Ginger Wilcox
“Endings are always hard,” wrote Ginger Wilcox, Sindeo’s chief marketing and industry officer on Facebook last night, “but today may be one of the most difficult. Today, we made the difficult decision to wind down Sindeo.”
Four years ago, the idea for this technology-based mortgage company was formed. Sindeo’s purpose was to help streamline the home loan process — and in many ways, it succeeded in that mission, noted a letter from Sindeo CEO Nick Stamos on the company’s website.
“We did what everyone said couldn’t be done,” Stamos wrote.
- “We built a place where people could shop and apply for a mortgage from a robust marketplace of over 1,000 loan programs, with one single application and one credit check.
- We secured partnerships with some of the top real estate and consumer finance brands.
- We helped our clients save millions of dollars on their home loans.
- We built a people-centric brand, putting the needs of Sindeo’s clients first.”
Both Stamos and Wilcox pointed out that Sindeo’s Net Promoter Score (NPS) is 81 this year, which compares to an average of -3 from top banks. (The NPS measures how willing customers would be to recommend your services to others.)
Nick Stamos
“Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough,” Stamos wrote. “The majority of the staff and leadership team have had their jobs eliminated today. A very small team will be kept on for a short period of time to help our clients successfully close their loans that are already in process.”
That includes Wilcox, who noted in her post that she joined Sindeo nearly three years ago and found the concept “fascinating.”
“We launched Sindeo in January 2015 with a simple mission that was incredibly complex to deliver on. The business was complicated, highly regulated and capital intensive, but time and again we climbed mountains to introduce a radically different mortgage experience,” she wrote.
“I am so proud of the work we did to build a better mortgage experience. But, it wasn’t enough, and it wasn’t fast enough,” she added. “Startups are always a risk, but I wasn’t prepared for this. First and foremost, I want to help the amazing people on our team, our Sindeo family, find a new home. We have absolutely incredible talent, so if you’re hiring let me know. They are disrupters and innovators. They are mission based and customer focused. They are some of the best and brightest people I have ever worked with.”
Stamos also entreated any readers of his missive to reach out if they have a job for his former employees. “We have very talented people who need jobs today. Hire them. They are truly innovators and some of the smartest, most dedicated people I’ve ever worked with,” he wrote.
“To everyone who has supported us, who believed in us and who stuck with us during the toughest of times, thank you. We are eternally grateful for your support, and I will never forget everything we did together at Sindeo,” he concluded.
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