ClosingLock

In our latest real estate tech entrepreneur interview, we’re speaking with Andy White from ClosingLock.

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Andy White and I’m the CEO and Co-founder of ClosingLock. In 2017 my wife and I discovered how pervasive wire fraud was becoming in real estate, and decided to create a secure but simple alternative to email to protect title companies, lenders, and property buyers/sellers from wire fraud. Before starting ClosingLock, I worked as a computer engineer for various tech companies – from a startup that raised over $100M to the globally-recognized tech giant Samsung. Prior to that, I completed a BS, MS, and PhD in Computer and Electrical Engineering at Auburn University (War eagle!). I’ve published papers in international scientific journals, been award 7 patents in the computer hardware and software industries, and am named as an inventor on 5 other patent applications. My wife makes me include all of that because she’s proud of me, but I’m cringing right now because I don’t take myself too seriously.

What problem does your product/service solve?

ClosingLock’s main service provides a secure and simple alternative to email for title and settlement companies to send and receive wire instructions. Last year alone the US lost $221M to real estate wire fraud which was up 47% from 2018. By partnering with settlement companies, we now protect over $1B each month from wire fraud. Working with our customers, we’ve now grown to add additional features like eSigning, bank account verification, and loan payoff verification services. Ultimately, we want to ensure every property buyer, seller, lender and real estate agent has a secure and simple closing.

What are you most excited about right now?

We’re currently working on integrations with several title company software services that will be a huge leg up for our company. We are already integrated with RamQuest and can’t wait to partner with the industry’s other heavy hitters. Aside from that, I continually see people losing their life savings to wire fraud so I’m constantly excited to see us protect more transactions each month. It’s really exciting to know that each time we on-board a new company, we’re protecting their customer’s life savings from fraud!

What’s next for you?

Growing our marketing outreach and sales team is next on our horizon. We’ve spent so much of the past year focusing on integrations and adding requested features, now I want to really focus on expanding.

What’s a cause you’re passionate about and why?

Community First! Village here in Austin, TX is an extraordinary program, which is why ClosingLock continually donates to their cause. It’s a 51 acre community of micro and RV homes that provides permanent housing and support for chronically homeless people. The goal is to eradicate homelessness in central Texas, and then grow nationally. I’ve always had a soft spot for homeless people and there’s always a fine line between helping and enabling. Community First! Village is the perfect way to provide support, either through money or time, and know that it will help. Lastly, I also deliver meals occasionally for Meal on Wheels which helps support our local seniors so they don’t have to worry about hunger.

Thanks to Andy for sharing his story. If you’d like to connect, find him on LinkedIn here.

We’re constantly looking for great real estate tech entrepreneurs to feature. If that’s you, please read this post — then drop me a line (drew @ geekestatelabs dot com).

Source: geekestateblog.com