How we got here
Things that influenced us
Newspapers
- The Wall Street Journal
- Housing Wire
Other companies
- Ellie Mae
- Black Knight
- ICE Technologies
We noticed that these behemoth mortgage technology companies were being acquired and valued at billions of dollars, but left a trail of disgruntled customers and antiquated technology.
We thought we could do better. We thought that we could build a modern, unified suite of mortgage software and data solutions that users loved, and keep prices enduringly low.
Handbook
Like many things at MorFi Technologies, this handbook was inspired by the work of people that we admire.
In this case, our founder Matthew was inspired by how effectively PostHog’s Handbook communicated their company’s mission to the world. And, many of the companies’ values overlapped, so he went about creating a similar handbook for MorFi Technologies.
Like the founders of PostHog, we found that writing this handbook was a transformative experience for our company. It helped us formalize who we are, how we intend to serve our customers, and communicate that to the world.
Timeline
Jan 2023: Start
MorFi Technologies was just an idea in Matthew’s head in January 2023.
He had been working as a software engineer for large financial institutions, but always wanted to do something more entrepreneurial.
Having experimented with entrepreneurship in the past, he knew that it was challenging and that many startups die with little success, but nevertheless, inspired by an article in the Wall Street Journal about mortgage technology, he decided to embark on the journey.
He started by reading everything he could about the mortgage industry, and the technology that powers it.
He initially thought that MorFi Technologies would build a loan origination system (LOS), but quickly realized that was naive as the LOS was complex and deeply entrenched in the lender’s business.
Feb 2023: Pivot
After talking with loan officers, it became clear that there was an ecosystem of auxillary software systems that were easier to compete with than an LOS.
And, that many of these systems were antiquated and expensive.
Specifically, we focused on presentation technology like Mortgage Coach and MBS Highway.
Per the feedback from loan officers we talked to, the existing presentation technologies were:
- Outdated (looks like windows 95)
- Increasingly expensive
- Focused on enterprise sales, not individual loan officers
Many of the loan officers liked using presentation tools, but thought the products could be improved.
So, we set out to build our flagship product: Scenario Advisor
Mar 2023: Product Design
We knew it was inefficient to write code before getting feedback from users on designs, so built some initial designs of Scenario Advisor and showed them to loan officers.
We learned a few things:
- Loan officers wanted to keep it simple for borrowers (no more than four presented lending scenarios)
- Loan officers were busy. The reports needed to be generated quickly.
- Loan officers wanted to be able to customize the reports with their branding.
May 2023: Product Redesign
Our initial designs had too many complicated charts and graphs, so simplified the design to focus on the most important information that loan officers needed to present to borrowers.
We did more user testing and learned that loan officers thought the report looked good, but they still wanted to customize it.
And, our report creation process was incomplete. We needed to add key information and create integrations with external systems like the loan officer’s CRM, POS, LOS, etc..
Jul 2020: Development
In July we felt that we had enough feedback to start building the product, so we started development.
Sep 2020: More Development
At some point we realized that we were making the development too difficult by trying to build entirely from scratch.
So, we aligned our designs to some existing component libraries and made the necessary code changes.
Oct 2023: First User
A loan officer we hadn’t previously interacted with landed on our site and signed up for an account.
Nov 2023: Scenario Advisor
By approximately November of 2023 Scenario Advisor had largely taken shape. There was still more development to do, but the frame of the product was largely there.
Jan 2024: Hire some people
We start bringing on some early partners to help us develop the business and product suite.
Jan 2024: Building a platform
We start building out additional products that will be a part of the unified platform, as building new products is a great way to train up new partners.
These new products include:
Feb 2023: Video Funnel
By approximately November of 2023 Scenario Advisor had largely taken shape. There was still more development to do, but the frame of the product was largely there.
Feb 2024: Make new connections
One of our early partners was a marketing executive. They helped us make a bunch of new connections in the mortgage industry.
It was a lot of fun meeting new people and learning about their businesses.
Mar 2023: Deal Dashboard
By approximately November of 2023 Scenario Advisor had largely taken shape. There was still more development to do, but the frame of the product was largely there.
May 2024: Revamp public site
We revamped our public landing page to load faster and simplify our message to customers.
Jun 2024: Homeowner portal
We add homeowner portal to our roadmap and publish an initial version that can support home service partners.
Jun 2024: Apply to YC (late)
For those that are unfamiliar with YC, it’s a startup accelerator that has helped companies like Dropbox, Airbnb, and Stripe get started.
YC structures their program around a batch system, where companies apply to a specific batch and then go through a 3-month program with other companies in that batch.
In June, the called for late applications for their S24 batch. We decided to apply.
Jun 2024: Get rejected from YC (but there’s some good news)
We were subsequently rejected, but there was some good news:
- Our application was one of the strongest in the late application pool
- They would have liked to interview us had there been enough capacity
- We were ‘particularly encouraged’ to reapply for the upcoming W25 batch
We thought that was pretty cool, so we’ll likely reapply.
Jul 2024: Grow Business
At this point, we haven’t talked to enough loan officers to meaningfully grow our business.
The rest of 2024 will be focused on growing our user base and building out the platform.
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