The AiCR Exchange

Joe Furlong

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Business

The AiCR Exchange brings together leaders across mortgage and financial services for conversations on document-heavy workflows, operational challenges, and how teams evaluate technology in practice. Hosted by Joe Furlong, President and CEO of AiCR, each episode focuses on experience-driven perspectives rather than theory or demos.

4d ago

How Ben Franklin Helps Businesses Grow and Innovate

How can early-stage businesses get the funding, expertise, and support they need to turn an innovative idea into a growing company? The right investment can do more than provide capital. It can help build an ecosystem that supports long-term business growth and job creation. Joe Furlong speaks with Angelo Valletta, President and CEO of Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeast Pennsylvania, and Dr. Kathryn Worrilow, Founder and CEO of LifeAire Systems, about how business investment and practical support help companies move from early development to commercial growth. Through LifeAire's experience developing air purification technology for in vitro fertilization environments and expanding into other healthcare settings, they discuss how early-stage funding, scientific validation, and long-term partnerships can help bring new technologies to market. Angelo also describes how Ben Franklin supports emerging technology firms, established manufacturers, and Pennsylvania's broader innovation ecosystem. They discuss: How early-stage investment helps entrepreneurs develop and commercialize new technologies.Why LifeAire Systems began by addressing air quality challenges in in vitro fertilization.How scientific studies and third-party validation support technology adoption.Why business development requires more than capital, including connections, expertise, and ongoing resources.How regional innovation ecosystems support job creation, manufacturing, and long-term economic growth.The AiCR Exchange features conversations with leaders across mortgage and financial services on document workflows and technology decision-making.
Oct 13

From Research to Startup: Inside Lehigh’s Venture Studio

How can universities turn promising research into viable businesses? Moving a discovery from the lab to the market takes more than technical expertise. It requires identifying customer needs, testing commercial potential, and finding the right people to build a business around the technology. Joe Furlong speaks with Chris Kauzmann of Lehigh University’s Venture Studio about an approach to commercializing university research. Rather than expecting faculty researchers to become entrepreneurs and build companies on their own, the Venture Studio brings together experienced entrepreneurs, students, and research teams to evaluate early-stage technologies and determine whether a business opportunity exists. Kauzmann explains how teams investigate potential markets, conduct customer interviews, assess business models, and prepare startup packages that can help connect promising discoveries with founders. They also discuss how AI tools support research and market analysis, and why learning that an opportunity is not commercially viable can be just as valuable as moving forward. They discuss: How the Venture Studio evaluates early-stage research before committing to a startup.Why customer discovery and market validation matter when commercializing university technology.How entrepreneurs, faculty, and students collaborate to assess opportunities and prepare startup packages.How AI tools help student teams research markets and evaluate technologies across different fields.Why experimentation, risk-taking, and the willingness to stop an unviable project are essential to the process.The AiCR Exchange is a conversation series hosted by Joe Furlong about how people solve real business problems, improve the way work gets done, and turn ideas into practical solutions. Find more episodes at https://www.aicr.io/aicr-exchange/. The AiCR Exchange features conversations with leaders across mortgage and financial services on document workflows and technology decision-making.
Sep 8

The Strangest Cases That Crossed the Desk

Mortgage due diligence can uncover far more than missing documents or underwriting issues. Some loan files contain stories that are difficult to believe. Joe Furlong speaks with Scott Bledsoe, Director of Operations of the Due Diligence Group at MIAC Analytics, about the realities of reviewing mortgage loans and the unusual cases that can surface along the way. They cover how due diligence works, what reviewers look for across credit, compliance, and loan documentation, and how the work has changed from paper files and on-site reviews to digital loan files. Scott also shares several memorable cases from his experience in the mortgage industry. Key points: How mortgage due diligence works as a re-underwrite and audit of loan filesA loan with 105 Loan Estimates and Closing DisclosuresUnusual loan files involving bankruptcy, stated income, and property conditionHow due diligence changed from physical loan files and on-site reviews to digital workflowsThe return of NonQM and DSCR loans and why Scott believes they require careful reviewThe AiCR Exchange is a conversation series hosted by Joe Furlong about how people solve real business problems, improve the way work gets done, and turn ideas into practical solutions. Find more episodes at aicr.io The AiCR Exchange features conversations with leaders across mortgage and financial services on document workflows and technology decision-making.
Aug 25

Marketing Has Entered the Chat

Marketing is more than posting on social media. It involves understanding the audience, building a consistent brand, testing ideas, tracking results, and using what the data shows to improve the next campaign. Joe Furlong speaks with Kelly, Kaylyn, and Lyana from AiCR about how their marketing team has expanded and how its approach has developed over the past year. They discuss the work behind campaigns, from branding and website development to analytics, A/B testing, video, and content that shows the people behind the organization. The conversation also looks at how the team uses culture and experimentation to make marketing more authentic, how ideas move from discussion to execution, and how changing search behavior is influencing marketing strategy. They discuss: Building a consistent brand across marketing content Using analytics and A/B testing to refine campaigns Turning workplace culture into engaging social content Moving marketing ideas from planning through reporting The shift from SEO toward answer engine optimizationThe AiCR Exchange is a conversation series hosted by Joe Furlong about how people solve real business problems, improve the way work gets done, and turn ideas into practical solutions. Find more episodes at https://www.aicr.io/aicr-exchange/. The AiCR Exchange features conversations with leaders across mortgage and financial services on document workflows and technology decision-making.
Jun 24

Behind the Screens, The Minds Powering AiCR

Meet the developers who built the AiCR platform from the ground up. What does it actually take to build something that's never been built before? In this episode, host Joe Furlough sits down in the office with the three developers behind AiCR, Mychal, Paolo, and RJ, for an honest, unscripted conversation about what it's really like to build a platform at the edge of what's technically possible. They talk through the challenges of working with unstructured data, the reality of their daily routines, and where they see the platform heading next. Building AiCR means solving problems you can't Google. The team constantly navigates uncharted territory with no existing roadmap.All three developers started as interns through community college, growing into the full-time engineers running the platform today.The technical stack is built around security and flexibility, pulling data from multiple sources and adapting to each use case rather than forcing users into a fixed schema.The team's vision for the future is touchless: a platform that delivers what users need without them having to lift a finger.The AiCR Exchange features conversations with leaders across mortgage and financial services on document workflows and technology decision-making.
Jun 10

The Future of MSRs

Mortgage servicing rights are one of the most complex assets in the market, and one of the most misunderstood. What does it actually take to value and trade MSRs at scale? Joe Furlong sits down with Mike Carnes, who leads the MSR team at MIAC, to break down how the MSR market really works. Mike's team handles over $52 trillion in annual MSR valuations across residential and commercial, and he's been doing this for 33 years. He walks through what drives MSR pricing today, why buyers are still chasing 2020–2021 originations at mid-six multiples, and where the market is heading. How interest rate swings create a natural hedge in MSR portfolios and why that matters for servicers watching their production volume dropWhy a low note rate product (3% mortgages) can sit in your portfolio for 10–15 years, and what that means for cross-sell and recapture strategyThe pending FASB change on recapture value, and why Mike calls it a game changer for transparency in fair value reportingWhy non-QM and DSCR products are gaining serious attention from servicers and what makes the margins so attractive right nowThe AiCR Exchange features conversations with leaders across mortgage and financial services on document workflows and technology decision-making.
May 27

Whole Loan Trading

Whole loan trading is the market where mortgage loans are bought and sold between lenders and investors. What happens when a loan can’t be sold through a traditional agency channel? In this episode of The AiCR Exchange, Joe Furlong speaks with Nick Dorn, who leads MIAC’s whole loan trading desk. Nick explains how scratch and dent, non-QM, and non-performing loan sales work, what investors are looking for, and how deals actually get executed behind the scenes. What scratch and dent loans are and why lenders need to move them quicklyHow non-QM products like bank statement and DSCR loans differ from agency lendingWhy investor demand for non-QM remains strong despite higher ratesHow MIAC manages the loan sale and diligence process from start to finishThe AiCR Exchange features conversations with leaders across mortgage and financial services on document workflows and technology decision-making.
May 12

Working with Historical Documents

Historical document research depends on organizing large amounts of handwritten records, archived files, and disconnected information. How do historians and researchers actually work through decades of documents to find what matters? In this episode of The AiCR Exchange, Joe Furlong sits down with Dr. Jonathan DeCoster, Kathleen Miller, and Miles Gabrielli-Burke from the University of New England to talk about historical document research, community-based learning, and the challenges of working through archived materials. The conversation breaks down how researchers approach historical records, how students participate in real-world projects, and why organizing information is often one of the hardest parts of the process. How historians approach document research and archives The challenges of working with handwritten and historical records Community-based research projects and student involvement What historical document workflows actually look like day to dayThe AiCR Exchange features conversations with leaders across mortgage and financial services on document workflows and technology decision-making.

The AiCR Exchange brings together leaders across mortgage and financial services for conversations on document-heavy workflows, operational challenges, and how teams evaluate technology in practice. Hosted by Joe Furlong, President and CEO of AiCR, each episode focuses on experience-driven perspectives rather than theory or demos.

Creator

Joe Furlong
Years Active

2026
Episodes

15
Rating

Clean
Copyright

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The AiCR Exchange