We’ve gotten a lot of great news here at LodeStar recently. Some of it we’ll share soon. But for starters, we’ve just learned that, for the second straight year, we’re a member of the Philadelphia100®. You may recall that this list is comprised of the 100 fastest growing, privately held businesses in the greater Philadelphia region.

Not only did we make the list, we made the top ten! Number 8, in fact!

Ok, so to add a little bit of “humble” to our “brag,” 2021 has been a very different year from 2020. A new office. Adapting to being a growing company, replete with new employees, high expectations and even a brand-new office… All of these things, as many of our readers have experienced themselves, take a lot of work and can be thankless endeavors.

But they’re well worth it.

Today, what started in a tiny apartment in New York years ago making a humble closing cost calculator and helping mortgage lenders avoid penalties for TRID violations, has become a known (maybe not well-known yet, but definitely known) commodity in a very competitive mortgage marketplace. It’s really humbling to have folks approach us at conferences or even email us out of the blue and mention they watch our podcast or saw an article that mentioned LodeStar.

Thank you, clients, partners and friends, for helping to make us what we’ve become. But we’re not done yet.

As we’ve mentioned, one of our major goals this year and going forward is to do our part to help make the industry a better place. That includes doing what we can to bring transparency to the mortgage transaction by adhering to our three core principles of clarity, community and connectivity. This is, at times, an industry of disparate parts. We strongly believe technology can bring them together, to the benefit of the consumer and the industry as well. That’s why we’ve done our best to build products that don’t create silos, but instead, work in harmony with other solutions. The unicorn of “end-to-end” solutions still lives on out there. But we’re here for tech that works, and works together with other tech.

We believe the mortgage industry has already begun to evolve. We see more and more lenders investing not only in POS or LOS technology, but in platforms and applications that improve customer service and transparency. We’ve long advocated for the better use of technology to support the consumer experience. And now, slowly but surely, it appears the industry is starting to agree.

We’re looking forward to growing again in 2022. With it might come the typical growing pains, but as long as we stay true to our mission and the ideals that got us here. We’ll keep sharing our thoughts—and yours as well, if you let us know what you want out there—through our LLL podcast, the articles we’re fortunate enough to be allowed to publish and, of course, right here on Deeper Thoughts.

Our thanks to the Entrepreneurs’ Forum of Greater Philadelphia (EFGP) for allowing us to be a part of the Philly 100 list again in 2021. And our thanks to all of the people that helped us keep growing—and growing with a purpose—in the last year.

Got an idea for a future Deeper Thoughts or LLL? Let me know at jpaolino@lssoftwaresolutions.com.