreSQL Playwright asyncssh httpx Ubuntu Linux Claude AI
Now

The AI Era -- New Platform, New Partner, New Chapter

Claude AI · Tracy Garon Hojka · Khojant LLC
  • Tracy Garon Hojka joined Khojant LLC, bringing operational and business partnership to a company that had always been a solo operation.
  • Used Claude AI to produce a complete enterprise documentation portal for The Marathon System in 10 days -- 43 structured documents, 1,250+ pages of technical content. Estimated $160K+ in equivalent consulting value.
  • Built the Download Wizard -- the most significant technical achievement of this era. Agencies that spent hours on carrier reconciliation now spend minutes.
  • Used AI not as a replacement for engineering judgment -- but as the most capable development partner available. Every architectural decision was directed, reviewed, and owned. The code ships because the thinking behind it is sound.
Claude AI Tracy Garon Hojka Download Wizard Enterprise Documentation
Production Work

Lead Project

Download Wizard -- Carrier Reconciliation Engine

Automatically retrieves carrier commission statements through portal automation, email, SFTP, REST API, or inbound webhook -- converts any format (PDF, XLSX, CSV) into matched transaction data using an 8-level confidence matching engine. 13+ carriers configured. 95% faster reconciliation. Agencies review exceptions only.

Python / FastAPI React / TypeScript PostgreSQL Playwright 95% Faster Reconciliation
Visit The Marathon System →

Core Platform

The Marathon System

A cloud-hosted office suite for independent insurance agencies combining Agency Management and Premium Financing. Built since 1982, rebuilt four times, currently serving agencies nationwide. Runs in any browser via TSPlus with no local installation required.

Clarion TSPlus AWS S3 HyperV Since 1982
Visit Site →

Featured Project

Marathon System Online Portal

Secure customer-facing web portal with Two-Factor Authentication, credit card payment processing, printable forms, and document downloads via AWS S3.

Clarion Nettalk REST / SOAP AWS S3 2FA
Watch Demo →

Featured Project

Marathon System Help & Documentation Portal

A complete enterprise-grade help system for The Marathon System -- 43 structured documents covering every workflow, module, and operational process in the platform. Over 1,250 pages of technical content produced in 10 days using AI-augmented authoring. Estimated $160K+ in equivalent consulting value. The system gives agencies self-service answers to questions that previously required a support call.

Claude AI Technical Writing HTML / CSS / JS 43 Documents 1,250+ Pages 10 Days
Read the Case Study →

Featured Project

Khojant & Marathon Website Rebuilds

Complete ground-up rebuilds of the Khojant LLC and MSC FlexOne websites -- fully responsive, dark/light mode, modern HTML5/CSS3/JavaScript, separated CSS and JavaScript files, Google Analytics GA4, structured schema markup, and Open Graph social metadata. Built using AI collaboration to accelerate delivery while maintaining full control over design and content decisions.

HTML5 CSS3 JavaScript Responsive Design Dark / Light Mode Google Analytics Schema Markup
View Khojant Site →
04.

Frequently Asked Questions

Three things that are genuinely hard to replicate. First, 40 years of domain depth -- I do not just build software for insurance agencies, I have lived the accounting workflows, the carrier reconciliation pain, and the operational reality of running an independent agency for four decades. Second, the Download Wizard solves carrier statement reconciliation without requiring any carrier to cooperate, enroll in a network, or change anything. That inverts the model that incumbents like IVANS have used for 30 years. Third, I answer the phone. Same-day response, every time. My clients have been with me for 20+ years not because switching is hard -- but because they do not want to.
Over 35 years of professional software development, almost entirely focused on independent insurance agencies. The Marathon System has been running in production since 1982 -- I joined in the late 1980s and have been the sole architect and developer ever since. The platform has served 100+ agencies since 1982, with some individual client relationships spanning more than 20 years.
My current production stack is Python / FastAPI (backend), React / TypeScript / Vite (frontend), and PostgreSQL -- the platform powering the Download Wizard and the new Marathon web platform. I also have deep experience with Clarion by Softvelocity, which powers the core Marathon System, as well as C, C++, C#, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. Infrastructure side: AWS S3 / IAM, Ubuntu Linux, Windows Server 2019, HyperV, Active Directory, Nettalk by Capesoft (WebServices, WebPortal, Email, SMS), and TSPlus for cloud delivery. On the automation side: Playwright for browser automation, asyncssh for SFTP, httpx for REST APIs.
The Download Wizard is the carrier reconciliation engine I built into The Marathon System. It automatically retrieves carrier commission statements through whatever channel each carrier already supports -- portal login and scraping, email attachments, SFTP file drops, REST API pulls, or inbound webhooks -- and converts any format (PDF, XLSX, CSV) into structured transaction data matched against the agency's live book of business. Agencies review exceptions only. The result is 95% faster reconciliation compared to doing it manually. 13+ carriers are configured and in production today. No carrier enrollment is required -- if an agency has portal credentials or an email inbox, it can be automated.
The Download Wizard. Carrier statement reconciliation has been a manual, hours-per-month burden for independent agencies for decades. The incumbent solutions require carriers to enroll in a closed network -- which means small independent agencies are often left out entirely. The Download Wizard inverts that model: it works through whatever channel the carrier already uses, requires nothing from the carrier, and requires no enrollment. Agencies using it report going from hours of manual reconciliation to minutes of exception review. That is the problem I set out to solve, and it is working.
Every client request is responded to within 24 hours, and 95% or more are resolved within that same timeframe. I treat every agency I work with as a long-term partner, not a support ticket. Several of my client relationships have lasted more than 20 years. When something breaks, I fix it the same day. That is not a policy -- it is how I work.
Yes. The new Marathon web platform runs on PostgreSQL with a SQLAlchemy async ORM layer. I have built the full database schema, migrations (Alembic), indexes, check constraints, and query optimization for the platform from the ground up. The legacy Marathon System uses the TPS file system and IPDriver -- I have worked with both approaches professionally across the full arc of the platform's history.
05.

Get In Touch

Let's Work Together

Whether you are an insurance agency looking to eliminate manual carrier reconciliation, or you want to discuss the platform -- I would love to hear from you. Same-day response, always.

Contact Khojant 📞 708-361-0001 ✉ jeff@mscflexone.com Connect on LinkedIn 🏃 The Marathon System ⌥ GitHub

 ·  Matteson, Illinois