For Lili Farhandi, true innovation was never about breaking the mold—it was about sharpening it. In an industry bogged down by outdated processes and inefficiency, she saw a clear path forward: not a revolution, but a precise and powerful refinement.
With a background in fintech, engineering, and process optimization, she built a career solving complex problems with precision. After graduating from Purdue, her journey began at Accenture, where she spent years working with financial giants like JP Morgan and Fannie Mae, leading initiatives to streamline operations, cut costs, and introduce greater efficiencies into financial services. But it was during her time at Fannie Mae, exploring the role of blockchain in mortgage processing, that she found herself drawn into the broader real estate industry and the inefficiencies deeply embedded into title and escrow.
That experience led her to SafeChain, one of the earliest companies experimenting with blockchain in real estate transactions. The goal was ambitious—using decentralized technology to make title transfers peer to peer and instant. But while the vision was bold, the reality of the industry was starkly different. Title and escrow were still highly manual, reliant on esoteric processes, and expensive to modernize. Farhandi quickly saw that the industry’s biggest challenge wasn’t just a lack of technology—it was knowing where to apply it effectively.
Farhandi’s career has been a study in targeted problem-solving, and nowhere was that clearer than in her next role. After her time at SafeChain, she returned to fintech, serving as Head of Product at ClickSwitch, a company helping banks streamline customer onboarding. Unlike many startups trying to revolutionize an industry overnight, ClickSwitch succeeded by doing one thing exceptionally well—solving a highly specific problem that banks urgently needed fixed. The company was eventually acquired (NYSE: QTWO), and the experience gave Farhandi a fundamental insight that would shape her future in title and escrow.
“ClickSwitch was laser-focused, and that’s what made it successful,” she explains. “Too many companies try to fix everything at once and end up solving nothing. The key to true innovation isn’t disruption for the sake of it—it’s understanding what actually moves the needle and going all in on that.”
That realization became the foundation of Razi, the company she co-founded to bring smarter, data-driven solutions to title agencies. Instead of trying to transform the entire industry in one sweeping motion, Razi focused on solving one of the industry’s biggest inefficiencies: title search.
Farhandi believes that data is the most underutilized asset in title and escrow. Unlike other financial sectors where analytics drive decision-making, title agencies have historically lacked visibility into their own performance. Many companies still struggle with fragmented systems, manual processes, and a lack of real-time insight into their business metrics.
“Back in 2017, most title companies weren’t tracking basic performance indicators,” she says. “Many had no way to see month-over-month trends, identify bottlenecks, or make data-driven decisions. Everything was reactive. That’s starting to change, but not fast enough.”
At Razi, the mission is to help title agencies unlock the power of their own data, streamlining operations and making transactions faster and more efficient. By focusing on title search automation and prior policy retrieval, Razi enables title agents to spend less time digging through records and more time delivering value to their clients. Razi’s customers are the industry’s highest-performing companies, quietly leveraging their own data to gain market share to drive measurable results. The goal isn’t just to digitize what already exists—it’s to fundamentally rethink how title professionals interact with data, using it to improve decision-making, reduce costs, and create more seamless workflows.
But Farhandi is clear that technology alone isn’t the solution. “Data is just a tool. It can guide decisions, but it doesn’t replace expertise. The key is knowing which data points matter and using them to take meaningful action.”
Looking ahead, Farhandi sees a smarter, leaner, more transparent industry—not through revolutions, but focused improvements. While AI, automation, and blockchain will shape the future, no single technology is a silver bullet. Success will come to companies that apply tech strategically, where it matters most.
Her advice for title agencies? Focus. “Find your biggest inefficiency and fix it. Not five things—just one. Solve it completely, then move on.” Trying to be everything to everyone, she warns, spreads companies too thin. Instead, they should refine their strengths and let everything else follow.
“The future of title isn’t about chasing trends—it’s about applying technology where it actually makes a difference.”
For Farhandi, the takeaway is clear: those who focus will lead the next era of title and escrow.
The Growth & Scale Report is published by CloseSimple, and explores strategies for growth and tools for scaling your title or escrow company. The report emphasizes the art of balancing growth and scale, with a focus on personal and organizational success stories. It aims to share insights from industry leaders who have navigated these challenges, providing a platform for broader conversations in the business landscape.