This episode dives into one of the most important shifts happening in the mortgage industry today: the rise of the “citizen developer” and the acceleration of AI-driven innovation. As technology evolves at an unprecedented pace, forward-thinking lenders are no longer waiting on vendors to build solutions—they’re creating their own. In this conversation, we explore how AI is empowering mortgage professionals to automate workflows, integrate new tools in hours, and fundamentally rethink how loan origination and servicing operate. From improving productivity to gaining a competitive edge in MSR strategy and recapture, this discussion highlights what it takes to stay relevant—and win—in a rapidly changing market.
[David] Listeners, it’s always fun to talk with people in the industry that are doing innovative things with innovative companies. One of our advertisers, Byte Software is doing a lot of innovation. And what’s so fun about this particular company is so the company’s been around a lot, but if you think that old doesn’t mean they can innovate to the day’s standards, you gotta stand, pay attention and to help tell the story. We have one of their customers joining us and you’re gonna enjoy this interview for sure. Bobby, good to have you here and thank you so much for. Bringing on one of your customers that we get to talk to. Really exciting.
[Bobby] Absolutely. Absolutely. Good to see you as always, David. And yeah. Happy to be here and see you.
[David] So Steve, a little bit about yourself. You are the Chief Servicing and Recapture officer at Greenway Mortgage Funding in New Jersey. You oversee operations MSR strategy portfolio or capture initiatives across a multi-billion dollar servicing portfolio. You have more than 15 years of experience spanning mortgage originations, servicing capital markets. Just about, you’ve got to bend there, done that t-shirt, and the best part is you found a way and you’ve found a way to use the advantages and the strengths of Byte to accomplish your goals and objectives. Really excited to get into it. So Bobby, if you would tee this up a little bit for us. That’d be df, this discussion.
[Bobby] That’s a heck of an intro there, David. There’s nowhere to go but down Steve? That’s right. No, we’re going. That would be a bad maybe. Yeah. No. Actually he undersold you ’cause one of the reasons I wanted to have you on here is every time I talk to you, you’re, there’s always some new thing that you’re working on and you really are amazing to us here at Byte in terms of what you’ve been able to do with the platform and how you’re just constantly using technology to push forward and try new things and just never settle for the status quo. So maybe, I know you shared a couple with me beforehand, but maybe tell us about some of the things that you’re working on right now. Some of the new changes.
[Steve] Yeah. I was at a recent conference and AI is all the hype and one of the real wins in Byte now is there’s actually AI integrated into some of the macro development. So that, along with my Claude code subscription has really helped me to accelerate the process of turning out new things. So in the last week, I built Byte Help Chatbot that’s AI enabled, has all of our own customizations and Byte screenshots and everything and rather than having to ask me all the questions now. Some of the staff are asking the AI, which has definitely has saved me some time per day for sure. And then again, in the last week, I also built an integration with a new AI vendor called Friday Harbor. So basically it’s a sales and processing tool that helps a loan officer to better qualify a borrower, calculate their income earlier in the process. They sent me the AI specs at three o’clock and by five, I already had a working version of the app up, right?
[David] Yeah. That they talk about the speed of internet. That’s the speed of innovation. But a lot of people look at these problems, Steve, and they don’t do what you’re doing and Bobby, you and I were talking. You’re amazed at how others are forming a plan, forming a strategy, talking, sending a community to put something together to do something, and Steve just does it. I wanna capture that’s a little bit of a lightning in a bottle that if we could capture Steve to, how do you do these things when others struggle so much?
[Steve] Yeah. I think, definitely a huge chunk of it is the platform. So Byte has a pretty open ecosystem that lets me iterate, test, build things and do it on the fly without having to go through a long approval process. You can prototype something up really quickly versus a lot of other systems and, I definitely stayed on top of what the newest tools are that are out there. So I think, people think of AI and a lot of them just think it’s ChatGPT, you type into a chat bot and it gives you an answer, but you can now feed it full set of documentation for how something works and, use that and along with your plain english description of what you want it to do and the combination of those two things really lets you build a tool really quickly without having to wait for a vendor to build it or wait for your LOS to roll it out and there’s so many new tools and products coming out nowadays. If you’re gonna wait for a partner to build a connection for you, by the time it rolls out, it might not even be a tool you wanna use anymore. So definitely important to have the right framework to work off of and then be that citizen developer where you build things your own test and iterate and see what works and what doesn’t.
[David] Bobby, jump in on this, please.
[Bobby] Yeah, Steve and I were talking a little bit yesterday about that same concept. Me being on the vendor side of that and the, almost the advantage that it gives us as well too, that by having the more open framework that Byte does, we can allow you guys, because you’re right there’s a new AI vendor popping up everyday, right? Everyone’s gonna do something a little different, and as a vendor, we can go out and either try to integrate with all of them or just pick one and say, Hey, this is where we’re gonna, put our development time, but then maybe there’s something new and better six months down the road or whatever. So as you and I were talking, we were talking about this concept of having the open structure. Let our clients go out there, use the tools that are available to now to do things very quickly, like you just said, whether that’s a matter of hours or a day. Test it out, see if it actually does what you want are you gaining a lot from it? and then from there, you guys are like our test case now, and that we can get feedback from all of our clients and then say, okay, these are the ones that make the most sense. Our clients are getting the most lift out of those. Let’s go do a built-in integration and so now we’re maintaining that integration and connection instead of putting that on you guys, but kinda let you guys do the test case. So how’s that kinda work for you guys, Steve? as far as giving you that freedom to go out and just Hey, let’s try this, or, I saw this, let’s try that without having a huge commitment.
[Steve] Yeah. It’s super important to what we’re trying to do. There the technology is just changing so rapidly. We wanna be able to go out and test and see what works for us and what doesn’t. And, having a kind of a canvas that I can work off of on, on the Byte end. Allows me to come up with whatever crazy idea I want and test it out and see if it works. So definitely a great partnership and a great platform to be able to build and test those things. I’ve demoed a lot of other LOSs over time, to worry, I’m not planning on switching, but I like to see what’s out there. There see’s going well, I think.
[David] A good point, Steve, is that if you’re not out looking at what is out there, then you bring those ideas back. I think it benefits you. I think it benefits Byte to do that, and I encourage people to do that if, even though if they’re currently happy with their LOS, they should get out and look at what Byte does. It opens your eyes and I think what’s possible. I think that’s related. You touched on something that you and I, you gave the quote, a citizen developer. The moment is real. I wanna talk about what do you mean by a citizen? You’re a citizen of the system, of the ecosystem, assuming what you’re talking, but talk about, what do you mean by that?
[Steve] Sure. So for years it’s pretty much, Byte’s been around what, since the eighties, right? If I wanted to build something in by, or any other system, I had to hire a computer engineer of some kind that knows how to code. Knows the ins and outs of this is doing it every day. Pay someone to do that or have them on staff. The tools that are out now allow me, the last computer programming course I took was in 10th grade. I took a c plus course and I did not get an A.
[David] That should be encouragement listeners, when you hear this, Steve doesn’t have a current, PhD in programming or anything like that. that actually should be encouraging for our listeners to hear.
[Steve] It takes a while to, for you to learn the system, right? But there are systems out there now that once you have a good workflow and a process of how to do it, you can build and test anything with pretty much no background at all in computer science. I’m not gonna say like I’m not like a nerdy kind of guy that doesn’t like doing this kind of stuff to start out with. But, for years I’ve been wishing there was a way I’ve got this idea, I want to build it, and I don’t wanna have to wait for my developer. I put this in the queue and have it six months from now, and I’m already onto the next thing now. Now I get the, it’s 10:00 PM I start typing it up. By the next morning, it’s working and functional and most of the time while I was sleeping. So it, it doesn’t definitely gives you a lot more flexibility than you have.
[David] So I wanna go into this citizen developer a little dive a little deeper because I think some people said, oh yeah, okay, so he’s not a programmer, but he’s got a super aptitude. It’s a decision. Tell me if I’m wrong and Bobby, I want you to jump in this ’cause you see this as the vendor from the vendor side. Others within the Byte community that are struggling with this. Yet you find Steve that executes, he actually does it, Steve. How are you wired? What’s, what would you say? I’m wanting, obviously you’re gifted, you’re, you think differently. but I wanna draw others that it’s possible that they shouldn’t accept for, accept the compromises that they’re living with.
[Steve] Absolutely. It’s, the tools get better every single day. So I started working my autonomously using an AI tool about a year ago, probably a year ago, within plus or minus five days right now and in that span of time, it started out where it was just repetitive. You had to be like, no, it still doesn’t work the way I want it to be. Like, try again. Go back, loop it again. Every three months the capability of the tools doubles in, in, in what it could do from three months before. So we’re at the point now where you really can type in your idea, give it a link to what you’re trying to do. Like most of, most ai, most APIs that are out there today have public documentation. You can control, copy the link to the API documentation, paste it in one of these tools. It will research everything for you and do a lot of the building for you. And then, if it doesn’t work, it’s more Hey, I don’t like what it’s doing. I want to tweak it a little bit, rather than it actually not working. So you’re we’re really getting to the point where anyone can do this and it’s really about just trying to experiment and give it a try.
[David] From your perspective, Bobby why do you think Steve’s been able to cross this chasm and others have struggled? And it’s not a chasm. Sometimes we look at chasms as this big broad thing, and in this case it’s Steve’s describing something that looks more like a creek than a chasm.
[Bobby] Yeah, I think so some of it’s just a time to get used to the tools, like Steve said and getting them to the point where you could do it. I wouldn’t say that others have struggled. We have other clients doing similar things with AI. And we have stuff that we’ve done within Invite as well. We’ll cover that in a little bit later, but no, I think this is a very real change and I think the way it was described when Steve and I were talking about is that the old buy versus build argument is I think really at a crossroads right now. And so Steve, you and I talked a little bit I’d like you to share that qhat does this mean, not just for Byte specifically, but just for upstream, for software development companies in general. What is this kind of dynamic with, operator development? How does that change the way software companies are gonna be structuring not only their development, but also their pricing? And how open they are. Is it, are more companies gonna be shifting to what Byte’s always done where we give you guys a lot of power, what do you think?
[Steve] I think if you make your ecosystem too closed, you are. Making it so that your clients can’t innovate. I think at the heart of it, do I wanna build my own LOS? No, I need some, a platform that can order a flood cert, submit to a AUS, do all of those basic things that every LOS needs to do. But what I don’t want is a platform that’s gonna say to me, okay, you can only use these three vendors if you wanna do something else, you have to wait and we have to get enough clients that want it and maybe in a year we’ll tell you whether it exists or not. Having that kind of open ecosystem makes it so that you can do all of these things and I think there are a lot of new platforms that are coming out that are not building it in that fashion and it is gonna be a really closed ecosystem. There, there’s one I talked to that was like, I said, Hey, can I build a macro that automates this function? No, that’s not how our system works. You have to follow the workflow that we built. And I think in the world of mortgage, if you talk to a hundred mortgage companies, you’re probably gonna about find about 150 different processes to do the exact same thing. So I was just gonna say that exact same thing. Everyone walking their way and if you, yeah. If you try to hamstring people too much. Your clients are gonna get frustrated and they’re not gonna want to gonna stick with you in the long term. And we talked about kind of contractual length in a world where, if you think about what we, I was talking about how the AI tools have developed in 12 months, if the tool is now 800% more effective than it was before. Do I really wanna lock myself in with any vendor or a three year period and hope that they innovate the way that I need them to be able to keep up. Generally, I think Byte’s always been very friendly in terms of contract terms. I’ve never had more than a one year agreement. I don’t get huge increases at when the agreement renews. And I look at that across any vendor. If I talk to a vendor and they say to me, you need to agree to use our point of sale for three years, that’s the end of the conversation, right? Because I don’t know what the space is gonna look like in three years. And, we talked about building your own tools and being a citizen developer as the tools get better and better. Do I wanna pay for a CRM that doesn’t do exactly what I want to do for three years? Maybe next year I just build my own and it has my exact custom workflow that I like incorporated right into it.
[David] Yeah. And I think the point you’re saying is it’s not that difficult. You mentioned Friday Harbor, talk a little bit more about that.
[Steve] Sure. So Friday Harbor, it’s a loan officer and processor facing tool. That analyzes all of the documents and the Mismo file inside of the loan and comes up with, Hey, here are the eight things that are gonna prevent your loan from getting approved. Like you need to get another pay stub. You have to show why these restricted stock units are permissible income, and it’ll give you like step-by-step instructions as to what you need to do to get that loan underwriter ready. If you’re a loan officer and you get in all these income documents and there’s this variable source of income, or the assets look a little wonky or something else is going on with the file, you can basically dump the whole file into the LOS, press a button. Friday Harbor analyzes everything. And actually the way I have my integration set up, it shoots conditions right back into Byte. So you go to the regular condition screen that the loan officer processors used to looking at, they’re able to see exactly what’s preventing this loan from being able to be approved.
[David] That’s a good example. Yeah. Very good example.
[Bobby] And I think that’s a great example too. Steve and I were talking about, the workflow that we have, the way we’ve handled AI at Byte, right? Because we’ve been getting that question for years. How is, what is Byte doing with AI? And I’ll talk about the macro builder, Steve referenced in a moment ’cause I think that’s really important to, especially for like smaller lenders, credit unions, banks that maybe don’t have IT resources, in this case, having that open architecture where someone like Steve or other clients. Excuse me, that I know I’ve looked at the companies like Friday Harbor. They can go out, test it, see if they like it, even start using it right off the bat. And then when we get enough feedback from those, now that’s something we can look at that vendor and say, okay, this is one that’s worth our time to go ahead and build the integration. And again, to take that upkeep off of Steve’s plate or other clients. So that’s the general way we approach it at Byte is, excuse me, let’s give them the freedom with the API to go out and do what they wanna do then when we find those ones that are the kind of the and AI has been so different, I think than many of the other vendors in the mortgage space at this point where there’s so many options and many of them haven’t been fully vetted yet to see is this actually gonna be efficient and move the needle for me, versus what the cost is that, we want to wait. Until we know those ones that do move the needle and then we’ll put our resources into it, but at the same time, we’re not holding our clients back. So that’s how we have approached it. Steve I mentioned cost. It made me think of something. How do you measure that? Like when you’re looking at all these different vendors to decide Hey, is this actually move the needle enough for us? And kind of how do you measure the ROI
[Steve] I think you have to look at every single tool in your tech stack and say. Does this just add cost or does it somehow increase my efficiency, increase the number of loans my processor can process on a monthly basis, reduce my cost in some way, make it so that we can double in volume without adding staff. And if it’s not doing one of those things, it’s just blu. Like it doesn’t help you at all if you just pay someone an extra a hundred dollars per loan for a chatbot, right? Like you need to be able to actually say, look, my processor last month. Got stuck on 20 files and this month she got through 30. So you need to be looking at everything like how does this either lower my cost or increase my productivity?
[David] Bobby, you guys have the macro builder. There’s some that learn how to use it and use it. Talk about that. And then let’s hear what Steve and what’s Steve’s doing?
[Bobby] Yeah, absolutely. That’s one of the newest developments of Byte. Again, we just finished talking about how Byte uses AI in our strategy in terms of third party vendors, but we’re also building a lot of stuff in the platform. The macro builder. In fact, Steve, maybe I’ll flip this over to you. For those that aren’t familiar with macro automation, maybe talk about a little bit what it is and then what that does for you as a lender.
[Steve] The best part about macros is that I can cut down on the noise inside of my operation, right? I get all these loan officers complaining like, Hey, I have to keep going to this screen and pressing this button to make this thing happen and the way that Byte is set up. You can automate such a huge chunk of these manual things that happen and you can say okay, I know if it’s this type of loan, I wanna update these four fields to reflect this particular data set. I know it’s an arm. I wanna update the index to whatever it actually has to be a World Street Journal Prime plus 2.75, right? So rather than having to have your loan officer or staff remember to make these loan level kind of changes, you can automate a huge chunk of that process. You can say, okay, I’ve got the six points of application. Automatically move the loan status of this loan to end processing so that the processor knows that it has to get disclosed. There’s a ton of things you can do with a macro in Byte. You can really get super granular. You can control small fields, big fields, huge data changes, and you can do that all programmatically to make sure that the loan’s really going in the right direction. In today’s world, so much data gets passed back and forth. It’s a garbage in, garbage out process, right? Yeah. It’s so true. If I don’t have my application correct, when I upload it to my end investor, I’m just gonna add conditions to the processor risk that they don’t wanna purchase it for some reason. So having the ability to really check and verify and update things programmatically makes it so you can avoid a lot of downstream issues on your origination process.
[Bobby] Yeah, that’s a great description. I think you nailed it. I think you touched on it earlier. You ask a hundred lenders, how do you get from A to B? You’re gonna get a hundred different answers. And I think for me, that’s where the macro automation really comes in because yes, we could add a, call it a drag and drop builder for automation, but that’s gonna be limited to what we as a vendor kind of foresee and the macro really lets you guys do it. The way you want to for your operation, which can be very different than a way. Maybe a credit union or bank or just a different letter in general would. So it’s very powerful. But I think historically you’ve had to know how to write JavaScript to do that. And so with the macro editor, we basically have integrated Claude into it and trained it on basically everything about Byte. Our fields, our functions, triggers, all that. And so now you can go in and just use an AI prompt to do something. So say for example, I’ve got a custom field, of course you can do custom fields and screens at Byte. So let’s say you have a custom field for an accelerated loan program, right? Like a 10 day close. If the loan meets certain parameters, I can just type my prompt like, I can do this. And I’m not a coder at all. I can just type in, Hey, I want to create a macro where that box, that custom field automatically gets checked if the loan meets these guidelines and I just type out the guidelines. And maybe I’ll say, Hey, even add a task for the underwriter to go look at that loan right away and I just type that in as a prompt. It generates the JavaScript copy paste, and now I’ve got my macro. So you get all the personalization that Steve just talked about without the need to write code and so I think one of the things people may hear, as Steve has been talking so far. That’s great. He could do all that. I’m a credit union. I’m the head of mortgage lending, but I’m also the by admin. I’m not a programmer and I don’t have time or my IT team manages the entire credit union, not just mortgage, or a bank or smaller IMBs in the same situation. Now they can do all that. So a lot of these things that Steve is talking about can be done by really anybody that understands mortgage operations. So that’s really what our AI based macro builder’s all about.
[David] and I think, yeah, totally. I think this gives an advantage to the companies that are using a solution like Byte versus a boxed solution, which, like you were saying earlier, Steve just does not provide you the flexibility. He says, we think we got a great product. We think you’ll like it to provided you think like this, do our process, everything else you’re saying, no, this gives me the flexibility to build it the way I want and function that way. I don’t know of any other system that does it to this degree. Especially with these new tools, make it so easy. Very good point.
[Steve] Totally. We’re about it. It’s much easier than it ever was before. So I’d probably build several hundred macros in my life and there’s some that, it would take me two hours to build because I’d have to find all the fields, figure out how to reference them correctly, test it that the old tool that existed was great. Like it has a field picker. It finds the things you need and you can say, okay, if it’s greater than this, then do that. But now, like I don’t have to know basic logic anymore. I can literally just type in, Hey, if this happens, then I want this to happen. And it will research all the fields, create a safe macro wow, that will work correctly. And you cut and paste it in and you’re good to go. And it’s interesting, I went and back tested some of my old macros and it found small errors with them and things that need to be corrected. Just things that would improve performance. So it’s a great tool whether you’re a programmer or not.
[David] Yeah. If you’re in this business at all, and especially in the role that Steve is and you’re not taking advantage of these tools, get ready to be replaced. I hate to say it, but it’s just so important that to be available to pursue what’s happening in that, when it comes to pursuing. I wanna get into MSRs in just a minute, but I wanna get more alluded into your head, how you’re wired. Some people are listening to this going I don’t know about this. I’m just gonna go hire this guy. He’s really smart. But the purpose of this, I know you guys have said. But it is a bit of a rarity, Steve, to find someone who’s willing to do that, but I wanna encourage others to not be intimidated by it. You, it’s interesting you said, I haven’t taken a programming class since 10th grade on c plus, and you have just rolled up your sleeves and learned it. Does it take a special mindset, skillset to be able to do this? Or is this truly someone who is can, is willing to commit the time to learn it? To do, to in fact learn it.
[Steve] I think you really just have to be willing to commit the time. It’s weird. You don’t maybe not weird if I go to a random person in my town, I’m like, I’m really passionate about mortgage automation. They’d probably look at me like I’m a crazy person. But I think you can need about anything, and it’s if you can figure out like, Hey, this is gonna make my life easier, my team’s life easier it’s worth investing that time to try to figure it out and see if you can do it and I think what people are gonna find is it’s a lot easier than it ever was before to be able to do it yourself. And that, that really can empower you to get a lot done.
[David] Yeah. Let’s get over talking about MSR Steve, you’ve managed a lot and have developed a lot on the servicing, recapture side of the sales and operation. What has made you so successful in that arena and are there trends that you are seeing developing?
[Steve] The MSR world is one that has probably seen almost as much development as AI in the last 12 months. Yes. There’s been a crazy amount of consolidation. The big players at the top when you didn’t think they could get any bigger, start merging together and get bigger. It’s becoming a scary world to be a smaller originator and either hold your MSRs or just sell them on a correspondent release basis. The, not only are we smarter in a lot of things we do on the origination side, but the amount of data and information on the servicing side has really exploded and servicers are taking, not just saying oh, this borrower requested a payoff. Maybe I should call them. They’re looking at what they’re doing on their computer. They’re saying like, which knowledge base article are they reading on my website? Did they click on the box that tells them what their current interest rate is? In combination with trying to download a copy of their origination documents they look at combinations of mouse click. And take that data, put it through some kind of machine learning and figure out how likely this borrower is to refi. So every originator today that sells their loan into one of these recapture machines is giving away their customer and there is going to be an ever increasingly difficult challenge to try to win those customers back, especially as some of these large servicers that run large call centers, continue to build out their own automation. They’ve taken loan officers your retail loan officer are boots on the ground. Going into realtor offices, he’s closing three loans a month. The guy in that call center in the back room can do 50 or a 100, and that number will continue to grow o over time. I think, in, in terms of being a servicer Greenway has differentiated itself in that. We don’t have a giant recapture call center. Our goal here is to enjoy MSR cash flows. Not to basically pay you a hundred basis points to get two refinances. Like that. And I think that, that model going forward is gonna be really important to originators. Try to find that right partner and do the math in your head, right? Is it better to get an extra 25 basis points if it means I’m now gonna be competing with someone that’s gonna offer an interest rate that’s 50 basis points lower than me when I try to refinance this borrower. And, how does that how does that tie into your retail Salesforce? Did you know, do you want to work as a retail loan officer, work at a company where you know, your loans are gonna have to go to this, behemoth, that isn’t gonna stop until they figure out how to get this guy to lower his rate by 50 basis points. Good point. So it’s a really interesting time in servicing in MSRs. Definitely something that’s gonna evolve even more as some of these mergers really start to gain traction and you start to see what does it look like when Mr. Cooper and Rocket really smash that thing together and go after your customer.
[David] Yeah it’s a great point again, is the advantage shifting to the smaller guys because it seemed like for recapture the bigger guys were able to invest the necessary tools to be able to do this. What sounds like you are doing, you guys have a good amount of servicing, but you’re not think close to the big guys. So how would you stack yourselves up? Do you think you have an advantage using Byte and the tools they provide you over the big guys competing?
[Steve] Yeah, I think, it’s as a smaller company. We can’t build our own proprietary system from scratch, right? I can’t build the kind of engine that a servicer that services 2 million loans can, but I can get pretty close and do it myself at a fraction of the cost.
[David] And and you have the relationship already, which is, p if we’re doing the job of taking care of the existing relationship, more times than not, they’re gonna wanna stay loyal. Like, why do I wanna change? It’s too much of a hassle. And. I think there’s some real opportunities there. So let’s talk about how you’re using the Byte solution specifically to recapture or to retain.
[Steve] Yeah, it doesn’t tie in necessarily directly. So we do use it on our origination side. So all of our consumer direct loan officers, they’ll use Byte as a platform, we, I built my own CRM that ties into Byte. We use it as a backend. We’re able to leverage a lot of the API tools. In our custom CRM with the help of the bite API we’re able to run credit and we’re able to have a database of record that we’re, we can use in assistance of our recapture efforts. But we have a, like I said, the world of servicing, there’s a ton of data. So having a good tool to be able to access that data and do something with it is definitely really important.
[David] Yeah. Bobby, you wanna add in? Yeah, I was gonna ask you, just outside of oss, but just LOS, POS CRMs in general, like with this kind of shift that you were just talking about, how is that impacting those and maybe where should lenders be looking at platforms that are going a certain direction or should those types of technology platforms starting to start to pay attention to this more so maybe than they have in the past and kind of pivot.
[Steve] I think everybody’s gonna have to pay more attention. The world of mortgage technology today is very fragmented. We have a separate pricing engine. We have a separate LOS, we have a separate point of sale, as the technology gets better and the time to develop some of these things gets shorter and shorter, that technological moat that you might have had around your platform. Looks a lot lower to the waterline and because of that, there are things that, that Byte’s working on that I know are gonna make it so that I don’t need to pay this extra vendor and additional charge. So I think over time I could see the right partner going more vertical in the space and eliminating the need for you to have these 20 different tools that you’re really trying to smash together. And make it so that you know where there is a gap you can close that yourself rather than having to pay a vendor to do it. So I think it’ll be a combination, like having a good platform that has the right things, integrated it into it will be really helpful. But still being able to say Hey, that doesn’t a hundred percent work for me. I wanna do something a little differently. Trying to force it is gonna be really important.
[Bobby] And I think there’s a balance there too, where, and that’s at least, I maybe have used this word before to describe Byte, but with the balance of that, of, for example, building out Byte price, right? Our pricing engine that’s in beta right now with several different clients, people not using Byte can demo it. Basically starting now through the next month or so. And that’s great. And if you wanna use our pricing engine and that makes it more effective for you, Steve, that’s fantastic, but also not lock you into that. Because we’re gonna, I think it’s gonna be this way from now on where Yes. Having everything not so segmented is great, and having it all in one, but at the same time, not forcing you to do it. Because as you said before, technology changes so quickly. Everybody wants to do things a little bit differently. So for example, at Byte, if you wanna use our pricing engine, that’s great. If you don’t want to use it, that’s not baked into the bake base price, right? Where I think a lot of current, all ones, you pay for it whether you use it or not. So I think that’s one of the pillars, if you will. In terms of how bite’s different is you basically pay for what you use. And I could see that being a model going forward as all this techno technology continues to evolve.
[Steve] For sure. You can’t pay a hundred dollars a loan and then use a third of the the tools that are available to you aAnd there are definitely LOS models that are like that, right? And for me. I know there are multiple different licensing options in Byte and different ways you can do it. There’s volumes that there’s licenses that make more sense. If you’re a volume shop, there’s ones that make more sense. If you have a small number of employees. There’s some that, if you have lots of employees. So I think that pricing flexibility has always been really appreciated on my side. And for sure I’m like, Hey, look, I want to use this feature, but I don’t wanna use the pricing engine for whatever reason. I have four other choices that I can pick. And that that’s honestly, client it’s actually been very helpful to me because a lot of these are very tight integrations. If tomorrow I get a price increase from my doc vendor, say, okay, I’m switching to the other one ’cause all I have to do is press a button and switch over. Having that, that base of a couple of different options across every single service that you use is definitely helped me to negotiate with a lot of vendors over time.
[Bobby] I’m glad you mentioned that. Because I think one thing I probably should have done at the beginning of this is make sure everyone understands. We’ve talked a lot about using our A PIA lot about you being able to use whatever vendors you want. Byte has a ton of built-in integrations, right? With all the key players and all the big vendors and things like that. And we’re constantly adding new ones. So it’s not like we don’t have those, we do have those built in. We also just give you the flexibility to take the API and do what you want with it. So that’s good.
[Steve] Yeah. On the vendor screens I’ve had to turn off, it’s if you go to the credit six vendors, so I’ve had to hide them all because it takes too long to find the one that you’re looking for. But on the admin account, I always actually leave them on so that I can see who got added and what’s new. But yeah there’s an incredible breadth of available vendors right outta the box that have seamless integrations for sure. Technology is great, Steve, but there’s always this people component. Talk about that people. People and business would be so much easier. First we didn’t have to deal with these people.
[Steve] I think about it every day. Yes. The people are definitely the blessing and the curse of the mortgage industry. In Greenway we have a great team of people, but you. It’s hard to get them to all move in the same direction. Actually it’s one of one of the reasons why Byte is great is I can complete I’ve got one wackadoo loan officer that wants to do something completely different. I had one that told me he doesn’t want to go to the loan application, but he wants to be able to enter assets on another screen. I was like, all right I know I can build that if you really want me to, and if it makes you happy, I will. So I think it’s. Your mortgage company is the people that work there, right? Yeah, it’s the people. We’re a sales organization at the end of the day, and our job is to connect with people. I think internally it’s really important to have the right people, and for me in my career, I think I’ve left jobs. Because I was with the wrong people. And I think, as I get further into my career I realize more and more I’d rather be working with the right people rather than the wrong ones. And I think it’s it extends beyond your internal staff, beyond your customer. It’s an alignment from top to bottom. And there are vendors that might save me money over the long run, but I’m like, dude, I can’t work with this kind of vibe that you’re putting out. So I don’t know. I’ I’ve always enjoyed working with the right people. And I think that’s how I approach the business generally. Like you, you just have to partner with the right people. In your business to, to make it work.
[David] So true. It’s fun to interact with. And you see the innovation. I love their marketing guy too. Yeah. Oh, speaking of that guy. Yeah. Here we’re, he’s not too good.
[Bobby] Now Steve, real quick, if you would just, as we talk about the Byte people, maybe talk a little bit about, ’cause you push the limits sometimes in terms of what Byte can do. How has your experience been with our tech support team and beyond?
[Steve] Yeah. I always, I think maybe it’s my mentality, I’m like, I’ll try to figure it out myself, right? I don’t want to call the Health Desk, but there are times where I probably would’ve saved myself 12 hours if I had, and the great part about Byte is there is a phone number. You can call them. They pick up. You can talk to them. Real people really talk real people. Even if you email in a ticket like it, it will get responded to very quickly. And there’s a good group on the other side. I know. I’ve landed on a good problem when I get chat to respond to my tickets. You get to really know the people on the other side of the fence and it’s not just like a nameless call center of someone that has worked there for two weeks. These are people that I can’t think of one person I interact with in the, at the help desk that hasn’t been there for a decade. And so they’re really experts on the product and genuinely helpful. Their follow up is better than mine, so I’ll be like, I’ll open a ticket and be like, Hey, I can’t figure this thing out and then I’ll get distracted and they’ll be like, Hey, you’re, we’re still trying to help you with this. And so it’s not just like an empty inbox that doesn’t get responded to. It’s, there’s a real person on the other end and someone that, that actually is very knowledgeable and very helpful and, the your team shouldn’t be afraid to reach out to them ’cause they’re there to help and they, they really want to, which is a nice change from a lot of other vendors where you can’t even get somebody on the phone.
[David] Yeah. Yeah. I had that, I was trying to get ahold of someone on a, on an issue the other day, and I, what the loops you had to go through was just annoying. You go like, why am I doing business with this particular company? Steve is so good to have you on. I love to see the entrepreneurial innovation that’s going on through you. You’re doing a great job. How can people reach you? Are you willing to talk to people and have that conversation?
[Steve] Yeah. I love talking to people. Always willing to do linkedIn’s a great way to get me, beyond that email, phone. I’m happy to hop on a call with somebody. I think we talked about demoing different LOSs I’ve learned a lot from other Byte customers and seeing what they’re doing and what their process is. There’s a. There’s a group of, I think they’re called like key customers. I don’t wanna elevate myself too much here, there’s like an email group where we just go back and forth and people are like, Hey, how do you solve this problem? So always willing to have those kinds of conversations.
[David] Collaborative, internal group. Yeah. Just within the customer base. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Bobby, wrap it up. So good to have you here. Love interview with last one, Steve, here for you. Steve. Steve, its been fun hearing about the what goes on with your customers. Bobby.
[Bobby] Yeah, I got one last one for you, Steve. So how does a guy with a background in naval architecture and marine engineering end up in the mortgage business.
[David] Are you serious? Are you serious? That’s your background, Steve. That’s amazing.
[Steve] Yeah. So I’ll tell you this. This may have been one of the best. Yeah. Maybe one of the painful decisions of my life. So I’ve always been into boats and ships and just something I found really interesting. I met my wife. We were both sailing instructors, so I spent a lot of time on the water. I was applying for college looking through, just flipping through a book of colleges with one of my buddies came across web Institute. It’s a school on Long Island. If you get in a hundred percent full scholarship. The downside, it’s hardcore engineering from June. From August through the end of June, I was the first class since they started allowing women at the school that had zero women in it. It has its own challenges. My class, we started with 19 total students graduated 11, but I got some great friends out of it. Some super interesting experiences. I worked in a shipyard in New Orleans for two months. I was out to sea on a liquid natural gas tanker for 50 days which was wild and awesome between Japan and Indonesia. Worked in naval architecture office in Australia for two months, so you get some really awesome, interesting experiences. But I think, more than anything it taught me how to work hard because I’m taking 22 engineering credits a semester. Really good in Excel because it, a huge chunk of that is Excel. And I think you learn more than anything how to integrate systems together and I think that is, ends up being a big part of what you do in the mortgage space. I every other classmate of mine design ships or boats or something along those lines, but I’m the only one to oddball out. It was always, and I came from the mortgage world growing up and bounce. Okay. Always was intending to bounce back there. But definitely a unique background for the average mortgage guy for sure.
[Bobby] Yeah, that’s great. Makes a lot of sense. That’s awesome, dude. I love it. That’s a great story.
[David] Gentlemen. Thanks so much for coming on the podcast house and talking with us today. I really appreciate it. Thank you, Bobby, for arranging this so we could I love these stories of what’s going on in companies like Steve’s.
[Bobby] Yeah, thanks for having us, Steve. Thanks for coming on, man. I really appreciate. It’s great insight.
[Steve] It was great to be here. Thank you guys so much.
[David] How can people get a hold of you, Steve, again? LinkedIn, you said.
[Steve] LinkedIn’s probably the best way to reach me. All right, I’m sure. I think you’re gonna get some people reaching out to you, Bobby. Thank you. Can get a hold of Bobby at Byte Software. Any other information you wanna lay out there, Bobby?
[Bobby] That’s it. Byte software.com.
[David] All right. Yeah. Thank you so much. Appreciate it, gentlemen.
[Steve] Thank you. See you guys.
