Our own Jim Paolino had the tables turned on him, as he was interviewed by Content Beacon’s Brian Rieger about the great year LodeStar’s had so far in 2021. He also discussed some very big news about the brand’s future.

It takes years to be an overnight success… A year of wins for LodeStar

In 2021, LodeStar is seemingly everywhere! Only ¾ of the way through 2021, LodeStar’s seen a lot of wins, including being named (again) to the HW Tech 100 for 2021 and announcing integrations or partnerships with industry leaders Dytrix, Lending Pad, Blend and Mortgage Coach. Just a year removed from the 2020 Philadelphia 100, LodeStar also grew dramatically on the internal front in 2021, adding numerous great team members and moving into a larger (cooler) office as well!  But the biggest success? Clients telling us they wouldn’t know what they’d do without the LodeStar solution!

Introducing the Three C’s

Clarity; Connectivity and Community. These will be the guides to the LodeStar vision—from products to the way we interact with clients–going forward. LodeStar, of course, was built on the simple concept of bringing a little clarity to an otherwise fairly muddy transaction process.  After all, getting a mortgage and buying a home is the most important transaction of most people’s lives. We’ve started out with something as simple as a closing cost calculator, our core product. But it’s just as important that this calculator co-exists with most other mortgage technologies, rather than building yet another silo to slow the process and obscure the parties’ view of that transaction, that demonstrates the importance of this second C. In doing our part, we’ve built some of the pipes that help make everything go a little faster. Community, the third C, is what our industry strives to be and needs to be, to bring about clarity. We’re also all part of a larger community, and it’s our responsibility to give back to that. For example, you’ll no longer see LodeStar at conferences giving away gift cards to Amazon. Instead, we’ll be using that opportunity to raise money for a cause like Feeding America.

What’s Next?

We’ve started with a fully redesigned website, part of which promotes our great partners like ICE Mortgage Technology. It’s not just a marketing tool, but a resource for our prospects, partners and clients. We’ve gleaned a lot of knowledge in the past few years. Now, we’d like to share it with you—even if that means just listening to our podcast, LodeStar’s Lending Leaders! We also have a lot of volume going through our system on a daily basis. We’ll be looking to add additional value to those transactions with some new products as well. 

Some people build businesses to sell them. But we’re having too much fun to think about calling it a day and selling. We’re going to keep focused on growing.  CEO Jim Paolino remains passionate about growing a business, building a team and helping people. Ultimately, that’s the most important thing ahead in the coming months and years.