Hey! We’re Athan and Brianna, the cofounders of Copperlane (YC W26).

Copperlane helps mortgage lenders originate loans faster and eliminate intake errors. Our AI agent Penny proactively closes loans by optimizing rate pricing, directing borrowers, and verifying docs. Loan officers receive complete files and can focus on bringing in new deals.

Copperlane Launch Video

The Problem

It costs lenders $11,800 to originate a single mortgage. Most of that money is burned during intake:

• Loan officer labor
• Lost loans from confusing applications, back-and-forth, and bad rates
• Costly mistakes from poorly structured files

All of these issues share the same root cause: people miss things. Borrowers upload the wrong documents, and lenders have to chase down borrowers to clarify details. This happens on almost every loan, every day, across 8 million loans a year.

Our Solution

Copperlane is an AI-native loan origination system powered by our agent, Penny, who behaves like a real loan officer by:

1. Pulling borrower documents, reading them, and checking borrower loan eligibility
2. Answering borrower questions live and helping them complete the loan application correctly
3. Flagging missing documents or conflicting information and following up with borrowers
4. Generating Letters of Explanation and building context around the applicant's financial profile

Penny delivers complete, organized files to Loan Officers, so they can spend more time closing and bringing in business.

The Team

We’re friends from the same hometown area, and we both come from mortgage families.

• Athan Zhang - CEO:

  Studied CS at Princeton. Ex-quant developer and 2x founding team at startups.

• Brianna Lin - COO:

  Studied CS and Finance at Penn M&T. Ex-Wall St. trader and 1st hire at prev. startup

Our Ask

If you KNOW ANYONE in mortgage lending who's frustrated with origination costs, cycle times, or loan fallout, we'd really appreciate an intro. ❤️

You can reach us at founders@copperlane.ai, or book a demo at copperlane.ai. Thanks for reading! :)

Carpe diem,

Athan and Brianna