Dan Gilbert’s Quicken Takes on Big Tech After Beating the Banks

Billionaire Dan Gilbert’s Quicken Loans Inc. outgrew almost every U.S. mortgage provider by unfurling technology like its online Rocket Mortgage platform faster than big banks.

Now closing in on the industry’s leader, Wells Fargo & Co., he’s picking more fights: Luring top tech talent to Detroit from Silicon Valley giants like Facebook Inc. and Google.

“Everything is about innovation, creativity, newness, trying to keep the culture non-bureaucratic,” Gilbert said in a phone interview. “To me, that’s how you compete in the world today.”

Gilbert, who owns 77 percent of the mortgage lender he founded more than three decades ago, boosted ...