After five years of steady growth, Hsieh, 56, finally took LoanDepot public this past February in an IPO that made him a billionaire thanks to his 54% stake in the company, part of an estimated $2 billion fortune that includes an Orange County mansion he bought for a record-breaking $61 million in October.

“But looking back now, that was absolutely the right decision.” I second-guessed myself many times after that,' he says in a Zoom call from New York while on a business trip in early April, reminiscing on his first attempt at a public listing.