Exclusive Billionaire Interview: Pavan Agarwal on AI, Mortgages and Real Estate Investing

Key takeaways

• Agarwal credits his father's hard work and old-fashioned business practices with helping Sun West Mortgage grow from less than $100,000. He says doing things right and keeping promises helped the company endure.
• During the financial crisis, Sun West was down to its last $50,000. Longtime trading partners chose to trust the company rather than margin call it.
• Agarwal advises being candid with long-term partners when business is difficult. He says bluffing can damage years of trust.
• He compares AI to an ocean with many waves, and advises businesses to focus on the technology's fundamentals and build for the long term.
• Agarwal says a third party valued the company's AI patents at more than $100 billion. He clarifies that this was a valuation of the patents, not the business.
• He describes the development of Sun West's decisioning technology over decades, with the pieces coming together as one engine in 2019. Its conversational interface first served internal staff before expanding to consumers and others in the industry.
• Agarwal says changing from a local company mindset to a national one helped spur growth. Sun West invested in nationwide marketing and accepted more risk than its earlier approach allowed.
• He recommends understanding the fundamentals of a market and taking a long-term position when the investment case still holds, rather than trying to time tops and bottoms.
• Agarwal says he likes real estate for its consistent, predictable returns, and cautions investors to investigate what lies beneath a bond's rating.
• He sees potential in technology startups with strong ideas that cannot get funded, particularly for investors who have cash, understand technology and can be patient.