Riley Chen
Co-founder, Principal
FSRA M11045678 · ex-RBC underwriter, 11 yrs
Built the lender comparison engine. Reviews every file >$1.5M personally.
Engineers who do mortgages. Not mortgage brokers who hired engineers.
Northstar opened in 2021. Two co-founders: one ex-Big-Five underwriter, one ex-Big-Five banking-tech engineer. We built the platform we wished existed when we sat on the other side of the desk.
2,400+
closings / year
52
lender API integrations
87%
first-pass approval
$1.4B
originated 2025
// principles
Four operating principles.
01
Show our math.
Every rate, every comparison, every stress-test calculation visible in the platform. No black-box scoring. If our number disagrees with another broker, we'll show you which assumption diverged.
02
Lender-blind.
We don't have a 'preferred' lender. The platform ranks by your scenario — not by what pays us best. The volume bonuses we get from monolines are split back into rate buy-downs for clients.
03
API-fed, not list-priced.
Posted rates lie. We pull from 52 lender APIs every 4 hours during business hours. The number you see is the broker rate, not the marketing rate.
04
Engineered files.
Every file is run through a structured underwriting checklist before submission. First-pass approval rate: 87%. Industry average: 62%. Less back-and-forth, faster commitment letters.
// the team
Principals you'll work with directly.
Marcus Kowalski
Co-founder, Head of Engineering
ex-Big 5 BDM tech lead
Architected the API integrations to all 52 lenders. Wrote the rate-hunt algorithm.
Priya Haque
Senior Advisor
FSRA M14008912 · self-employed specialist, 9 yrs
Lead on T2125 / 1099-equiv files. Author of our 'Self-employed mortgage playbook'.
Jordan Tremblay
Senior Advisor
FSRA M12003456 · 13 yrs investment property
Investment-portfolio mortgages, multi-property files, rental-income underwriting.
Run your scenario.
60-second rate hunt across 52 lenders. No credit pull. See if it's worth a conversation.
Run my rate hunt →