Calling On The Experts
When you are looking to reinvent things and improve them, you need experts. For example, Friday Harbor, a startup using AI to help mortgage lenders produce clean, underwritten loan files in real time, has added two standout engineers to its founding team: Lisa Casner and Montana Gau.
Casner brings nearly a decade of experience building platforms at the intersection of real estate and technology. She spent seven years at Opendoor, a pioneer in digital homebuying and selling, where she led initiatives to streamline resale transactions, improve operational efficiency, and scale backend systems across multiple markets. Her work helped reduce manual workloads for internal teams and improve the speed and reliability of home sales. Earlier in her career, Casner held roles in underwriting, actuarial analysis, and fintech operations. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics of Finance and Risk Management from the University of Michigan and is based in Austin, Texas.
Gau brings seven years of software engineering experience, including roles at early-stage startups and established tech companies. Prior to joining Friday Harbor, he was an engineering lead at Notable, a healthcare automation company, and held founding engineer roles at both Notable and Pillar. He began his career at Code42, where he focused on enterprise data security and automation. Known for taking products from concept to launch, Gau specializes in software architecture, developer experience, and building intuitive systems that scale. He holds a degree in computer science from the University of Minnesota and is based in Minneapolis.
As companies continue to work to improve the mortgage process, they should look to subject-matter experts to help them fulfill that vision.
Tony Garritano is the founder at PROGRESS in Lending Association. As a speaker Tony has worked hard to inform executives about how technology should be a tool used to further business objectives. For over 20 years he has worked as a journalist, researcher and speaker in the mortgage technology space. Starting PROGRESS in Lending Association was the next step for someone like Tony, who has dedicated his entire career to providing mortgage executives with the information that they need to make informed technology decisions to help their businesses succeed.
