Rocky Foroutan is the founder of LenderHomePage.com, which is the leading provider of a secure and compliant cloud-based Digital Mortgage Platform that powers lender websites, mobile apps, and digital mortgage POS solutions. Mortgage lenders of all sizes use LenderHomePage.com’s customizable and scalable solutions to enhance borrower experience, streamline the mortgage process, and increase Loan Officer productivity and efficiency.
More about LenderHomePage and Rocky Foroutan’s experience as an entrepreneur can be found below:
Tell us more about yourself and your path to becoming an entrepreneur.
I am a first-generation immigrant who came over from Iran in 1979, right after the Islamic revolution. I graduated from University of California at Irvine with a BS in Electrical Engineering at age 20 and spent the next 17 years as a software engineer and, later, as a sales executive and management for Fortune 1000 companies. I always had a dream of building my own software company and developing innovative tools that can help improve people’s lives and jobs. After I got laid off from my last job in 2002, I finally decided to take that leap of faith and make my dream a reality and built LenderHomePage.
What’s the story behind LenderHomePage?
In 2002, right at the time of the Internet bubble burst, I got laid off from my job as the Sales Director at an IP Telephony company in Silicon Valley. That was a big blow to me both financially and emotionally. It was tough for my pride to break the news to my newly married wife. I did it anyway and decided to make my all-time dream a reality.
My brother-in-law had taken me to see a Wholesale Mortgage Lender in LA who needed a website. That meeting went well, and they hired me. I outsourced the development of that website and delivered the first mortgage-related website successfully. The rest is history, LenderHomePage is now the market leader in turnkey mortgage websites and mortgage web and mobile applications.
What was the most difficult part of your experience in the early beginnings?
It was so difficult to work with overseas developers. I knew software but did not know a lot about the web, so it was hard to manage them, especially with the time difference with India and the fact that I had to cold call in the daytime to sell that same software.
What are you most proud of regarding your business?
Our team. Everyone has bought into the vision of the company, and it is like we are truly a family.
What is your vision for the future of LenderHomePage?
We want to continue to innovate and be a customer-centric company. We know that there will be competitors along the way, but I’m confident we will continue to stay relevant and prominent as long as we focus on our customers, staff, and innovation.
What’s your advice for businesses that are trying to adapt to the current economic climate?
If you believe that you are creating value for your customers, continue what you are doing and try to do it efficiently. Do this and you will definitely survive in bad times and certainly thrive in good times.
Please name a few technologies which have the greatest impact on your business and in your personal life.
Communications tools of any kind are key in my personal life. Slack, Hubspot, and Linkedin are all tools that I use every day — and that is why we use that “communication angle” with our products too.
What books do you have on your nightstand?
I’ve been inspired by and highly recommend “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t” by Jim Collins.
Because of the current economic climate our publication has started a series of discussions with professional individuals meant to engage our readers with relevant companies and their representatives in order to discuss their involvement, what challenges they have had in the past and what they are looking forward to in the future. This sequence aims to present a series of experiences, recent developments, changes and downsides in terms of their business areas, as well as their goals, values, career history, the high-impact success outcomes and achievements.
Originally Published: https://www.thecalifornia.news/fireside-chat-with-rocky-foroutan-founder-lenderhomepage/