Increasing Apps Via Security and Trust ft. Eric and Brad Blumberg

Welcome to another edition of The MikedUp Show! Over the past several months, we’ve welcomed many insightful guests who gave us tons of great advice. But recently we thought, “What about the fantastic leaders and visionaries who spoke with us before we started making newsletters??” Well, folks, we thought it was time to give them their moment in the sun.

We spend a lot of time talking about speed, automation, conversion, etc. But in this episode, the conversation took a turn toward something the industry often treats as secondary until a breach forces it back into focus. With Brad and Eric Blumberg, founders of Aster Key, the real issue is not simply cybersecurity as an IT problem. It is trust as a business strategy.

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TRUST IS WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN GOLD

A major theme tied to the Blumbergs’ work is the idea that trust is no longer a soft brand value. It is the currency that determines whether consumers engage, disclose, and continue forward in a process that already feels intrusive to many. Brad summarized it simply: “Trust is the new currency.” That lands for us because the product we all offer requires very detailed disclosure. We ask for income, assets, account history, and more, often before a consumer even understands how the process works.

For lenders and mortgage leaders, that means the front end of the borrower journey is no longer just a conversion funnel. It is a trust test. From our point of view, this is exactly the kind of conversation mortgage professionals need to be having right now. Because for years, the industry has been willing to optimize the process around convenience for the institution while quietly offloading anxiety onto the consumer. Confident and comfortable clients are not made by burying them in opaque data points and concepts. The Blumbergs’ public framing around consumer data being treated as if it is “owned” by institutions gets to the heart of why that is changing. If the borrower increasingly sees their personal financial data as theirs, not ours, then the firms that earn trust fastest will have a structural advantage.

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16:55 - 17:17 -- "We have a bunch of patents in the way that we handle security because the number one thing we do is empower the customer to compile their data. We don't hold anything. You could hack into Aster Key and guess what? There's nothing in there except the phone number."

CONSUMER-CONTROLLED DATA COULD RESHAPE THE FRONT END

Aster Key’s positioning is centered on consumer control. The platform enables users to anonymize, organize, and encrypt their financial data on their mobile devices, and even start a mortgage anonymously with participating lenders. In practical terms, the premise is simple but disruptive: let the borrower control when personally identifiable information is revealed rather than making disclosure the price of admission at the very beginning of the process. That matters because mortgage has long accepted a clumsy opening move.

We call it application flow. Consumers often experience it as overexposure. The Blumbergs suggest a different approach, one where a borrower can establish their level of seriousness, financial profile, or proof of funds without immediately giving up everything. That is not just a privacy play, it’s customer service. They described the mortgage process as feeling like a bad date: “awkward, but unsafe and invasive.” That is a line lenders should sit with for a minute, because it’s true. Consumers tolerate a lot in the homebuying process because they believe the outcome is worth it. But tolerance is not the same as trust, and it is definitely not the same as loyalty.

FundingShield is the market leader in embedded wire and title fraud prevention, closing agent vetting, and compliance automation. With over $4.5 trillion in mortgage and real estate transactions protected, our solutions deliver unmatched security and efficiency. Lenders rely on our real-time, source-verified, decision-ready data to safeguard funds, streamline workflows, and reduce operating costs across closing and title workflows. Contact sales@fundingshield.com to discover how we can help you close with confidence.

17:21 - 17:42 -- "Our magic is that the consumer is creating their profile on their phone, not in some Aster Key server or some other big server. So we're letting you control everything, get you lender-ready, so you can give it to a lender when you want to."

PRIVACY ISN’T JUST A COMPLIANCE ISSUE - IT’S GROWTH

Mortgage companies often talk about security in defensive terms: avoid the breach, satisfy the audit, check the box. But one of the more provocative ideas offered by Eric and Brad is that privacy and security can actually be growth drivers. The way they see it, trust and privacy are “untapped marketing and competitive advantages.”

That framing is useful because it forces leadership teams to stop viewing security purely as cost center logic. If a lender can credibly tell borrowers that their data will remain more secure, with more control on their end, that promise could influence conversion, referral behavior, and brand preference. Let’s face it: many lenders are still functionally identical, so trust may be one of the few differentiators that actually matters. The firms that win may not just be the ones that close fast. They may be the ones that make consumers feel safe enough to take the leap.

22:27 - 22:44 -- "This is about cleaning up the screwed-up data process, the very fragmented data process in the mortgage industry. Once you clean up and secure data, you can begin a lot of innovation that the heavy hitters in the industry might not have even thought about."

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Today, more than 1,000 mortgage professionals rely on the TRUE MOS platform, and they process over 600,000 loans annually. Looking to move beyond AI pilots and create real operational impact? Visit TRUE.ai

WINNERS REDUCE FRICTION WITHOUT SACRIFICING SECURITY

The best fintech ideas usually survive because they solve two problems at once. In Aster Key’s case, those two problems are security and usability. Eric described their platform as mobile-first, “no forms, no friction, no strings attached.” That focus matters because mortgage has a bad habit of forcing tradeoffs. Security can make things clunkier. Convenience can make things riskier. Borrower experience gets squeezed in the middle.

The Blumbergs emphasized that reducing data exposure does not have to mean creating more friction. In fact, if built correctly, it may remove some of the most painful friction in the process by letting borrowers engage sooner and more comfortably. This is not just about protecting data in theory. It is about designing systems where privacy and performance are not enemies. The larger lesson is that mortgage may be approaching another meaningful turning point. Not a turning point driven solely by rates, volumes, or product innovation, but by a simple consumer demand: treat my data like it belongs to me.

Full episode

To hear more lively discussions and special guest insights in the realm of mortgages and real estate, check out TheMikedUp Show with Mike Kelleher and Michael Zau, every Thursday at 2pmET!

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