Growing up in a family title business, Jim Paolino has been immersed in the world of housing for his whole life. After the Great Recession, he wanted to build a tool that could handle the challenges of post-TRID disclosures and the additional risk lenders face, and so founded LodeStar. More than 10 years later, LodeStar offers over 15 integrations with various LOS, POS and other systems, supports over a million loan files a year, and results in a cure only once in every 17,000 files.

Over the past 12 months, Paolino has established himself as an industry leader in more ways than one. He co-hosts the Lending Leaders podcast with Alayna Gardner, AMP, and regularly shares his personal business philosophy in video format on social media. He interviews 30-plus mortgage professionals every year and creates a space for underrepresented voices in the industry. 

Under Paolino’s leadership, LodeStar weathered a difficult — and at times frustrating — year for the mortgage industry. Things didn’t exactly recover as fast as everyone hoped. Nevertheless, during 2023, LodeStar maintained all employees and contracts, and used only vendors in the United States. Far from contracting due to margin compression and decreases in mortgage origination volume, LodeStar saw steady growth, winning Inc. 5000 for both 2022 and 2023.

Now boldly entering its second decade of operation, LodeStar is a bootstrapped company, which Paolino has maintained without outside investors. Paolino has provided cost-of-living raises to all employees, and has invested in senior leadership, offering access to MBA courses and conferences at LodeStar’s expense.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

Fail fast. Every idea has the potential to either succeed or fail. Great business leaders know how to structure their efforts so that, if an idea fails, the cost in time and money is minimal, and you can quickly move on to a better new idea.

Name:

Jim Paolino

Title:

CEO and Co-Founder

Company Name:

LodeStar