Jim Cutillo did the whole "build a startup and let it go public" process. Now, he's looking to do it entirely his way with his new St. Petersburg-based company.
"That was a really interesting experience — you start a company and I never thought it would go public," he said. "It was a good but also a bad experience; it just changes so many things."
He started mortgage company StoneGate Mortgage in Indianapolis in 2005 and it eventually went public in 2013. Shortly after, the company acquired St. Pete-based NattyMac which introduced Cutillo to the area. He eventually bought a house in the city in 2017 and made the leap to start his new company, AppraisalVision.
Now, he said he's building the company with a focus on the people and culture, which he says won't follow the typical startup path.
"I was there a couple of years and after [the company went public] I took a gap year and then I started AppraisalVision," he said. "I saw a big opportunity in the market because I saw no one wanted to reinvent the home appraisal process. I don't care how big it gets, I just want to make sure we make a big impact."
The company is looking for talent in an unlikely spot: with recent college graduates, versus more established employees.
While leaders in the Tampa Bay tech scene have conflicting feelings on whether there is enough local talent for companies, Cutillo believes if you're willing to train the new hires, there's plenty of talent to go around.
"It takes two to three months to orient them with our business, but they’re coming out of school with tech experience," he said. "They have taken classes in software development, they're experts in using Excel and using data. So, I don't see any lack of talent here locally. Maybe there are not senior-level people here, but I don't want that."
That desire has been bolstered by a local partnership with the University of Tampa. AppraisalVision, which uses technology to fast-track the homebuying and mortgage process, is the company chosen for a case study in the university's senior-level business capstone course, led by Jody Thompson.
"We’re hiring UT business students and they don't know our industry but are eager and willing to learn," he said. "And that's way better than someone with eight to 10 years' [experience] because they come with biases that young professionals don't."
The company overall is on an upward swing. It currently employs 18 people and plans to hire 15 to 20 more. It recently received funding for an undisclosed amount from Florida Funders, the local angel investor/equity firm investment hybrid.
"Here's the thing on the mortgage industry: It costs more today and takes longer to get a mortgage than 2010, but there have been hundreds of millions invested in tech to make the process better — but no one changed the process," he said. "So, we’re changing the appraisal process from start to finish to make it faster, cheaper and better."
And with the novel coronavirus pandemic, homebuying has skyrocketed and Cutillo is finding his company is busier than ever.
"It actually helped us because the volume has increased and as a result of that, our business grew. Lenders and appraisers needed to do more with the same resources because they couldn't hire people as fast as they needed to," Cutillo said. "Good or bad, the pandemic helped us because the market is so strong right now."
