New venture Origna8 aims to arm brokers with tech, leads and wholesale partners
Former Rocket Pro executive Daniel Sogorka stepped out of stealth with a new wholesale venture, Origna8.com. The platform aims to be a tech-and-leads hub for mortgage brokers in an intensely competitive market.
The Dearborn, Michigan-based platform, slated to launch in May, plans to bundle broker technology, marketing, recruiting, leads and lender partnerships under one roof and to prioritize pure wholesale lenders.
Origna8 has roughly two dozen employees in mid-April and expects to support multiple mortgage products nationwide.
AI-driven tools with a broker-first message
In a LinkedIn post announcing the venture, Sogorka said Origna8 would be “a wholesale lending platform that will enable brokers to access a full suite of technology, leads and lender relationships powered by Agentic Ai.”
He added: “As CEO, my focus will be enabling our brokers to build relationships and help consumers while deploying agentic Ai in ways our industry has never experienced.”
Sogorka said he is “excited to exit stealth mode on two ventures that have the opportunity to reshape how mortgage origination functions going forward” and described Origna8’s technology partners as “world class,” calling the model “truly differentiated.”
He also disclosed a second role as executive chairman at Conrad, a separate mortgage technology business focused on top-of-funnel lead conversion and other origination inefficiencies.
“It will take relationships, domain expertise and start-up grit to win this next phase of mortgage technology,” Sogorka said.
“I am looking forward to working with experts in both lending AND Ai to build world class businesses that make it easier for Americans to buy homes and build wealth.”
From broker wars to new alliances
On the commercial side, former Rocket Pro executive Mike Fawaz is set to lead Origna8’s broker community, with United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) as its first lender partner.
The pairing marks a striking turn for Fawaz, who once fronted Rocket’s “Bully Shield” initiative, a campaign that accused UWM’s controversial “All-In” ultimatum of harming independent brokers.
Fawaz, who previously told Mortgage Professional America that “freedom” for brokers was a guiding principle in his career, described his own journey as one shaped by fleeing civil wars before arriving in the United States “with a pair of flip-flops.”
For brokers, the launch underscores two converging trends: the arms race to deliver differentiated technology and AI, and a renewed focus on wholesale-only alignment after years of acrimony over channel conflicts.
How quickly Origna8 could turn its AI pitch and lender roster into tangible production would be an early test of whether a broker-first, AI-enabled platform could cut through in a still-fragile origination market.
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