Chestnut is an AI mortgage lender building software to automate loan workflows and lower consumer interest rates by more than 0.5 percentage points. Founded in January 2025, the San Francisco-based startup is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Olive Tree Capital, and Y Combinator, targets the $128 billion mortgage market, and currently operates in Texas and Colorado.
Automated Mortgage Processing
Chestnut uses AI agents to automate up to 99% of manual mortgage tasks. The company offers home purchases, refinances, and cash-out loans. Its technical infrastructure combines a frontend and API stack built with TypeScript, React, Node, GraphQL, Apollo, Prisma, Postgres, and Redis with AI and voice engines including Retell, Google Gemini, and OpenAI. The core platform relies on Go microservices, Kubernetes, Temporal event-driven workflows, and Snowflake data infrastructure.
Founder Background
Chestnut was founded by CEO Spencer Brown. Prior to Chestnut, Brown built a mortgage software system that powered $85 billion in volume for a top-10 lender and processed 2% of annual US mortgages. Brown began coding at age 12, founded his first business at 16, worked as an early engineer at six seed- and Series A-stage startups, and holds a computer science degree from Purdue University.
Engineering and Field Operations Hiring
Chestnut is expanding its team across software engineering and product operations.
In San Francisco, the company is recruiting engineers to build its core platform. A Software Engineer (Staff-Level) will lead the design and implementation of foundational platform systems across Go, TypeScript, React, Kubernetes, Temporal, and Snowflake. A Software Engineer (Senior-Level) will develop core services, event-driven workflows, React interfaces, and automation layers. Additionally, a Software Engineer (Mid-Level) will collaborate with product and design teams to build and iterate on platform features.
For remote operations, Chestnut is hiring a Forward Deployed Product Manager. The role focuses on embedding with customers, managing client deployments end-to-end, and restructuring distribution workflows. The role requires 10% to 20% travel.
Open Roles at Chestnut
| Role | Location | Work Mode |
|---|---|---|
| Software Engineer (Staff-Level) | San Francisco | Hybrid |
| Software Engineer (Senior-Level) | San Francisco | Hybrid |
| Software Engineer (Mid-Level) | San Francisco | Hybrid |
| Forward Deployed Product Manager | Remote | Remote |
