September 23rd, 2009 by Alex Coté
As we blogged about a few weeks back, big businesses are taking longer to pay their small business suppliers while in turn expecting payment from these same partners much faster. As a result, while America’s largest companies extricate themselves from the recent credit crunch, most small companies continue to feel the pinch. Much of this is, of course, due to the power that these industry giants wield over their smaller counterparts. But we believe that a large part of the pain can be directly traced back to an antiquated commercial credit system that is stacked against the little guy.
With yesterday’s launch, we are excited by the passion and general enthusiasm from the business community. Here is some feedback we’ve heard so far:
Wall Street Journal – Venture Capital Dispatch
“The company likens itself to a business-to-business version of Yelp.com. Given the plethora of user generated feedback about consumer products available on the Internet, it was only natural for important things, like the credit risk of a potential customer, be vetted in a more open community.”
- Scott Denne, Venture Capital Dispatch / Wall Street Journal
CNET
“I think I just found the dullest company at Demo 09 to write about. But you know how these things go: Often it’s the block-and-tacklers that find huge success while the science-fiction dreamers end up manning ski lifts.”
- Rafe Needleman, CNET
Credit.com
“Last year, a friend called me asking for advice. Her coaching and consulting firm was stiffed for a couple grand by another business. The firm that didn’t pay her for her services was located across the country, so there was a good chance that any money she spent trying to collect would be a matter of throwing good money after bad. “Can’t I report them to the credit bureaus?” she asked. “Probably not,” was my response. The credit reporting agencies are set up to collect large volumes of information from established clients, not one-time reports like hers.
Today, my answer to her would be different.
That’s because Cortera, a community-driven business information company, has unveiled the Cortera Credit Exchange, a new online service that, for the first time, blends business credit report data with user generated payment experience reviews and ratings from companies’ business partners.”
- Gerri Detweiler, credit expert and co-author of Business Credit Success
eWeek
“The second batch of products were focused on payment systems, and the one that was of the most interest to me was one that another tech writer called the most boring product at DEMOfall. Cortera is another service that seems to fill a void for business today, especially small businesses. Cortera provides credit information on businesses large and small but then combines it with ratings from a community of small business owners, who provide feedback both good and bad on these businesses. So, for example, if a company has a habit of not paying suppliers or paying very late, a new catering business looking to provide services to the negligent company can then either choose to not do business with the deadbeat company or make sure they negotiate upfront payments.”
Jim Rapoza, eWeek
Boston.com
“Cortera aims to be a kind of “wisdom of the crowds”-driven business credit agency. CEO Jim Swift likes to describe it as “Yelp for business credit.” And in the same way that the user-powered review site Yelp has taken on established players like Zagat, Cortera has Dun & Bradstreet in its sights.”
Scott Kirsner, Boston.com
VentureBeat
“Cortera is significant because payments between small companies are crucial to their businesses, so it’s important to track them, and identify untrustworthy partners. And traditional credit reports represent deals from less than 1 percent of businesses in the US, Cortera says.”
Anthony Ha, VentureBeat
(No Ratings Yet)
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