Matt Fisher spent more than 20 years developing products outside of real estate before becoming CEO of Lone Wolf Technologies in February. Mr. Fisher replaces Jimmy Kelly, who remains with the company in an advisory capacity.
Mr. Fisher joins Lonewolf from Bullhorn, a Boston-based software company that builds cloud-based tools for the staffing and recruiting industry. During his 22 years at Bullhorn, Fisher helped grow the business from a single-product startup to a multi-product market leader serving more than 10,000 customers worldwide.
Mr. Fisher was also recently named to Inman’s new advisory board comprised of senior executives from brokerage, technology, lending and real estate services.
This council is part of “Inman 2.0.” This is CEO Tom Bohn’s initiative to transform Inman from a news publisher into a broader media, membership, and community platform built around persona-driven editorial, AI-powered journalism, an evolving Inman Select membership, and a community infrastructure for real estate professionals.
Four months into his new role at Lone Wolf, Fisher isn’t shy about what he sees in the real estate industry. It’s a fragmented technology stack and too many point solutions chasing artificial intelligence.
Fisher recently sat down with Inman to talk about customer experience, why he thinks best-of-breed beats “super app” proptech platforms, what he’s noticed about real estate media, and the rest of his life as a licensed commercial pilot.
The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Inman: You took over as CEO of Lone Wolf in February, so it’s been a few months now. What has been your top priority since taking office?
Matt Fisher: I came into this industry to do a few things, and there are a few things I’m committed to to our customers and to the industry.
The first is to ensure we provide a great experience. That means how quickly we respond, how familiar our employees are with our products and our customers’ challenges, how we consult with our customers, and how we make sure our customers are getting value from our products rather than transacting with our customer base.
That’s the first one. It’s about putting our customers at the center of how we think and what we do. I’ve already made a lot of changes at the executive level and brought in people who are really good at driving that kind of change from a customer experience perspective.
And it’s not just support. It’s a way to listen and observe what our customers want from our products, gather feedback, and ensure we have a way to build a joint roadmap and success plan with them. The more customer-focused we are, the better it is for everyone: our industry, our company, and our customers. It’s a win-win. That is our No. 1 commitment.
The second is rethinking how agents and brokers use our software and the entire journey they go through. Coming from outside the industry with fresh eyes, it was interesting to see how fragmented the technology experience is in this industry. This is a huge opportunity to integrate across workflows and drive AI.
I call it AI, but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter what you call it. People who use our technology should find it easier, faster, and more intuitive. This should allow intermediaries to reduce costs and agents to be more productive with their time. So we’re taking a fresh look at transaction management, top-of-funnel products, anything that can increase productivity levels for our customers.
You mentioned that you come from outside of the real estate field. What else do you notice about proptech and real estate technology that is different from your background?
Technology leaders often change industries, and I think an outside perspective is valuable because it allows you to look at things with fresh, unbiased eyes. You just look at the way people use it today and think, “Well, it could be better. We could use technology to solve it.”
I was surprised by the fragmentation and the amount of tools people need in the real estate industry. The way technology is shaped based on the channels through which it is purchased is also interesting. It’s the agents who are using it, but they may have gotten it as a member benefit and only have some of the features. Alternatively, you might buy directly to get the premium version or through a broker to get other combinations.
That complicates things, but it’s also unique to this industry. At the end of the day, how the technologies fit together will vary depending on what the agent needs, who they work for, and what organization they belong to. It was a learning experience for me and it was interesting.
The other is AI. A variety of point solutions are being implemented here and there in bits and pieces, including transaction reconciliation, compliance, and digital advertising. I have a pretty strong point of view here, but I think this is true in almost every field. These point solutions exist because platform players have not yet pushed AI through the process.
And all these point solutions make the fragmentation problem even worse. Because you’re telling agents and brokers to look for more tools that don’t integrate or work together. In other words, some problems have been solved, but new ones have also arisen. This is a huge opportunity for companies like Lone Wolf and other platform providers to build this first party as part of their own solutions. So people don’t have to buy point solutions and string them all together.
No one actually wants to do that, and it doesn’t promote the level of efficiency that it could. I’ve seen this in my industry and many other places, and I think it’s similar here. This is a huge opportunity for us to promote that.
AI is now a key element in all sectors, and many people I spoke to said that we will see more integration as everyone chases so-called “super apps.” What do you think about how Lone Wolf approaches it?
I don’t agree with the super app thing. I don’t think that’s the problem. The level of depth required at the different steps in the process means that there are applications that are best suited for each step. Being the best at transaction reconciliation, transaction management, forms, and compliance is a completely different skill than being the best at CRM, front office, or digital advertising.
Rather, I think it’s about the need for open ecosystems and platforms. Let’s take the example of a lone wolf. We provide rails for difficult tasks such as transaction reconciliation, management, compliance, and back-office operations. We provide the rails, the ecosystem, and the API. However, if you want to bring in other CRMs that your customers use, that’s fine.
AI might change this a little bit, but I don’t think there’s a scenario where we end up with something huge and monolithic where one provider is better at everything. I don’t think that’s true.
I think winning platforms are those that do hard things easily, have open ecosystems, good APIs, and good integration points. So brokerages can choose to build things into the platform and make it all work together. Go from a 20 point solution to maybe a 3 point solution.
The idea of the new Inman Advisory Board is to gather input from people like you about what the real estate industry needs from media and community platforms. From your perspective, what does the industry really need from a trade media source?
From what I can tell, and again from an outsider’s perspective, there is a wide range in update speed and “sneaky” news. From my observations, some of it feels almost tabloid-like. We’re getting a ton of updates that probably aren’t inflammatory, but feel like they are. There are also media outlets that are a little slower to provide information but are perhaps more vetted and less inflammatory in tone.
There are also many ways to obtain information. There were several associations in the industry I came from, but I didn’t get five emails a day from three different outlets like I do now. I have folders, but I’m like, “I can’t keep up with this.” That was interesting to me.
I don’t know if that’s helpful because there’s a diverse audience here. Do real estate agents consume media at a different rate than I do? I don’t have enough information to determine if my audience is getting what they need.
This is now a common opinion regarding all media. We are bombarded with so much information. So many industries are experiencing major changes, and media is no exception. What excites you and what concerns you?
Funny, I was just talking about this with a friend yesterday. That opportunity is something like AI-based triangulation services. The most difficult thing is that, although this is not specifically related to real estate and is a broader commentary, it is extensive and has many post-publication revisions that are buried in footnotes and will never be seen. All you remember is the heading, even if you edit it later.
There was a recent analysis of the political bias of various LLMs, with 91% overall being left-leaning, excluding Grok, which was closer to 50-50. This means that you don’t really know what you’re going to get, and find that you have to do the work yourself to read and triangulate the same story across different sources. I find myself doing that all the time. I read it on CNN, then I read it on Fox, then I checked Twitter. Honestly, it’s frustrating because I have no idea what’s going on.
Obviously, the level of real estate discussion is not that important. But I still think the same dynamics apply: speed, different sources. You can read the same story, say, the Chicago MLS situation, or whatever it is, six different ways. And as with AI, there is a huge burden on consumers to put it together.
What is one thing that excites you about the Inman Advisory Council?
I’m excited about it. If you look at everyone in this room, it’s a balanced group. Having previously served on advisory boards like this, I feel that the right inclusion of a variety of people creates a real discussion about the direction of the industry and how we can all support each other.
It’s selfish, but coming into this space, we have some historical baggage at Lone Wolf, and I’ve got a new way of thinking and operating this business: customer focus, innovation, AI. I want to make sure that it resonates and actually delivers the results that agents and brokerages expect from platform providers, so groups like this give me a good perspective on that.
My last question is a more personal one. I noticed on LinkedIn that you have an FAA pilot license. Was there ever a time when you considered becoming a commercial pilot? What inspired you to pursue a career as a technology CEO instead?
I’m actually a commercial pilot. I’ve just never flown professionally. I love aviation. I obtained my civilian qualification around the time I graduated from university, and have been flying for about 25 years.
I love it as a hobby. This is one of those interesting things that requires good physical coordination, i.e. rudder and rudder skills, but ultimately you also need to be familiar with physics, meteorology, avionics, and many other things. It’s unique in that respect and also has great practicality. My family uses it. We fly all over the place, and I’ve even flown for charity work.
But I never wanted to do it professionally. If I ever did that, it would probably be in flight instruction and teaching other people to fly and helping them pursue their passions. Becoming an airline pilot was never in my mind.
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