Jonathan H. Corr joined Ellie Mae Inc. with a sense of purpose. He relished the opportunity to work closely with Sig Anderman, the company’s founder — who Corr describes as “an incredible visionary, a tremendous marketer and a salesman.”
“He had a real passion for changing an industry,” Corr says. “It was an industry that was all about data and information from consumers and using that to figure out the best thing for consumers. The level of technology adoption and automation was miniscule. I saw a tremendous opportunity.”
Corr felt confident he could take his personal background in the areas of technology and automation and streamline the process for all involved.
“Jim Collins talks about the north star that you’re always sailing the company toward,” Corr says. “It doesn’t change and that has been an important thing for us. The north star for us is automating everything that is automatable between the consumer and the end investor in the residential finance process.”
Along the way, he and Anderman had to overcome the challenge of a global recession that decimated the U.S. real estate market and led to a dramatic increase in government regulation in the sector.
“Regulation really put a curveball on the broker side of our business, which was almost completely dead,” Corr says. “But it helped energize us and we saw the opportunity to focus our business completely on enabling lenders using technology and automation.”
Corr joined Ellie Mae in October 2002 as senior vice president of product management. The company has grown from revenue at that time of less than $10 million to a projected figure near $240 million in 2015, with more than 640 employees and Corr now serving as president and CEO.
“It’s about having a vision, aligning people around that vision and letting them share in it, and then giving them the resources to execute,” he says.
Corr gives a lot of credit for his leadership acumen to Stanford University, where he earned his MBA.
“There is a very collaborative environment, which I think is key to success in business and in small companies, especially,” Corr says. “It’s very much part of the culture at Stanford, more so than other business universities. Everything is done as a team.”
Stanford gives students the chance to work through case studies and correspond directly with professors who have real-world experience that can help the leaders of tomorrow prepare for their own entrepreneurial endeavors, Corr says.
“The problem-solving is from a lot of different angles,” he says. “Not just a financial or analytic perspective, but also looking at organizational behavior and cultural development. Those are all things that are part of the learning process at Stanford.”
Those are the skills that make the difference in entrepreneurs and leaders who can guide their businesses through the ups and downs.
“When you face challenges, how do you make sure you create an environment and think about making sure you have a team that can drive through those tough situations and challenges?” he says. ●
