BeSmartee Co-Founder & CEO Tim Nguyen: Be a Camel

Tim Nguyen is the CEO & Co-Founder at BeSmartee, a fintech powering the digital transformation of mortgage and commercial lenders. As CEO Tim sets the direction of the company, defines its product vision, defines its culture, leads mergers & acquisition initiatives and stays close to the company’s most strategic clients and partners.

The mortgage business is like being a camel. You go through the harsh unpredictable desert with no guarantees when there’ll be water. And when you find water you drink it up and hoard as much of it as you can because there’s no guarantee you’ll find another watering hole anytime soon.

I had to look this up, but it made me wonder how camels survive like this?

They have specialized kidneys and intestines that minimize water loss.

They store fat in their humps.

They regulate their body temperature to reduce sweating.

They can lose up to 25% of their body weight through dehydration.

They have thick fur and skin that insulates them from intense heat.

They have long nasal passages lined with large surface areas of moist tissue.

So, what can we learn from our friend the camel?

Strategy 1: Conserve Your Resources

If there’s one thing we learned from the post-pandemic boom it should be that you cannot, and I repeat, cannot, throw money at the opportunity (or problem). While you may be flush with cash and talent at the moment, it’s the decisions you make during good times that prepare us for bad times. Be like a camel and fundamentally adapt your DNA. Here are some ideas:

Evaluate all your vendor contracts. You should review your vendor agreements for technology, compliance, marketing, and other services at least once a year to ensure they remain up-to-date and aligned with your business needs. Negotiate better terms, better upside on volume, reduce unnecessary service, or consolidate vendors to minimize overhead costs. It need not be a laborious process. It can be as simple as your finance team providing a list of all vendor spend by department. The list goes to each department leader and they are responsible to justify the spend and make recommendations as to next steps.

Shift to variable cost models. I am personally not a big fan of success-based pricing (especially as it pertains to technology spend) because even with negotiated tier downs, the approach does not scale quickly enough for you to maximize margins during the good times. That said, there is a place for a true variable cost model, such is the case with outsourced processing or licensing. Instead of hiring X number of processors, where the cost to process per closed loan is Y, it may be more advantageous to outsource where the cost to process per closed loan may be 1.1Y. The reason is these are resources you can quickly scale down as the market turns.

Manage employee performance and output. Oftentimes, when the business does well, performance management takes a step back because the bottom line is still good overall. But, every percentage point in margin can be put away in preparation for down markets. Every role has an expected output and that output needs to first be met, and eventually be exceeded in order to scale. Roles (and people) not meeting performance output expectations should be inspected and if not improved, terminated. Scale during good times will carry over into bad times reducing burn and giving you extra cash runway when you need it most.

Strategy 2: Invest In Automation

Clearly the more technology can do for you the less you have to do, and the lower the cost it is to do such a thing. That said, automation often goes wrong when it is either over-automated or automated in isolation; leading to increased costs with no ROI. The trick here is to build a culture of automation. People must stop and say, “Wait, I keep doing the same thing again and again. There’s got to be a better way.” You need a culture of constant improvement. Minutes add up to hours and hours add up to days of lost productivity. Here are some ideas:

Digital mortgage point-of-sale (POS). As we gear up for increased refinance demands, this is a market opportunity where the mortgage POS becomes more important once again. The objective is to intake as many applications with as little work as possible, let alone a better borrower experience. A good mortgage POS should not only drive home more applications with less work, but it should drive other consumer behaviors at a lesser cost, such as verifications, document collection, communication and disclosures.

Pre-population of application data. As you reengage borrowers from the past few years who are likely to benefit from a refinance in the near future, make their experience easier and streamline your loan officers process, thereby reducing the labor required to qualify and approve past consumers.

Verification of assets, and income and employment. Verifying assets, income and employment not only can cause delays to closing; it simply is time consuming. Lenders are starting to use these integrations upstream in the application process to reduce cost downstream. You’ll have to know your conversion ratios well however, to be able to justify the upfront costs associated with such services.

Lights-out initial disclosures. Your ability to intake large volumes of application is limited by your ability to disclose compliantly. Look toward lights-out (automatic) initial disclosures so you do not have to slow down application volume. This can be found inside some mortgage POS’s and LOS’s via robotics. You’d have the further benefit of reducing the headcount of your disclosure desk, to boot.

eClosings, whether hybrid or full RON. Get signatures upfront, or entirely remotely, to reduce costs during this critical final phase of the mortgage process. By reducing paper and making the process digital you reduce labor and costs.

AI-assisted help desk. Day-to-day questions (and especially repeat questions) typically require highly compensated employees to field and answer, thereby placing a burden on their own work output. This particular use case is ideal for AI where you can automate answers, yet still allow your help desk staff to perform their job and ensure quality, thereby increasing the output from your help desk staff. That knowledgeable employee’s efforts can then be redirected to other parts of the business.

Strategy 3: Know Your Data

As the old saying from Peter Drucker goes, “What gets measured gets managed,” and this holds especially true for businesses aiming to thrive in today’s competitive landscape. By focusing on data, you can gain clearer insights into their operations, identify inefficiencies, and make more informed decisions. Measuring key metrics allows you to track progress, optimize processes, and allocate resources effectively. In turn, this leads to greater efficiency, profitability, and long-term sustainability in a constantly evolving market.

Track loan pipeline metrics. It’s one thing to know your app-to-close ratio, or average closing days, but it’s another to dive deeper into the data and understand the bottlenecks that are slowing down your process. Identify specific stages where deals are stalling and tie it to real dollars, whether it’s in document collection, underwriting, or funding, you can take targeted actions to improve efficiency, reduce closing times, and ultimately increase your conversion rates.

Data should add up. Starting at the contributor level, their outcomes should be easily measurable and most importantly, add up to their team/department goals, and those should in turn add up into your corporate goals. Well measured data that does not align up and down your organization will actually create confusion and misalignment within departments and cross-functionally across various departments.

Simplify your data. Like a good game of baseball, the data nerds, if left unchecked, will come up with all sorts of ratios and trends. However there is such a thing as too much data. Data should be simple, direct and obviously actionable. If you do not have a regular KPI dashboard, start there, and keep it simple to start. The key is to build data-driven habits, which will eventually evolve into more detailed drill-down reporting.

Monitor delinquency rates and loan quality. Regularly assess loan performance by tracking delinquency rates, default rates, and overall loan quality metrics. This helps you evaluate underwriting effectiveness, adjust risk tolerance, and implement stricter credit guidelines if needed.

Benchmark against industry standards. Compare your company’s performance metrics (such as interest rates, processing times, closing costs and profitability) against industry averages. This ensures you remain competitive and can adjust your strategies to meet or exceed market expectations.

Measure loan officer effectiveness. Notice I didn’t say “performance,” such as number of loans closed or average loan size. Effectiveness gets to the heart of profitability. An originator closing six loans per month in a distributed retail channel may actually be your least profitable originator via too many pricing concessions, or low pull-through-rates that add burden to your operational processes. You may find that your originator closing two loans a month is actually the one contributing the most to your bottom line.

Strategy 4: Extreme Focus

A camel knows who it is and knows no other way to behave. Similarly, in business, extreme focus means staying true to your core strengths and priorities, even when distractions or opportunities for quick wins arise. It’s about understanding what you do best and doubling down on it, while avoiding the temptation to chase every trend or stretch your resources too thin. Just like a camel conserves its energy for the long haul, businesses with a clear, focused strategy allocate their resources to the areas that drive the most value.

Define your core competencies. Identify the key strengths of your business that differentiate you from competitors, whether it’s exceptional customer service, fast loan processing, or deep market expertise. This in turn helps you focus and unlock what you are naturally the best at.

Define your target market. While millions of consumers may need a mortgage, there’s only a subset of those who you can actually serve very well. These customers represent the “box” that your products, technology, people and philosophy serve the best. Take the time to define your buyer personas and align your strategies and tactics around those who you can win with the highest level of execution and ease.

Learn how to say “no”. Avoid chasing new market trends or product opportunities. Prioritize initiatives that align with your long-term strategies and that directly utilizes your organizations natural core competencies. It’s easy to say yes, but saying no requires discipline, clarity, and a deep understanding of your long-term goals. Saying no allows you to preserve resources, avoid distractions, and stay committed to your vision, even when tempting alternatives arise.

Conclusion: Think Like a Camel

Like a camel in the desert, your business’s survival hinges on resilience, resourcefulness, and focus. The mortgage market is unpredictable, and only those who adapt will thrive. Conserve resources during good times, invest in automation wisely, and leverage your data for smarter decisions. Stay laser-focused on your strengths and know when to say no to distractions. By thinking long-term and executing with discipline, you can navigate the ups and downs of the market just like a camel endures the harsh desert.

(Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect policies of the Mortgage Bankers Association, nor do they connote an MBA endorsement of a specific company, product or service. MBA NewsLink welcomes your submissions. Inquiries can be sent to Editor Michael Tucker or Editorial Manager Anneliese Mahoney.)