How an ex-semipro poker player bet big and won the $4.3 trillion mortgage market: Fintech50
, including crypto exchange Coinbase and Opendoor Technologies, which buys homes quickly for cash, have since gone public. Counting Blend, at least four current members of the Fintech 50 are considering listing on the public markets.
That wasn’t the only way the ambitious Ghamsari kept busy before graduating from high school first in his class. He worked at McDonald’s, Starbucks and Circuit City, rebuilt Dell computers and taught himself to code. At Stanford, a need-based scholarship helped cover tuition, but Ghamsari tried his hand at online poker to help pay for living expenses. Soon, when he wasn’t studying, he was playing day and night, with his winnings extending well into the six figures.
With little regard for the brilliant undergraduate’s precious time, campus police impounded Ghamsari’s forbidden golf cart. “It was totally obnoxious for me to have, in retrospect,’’ he concedes. No matter. By the time he graduated with a computer science degree in 2008, he had bought an Aston Martin and been recruited by the ultra-secretive big-data startup Palantir Technologies, originally funded by the CIA’s venture arm.
At first, venture capitalists, focused on fast, disruptive growth, were skeptical of Blend’s approach. Winning business from stodgy banks was uncertain, they warned, and there were only so many banks to sell to. “Venture Blend’s big break, however, came courtesy of a competitor. In 2015, Dan Gilbert, the Quicken Loans billionaire, launched Rocket Mortgage, which cut mortgage closing times from over 40 days to just a month—similar to what Blend was offering. “Every bank’s board woke up and said, ‘Oh, my God, we need to find a solution to compete with this, because if we don’t, we’re going to lose volume to Rocket.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
How An Ex-Semipro Poker Player Bet Big And Won The $4.3 Trillion Mortgage MarketNima Ghamsari and his Blend Labs weaned the nation’s biggest mortgage lenders off of paper—and just in time to prevent a pandemic meltdown.
Read more »
How An Ex-Semipro Poker Player Bet Big And Won The $4.3 Trillion Mortgage MarketNima Ghamsari and his Blend Labs weaned the nation’s biggest mortgage lenders off of paper—and just in time to prevent a pandemic meltdown.
Read more »
AMC, Other Meme Stocks Turn Options Market Upside DownThe meteoric rally in meme stocks such as AMC and GameStop has unleashed a burst of options trading, upending traditional dynamics in the market for stock bets.
Read more »
Mexico fan who hit USMNT's Gio Reyna with bottle faces criminal chargesReyna was hit in the head by a soft-drink bottle on Sunday as the U.S. player celebrated Christian Pulisic's winning goal.
Read more »
U.S. Fed's reverse repo volume surges to record half a trillion dollarsThe Federal Reserve's reverse repurchase window on Wednesday took in $503 billion in cash, hitting a record peak for a third consecutive session, as financial institutions flush with liquidity flocked to the Fed facility to park their cash and secure Treasury collateral.
Read more »
What's on TV Wednesday: 'BET Presents The Encore'; 2021 CMT Music AwardsWhat to watch Wednesday, June 9: 'BET Presents The Encore'; 2021 CMT Music Awards; 'Queen of the South' finale on USA
Read more »