Mortgage  ·  Specialty Lending  ·  Private Credit  ·  Fintech

The market is watching you — and deciding whether to bring you its best.

Its best deals. Its best people. Its best opportunities. Most advisors can tell you what the data says. I can tell you how it actually works — because I didn't study mortgage companies. I ran one.

See How I Help Let's Talk
100
Deals — deep diligence, inside the real financials and operations
0 → $10B
Built and operated a national mortgage platform from launch
COO
Head of M&A, Growth & Operations — full lifecycle, both sides
25+
Years as an operating executive in financial services

Five Entry Points — One Deep Expertise

Every company has a different problem.
They're all connected.

These aren't five separate services. They're five entry points into the same operating intelligence — built from diligence on 100 deals, running a national platform, and knowing how mortgage companies actually work from the inside. The question isn't which one you need. It's which one you need first.

⚖️
M&A Strategy
The strong deals find prepared buyers.
Buyers get limited chances to enter the market. Come in prepared, and the strong deals will find you. Come in unprepared, and even the bad deals will keep their distance. When you're sitting across from an owner — do you know how to win that deal? Do you know how to manage the process so it doesn't foul the deal? This is the business intelligence underneath the deal — for operators making acquisitions and sponsors diligencing platforms — from someone who's done deep diligence on 100 of them and sat face-to-face with the sellers.
🎯
Competitive Position
The market already has an opinion about you.
And it's shaping every recruit's decision, every seller's willingness to talk, every LO's decision to stay or go. I'll show you what the market actually sees: recruiter perception, retention patterns, product competitiveness, operational speed, brand in your actual footprint. Not a report — the view from inside your competitors' walls, because I've been in those walls doing diligence on 100 of them.
📊
Profitability
The market sees your leaks before you do.
In the talent you can't attract, the pricing you can't hold, and the competitors gaining ground. I know what it looks like when you're leaking margin because I've lived it — as COO of a platform that grew from zero to $10 billion. Cost-per-loan, revenue-per-loan, cost-of-sales ratio, G&A load, ops efficiency — I can tell you within a week where the money is going: per loan, per LO, per branch, per market.
🚀
Growth
The market sends its best people elsewhere.
The market is sending its best people, its best recruits, its best opportunities to someone — and deciding whether that someone is you. Even world-class companies face 20–30% annual attrition. That means you need 30%+ growth just to stand still. I know what it looks like when you've lost influence and loyalty in your sales force, and I know what the companies that actually grow do differently. Value prop, market selection, recruiting strategy, and the systems to make it stick.
⚡
Technology & AI
The market is retooling around you.
The companies that survive the next cycle are the ones investing now — and the ones that don't will find out the hard way when their competitors are faster, cheaper, and pulling their people. Most mortgage tech strategies are "buy a platform and pray" or "wait and see." I bridge the gap because I've built on both sides — I've run the operations the technology has to serve, founded a fully automated consumer lending fintech with AI underwriting, and advised mortgage technology platform companies on product-market fit and go-to-market.

Five entry points. One system. Every engagement starts with one problem — but the problems are connected, because a mortgage company is one business.

I've been the operator running the platform and the acquirer examining the companies from the outside. Both sides. I know the warning signs because I wish someone had told me.

Selected Engagements

A few recent pieces of work.

Profitability · Pricing & Branch Economics

Rebuilt the economic model for a 34-branch national retail lender.

A $1.5B retail lender running a distributed-branch model — 34 branches across 12 states on a net P&L structure. The pricing and margin model had drifted out of alignment with how the business actually ran. I redesigned it end to end: pricing and margin framework, cost allocation between branch and corporate functions, and corporate function budgets brought back in line with the operating model. Then I rolled it out branch by branch — sitting with sales leadership and P&L owners — and worked through negative-balance recovery and the calls on the branches that weren't going to make it.

Outcome
~20 bps improvement in overall profitability · stronger branch-level economics · corporate cost structure aligned to the revenue model.
M&A · Acquisition → Turnaround → Exit

Brought a stalled specialty lender/servicer acquisition home — then turned the platform around and sold it.

A PE-owned specialty lender/servicer had a target acquisition in sight, a term sheet in place, and diligence underway — but the deal was at risk on time and execution capacity. I stepped in to manage it to close: negotiating the definitive purchase agreement, running regulatory change-of-control, and landing the deal. Post-close, I led the operational and economic turnaround — renegotiating and extending servicing contracts (including with Fannie Mae), streamlining cost structure, org model, and facilities. Then I ran the sell-side process and closed the exit.

Outcome
Buy-side closed under tight timing · GSE-level servicing contracts renegotiated and extended · platform improved operationally and economically · successful sell-side exit.
M&A · Ownership Transition & Management Buy-Out

Technical advisor to an owner navigating the buy-out of his stake in a specialty lender / servicer.

Two partners were buying out a third owner in a specialty lender/servicer. The exiting owner — my client — wasn't a mortgage operator, but the business he was stepping out of was deeply mortgage-specific. I served as technical advisor to his legal team and as the translator in his corner: reviewing the company's financials and detailed performance metrics, running a read on the warehouse lender agreement, and working through licensing and regulatory compliance. I translated the operations, the financials, and the lending mechanics so he could negotiate on equal footing with his operating partners.

Outcome
Parties brought to a definitive agreement · client negotiated with full operator-grade understanding of the business he was exiting · warehouse, licensing, and compliance exposure assessed and priced into the terms.

What People Say

From the people who've worked with Howard.

"

Howard is a critical thinker who grasps the whole picture while keeping the right people in the conversation. He knows this industry at a depth that makes him genuinely trustworthy when the stakes are real.

J.R.
Founder & Owner · Independent mortgage company · 30 years in the business
"

Howard is a highly technical operator capable of designing and executing the processes required to build a world-class organization. He understands the big picture — particularly in M&A and due diligence — and combines that with the discipline to actually execute.

R.C.
SVP Growth · Executive growth leader, retail and wholesale lending

About

Howard Michalski

I've been on both sides. I've been the operator running a national mortgage platform — scaling it from zero to $10 billion — and the acquirer sitting across from 100 owners, doing deep diligence on their companies, negotiating the deals, and integrating what we bought. After that I moved to the sponsor side as COO of a PE-owned platform, where I launched and scaled a private credit lending fund to $100M and ran the full acquisition-to-exit lifecycle on a specialty lender/servicer. Along the way I founded a consumer lending fintech (AI underwriting, $10M raised) and advised tech-forward mortgage companies and lending technology platforms.

I work with a small number of clients at any given time. Not as another executive layer — your COO and CFO have day jobs — but as the bandwidth and operator credibility that lets your team finally move the strategic work that keeps slipping. The work is direct, the advice is specific, and the goal is always the same: help you see what the market already sees about you, before it costs you.

  • Mortgage Operations
    Founding COO, National Mortgage Platform — 0 to $10B · Head of M&A & Growth
  • M&A & Diligence
    100 deals diligenced · 70+ acquisitions closed · 220+ locations integrated · 1,800 employees
  • Private Lending Fund (PE-Backed)
    COO — launched and scaled a private lending fund (non-owner occupied & construction financing) to $100M. Selected the lending technology platform, built multi-channel distribution including a retail mortgage lender channel, and established take-out relationships with capital-markets investors.
  • Specialty Mortgage Servicer (PE-Backed)
    Led the acquisition, turnaround, and successful sale — including renegotiation and extension of GSE-level servicing contracts.
  • Fintech Founder & Advisor
    Founded consumer lending fintech (AI underwriting · ~$10M raised) · Advisor to tech-forward mortgage and lending platforms
  • Foundation
    Divisional CIO, GE Capital Insurance · Fannie Mae · U.S. Army Intelligence Analyst

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