This time last year, when we reported negative gross margins for title, this improvement reflects the ongoing cost optimization programs we’ve undertaken and highlights our ability to align the costs deliver this service for the current economic climate. Non-GAAP operating cost for the fourth quarter totaled $33 million, compared with $58.1 million in the previous year. This improvement reflects the full realization of all cost savings initiatives we started last year and additional programs we’ve identified to ultimately manage our cost per employee to more competitive market rates. As we move forward, these initiatives are gaining momentum, and we continue to identify more areas for efficiency without compromising sustainable growth and investment.
Our non-GAAP loss from operations was $13.1 million in Q4, coming in well ahead of the high end of our guidance range and fishing the year having improved this in every quarter of 2023. We expect to continue this momentum into 2024 as we track towards our ultimate goal of reporting the first quarter of non-GAAP profitability in Q4 this year. While we continue to take efficiency actions that we believe could accelerate this earlier in the year, the timing will ultimately remain dependent on the level of origination activity, which is still uncertain. With that, we remain committed to this goal and have identified areas to adapt our operating model to achieve this profitability target should the market environment deteriorate further. We saw strong renewals and new customer signings that incorporated committed fees.
This translated into growth in our remaining performance obligations this quarter, which reached $94.9 million in the fourth quarter. We expanded RPO by more than $35 million versus Q3, reflecting five new seven-digit contracts and renewals in the quarter. We expect to see continued expansion in our RPO as we land new logos, execute more renewals under our subscription model and as we enter into Platform deals with longer and larger commitments. Q4 marked another quarter of improvement in our cash burn as measured by our free cash flow. We continue to make improvements here, including the reduction of our interest burden following the opportunistic pay down of our term loan. As a reminder, during the quarter, we prepaid $85 million of our term loan balance and amended the maturity date to provide for a one-year extension to 2027 provided we meet certain conditions.
With our balance sheet in strong position, we made a decision to reduce our debt load to optimize our capital structure and add optionality around the maturity of this obligation. Our actions to operate with efficiency in combination with our resilient top line and improved margins are having a significant impact as we reflect towards positive cash generation. Now turning to the balance sheet. Our cash, cash equivalents, marketable securities $144 million as of the end of fourth quarter. We are confident we have taken the appropriate measures to ensure our business remains well capitalized and that we have sufficient liquidity based on our current projections and in this macro environment. Lastly, let me move on to our outlook for the first quarter of 2024.
We expect Platform revenue to be between $22 million and $24 million in Q1 2024. We expect our title business revenue to be between $10.5 million and $11.5 million. Our total Company revenue outlook is expected to be between $32.5 million and $35.5 million for Q1. Our guidance is based on our internal assessment of customer level growth, as well as our own outlook of Q1 origination activity, based on the application volume observed to date through our own customer base, which we feel is representative of the broader market. We see Q1 mortgage volume to be consistent or slightly below Q4 2023, for approximately 800,000 to 875,000 total originations. Our total non-GAAP net operating loss is expected to be between $12 million and $14 million for Q1, with the midpoint representing a greater than 50% improvement year-over-year.
We believe we have built the business and operating model to respond swiftly to the market fluctuations, and we’ll continue to adapt as conditions evolve. I want to reiterate, that we remain confident in the long-term targets we’ve shared with you at Investor Day, and are encouraged by the strong set of opportunities we have in front of us. As we continue to execute, we are building resilience in our model against the short term fluctuations in the market and adding further diversification in our business that will serve as countercyclical offsets in the future. This is paramount to our strategy within our second phase, and we look forward to continuing to update you on the progress here. With that, thank you again for joining. Bryan. We’re now ready for questions.
A – Bryan Michaleski: Thank you Nima and Amir for your remarks. With that, we’ll begin the Q&A portion of this call. Our first question comes from David Unger with Wells Fargo. David, you can go ahead, and unmute and please state your question.
Q – David Unger: Thank you Thank you very much and thanks for taking the question. Flood covenant [ph] prepared remarks. I appreciate it. So I definitely want to get a better sense for Blend stands relative to its 2026 forecast provided from the Investor Day. Obviously rates have been less favorable since and maybe the base case is closer to the conservative case today, based on the updated mortgage volumes. That said, I wonder if the lower volumes, and capture market share or revenue per funded loan in a good way. I heard the comments on the big pipeline. So wondering, if the challenge macro can keep improving your market share given your strong footprint? Any color there would be great.
