Then & Now
From Marathon Software Company to The Marathon System
The name on the door changed. The mission never did.
Founded 1982
→
Today
Marathon Software Company was founded in 1982. The name was not chosen at random. It came from something personal — a belief that the hardest things worth doing are the ones you commit to and never abandon.
The name on the door changed. The mission never did.
Founded 1982
Today
Jurgen Daartz — founder, competitor, and the reason this company is called Marathon.
Jurgen Daartz founded Marathon Software Company in 1982 in Palos Park, Illinois. A computer scientist by training with a master’s degree from the University of Arizona, he understood early what independent insurance agencies actually needed: software that thought the way they did — accounting-first, finance-aware, and built around the reality of how an agency operated day to day.
Most insurance software of that era started somewhere else — contact management, policy tracking, agency servicing — and bolted finance on later as an afterthought. Jurgen built it the other way around. The Marathon System began as a premium finance platform. The accounting was not integrated after the fact; it was the foundation. The system was engineered to process 100 premium finance accounts a day — and at its peak, it did exactly that. Agency management capabilities grew on top of that financial core, which is why reconciliation, accounting integrity, and transaction traceability have always been native to Marathon rather than something added on.
He was also a competitive distance runner. He ran the Chicago Marathon. He ran the Boston Marathon. He understood what it meant to train for something that demands everything from you and finish it anyway — mile after mile, no shortcuts, no substitute for putting in the work.
He named his company after that belief. The name was not branding. It was a statement about how he intended to operate.
A marathon is not won in the first mile. It is won by everyone who refuses to stop.The philosophy behind the name
The independent insurance corridor of the Midwest ran on reputation. There were no software review sites, no free trials, no 30-day cancellation windows. A vendor was either known for doing right by people — or they weren’t. Jurgen earned his reputation the old way.
Deals in the independent agency world were made on handshakes and trust. A commitment meant something. That culture shaped how Marathon Software Company operated from its first day.
Before the internet, your name traveled ahead of you through every agency relationship in the region. Jurgen understood that doing right by one client was the best marketing available.
The software was designed around accounting integrity and operational reality — not demos. Clients stayed because the system worked, not because leaving was hard.
Jurgen and family — Spain, 2003.
The same drive that built Marathon Software Company carried Jurgen through everything he did. Distance running and cycling were not hobbies — they were the same competitive discipline he brought to his work. He finished what he started. He did not take shortcuts. He showed up.
The people who knew him in the Midwest insurance industry knew this. It was never just about the software. It was about who he was and how he operated. Those things were inseparable.
The platform Jurgen built did not stop evolving when he stepped back. It kept going — carried forward by the same family, the same values, and the same refusal to do things halfway. And that family keeps growing.
Jurgen Daartz founds Marathon Software Company in Palos Park, Illinois. Builds the original Agency Management and Premium Finance system from the ground up, establishing the accounting-first architecture that still defines the platform today.
Jurgen’s stepson Jeff joins the company in the late 1980s, taking over all software development, client support, and training. What begins as a family business becomes a working partnership built on a shared commitment to the platform and the agencies that depend on it.
Through the 1990s and 2000s, the system grows alongside its clients. Every feature evolved from direct observation of real agency workflows — never from a product roadmap committee. The same developer who built the system answered every support call.
When legal circumstances made Marathon Software Company non-transferable by name, it was closed and Khojant LLC was formed to carry the platform forward. The software — the data, the clients, the architecture, the philosophy — continued without a single day of interruption. The product was renamed from MSCFlexOne to The Marathon System as a deliberate tribute to the company, the founder, and the belief that built them both.
Tracy Garon Hojka — Jeff’s wife — joins Marathon and Khojant LLC. She brings institutional-scale financial operations experience from Rockefeller Capital Management: $450M+ in assets under management, 1,800+ accounts, operated under GIPS and GAAP compliance. The accounting discipline Jurgen built into this platform from day one now has someone who has worked at exactly that level standing behind it every day. The family carries the work forward. That is how it has always been here.
Jurgen Daartz ran marathons because he believed in finishing what you start. He built software the same way — with patience, discipline, and no tolerance for cutting corners on the things that matter.
The Marathon System carries that name because it earned it. Over forty years. One agency at a time.
The same accounting-first philosophy Jurgen established in 1982 is in every workflow, every reconciliation engine, and every line of code in the platform today.