Find people from the industry who are fired up about finally getting to make the changes they’ve always wanted to see.

By Ashley Rabinovitch

In her former role as vice president of Zillow’s $1B Premier Agent business, Carey Schwaber Armstrong T’10 gained an insider’s perspective on what is working well in real estate—and what is failing miserably. It didn’t take long for her to notice that the mortgage industry is far more adept at maximizing profits than delivering a positive customer experience. In 2020, she left Zillow to co-found Tomo, a tech startup that speeds up the clunky mortgage approval process and brings mortgage into the modern era. If traditional mortgage lenders are “fat and happy”—and largely immune to customer feedback—Tomo is hungry, nimble, and laser focused on the homebuyer experience. 

Through Tomo, homebuyers in 13 states can access a streamlined digital experience that saves them time, money, and stress. Tomo customers access the lowest rates in the industry and receive a final loan decision in 21 days—less than half the industry average. It’s no wonder that Armstrong and her cofounder, a fellow Zillow veteran, have already raised $110 million to fuel their venture. 

Here are her tips for becoming a “revolutionary” in a stagnant space.

Identify the key insight the industry is missing. It’s second nature for most people in tech to start with the customer and build backward, but in many other spaces, the customer comes last. This is certainly true in the mortgage industry. It’s long been clear to me how disruptive a mortgage company designed around customers could be. Tomo is designed to automate the loan approval process in a way that satisfies key customer needs: total transparency, no hidden fees, and information written in plain English, not industry jargon. What is the missing insight in the industry you want to disrupt? Find it and build a moat around it.

Beware of “industry standards.” At Tomo, everyone knows that the best way to flag something for my scrutiny is to call it an “industry standard.” For example, the mortgage process typically has six different roles look at every piece of information in your file—and, of course, each of them has requests for more information as a result. Industry standards reveal where industry has gotten complacent. When you start to hear people reference them, dig deeper to understand what’s really going on and look for opportunities to do better.

Your industry hires have to be extraordinary. You can’t bring change to an industry if you don’t understand it, so you have to hire at least some folks who come from industry. But the last thing you want is for those hires to come in with the same stale ideas and approaches you are trying to leave behind. Find people from industry who are fired up about finally getting to make the changes they’ve always wanted to see. Seek out hungry people with specific plans they are itching to implement. 

Find partners who are as fed up with the status quo as you are. Stagnant industries are filled with industry players who are frustrated by the pace of change and are looking for ways to accelerate. Tomo has friends like these from all walks of life, from vendors to press to investors to regulators, and they have been critical in helping us make progress. Just get out there and keep telling your story to find the first few likeminded partners, and then word will spread. Once you have identified them, combine forces to make even bigger things happen than you could on your own.

Be a revolutionary every single day. One of our investors warned us early on, “Do not become what you seek to replace.” The gravity of an established industry is pretty intense, and you have to fight against it constantly. For example, salespeople want to require customers to talk to them on the phone, but Tomo is all about what’s good for customers, not what’s good for salespeople. For this reason, we now offer instant underwritten pre-approvals they can access by phone at midnight without talking to anyone. You will have to make compromises, but be smart and don’t make them in places that matter or places that last. 

This story originally appeared in print in the winter 2023 issue of Tuck Today magazine.