As co-founder and CEO of financial tech company Blend, Nima Ghamsari helps millions of consumers streamline and simplify the banking process.
By working directly with big banks like Wells Fargo and US Bank, his company can bring the stressful, months-long process of applying for loans and mortgages down to just weeks.
Nevertheless, Ghamsari still considers himself “an outsider” in the financial industry. “I have complete humility about the fact that I’m not a mortgage person, but I felt like software could make this industry a lot better,” Ghamsari explains.
Nima Ghamsari streamlines the mortgage and loan process
The purpose of Blend is to revolutionize the home mortgage process. The proprietary software helps cut down the process of obtaining a mortgage. In fact, it can bring a frequently months-long process down to a few weeks. It does this by streamlining a large part of the process which used to be completely on paper. Additionally, Blend has now also reached out beyond mortgages to include some consumer and auto loan applications that feature “instant” approvals, writes Fortune.
Blend currently consists of about 400 employees. The San Francisco Business Times writes that Blend has an inclusive company culture, with a “16-week paid family policy and a hands-on mentorship program.”
The Blend company has three pillars: accessibility, transparency, and simplicity. The company prides itself on “decisions over outcomes.”
“We understand that quickly scaling a company sometimes requires making big decisions with incomplete information, but what’s most important is making intelligent decisions, even if they don’t necessarily yield the best outcome in the short-term,” Ghamsari explains. He adds that Blend is looking many years down the road in its growth decisions.
Online poker paid the bills
Nima Ghamsari immigrated to the US from Iran as a child. The philosophy behind Blend stems from his family’s firsthand experience. He tells Mortgage Media that despite their advanced degrees, his parents had a hard time getting off of their feet at first. However, eventually they became professors and despite not being paid much, they were able to use their savings on a house mortgage.
“Then 20+ years later… they had an asset,” he says, “But I think sometimes people forget that, or at least at times, I forget that the people behind these numbers are humans and families, and the impact that we’re having for people who are able to get these things is, hopefully, it’s long-term generational wealth like it was for my family.”
Ghamsari himself received his Bachelors degree from Stanford University. While a student, he made his money and name in an unconventional way: through online poker. “When I first arrived on campus at Stanford as a freshman, I needed to find a job to afford room and board,” Ghamsari recalls.
However, he did not follow the common path of getting a job at a restaurant or retail store. Instead, “I ultimately threw myself into the world of online poker and started playing professionally,” he explains.
Nevertheless, he eventually ended up leaving his “lucrative” poker career to join Palantir Technologies. There, he was part of the commercial group that solved data challenges. After the 2008 financial market crash, Ghamsari turned his sights to establishing his own company.
Nima Ghamsari introduces new tech to old systems
Though Ghamsari began as an outsider to the finance industry, he learned the trade well. He quickly gained crucial insights into how the process can improve. To that end, Blend seeks to speed and simplify the process. To do this, they have formed partnerships with banks, and act as a middleman between bank and consumer.
“We envision a future where Blend powers one-tap access to the world’s financial resources,” writes Blend’s website. As self-proclaimed technologists, the Blend team focuses strongly on predicting future needs of its customers.
“In a future one-tap world, lenders will harness technology to exceed consumer expectations and provide value earlier in a consumer’s buying journey,” they write. In the end, they hope to mainstream their process. Thus, consumers can have the ability to release their information to their banks in one organized place.
Check out Blend’s official website for more information.
