Q&A with Steve Herschleb, Maxwell’s New Chief Product Officer
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The technology-driven solutions we build and hone are core drivers of the Maxwell mission. That’s why we’re incredibly excited to welcome Steve Herschleb to a vital role within our team: Chief Product Officer. A veteran in constructing industry-leading technology and ensuring a unified product strategy, Steve comes to Maxwell from technology startup Neat Capital. At Neat, Steve helped create a proprietary technology stack, including POS, pricing and eligibility engine, and LOS.
Because of his significant mortgage background, Steve has spent plenty of time thinking through the ways that technology can shape and benefit the industry, the everyday lives of lending professionals, and the home buyers they serve. To dig into his perspectives, we asked him a few questions on his outlook for mortgage lending and his new role at Maxwell.
Why do you think technology is vital to local lenders?
The mortgage industry has long been hindered by inefficiencies that impact both lending teams and borrowers. For local lenders across America, earning borrower business and achieving profitability has grown increasingly difficult as the industry’s largest players invest in technology and vie for market share. As a result, local lenders often struggle to maintain margins and capture the attention of today’s home buyers, especially in market downcycles such as we’re experiencing today.
Leveraged correctly, technology can empower these lenders with a game-changing competitive edge. Local lenders are already entrenched in the areas they serve, many with trusted, personal relationships within their communities. By augmenting those connections with technology, local lenders can offer the efficient, yet supportive home buying experience today’s consumers demand. Key to achieving this will be leading technology that delivers both front-end and back-end benefits: Lenders will need to streamline the loan manufacturing process from application through secondary market trading, while delivering a top borrower experience that appeals to the modern home buyer.
As Chief Product Officer, what’s your vision for shaping Maxwell technology?
Over the years, Maxwell has built a significant suite of point solutions to address major obstacles in the mortgage lending process. As we enter the next phase of our company’s growth, continuing to bring these solutions together into a single platform product will be crucial to realizing our vision of building a singular infrastructure that eliminates costs, offsets variability and risk, and increases access to more diverse capital. As the leader of the product organization, my vision is to guide the company through this transition to realize an integrated platform that our partners can leverage to obtain a sustainable competitive advantage.
Tell us an interesting tidbit about yourself.
I have a lifetime goal of always traveling to as many countries as my age. My current country count is 31, which is a bit short of the goal, but that’s just a wonderful excuse for a few more epic trips.