Blog
Insights on lead generation, B2B marketing strategy, and building revenue engines.
AI Underwriting Is Theater: Why $500M in Loans Proves It
Three decades of lending reveals that current AI underwriting is expensive digital theater, not innovation. Most implementations deliver worse outcomes than traditional methods.
Post-Scarcity Housing Finance: Q1 2027 Universal Access
By March 2027, AI-driven construction and programmable money will transform housing from scarce investment to abundant infrastructure service.
What I Look for When Advising Early-Stage Fintech Companies
Every year I turn down more advisory engagements than I take. Here's what separates the fintech founders I end up working with from the ones I don't.
The Lending Protocol Wars: DeFi vs Traditional Mortgage Banks
DeFi lending protocols processed $180B in 2024 while traditional lenders spend $2.4T on obsolete infrastructure. The protocol wars have begun.
Programmable Mortgages: September 2026 Timeline Prediction
The mortgage servicing industry faces operational crisis from manually processing $11 trillion in debt using 1990s systems. Programmable mortgages become survival requirement by September 2026.
Fintech Marketing Is Not SaaS Marketing — Here's Why
Fintech founders are getting bad marketing advice from SaaS playbooks. Here are the structural differences that make fintech a different sport.
The Aged Lead Opportunity: What Most Salespeople Get Wrong
Most salespeople treat aged leads as garbage. They're not — they're a systematically mispriced asset class. Here's what 20 years of working them taught me.
The Real State of AI in Mortgage Marketing (From Someone Who's Been Doing This 30 Years)
The mortgage industry is flooded with AI marketing hype. Here's what's actually working, what's not, and what 30 years of mortgage marketing experience tells me about what's next.
Why Lead Management Still Beats CRM for Sales Teams Working Internet Leads
I coined the term 'lead management' in 2005 to differentiate it from CRM. Twenty years later, most companies still confuse the two — and pay for it in conversion rates.
Why I Build Niche Authority Sites (And Why Every Expert Should)
I operate a portfolio of niche authority content sites across lead generation, real estate investing, and crypto lending. Here's the thesis behind the portfolio — and why I think every expert should build one.
The SpringEQ Launch: Building a Fintech GTM from Zero
In 2016 I built the initial go-to-market strategy and operations for SpringEQ, a home equity lending fintech. Here's what the playbook actually looked like.
Why I Stayed at Kaleidico as CRO After the Acquisition
When Kaleidico had its acquisition and liquidity event, I kept 10% and stepped into the CRO role. Here's why — and what it taught me about structuring a deal that keeps the founder in the game.
What 30 Years in Fintech Marketing Taught Me About GTM Strategy
DeepGreen Bank to Quicken Loans to Velocity Lending to the fintechs I advise today. Four distinct eras of fintech GTM, and the lessons that repeat in every one.
The Lead Buyer's Framework: Why Most Companies Treat Lead Gen Like Procurement (And Why It Fails)
Most enterprises treat lead buying like a procurement function — cheapest price per unit wins. That framing is why lead programs fail. Here's the framework I use instead.
How Quizzle Became Bankrate's Customer Acquisition Engine
I helped grow Quizzle — one of the first free credit report platforms — before Bankrate acquired it to fuel their customer strategy. Here's what I learned about building for acquisition.
Building EquityOnline: Inside Quicken Loans' First True Online Lending Platform
In 2004, I joined Quicken Loans to build EquityOnline — their first platform that gave borrowers a real offer online, not just a lead form.
From AFOSI to Fintech: How Intelligence Work Shaped My Marketing Career
Before I built lead generation platforms, I ran counterespionage operations for the Air Force. The skills aren't as different as you'd think.
Employee #7: What I Learned Building One of the First Internet Banks
In 2000, I left Air Force intelligence to join DeepGreen Bank as Employee #7. We launched the first unconditional online HELOC. Here's what building an internet bank looked like before most banks had websites.
How I Coined \"Lead Management\" — and Why CRMs Were Never the Answer
In 2005, I built a platform called icoSales and needed a name for what it did. It wasn't a CRM — there was no relationship yet. That distinction created an industry category.
5 Lead Generation Metrics Every Mortgage Lender Gets Wrong
I've been buying, generating, and converting mortgage leads since 2000. These are the 5 lead gen metrics most mortgage lenders measure wrong — and what to measure instead.
The Mortgage KPIs I Actually Watch (And the Ones Most Lenders Get Wrong)
I've spent 30+ years building mortgage lending operations — from DeepGreen Bank to EquityOnline at Quicken Loans to a hundred-plus Kaleidico clients. Here are the KPIs I watch, and the ones I've learned to ignore.