From Defense to Dara: How Geno Paluso is Leading One of Servicing’s Most Transformative Innovations

Sagent is comprised of innovators and trailblazers working relentlessly to deliver positive outcomes to the industry, and at the helm of that is our CEO, Geno Paluso. In an exclusive interview with HousingWire’s Diego Sanchez, Geno talked about all things servicing, tech, and – you guessed it – Dara.  

Diego kicked off the conversation by asking Geno how Dara is revolutionizing today’s outdated servicing processes. Geno addressed how the current systems and platforms are failing to meet today’s customers’ expectations – which includes a modernized experience. Dara is working to transform the way servicing is done and bring forth the resources to bring innovation to the entire industry. Today’s customers expect real-time updates access to fast information, and the modern market is failing to provide that. As Geno said: 

If you look at the technology for decades, it’s old code and mainframe systems… Getting it into real-time – getting it into the 21^st century, so to speak – that’s what we’re really focused on. (1:34-2:48) 

Dara’s first-of-its-kind, end-to-end system is the ultimate combination of new and existing servicing systems. Its unique abilities set it apart from today’s industry, as Geno explained: 

We built Dara from scratch using some of the best technology that was already out there and learning from the platforms we’re already running. (2:55-3:12) 

As the conversation went further, Geno emphasized how it isn’t only what Dara is that sets it apart, but also how it’s been created. Dara is a platform made for servicers, by servicers. The entire creation of Dara has been informed by industry experts, ensuring it meets servicers’ needs and eliminates frequent pain points. On this note, Geno said, 

A lot of systems over time have been developed by engineers and developers, and then handed to the experts to say, ‘Here, what do you think about this?’… We’ve taken a different approach. We have experts – people with decades of experience in servicing – that came in and developed the requirements and sat next to the developers and engineers to develop Dara. (3:39-4:02) 

Geno then dove into Dara’s six root components –  Core, Consumer, AI Docs, Default, Movement, and Data – to show how Dara is meeting every need of servicers and consumers alike. Five of the six modules are currently available, and the full suite of Dara products will be available this summer. Until then, Geno explained how Sagent is focused on providing consumers with an AI-backed, 21^st century experience while keeping servicers’ procedures efficient. 

The more you can use AI to answer consumer’s question as a servicer, that’s driving your cost per service in each loan down… the more a consumer can self-service using AI and be comfortable with it, the better off they’re going to be. (7:58-8:13) 

As Sagent continues to produce new platforms and improve the existing ones, consumers and servicers will reap the benefits of a modernized, cloud-based mortgage process. AI will allow borrowers to better understand their loans and empower servicers to focus on the human-based tasks they perform best. 

While you eagerly await the launch of Dara Core later this year, check out the rest of Geno’s interview here.