David Rogove spent years inside mortgage processing, including building Wemlo and selling it to RE/MAX Holdings. His conclusion: the industry never lacked software. It lacked coordination between the software.
His new company, Maestro, is his answer. Maestro closed an oversubscribed $1.2 million pre-seed round in February. It was led by New Stack Ventures, with Family VC, ZFO, Joe Roos's own Roark's Drift, and local angel investors participating. On outsized demand, the round was later upsized at a higher valuation cap. Worcester Ventures and other strategic investors joined, bringing total capital raised to $1.6 million. Commercial availability is targeted for December.
This is part of a peer-to-peer series of conversations MAIN runs exclusively with Miami's AI founders, investors and leaders.
We asked Rogove three questions by email. His answers, lightly edited for length, are below.
The origin: what bottleneck proved an agentic AI layer was necessary?
"Working inside the processing function across hundreds of brokerages showed me that two brokers could use the same LOS and submit to the same wholesale lender, yet still operate with completely different workflows. The problem wasn't a lack of technology. Mortgage companies already had an LOS, pricing engines, automated underwriting, eSign and lender portals. The bottleneck was the coordination between them. People were still re-entering information, chasing documents, checking statuses and figuring out who owned the next step. We had digitized individual tasks without connecting the work."
Agentic AI changed the approach, he said. Not another tool for the operator, but an execution layer that completes repeatable processing work and carries the file forward. Mortgage professionals keep control of decisions and exceptions.
How do the agents work day to day?
"A mortgage takes about 38 days from application to closing, while the hands-on processing work within that cycle is estimated at roughly 11 hours. Much of the time in between is lost to coordination. Files wait for the next person, system or confirmation."
Maestro built seven specialized agents, one per stage of the loan:
- Intake and the 1003
- Document collection
- Income and asset calculations
- Pricing and product fit
- Pre-submission quality control
- Submission and status tracking
- Conditions through closing
Each hands the file to the next and carries its context forward. Every action creates a timestamped audit trail, and a person can take back control at any point.
Licensing is the less visible part of the model. Third-party mortgage processing is a licensed activity, and Maestro holds licenses in roughly 20 states. That lets its agents perform processing work directly, rather than recommend the next action to someone else.
Why scale from South Florida?
"Florida is one of the largest mortgage markets in the country, so we're building close to the people who will actually use Maestro. South Florida's technology community has changed dramatically since I moved here nearly seven years ago. There are more founders building here, more investors paying attention and more experienced business leaders willing to open doors."
The Gold Coast Tech Accelerator connected the company with customers, partners and investors. It is backed by Related Ross, eMerge Americas and the Florida Council of 100.
"You no longer have to be in New York or Silicon Valley to build a serious fintech company," he said. "The access we've found here is real."
Maestro enters a mortgage market where volume and margin pressure keep processing costs under a microscope. A licensed, agent-driven execution layer built by someone who already sold a company in this space is a combination worth watching. Commercial availability in December will be the first real test.