Data Engineering: the 'Good Bones' of Home Financing

Carlos Ponce (00:08):

Good morning everyone, and welcome again to another episode of Tech Leaders Unplugged. And today we are getting unplugged with Ava Connolly, who is the data engineer at HomeTap. So, Ava, welcome to the show.

Ava Connolly (00:25):

Thank you for having me.

Carlos Ponce (00:29):

Absolutely. And of course, Wade, thanks again for being here. And so, we look forward to this conversation and we're going to talk about, of course, data engineering. But before we get into the topic, Ava, please can you introduce yourself to us and the audience, and then we'll go from there. Thank you so much, Ava, welcome to the show once again.

Ava Connolly (00:52):

Thank you. Yeah. like you said, I am a data engineer at HomeTap. I've been here for just under three months and I've been a data engineer for three years. I've acquired all of that experience at startups. I've been in health tech, supply chain, and logistics, and now in home financing.

Carlos Ponce (01:12):

Great. Thank you so much, Ava, for that. So tell us a little bit about what you're about HomeTap when you, what you're doing at HomeTap. So let's go there, please. Thank you.

Ava Connolly (01:25):

Sure. So HomeTap is a loan alternative company. We basically give you access to your home equity and cash in exchange for a portion of your home creature value. What's unique about Home Tap is that we don't have a monthly payment or interest required, and typically homeowners who work with us can use the funds for whatever they'd like. They usually are using those funds for home improvements, reaching various savings or investment goals like children's college funds, for example, addressing debt, etcetera. But yeah, if anyone listening has more questions or is interested in more offerings, you can go to our website@hometown.com and we work with the people who work with us, we have investment managers who work with you every step of the way to make sure that your specific situation is being addressed and you know, you feel comfortable with what we're offering.

Carlos Ponce (02:19):

Great. Thank you again. Ava, so now let's move a little into today's topic as chosen by you. So, we're going to be talking about data engineering and the good bones of home financing. We're going to be discussing the power of infrastructure or optimization, cost, and performance. So first question I have for you, Ava, is why did you choose this particular topic for today and why did you feel it was relevant for today's day and age? Can you elaborate on that, please? Thank you.

Ava Connolly (02:51):

Sure. So there's obviously this undeniable interest around productionizing, you know, AI and LLM models at an enterprise scale. We've heard it in podcasts everywhere in the media. I think there's this spooky underbelly, if you will, of cost and performance in these cloud environments as you're deploying these models. And I think when you're talking about these topics, it's really important to include cost and performance, in the conversation because that's really what allows models to be sustainable. I think that's really important to include in those, in those topics.

Carlos Ponce (03:29):

Great. Thank you again, Ava. So Wade, I'm sure, I think you have some questions for Ava. Do you want to jump in?

Wade Erickson (03:38):

Yeah. So you know, this is a very intriguing topic area obviously, probably most of the listeners understand how HELOCs work, home equity lines, all of those kinds of things, traditional ways to get value out of your home. And then this now is a share of the value of the home, and then there's no payments. You know, I know you've been there just a little while, but do you know a little bit about how this kind of a model came about and how the founders of the company decided this was their method? Obviously, there are a lot of assets that they would have to have and a lot of backing in finance because there's, doesn't sound like there's a whole repayment model unless there is they basically are waiting for the sale price and then they get their money out when the house flips themselves. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Ava Connolly (04:33):

Yeah, so I am not fully qualified to talk about our process of, you know, kind of behind the scenes or the different models that we work with, but I can say that the culture at HomeTap in is really like something that's fast and simple and straightforward for people to work with to, you know, fulfill their goals financially and in other areas of their life. I think that, you know, we're trying to offer a, product and a service that e and different from what is typically in this industry. So, you know, again, if you want to have more information about exactly what we're offering I'd suggest going to the website. We have, you know, really comprehensive pages about, you know, what is, what is the difference between HomeTap and other similar tools or services and offering things more about our procession and what it would be like, you know, working with us long term.

Wade Erickson (05:30):

Great, great. So yeah, based on your bio, you went to school for a liberal arts degree it looks like from Harvard and then, but you moved into data and computers. Tell me a little bit about the experience at the school and then how that transitioned into your career in data and data engineering.

Ava Connolly (05:53):

Sure. So I was interested in, you know, the sciences, so that's kind of what I focused on in terms of cost and performance optimization, what we're talking about today. I learned cloud services and billing in my junior of college. So, I allocated $50, from my own pocket towards learning AWS and an inappropriate storage decision. I used Glacier instead of something more appropriate resulted in me spending about a hundred dollars over that budget. So, I had to call AWS to negotiate my bill and things like that. So I think that personal experience about cost-effectiveness really, and cost-sensitive sensitivity has really carried throughout my career in a way that has been really helpful, especially at startups. So that's kind of how I got started with this topic, and it's just, it's just me ever since.

Wade Erickson (06:51):

And within the data engineering field, what, where do you have specialties? Obviously, that's a very wide area for people to work in. Are you in the visual visualization or you say optimization, is it the core data? And then how do you, how do you see that that experience you have? Maybe not just at HomeTap, but you know, we talked a little bit about AI in the beginning and the importance of not only data but clean data and correct data to be able to train these models. Tell me a little bit about that.

Ava Connolly (07:25):

Sure. So I think data engineering defining that role can vary from company to company. At a lot of places, it's very SQL-based, more BI and dashboarding, and at other places it's more software engineering you know, assisting and working closely with platform engineering, things of that nature. I'd say that I work closely with the platform side or more the BI side. So I work really closely with our analytics you know, making sure that the data is correct in the tools we use, like Tableau, things like that.

Wade Erickson (08:01):

So it's so visualization and that, that's kind of the key area where you, you'd like to, to dig into the data and, and make add value from the data to, to the business user and the customer, I would imagine. Right.

Ava Connolly (08:16):

I would say that I prefer working more behind the scenes. So I'm not, I'm personally not working in dashboarding tooling. I am more getting data from the original data source, like Salesforce for example, or something of that nature, and then putting it into Snowflake and making sure that connection is healthy, the data is as it should be, things of that nature. And then with the BI folks who are creating those dashboards. So I'm a little bit more behind the scenes. I prefer to support software applications and people who are more on the business side of things.

Wade Erickson (09:00):

Okay. So what kind of the, the future state of, of this space and where do you spend some of your time kind of like advancing where you're at and, and maybe where things are in your company and what, what interests you beyond, you know, AI obviously is there other areas that you're studying?

Ava Connolly (09:29):

Not necessarily studying. I'd say that a lot of my time, you know, and what I'm spending on at work and what I'm interested in is building an approach or a strategy so that HomeTap and the models we create are sustainable and cost-effective long-term. So, what I alluded to earlier, you know, they're fun with AI and ML machine learning models, things like that, but I'm really interested in making sure that those are sustainable and I'm fulfilling long-term business needs as well. So, I spend a lot of time thinking about like, our approach and strategy for making sure that happens. So, I think about, you know, how can I implement observability into these models and this, and how can I personally take over, over making sure those changes are exited in a way that supports our business goals.

Carlos Ponce (10:24):

I have a question for you. And I know we're, we're discussing data engineering, you know, which is a, a highly technical concept. But if I were to ask you from, let's say, the normal average run of the mail person who's interested in using your platform and your services. So my question is, once I get access to HometTap and we're engaged in, in the process of being helped by HomeTap, how can you assure me the, the, the user that I'm not just going to get, like, for example, access to your funds or whatever, but also how do you offer any kind of like, guidance through the process to best optimize the use of those, those funds? Or is it just do you, where, where do you stop in, where does the, the user or the, the, the person ends or, I don't know if I'm making myself clear, but I just want to be so those who might be concerned about, okay, I got all these funds, now what do I do with them? Am I going to have to pay it back, you know, all these concerns? How do you, how would you say the HomeTap helps the user get them out of the way so that they can be at ease when engaging with the platform and your services?

Ava Connolly (11:47):

Sure. So, I, what I know about that is I know we have an investment manager and folks on our side that help anyone who's interested in working with HomeTap at every step of the way. So I can go into a little bit kind of about our process. First, you know, a user would go onto a website, hometap.com, and then complete an investment inquiry. And so you would create an account, and I think at that point you would probably say what you're interested in using the funds for kind of a little bit about you. And then at that point, you would speak with an investment manager. And so we'll kind of send you an estimate, which includes, you know, those estimated terms specific to your property. And then they'll set up a call, you know, call with you and kind of walk through those numbers and answer any questions that you might have about our application process things that are more specific to your situation. So that's even before that you submit, an application. So, once you've uploaded the documents that are required for an application you, you know, start that process and we look over it, our, on our end, and we, you know, schedule an appraisal. So, we might request an appraisal of the property, whether it's physical or digital, and any other, you know, necessary documentation that we might need. And then, you know, again, , we are available to you to answer any of those questions with someone at every step of the way. And at that point, once everything is agreed upon and signed you receive your funds and those can be up to $600,000. They're wire transferred to you, you know, in a few days, not months. And, you know, again, we really pride ourselves on being fast and efficient and a tool that's really flexible for you. I think what's different about our process is, again, we have really transparent documentation on our website. If you have any further questions, you can go there. And we have, you know, someone helping you at every step of the way, who's a real person.

Carlos Ponce (14:02):

Great. I have another one. So we're, we're talking about, now, let's go back to the data engineering aspect, right? So we're talking about data engineering, we call it the good bones of home financing. So we're talking about the power of infra infrastructure, optimization, cost, and performance. My question is this, what does this mean, you know, the good bones of home financing optimization, cost performance, what does this mean for the average person, the user, the end user?

Ava Connolly (14:43):

Sure. So I think, you know, when, when you say Good bones, to me that means having good structure and a good foundation for our data environment. And ultimately, you know, I'm here and we're all here at Home Top to serve the people that, you know, we work with the homeowners that we're working with. So, you know, we're all working on the data side to make sure that the data is accurate, the third-party tooling and data sources that we're using, you know, everything is working as expected so that we can better serve the folks that we work with. So I think as a culture and our team, we really try to build that up, making sure that everything's accurate. And we're really, you know, business-focused, right? We want everyone to have a good experience working with experience, our team, team. And you know, I think home finance and financial topics in general can be really emotionally sensitive for people. I think we're really cognizant of that. So that's something that I'm thinking about personally. You know, I want to make sure that the data that I'm giving to my stakeholders, stakeholders is correct, because these are people's life decisions that they're making on the data that I'm providing them. So that's really important to me when I'm working on anything.

Carlos Ponce (15:58):

Thank you again, Ava, and Wade back to you.

Wade Erickson (16:02):

Yeah, so you know I, I did look at the site here and it does look at the talk about a 10-year term. So is the expectation that the loan would be repaid in 10 years, or the house would sell since there are no payments and there's no interest, was kind of curious about that little angle there. If, if, if that's, if you're aware how that works.

Ava Connolly (16:34):

Sure. So it's a little alternative, so you're not repaying back anything. You are, we're just making an agreement of, you know, the homeowner and Hometap to, you know, the homeowner would trade a portion of their home's future value in x amount of years for the ability to have funds in cash right now. So you're not paying interest and you're not providing a monthly payment to HomeTap or any other entity. So yeah, that's, that's how that process works. I don't know too much about that, like okay. Beyond but again, like we have people here who are really knowledgeable and know exactly what's happening on that end.

Wade Erickson (17:18):

Sure. That's all right. Yeah, so we have about five minutes left. This is where I like to kind of pivot to you away from the topic a little bit about yourself. You said you came out of college and worked with a lot of startups. What attracted you to work with startups versus getting involved with a large enterprise company? Is there certain do you have an interest in entrepreneurialism yourself? Do you want to start a business? And you know, just in general, what draws you to the startup? Is it culture? You know, obviously lots of hats you have to wear when you're when a small company. Tell me a little bit about that, that early drive that you focused on startups versus traditional large companies.

Ava Connolly (18:11):

Sure. So, you know, my perspective is coming from a startup experience, I've never worked at a large corporation. So, what I like about startup culture is that, well, let me step back. So, when I graduated, I really wanted to learn as much as possible, and I tend to thrive in being thrown into the deep end where I'm, again, wearing many hats. You know, there's kind of high expectations. You can't really hide behind something facade. So I really wanted to learn quickly. So that's kind of why I've chosen startups at the beginning of my career. I've been able to really look at all areas of a business. And I think what I like about startups is that you can see your contributions really quickly. What I like about Data At HomeTap and other places I've worked is I can see my impact across basically every department, you know, everywhere works is impacted by data engineering and data quality. So I think that's really rewarding. And, you know, I really like the business side of things. I like to talk to stakeholders, understand what they're looking for, and how I can better serve them. So that's something that really attracts me to working closely with others. I actually don't have any business or entrepreneurial goals. I prefer to be in the background where I can support other people in reaching the goals that they have. And I think that kind of makes me perfectly suited for data engineering.

Wade Erickson (19:45):

Great. Great. Well, Carlos, I'm we're getting close to the time. Did you have any closing remarks?

Carlos Ponce (19:55):

Yeah, well first of all yeah, well the only thing left for me is to thank Ava for having been with us on the show today. And well, I look forward to being kept abreast of what's going on at Home Tap, of course. And the last thing I have is just a quick announcement if I may. So, Ava, please don't go anywhere stick around as we go off the air, but we're going to, for next week, we're going to be having, we have two guests scheduled. One of them is Pierce Healy, the CEO and co-founder at Zelta AI. That's on October the fifth. And then on Friday, October the sixth, we're going to be speaking with Peter Mullins, the chief Marketing author officer at Set Sale. So that's what we have, and of course, there might be more, but just go to the techleadersunplugged.com website and click an upcoming and you'll see what's going on here at Tech Leaders Unplugged. With that being said, again, Ava, thank you so much for having been with us on the show. Thank you, Wade, as ever. And see you guys next time right here on Tech Leaders Unplug, weekdays at 9:30 AM Pacific. So join us and take care. Thank you.