In this week’s episode of the Power House podcast, HousingWire President Diego Sanchez is joined by Varun Krishna, CEO of Rocket Companies and Rocket Mortgage, to talk about his background, Rocket’s tech-focused approach to servicing and retention, and its upcoming brand transformation in 2025.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
To kick off the episode, Krishna talks about his background and how it aligns with Rocket’s growth strategy.
Krishna: I grew up in tech, specifically in product, and spent the first half of my career on enterprise software before switching to consumer products. I came to Rocket for a few simple reasons: There’s a huge opportunity to apply technology to modernize the space. I think what the hire should tell folks is that we’re serious about technology. We’re serious about transformation.
Sanchez: In addition to mortgage, you have home search, personal finance and some other businesses under the Rocket Companies’ umbrella. What is your primary focus?
Krishna: The one thing that unifies all of them is that singular focus on homeownership. We want to make it easy for you to be able to buy or sell a home, find a home and stay in the home.
It starts with the origination and servicing flywheel that are connected — not only helping buyers enter the home but also servicing the transaction and developing ongoing, enduring relationships with our clients. It’s about betting big on technology, leveraging artificial intelligence, knowledge engineering, machine learning and more. And it’s about creating a brand that stands for something that’s enduring.
Sanchez: Could you talk more about your partnership with Annaly Capital Management? Also, tell us more about your strategy for servicing.
Krishna: I’d start by just saying that it is an essential part of our strategy. I think that it really comes down to the foundation of having a long-term relationship with your client. When you get good at something, you earn the right to be able to deliver it for others.
In Annaly’s case, they care about retaining their client base. So, when we provide subservicing capabilities for them, we’re actually allowing them to retain their clients at a higher rate. This is a great example of a win-win where we can serve that client base, deliver great experiences, and originate new products and services for them.
Sanchez: What is the latest and greatest with artificial intelligence at Rocket Companies?
Krishna: I’d start with an internal tool that we have called Synopsis. It creates meaning out of unstructured data, understanding things like sentiment, tone, purpose, pain points and objections. We leverage that to create insights to coach and train our bankers, client service experts and our operational team members. This technology is saving us about 800,000 hours annually.
Toward the end the conversation, Krishna sheds light on Rocket Companies’ marketing leadership changes and branding strategies for 2025.
Krishna: We brought in Jonathan Mildenhall. He was a CMO at Airbnb and Coca-Cola. He is one of if not the best marketing leaders on the planet. One of the reasons that he’s here is to spearhead a brand transformation for Rocket. It’s going to start at the Super Bowl. You’ll see a refreshed value proposition and a look that resonates deeper with our clients.
We believe that we are the Apple of homeownership. And you’re going to see our marketing strategy reflect that in a bold, consistent and enduring way.
Listen to the whole episode here.
