From legacy to leadership: Lone Wolf Technology’s vision for the next era of real estate technology

HousingWire

In this executive sit-down, HousingWire President Diego Sanchez interviews Lone Wolf Technologies CEO Jimmy Kelly and SVP of Strategy Jake Hamilton about the company’s evolving role in real estate technology. From their deep experience in tech and real estate to the strategic direction they’re driving at LoneWolf, both leaders share how their leadership is shaping one of the industry’s most pivotal platforms.   They discuss the growth of Foundation, LoneWolf’s cloud-native platform launched one year ago, and break down the importance of interoperability, even with competitors. Whether it’s debunking the myth that Lone Wolf only serves large enterprises or explaining what “cloud native” really means for brokers and agents, this conversation cuts through the noise and delivers clear takeaways.

Transcript

00:00Live from Colorado Springs, I'm Diego Sanchez, president of Housing Wire, and I've got two

00:13great guests today. I've got Jimmy Kelly, the CEO of Lone Wolf Technologies, and Jake Hamilton,

00:19the SVP of Strategy, also at Lone Wolf. And gentlemen, thanks so much for joining me today.

00:25Thanks for having us.

00:25Thank you. So before we really dive in, I'd love to get a sense for your journey to Lone Wolf.

00:33What brought you there? What excited you about the opportunity? And I'll start with Jimmy.

00:37Sure. No, I appreciate the question. I've been at Lone Wolf for six and a half years,

00:42but I've been in software my entire career. And what drew me to Lone Wolf was really two things,

00:48right? One, it was my first opportunity to sit in the CEO chair and kind of lead vision strategy

00:55culture. And I couldn't give that opportunity up. But more importantly than that, always having a

01:02mission-driven company is something that's exciting. And both my parents are real estate agents. I have

01:08a lot of friends that have their licenses. And while we may not be the people that are working with a

01:15buyer or a seller, we do have a great opportunity to help shape how that relationship grows. And that

01:21is really what drew me to the opportunity at Lone Wolf.

01:24So you really grew up in the industry for both your parents or real estate professionals.

01:28I mean, I didn't really know what they were doing when I was, but yeah, I mean, I love it.

01:32But I'm sure they recruited you for stuff.

01:34I worked part-time in the summer for a Remax agent who was one of the top agents in Houston.

01:43Her name was Penny Holcomb. And I literally used to use an eraser to shine pennies and put them on her

01:50business card in mailers and mail them out to make money when I was a kid. So yeah.

01:55Jake, how about you?

01:56Yeah. So originally came up in a management technology consulting background. I loved that,

02:02loved the variety, loved the challenges, hated that you don't really own the outcome.

02:07It's one thing to advise. It's another thing to roll up your sleeves and get to jump in.

02:12And when the opportunity to join Lone Wolf came along, something I had to take.

02:16My wife has her license as a real estate agent. Parents, my mom actually grew up working for a

02:21home builder as well. So having some of that background, having that passion for the industry,

02:26such a cool, exciting, dynamic space. And the chance to do that and come in and do it with a

02:31company that's being as innovative and kind of forward thinking as Lone Wolf was a no-brainer to join.

02:37I've been here five and a half years now, have loved every step of the journey through the ups and downs of

02:41COVID and the crazy strong market to the market we've dealt with today and just really charting

02:47the strategy through that.

02:48Well, it's really interesting that both of you have real estate in the family.

02:52So it's kind of in your blood.

02:53It touches a lot of people, right?

02:55It really does. It really does. So Jimmy, you recently launched Foundation, which is the real

03:00estate industry cloud. What is and how is Foundation doing a year later?

03:06Yeah. So Foundation is really the culmination of years of strategy, planning and investment. If I

03:14take a step back, when I joined Lone Wolf, we were primarily a back office accounting solution. We had

03:22a small transaction management footprint. Through a series of acquisitions, we've grown our capability

03:30set. Transaction management, CRMs, CMAs, websites, lead generation, digital marketing, kind of an end

03:38to end capability. And while we integrated all of those tools, the end user experience really wasn't

03:48optimal, right? And we wanted to be a vertically integrated cloud for real estate. And so that's

03:55what Foundation is. So through a lot of hard work and a lot of great team members at Lone Wolf, we

04:02built Foundation to be that industry cloud. It is web-based from the beginning. It has got an API layer,

04:10but all of those tools I just mentioned now are integrated fully and have a unique and consistent

04:16user experience. So when you log in, you might traverse from a CRM to a digital marketing to

04:25our transaction management platform, you won't know that you ever left Foundation because it

04:30looks the same, it feels the same. And it's really a wonderful experience. So it's more of an end-to-end

04:35platform. We like to call it the industry cloud instead of the platform because other people use

04:39that term, but yeah, that's what it is. Fair enough. So Jake, there's this perception that Lone Wolf

04:46is for big companies and is focused on accounting. Is that a misperception? Yeah, I would say that's

04:53absolutely a misperception. You know, it's something where we've been intentional throughout

04:56this journey to say, we want to serve the entire real estate industry. We want to serve everyone

05:02from the individual agent to the startup broker, to a midsize broker, to a top 1000, to the franchises,

05:09the MLSs, the ORs, everyone who makes home happen. That's what we're here for. And we believe that

05:15regardless of size and scale, those companies deserve enterprise-grade technology. They deserve

05:21something that's built on a reliable cloud platform, that has the security standards they

05:26need, that has really just something that you should feel confident building your business on.

05:32So in that, we're one of the only companies out there that has a sales team dedicated to those

05:37startup brokerages, those under 10 agent shops, really just focused on saying, hey, we want to serve

05:43you regardless of size. We want to make real estate simple. We want to integrate with the other

05:48technologies, as Jimmy was talking about, that are out there. But it's not just for big players,

05:53it's for anyone and everyone who's on that journey to help people find home.

05:57Let's talk more about that cloud. Jimmy, in our prep session, you talked about like really wanting

06:02to be that industry cloud for real estate, even if that meant cooperating with some competitors.

06:09Could you dive into that a little bit more?

06:10Sure. It may be a different kind of strategy than other players in the space. Frankly, it's different

06:18than where Lone Wolf was when I joined. But I think if our vision is to simplify real estate,

06:25and our job is to help create an efficient environment for an agent to serve their consumer,

06:32I might think that my software is the best software on the planet. I've been accused of being

06:37a rah-rah leader for Lone Wolf. And unapologetically, I am.

06:42The best kind of leader. However, everybody may not have that view. So I'm going to integrate with

06:47competitive products, because to the broker, I can give them that platform, that visibility into their

06:55data, so that they can better run their business, regardless if you're using my CRM or somebody else's.

07:01And so we do integrate with our competitors today, as well as people that help kind of enhance our

07:08solution set.

07:08I'd love your perspective on that same question as the head of strategy, because you've got to think

07:13about these partnerships with competitors. How does that work for you?

07:17Yeah, I think it's one of those things where as we kind of stepped back and looked at what worked

07:21well at Lone Wolf, what hasn't worked well in the past, looked at really what the industry needs.

07:26If our mission is truly to make real estate simple and to empower the agent and the broker with the

07:33tools and technology they need to not worry about their tech stack, we can't say we're a closed

07:38platform. A closed platform puts its foot down and says, this is the only answer on how you run your

07:45business. And that's just not authentic to who we are and who our mission is, not authentic to what

07:49the industry needs. The industry needs all of these different software companies, regardless of who owns

07:55them, regardless of what the company structure looks like, to work together on behalf of the

08:00customers we serve. I wish everyone in the industry had that same perspective, because it would make

08:06it a lot easier. You wouldn't have the conversations with clients where you're like, yeah, we would love

08:11to integrate, but you've got to get them on board with that. We want to be that place where regardless

08:17of what you need, you know that you can come back, connect to the platform, connect to foundation,

08:22connect to the industry cloud, and pull in your transactions, pull in your contacts, pull in the

08:27data you need, and have a consistent, reliable platform, even if there are different pieces you

08:31want to use. So let's wrap with a crystal ball question for you, Jimmy. So where do you see

08:38this industry cloud going? And then in general, where do you see real estate tech going over the

08:44next couple of years? Very interesting, especially being here at the conference. So I'm going to sound a

08:50little bit prisoner of the moment, right? I think we're just scratching the surface in the use cases

08:57of AI, right? So we've got AI enabled within foundation. We've got a lot of things that we're

09:02still working on that I think will be coming out in the future. So I see that being almost a

09:08normalized or commoditized component of any real estate tech going forward is you have to have the

09:13ability to drive efficiency for the end user. But as a whole, where I see real estate going from a

09:22technology perspective, um, is a platform that takes everything from mortgage to title, to insurance,

09:31to transaction, to close. But then beyond that, to the whole home ownership life cycle, all the

09:37servicing around your house once you are the owner, so that that platform can be kind of your service

09:44component of home ownership. That's where I think it's eventually going. And does Lone Wolf want to

09:49play in that entire spectrum? I think we are, uh, at least a component of it, if not someone that's

09:56going to lead in that scenario. Amazing gentlemen. I thought this was a great conversation. Really enjoyed

10:01catching up with both of you. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure. Yeah.

10:07Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

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