Britton Steele, 36

The modern game of tennis developed from handball matches popularized in England and France in the 12th century, and today millions of recreational players take to the sport for exercise and comradery.

“So many of my ties, and influential people who have made a difference in my life, are through the tennis community,” says Britton Steele, who played the sport at Michigan State University in East Lansing and Wayne State University in Detroit. “They’re good people — tennis people.”

After his days at MSU, Steele, whose aunt worked in human resources for Liberty Mutual Insurance, landed an internship at the company’s sales department in Chicago. When he returned to Detroit to pursue an MBA at Wayne State (and play more tennis), he stayed with Liberty. After completing business school at age 26, he started his own company.

“I just kind of wanted to do my own thing and felt there was opportunity in the marketplace,” Steele says. “I built the business deal by deal, guy by guy, salesman by salesman, to what we have today. It (insurance) is a great business. Very few young people are in the business. I really capitalized on that.”

Founding the Provision Insurance Group, his approach was to build a youth culture. “If you can make insurance fun, and put in a good environment, and allow people to create careers, young people will come to the business and succeed. There’s nothing sexy about it, but it’s a recession-proof, time-tested business. Each family has a large annual spend on it every year; everybody has to buy the product.”

Once Provision was well set up in the Detroit market, the next place it “needed to go” was Grand Rapids, where a branch opened three years ago. The market there was expanding, and things have been going “really well.”

Now Steele’s eyes roam over Michigan: “We’re looking at other deals to open additional offices,” he says.

In the shorter term, though, he looked southeastward. The former Liberty Mutual employee — and now a client — found himself at “a little dinner,” and the hosts said, “We’re taking you guys to The Masters in a few months.” Having had the tuneful TV jingle drummed into their heads, like everybody else, Steele says, “We were like, ‘Liberty! Liberty! Liberty!’”

Ronald Ahrens

Founder and CEO, Provision Insurance Group, Bingham Farms

Employees: 50

Revenue: $45M

College: Wayne State University