This week on Power House, Diego sits down with Varun Krishna, the CEO of Rocket Companies. Prior to joining Rocket in 2023, Varun came up on the personal finance and enterprise software side of the tech space, with roles at Intuit and Paypal.
Rocket has a growth plan to make home ownership easier, enjoyable, and sustainable for homeowners. Diego and Varun talk about how Rocket aims to achieve that by using AI tools to optimize the origination-servicing flywheel and by building long–term relationships with clients, not just one-time transactions. They also talk about recent hires to Rocket, their 2025 brand transformation plan, and whats next in-store for the company.
Here's what you'll learn:
Buying a home is an emotional process that should be simplified.
Building long-term relationships, not just transactions, with clients is essential for success.
AI is being leveraged at many points during the homebuying process to enhance operational efficiency and customer service.
Rocket has an 85% recapture rate due in part to its customer-centric approach.
The TPO channel is a significant priority for Rocket's growth strategy.
Rocket’s new marketing strategy aims to position Rocket as the 'Apple of homeownership.'
Related to this episode:
Rocket Companies | HousingWire
Rocket Mortgage Company News and Updates | HousingWire
How Rocket Mortgage plans to win in 2025 | HousingWire
Varun Krishna| LinkedIn
Rocket Companies
HousingWire | YouTube
Enjoy the episode!
The Power House podcast brings the biggest names in housing to answer hard-hitting questions about industry trends, operational and growth strategy, and leadership. Join HousingWire president Diego Sanchez every Thursday morning for candid conversations with industry leaders to learn how they’re differentiating themselves from the competition. Hosted and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.
Rocket has a growth plan to make home ownership easier, enjoyable, and sustainable for homeowners. Diego and Varun talk about how Rocket aims to achieve that by using AI tools to optimize the origination-servicing flywheel and by building long–term relationships with clients, not just one-time transactions. They also talk about recent hires to Rocket, their 2025 brand transformation plan, and whats next in-store for the company.
Here's what you'll learn:
Buying a home is an emotional process that should be simplified.
Building long-term relationships, not just transactions, with clients is essential for success.
AI is being leveraged at many points during the homebuying process to enhance operational efficiency and customer service.
Rocket has an 85% recapture rate due in part to its customer-centric approach.
The TPO channel is a significant priority for Rocket's growth strategy.
Rocket’s new marketing strategy aims to position Rocket as the 'Apple of homeownership.'
Related to this episode:
Rocket Companies | HousingWire
Rocket Mortgage Company News and Updates | HousingWire
How Rocket Mortgage plans to win in 2025 | HousingWire
Varun Krishna| LinkedIn
Rocket Companies
HousingWire | YouTube
Enjoy the episode!
The Power House podcast brings the biggest names in housing to answer hard-hitting questions about industry trends, operational and growth strategy, and leadership. Join HousingWire president Diego Sanchez every Thursday morning for candid conversations with industry leaders to learn how they’re differentiating themselves from the competition. Hosted and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.
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NewsTranscript
00:00We don't just want to originate a purchase or a refinance.
00:03We want to have an ongoing, continuous relationships
00:07with our clients, all of our clients, for life.
00:10That is a big part of our brand.
00:13That's a big part of our value proposition.
00:15And that continuity is really important.
00:24Welcome to Powerhouse,
00:25where we interview the biggest names in housing
00:28and ask them about their strategy for growth.
00:31I'm Diego Sanchez, president of HousingWire.
00:34My guest today is Varun Krishna,
00:36CEO of Rocket Companies and a true powerhouse.
00:40Varun, it's so great to have you on the show.
00:42Diego, thanks for having me, my friend.
00:44I hear great things about this podcast,
00:46so I appreciate the opportunity.
00:49Yeah, well, let's get to it and have a great conversation.
00:52Looking at your background,
00:54you came up on the tech side of personal finance
00:58with brands like PayPal and Intuit,
01:01pretty well-known brands.
01:03What does your hire at Rocket Companies
01:06tell us about Rocket's strategy for growth?
01:09Thank you for the question.
01:10You know, I grew up in tech and specifically in product.
01:15Spent kind of the first half of my career
01:17on enterprise software
01:19and then switched over to consumer products,
01:20which I found more fun.
01:23And, you know, I came to Rocket for a few simple reasons.
01:26I just think there's a huge opportunity
01:28to apply technology to modernize the space.
01:32You know, I saw a company that has a restless ambition
01:35that's an innovator and a disruptor
01:37and has been for many years.
01:40And, you know, the culture of this place is just amazing.
01:43And so, you know, I think what the hire
01:46probably should tell folks
01:48is that we're serious about technology.
01:50We're serious about transformation.
01:52We think we have a big role to play
01:53in the future of home ownership.
01:55And we're committed to that.
01:58I will just say, you know,
01:59having worked at many different companies
02:01and FinTech companies, you know,
02:02over the course of my career,
02:04Rocket is a very special place.
02:06And I think it goes back to the legacy of our founder
02:08and chairman, Dan Gilbert,
02:11who has just created a culture
02:12that I think really represents strength
02:15and endurance and grit.
02:17And I saw that just being a huge place
02:22to have impact and I'm very happy to be here
02:24and excited for what's ahead.
02:27I've done a couple of mortgages in my life
02:29and I can't say that they were fun.
02:31Should they be more fun for the consumer?
02:34Yes, absolutely.
02:36You know, I think, you know,
02:38one of the things that I learned
02:40from the TurboTax world and into it
02:42and just being in FinTech and product in general
02:44is that these products and services
02:47are emotional in nature.
02:48You know, buying a home is one of the biggest decisions
02:52that the average consumer will ever make.
02:53And it's one of the most important decisions, right?
02:55It's the bedrock of the American dream.
02:57It's such an important thing.
03:00Housing is 20% of the GDP, right?
03:02Like it's a very important part
03:05of the day-to-day life of a person.
03:08And the experience of buying a home
03:12or selling a home or financing a home
03:14is painful today, right?
03:15Like you've got to find documents,
03:17you've got to go through this wait and wonder phase.
03:21You know, you lack certainty, confidence,
03:23value in the transaction.
03:25And so I think absolutely it should be easier.
03:29It should be more confidence inspiring.
03:31It should be something that makes you feel empowered
03:36because the outcome of it is something that creates value,
03:40long-term value, generational value.
03:41And so absolutely I think there are things
03:45that we can do to make the process easier,
03:47simpler, more frictionless, more confidence inspiring.
03:51And I absolutely think, you know, Rocket stands for that.
03:55That's a big part of who we are
03:56and how we built our brand is to really represent
04:00some of those value propositions.
04:02So in addition to mortgage,
04:04you have home search, personal finance,
04:08some other companies under the Rocket Company's umbrella.
04:12However, even the biggest companies
04:15tend to prioritize one business.
04:18For Apple, it's devices, for Google, it's search.
04:22What is your primary focus at Rocket Companies?
04:26You know, if I were to think of just one word
04:28to describe our focus,
04:30the word that comes to mind is home ownership.
04:34Everything to do with the process
04:36of making home ownership safe, sustainable, and enduring.
04:41And when you think about the different focus areas
04:44or the businesses that we have,
04:45you know, the one thing that unifies all of them
04:48is that singular focus on home ownership.
04:51We wanna make it easy for you to be able to buy
04:53or sell a home, find a home, stay in the home.
04:57And a lot of that comes down to things like,
05:00you know, your financial sustainability.
05:02It comes down to making the search process easier,
05:05making the financing process simple,
05:09being able to take equity out of your home,
05:11cash out refi, second liens, right?
05:14And so all of our focus is around the entirety
05:17of making home ownership safe and sustainable.
05:20And there are a few things that I would say
05:22we really sort of double down on
05:24when it comes to enabling that.
05:25And we kind of call that our super stack.
05:27You know, it starts with having the origination
05:31and the servicing flywheel that are connected to each other,
05:34not just helping you be in the home,
05:35but also servicing the transaction
05:38and making sure that we have kind of an ongoing,
05:40enduring relationship with our clients.
05:44It goes down to just having multi-channel experiences
05:46of buying and selling a home, you know,
05:48whether it's engaging with realtors, brokers,
05:50or working directly with us,
05:52we want to meet clients where they are.
05:54It's about betting big on technology, you know,
05:57leveraging artificial intelligence,
05:59knowledge engineering, machine learning,
06:03just some of the capabilities that are out there
06:05to just make the process easier.
06:08And then creating a brand that is, you know,
06:11that stands on the same shoulders
06:14as some of the big brands that you referenced,
06:15you know, the Apples of the world, the Nikes of the world,
06:18but a brand that stands for something that's enduring,
06:20right, like we like to say internally
06:22that we make 30-year bets on clients
06:25who make 30-year bets on themselves.
06:27So in one word, I would say our focus
06:29is on the entirety of home ownership, you know,
06:32that's enabled by our super stack.
06:34And that is where we're laser focused.
06:38I love that you brought up 30-year bets and a flywheel
06:43because home ownership does have a life cycle
06:47and it matches the customer life cycle in mortgage.
06:51And it sounds like you want to play
06:54at all the different points
06:55in that customer life cycle of home ownership.
06:59That's correct.
06:59And, you know, I think it's important just to remember
07:03that, you know, your relationship with a client
07:05is not transactional, it is a relationship.
07:08It's a long-term relationship.
07:11We don't just want to originate, you know,
07:13a purchase or a refinance.
07:14We want to have an ongoing continuous relationships
07:18with our clients, all of our clients for life.
07:21That is, you know, a big part of our brand.
07:23That's a big part of our value proposition.
07:26And that continuity is really important.
07:28You know, when you think about things like servicing,
07:30for example, you know, a lot of our focus
07:32on having an awesome servicing experience,
07:34it's understanding things like natural disasters, right?
07:38It's understanding things like forbearance, right?
07:42Understanding like when to have forgiveness
07:44in our payment processes.
07:45And so the relationship for us is enduring.
07:48I think we think that's why clients trust us
07:51is because they know that we're there for them
07:53through thick and thin,
07:54through the inevitable ups and downs that come with life.
07:58And it's far more than a transaction to us.
08:00It's a relationship.
08:02I like that you brought up servicing
08:05as a really important touch point.
08:08And I think it's probably an area
08:10where the industry overall has come up short.
08:13I don't think many homeowners like their servicer
08:17for a variety of reasons.
08:19And I think one of the biggest stories
08:21in mortgage for 2025 will be the servicers
08:27trying to improve that customer experience
08:29and then using technology to originate from their book.
08:33Could you talk more about,
08:35you have a partnership with Annaly Capital
08:38and have done some other work
08:39to grow the size of your servicing book
08:41over the past couple of years.
08:45Tell us more about your strategy for servicing.
08:48You know, I'd start by just saying
08:49that it is an essential part of our strategy.
08:52And I think that it really comes down to the foundation
08:56of having a long-term relationship with your client.
08:59As you move from creating or originating a transaction,
09:03you become a part of that long-term relationship
09:07and that takes place through servicing.
09:09And there's a reason why Rocky Mortgage
09:11wins the JD Power Award for excellence in servicing
09:15over and over and over again.
09:17That's because we care about our clients.
09:21Laquanda Sain is our leader on the servicing business
09:25and she's great at what she does.
09:27And she's great at what she does.
09:29In fact, her team has a mantra
09:31that we call love, protect, amaze.
09:34And that's like a religion in terms of how we think
09:37about the experience that we wanna deliver
09:38for our clients, right?
09:40We have everything from, you know,
09:42helping clients with natural disasters
09:44to understanding when they're in situations
09:46where we need to care for them.
09:49And we focus on the details of those interactions.
09:53And the great thing about that is, you know,
09:55when you get good at something,
09:56you earn the right to be able to deliver it for others.
09:59And that's an example of where the relationship
10:01with Annalie has been something that we're very proud of
10:05and would like to do more of.
10:07You know, we have, in Annalie's case, you know,
10:10what they care about is the retention of their client base.
10:15And so when we provide subservicing capabilities for them,
10:19we're actually allowing them to retain their clients
10:22at a higher rate.
10:23And there's a reason why, you know,
10:24Rocket has 85% recapture rate
10:26is because we deliver outstanding experience.
10:29You know, it's responsive, it's timely,
10:31it's technology-driven, it's personalized, it's empathetic.
10:35And that speaks to the culture of what we have built
10:38in our servicing business.
10:39And so this is a great example of a win-win
10:42where, you know, we can serve that client base,
10:46we can deliver great experiences,
10:47we can originate new products and services for them.
10:51And as they transact with Rocket,
10:53they become a stronger part of Annalie's servicing book.
10:56And so shout out to David Finkelstein of Annalie.
11:00You know, I think we really appreciate the partnership
11:03and it's just an example of where we're taking
11:05the capabilities of our platform
11:07and now extending that to partners in the ecosystem as well.
11:13So 85% recapture rate, that number really stands out to me
11:18and it's way, way higher than the industry average.
11:22How do you think you achieve that?
11:26I wish it was one thing that I could say that it is,
11:28but it's actually a lot of things.
11:29You know, I think a big part of it is details, right?
11:33It's that making sure that every client,
11:36we have a data-driven,
11:37highly personalized relationship with them.
11:40It's making sure that they know
11:42that being part of the Rocket experience is special.
11:44It means they get personalized email,
11:46it means that they could get folks on the phone
11:48when they need, it means that they can interact
11:50with capabilities like chat.
11:53It's just making sure that, you know,
11:55I go back to the mantra of love, protect, amaze.
11:58Like, I just think that that's something that is,
12:01it's more than a mantra, I would say.
12:02It's just kind of like a higher calling
12:04of how we operate our business with our clients.
12:07We have a philosophy that says, you know,
12:09every client, every time, no exceptions, no excuses.
12:12You know, we look through cases every single week.
12:15We look through places where we can do better.
12:18We're relentlessly optimizing the experiences
12:20that we deliver for our clients.
12:22And, you know, ultimately I think it just comes down
12:24to commitment, focus, and dedication.
12:27And again, shout out to Laquanda
12:29who leads our servicing business,
12:31but, you know, the testament of the capability
12:33is oftentimes a testament to the leadership.
12:36And we have a great team.
12:37They're very good at what they do.
12:39They're fiercely passionate about our clients
12:42and they focus on those inches every single day.
12:45And it is just a huge source of pride for us.
12:48And it's where we think that servicing business
12:51is a, you know, a core part of our strategy
12:53to sort of connect with our origination business.
12:56Because as we serve our clients,
12:57we sort of earn the right to do more business with them.
13:01You gave a presentation that was mostly focused
13:04on artificial intelligence at Housing Wires the Gathering,
13:07which I think really set the event abuzz
13:10and eventually actually led us to creating
13:13our own one day summit focused on AI.
13:16What is the latest and greatest
13:19with artificial intelligence at Rocket Companies?
13:23Yeah, I mean, this is,
13:25AI in some ways is the air we breathe.
13:28It is a real technology.
13:30There's no hype around it.
13:31And I think we're in the earliest stages.
13:33So, you know, I just say what a time
13:36to be innovating in the home ownership,
13:38mortgage and tech space,
13:39leveraging this amazing capability.
13:41And so, you know, I'll just give you a couple of examples
13:44of new tools that we have really seen start to explode
13:49internally and externally.
13:50You know, I'd start with a tool internally
13:53that we have called Synopsys.
13:55And, you know, one of the things
13:56that attracted me to Rocket was just the sheer mass
13:59of the data that we produce and create as a company.
14:03And, you know, we have 65 million call logs,
14:06we're generating 300,000 transcripts a week,
14:08you know, a million calls a week, right?
14:10And that is a data scientist or an AI sort of a fan's dream,
14:18right, is to be able to play with large datasets,
14:21large machining models.
14:23And so Synopsys is an incredible tool
14:27because what it does is it creates meaning
14:29out of that unstructured data.
14:31It understands things like sentiment, tone,
14:36purpose, pain points, objections.
14:38And what we do is we're able to kind of leverage that
14:42to create insights and actually coach and train our bankers,
14:46our client service experts,
14:49and our operational team members to do better.
14:51And so what AI does is it just creates
14:53a very natural feedback loop that's data-driven,
14:56working on a large dataset that allows us
14:59to become more efficient, more personalized, more productive.
15:03And so, you know, to just give you some data points,
15:07this technology is saving us about 800,000 hours.
15:11And again, a year.
15:12And that is, you know, that's a great number,
15:15but the thing that I get excited about
15:17is that allows our team members to do what?
15:19To serve more clients, right?
15:21To be able to do a better job,
15:22to be able to take the experiences and scale them
15:25and have a broader impact on home ownership.
15:27You know, two other examples I would share with you,
15:30you know, we've implemented AI into our chat experiences.
15:35And, you know, as you probably, you know, know,
15:38as most of our listeners, you know,
15:39chat is a very sort of emerging modality.
15:43It used to be like, you know, you get on the phone,
15:45you have these conversations,
15:46but the beauty of chat is that it's asynchronous.
15:49You know, you can respond when you respond.
15:51It's available 24 seven.
15:53It can communicate in different languages
15:55with tone, with context.
15:57And so we've now extended generative AI capabilities
16:00to our chat.
16:02And what that means is, you know,
16:03a banker or a client service specialist
16:06can speak with multiple clients at the same time
16:09and still deliver exceptional service.
16:12And so chat has three times the conversion
16:16compared to sort of the non-chat interactions.
16:19The experience has significantly increased
16:22from, you know, quarter over quarter.
16:24You know, we've had almost double the number of clients
16:27that are using it.
16:28We have hundreds and hundreds of thousands of chats.
16:31And generative AI is great
16:33because it basically provides that personalization
16:36that our experts are looking for
16:37so that they can interact with more clients
16:40with a higher quality service and higher conversion.
16:43And then maybe one more example I'd share with you as well,
16:46which I'm really excited about
16:47is a technology internally that we call Navigator.
16:50And Navigator is essentially a low-code, no-code AI platform
16:54that we've built internally for our team members.
16:57And so you can use Navigator internally.
16:59We have thousands of team members that have adopted this
17:01and they're generating hundreds of thousands
17:03of LLM queries already.
17:05And this is a layer that we've built
17:07on top of integrations that we have
17:09with Anthropic, OpenAI, and a couple of the other platforms
17:12like Amazon, AWS, Bedrock.
17:15And what this does is it lets you have
17:17incredibly powerful information at your fingertips
17:20without being a technologist.
17:22So you can say, for example,
17:24hey, Navigator, you know, analyze these calls
17:27with a particular client and write for me,
17:30the three best ways to text this client
17:33to create confidence.
17:34Or analyze these thousand calls and give me
17:37the main objection that a client is facing.
17:41Or help me understand how we're doing
17:42in a particular state or geography
17:45when dealing with a particular type
17:47of mortgage offering or product.
17:49And so what it does is it takes a vast amount of data
17:53and it uses simple prompt engineering
17:55to allow anyone to become an expert.
17:58And so three examples of just some of the latest
18:01and greatest in AI.
18:03And I just think, Diego, we're just scratching the surface.
18:06You know, I think this technology will get better
18:08and better and better.
18:10And, you know, the nice thing about Rocket
18:12is we have so much data to play with
18:14and that data set creates a bit of a natural playground
18:19for us to be able to innovate.
18:20And frankly, you know, it's one of the biggest reasons
18:23that I wanted to come to Rocket
18:25and to be a part of that transformation.
18:27So I'm hearing sentiment analysis,
18:30better chat experiences, saving a lot of time,
18:34and also enabling your internal team to be more focused
18:38and do their work better on a day-to-day basis.
18:43How does that translate into Rocket
18:46actually taking market share in mortgage in 2025 and 2026?
18:52Yeah, you know, I think, first off, you know,
18:55I think growing market share profitably
18:57is kind of our North Star metric.
18:58And so that's what we look to every day.
19:02And that's what we focus on in terms of growth.
19:04And ultimately, I think, you know,
19:06the way you focus on share growth
19:08is just by being able to serve more clients
19:11more efficiently with higher degrees of quality,
19:13personalization, and experience.
19:16And when you think about a direct example of that,
19:21you know, it would be the origination servicing flywheel.
19:25How do you take, you know, your service clients
19:28who have a great experience with Rocket,
19:30leverage AI capabilities like CRM, personalization,
19:33targeting, predictive analytics,
19:35and to be able to understand what mindset a client is in,
19:39when they're likely to think about another transaction,
19:42or vice versa, when they're not ready
19:45to think about another transaction.
19:46And so I think what AI really equips us with
19:49is the ability to have a really, I would say,
19:54specific and quantifiable understanding
19:57of the intent that the consumers has
20:00around something as important as home ownership, right?
20:03Like if you're in a purchase transaction,
20:05it might take you months to find a home.
20:07You know, you might, if you have a life event, right,
20:09it may spur you to buy a new home.
20:12And so what AI does is it distills
20:16these sort of insights around the consumer
20:18into models and algorithms
20:21that allow us to have a holistic view of intent.
20:26And we can leverage that intent
20:27to create better targeting, better personalization,
20:30and ultimately create a great experience.
20:34And if we do a good job with that, our share will grow,
20:36and the rest will sort of take care of itself.
20:38But the capability, what it does is it just,
20:41I think it just creates understanding.
20:43And understanding is really important in this space
20:45because there's a lot of signals,
20:47but there's also a lot of noise.
20:49And if you can distill signal from noise,
20:53that's what AI is really good at,
20:55and that's how we're gonna leverage it
20:56to grow our share in purchase and in refinance.
20:59It's really interesting.
21:01So you recently hired Dan Sigorka
21:04as general manager of your TPO channel.
21:07Should that indicate to me that TPO
21:11is a big priority for Rocket in 2025?
21:15Yes, it should.
21:17Dan is an incredible leader.
21:19We're very lucky to have him.
21:21And it's actually funny,
21:22I was just talking with him a couple of days ago,
21:25and we were talking about just how excited he is
21:28to be at Rocket, but also the potential
21:31for the TPO business.
21:34I would say that we are incredibly passionate
21:37about mortgage brokers,
21:38and there's a reason why we call them broker partners
21:40is because they are in it with us,
21:42and we think about them as a community,
21:44and we think about them as family.
21:46And there's a few things that I would share
21:48in terms of our strategic focus areas.
21:50And the first is we are a technology company,
21:53always have been, always will be,
21:55especially into the future.
21:57And one of the things that we're excited about
21:59is extending the capabilities of our origination platform,
22:02our servicing platform, CRM capabilities,
22:06notification, mobile, personalization,
22:09and bringing that innovation to our mortgage brokers.
22:12And so being able to equip them with technology,
22:16with tools, is one critical element of our strategy.
22:20And Dan is super excited, and just watch out
22:22because we have some serious innovation
22:24coming to the market next year.
22:26The second thing that I would say
22:28is when you really think about your client,
22:32and the client in this case is a broker,
22:34the most important thing is to understand
22:37their biggest problems, right?
22:39And one of the things that we do
22:40is we just spend a lot of time with our broker partners,
22:43and ask them, how can we serve you better?
22:44And what we hear from them is,
22:46they want competitive pricing,
22:48they wanna be able to have fast turn times,
22:50they want top tier service,
22:52and ultimately they want the power of choice.
22:55And those pillars are the foundation
22:58upon which sets our broker strategy.
23:02And we are doubling down here,
23:05we've increased our resourcing,
23:07we have an increased focus on marketing,
23:10and our broker partners are critical
23:13to our growth, especially in purchase.
23:15They're a vital part of the community,
23:17and they're a significant sort of value proposition for us.
23:20And so yes, TPO and broker in general
23:25is a very big part of the future of Rocket,
23:28and we're very committed to that community
23:30for the long term.
23:32Yeah, on behalf of the large audience of mortgage brokers
23:35that I think read and interact with HousingWire
23:39on a daily basis, I just wanna say,
23:41I'm really excited to hear that.
23:42I think that there's a lot of opportunity
23:44in that channel for growth,
23:47and it's great to see Rocket invest in this way.
23:54We take this very seriously,
23:55we've had a lot of conversations around this
23:57being a building block for our growth strategy.
24:01And I also just have had the chance to shadow
24:04with our mortgage brokers,
24:05and they're a noble, passionate, skilled,
24:09vital part of the industry.
24:12And the more we can do to empower them,
24:14to enhance them with choice, flexibility,
24:17competitive pricing, turn times, technology,
24:21we're in it to win it with them.
24:24So wrapping up with this question,
24:30Rocket Mortgage's longtime CMO, Casey Herbis,
24:34recently left for BetMGM, sounds like a great role,
24:39but I imagine that leaves a little bit of a gap
24:43in terms of marketing at Rocket.
24:46What does marketing leadership and branding look like
24:51for Rocket Mortgage and Rocket overall in 2025?
24:55Yeah, great question.
24:57Thank you for that.
24:58I wanna start out by just giving Casey
25:00a little bit of a shout out,
25:01because he is a great human.
25:04We actually play pickleball once a week,
25:06so shout out to Casey.
25:08And we are good friends,
25:10and we're always gonna have a close connection.
25:14I also wanna thank Casey,
25:15because I think thanks to his legacy,
25:17we have a great foundation to build upon.
25:20The Rocket Mortgage Classic,
25:21our Super Bowl integrations, brand partnerships,
25:24these are all the great things
25:25that I think he's created a foundation.
25:28But we've also brought in a new CMO.
25:30We brought in Jonathan Mildenhall.
25:32He was a CMO at Airbnb, Coca-Cola.
25:37He is one of, if not the best marketing leader
25:42on the planet.
25:43And one of the reasons that he's here
25:46is to really spearhead and lead
25:49a brand transformation for Rocket.
25:51And we've talked a little bit about this
25:53with our investors, and I wish I could share more,
25:55but maybe I can just leave you
25:56with a bit of a sneak preview,
25:58is that I think the Rocket brand
26:00has significant potential to grow
26:03in terms of aided and unaided awareness,
26:05in terms of creating a holistic value proposition,
26:10in terms of reaching deep into the attitudes,
26:13the segments, the locality that is home ownership.
26:17And we're about to restage our brand in a massive way.
26:21It's gonna start at the Super Bowl.
26:24You'll see a refreshed value proposition.
26:25You'll see a look and feel that resonates deeper
26:29with our clients.
26:30And a lot of that is thanks to Jonathan and his leadership.
26:34And so a big shout out to Casey
26:37for creating sort of the foundation,
26:39but the next chapter for Rocket
26:41from a marketing perspective is very exciting.
26:44And we're gonna be out there
26:46in the biggest way that we've ever been.
26:48And it's gonna start in January.
26:49It's gonna extend into the Super Bowl,
26:51and then it will endure.
26:53We believe that we are the apple of home ownership,
26:56and you're gonna see our marketing strategy
26:59reflect that in a bold, consistent, enduring way
27:04that I've seen some of the work and it is exceptional.
27:08And I'm very excited about it.
27:11Again, big shout out to Jonathan, our CMO,
27:13for sort of spearheading that transformation
27:15in the short time that he's been here.
27:17But also, big shout out to Casey for laying that foundation.
27:21And we're excited for that next chapter.
27:24This is exciting stuff that's happening.
27:27Sounds like pretty soon.
27:28It is.
27:29In fact, we're all cylinders ahead.
27:33I've had the chance to look at some of the production work,
27:36the new look and feel, some of the redesign.
27:39As some folks are aware,
27:40we are the proud new owners of rocket.com.
27:44That is, again, a part of our go-to-market strategy.
27:47And more to come.
27:48We're putting the finishing touches
27:49on our go-to-market plan.
27:51And it's gonna be a big year for us.
27:55I'm very proud of the team, very proud of the execution.
27:58A lot of hard work, a lot of sleepless nights,
28:01but the work is outstanding.
28:04Varun, I just wanna thank you so much
28:06for joining me on Powerhouse today.
28:08I thought this was a great conversation.
28:10I love where we ended.
28:12That's really exciting for you and for Rocket.
28:15Appreciate you very much.
28:17My pleasure, Diego.
28:17Thanks for having me.
28:18I hope to be on here again soon.
28:20♪♪