"Failure is not a failure as long as we are failing forward."
Matt Woods has spent his 25-year career building real estate and financial services organizations. While in college, Matt and fellow SOLD.com co-founder Evan Gentry started MoneyLine Lending Services, which grew from a traditional mortgage company to be a pioneer tech-based service provider to financial institutions. After selling the company to Genpact, a spin-off of GE Capital, Matt stayed on as President of Genpact Mortgage Services. Matt leads the division of the publicly-traded company through its international expansion, scaling from 1 location in CA to 4 domestic, and 3 global delivery centers in India, the Philippines, and Guatemala encompassing >1,200 ftes. Matt went on to join loanDepot, the nation’s 2nd largest non-bank lender, where he helped establish Mello Home, a real estate agent matchmaking service designed to retain home buyers who had been pre-approved through loanDepot. Matt reunited with Evan Gentry and SOLD.com co-founder PJ Mitchell to form SOLD.com. Matt’s vision for SOLD.com is to simplify the real estate journey through the utilization of big data and A.I. Outside of work, Matt is a runner, cyclist, husband, and proud father of 4.
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Thank you so much for giving us your time! Before we begin, could you introduce yourself to our readers and take us through what exactly your company does and what your vision is for its future?
Matt Woods: The residential real estate industry is reinventing itself. New models are emerging that provide home buyers and sellers with new ways to transact faster, cheaper, and easier than ever before. SOLD.com is the first of its kind real estate marketplace designed to help consumers navigate the changing landscape to make informed decisions. Think of us as the Kayak for travel, but for real estate. We do all the work so you don’t have to.
NO child ever says I want to be a CEO/entrepreneur when I grow up. What did you want to be and how did you get where you are today?
Matt Woods: It’s funny you say that. I did. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to work for myself. I was fortunate to have a few friends in college that were equally wired, so we started and built a mortgage company before anyone could tell us it was a crazy thing to do. And it worked! That set me on a path of wanting to build solutions to problems that haven’t been effectively addressed yet.
Tell us something about yourself that others in your organization might be surprised to know.
Matt Woods: I am a college dropout.
Many readers may wonder how to become an entrepreneur but what is an entrepreneur? How would you define it?
Matt Woods: An entrepreneur is someone who sees a business opportunity and does something about it. A lot of people have good ideas. Not all of them know how to turn those ideas into a successful business venture.
What is the importance of having a supportive and inclusive culture?
Matt Woods: It is paramount. Without it, the business will implode on itself. If you are creating a solution that hasn’t yet been solved, it will require risk-taking, failure, and learning. The culture must be established that acceptable risks are to be encouraged and pursued, and that failure is not a failure as long as we are failing forward.
How can a leader be disruptive in the post covid world?
Matt Woods: Disruption is a cliche term. All it means is bringing a change to an existing process that improves upon it. This happens every day in business and life. Every once in a while the change is so significant that it is identified as ‘disruptive.’ But the reality is that our world is changing constantly, especially in the post covid landscape. Leaders need to have a mindset of always seeking new solutions, rather than the status quo. Good managers manage existing processes. Great leaders identify and design new ones.
If a 5-year-old asked you to describe your job, what would you tell them?
Matt Woods: I help people sell their homes.
Share with us one of the most difficult decisions you had to make for your company that benefited your employees or customers. What made this decision so difficult and what were the positive impacts?
Matt Woods: We quit acting like a start-up that had unlimited VC capital, and started running the business like it was our own money. That meant we made some difficult decisions regarding our strategy and team. The result was that we found profitability within 2 quarters, and took better control of our destiny.
Leaders are usually asked about their most useful qualities but let’s change things up a bit. What is your most useless talent?
Matt Woods: Sleeping less than I should. I used to think it was a talent. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve worked to let that one go.
Thank you so much for your time but before we finish things off, we do have one more question. If you wrote a book about your life until today, what would the title be?
Matt Woods: “A Complicated Guide to a Simpler Life.” It would be a guidebook of all the lessons of life I’ve assembled along the way to improve those who come along behind me.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Matt Woods for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Matt Woods or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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