Nectarine Credit
Helping Companies Manage Customer Credit Applications
What is your background?
I (Alex Armitage) am a 4x start-up founder. I have been fortunate enough to have had two successful exits, and Nectarine Credit is my latest venture. But before my entrepreneurial itch, I worked as a financial journalist for Bloomberg. I covered the collapse of Enron, the ouster of Disney’s CEO, Disney’s purchase of Pixar, and other significant multi-billion dollar acquisitions. The list goes on. I was privileged enough to interview some of our generation’s best business minds, including Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Bob Iger, and Rupert Murdoch. I worked hard, but mostly I made my own luck -- and I was in the right place at the right time. It’s worth noting that, in my opinion, Bloomberg is really the most well-run SaaS company in the world. That’s our model for success.
What problem are you solving? Did you face it personally?
After my time working for Bloomberg, I bootstrapped two companies in the natural products business. I saw two untapped niches and just jumped in headfirst. To be honest, it was pretty dumb. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. But it worked out - mostly through a lot of perseverance. I saw a massive problem for small and medium businesses in the vendor credit aspect of these two businesses. As buyers of goods, we were always begging for 30-day terms from our suppliers. And our suppliers had no way to research our credit history and no way to manage the approval process. It was the most broken element of those businesses. I started zeroing in on this business problem.
What is your solution?
At Nectarine Credit, we are looking to be the Bloomberg terminal of the vendor credit space. We want every credit manager and credit analyst in the country to need our platform. We are on our way to being the best vendor credit analytics and decisioning provider with the most user-friendly workflows on the market -- not to mention the best credit scoring.
Why do you believe that this is the perfect time to build this product?
There is nothing short of a technology revolution happening before our eyes. Most of us know this because we are techies or VCs and we eat and breathe this all day. But vendor credit is an old, antiquated, and cumbersome industry. Dun & Bradstreet and Equifax were founded in the 1800s. That’s telling. We are coming at the problems in this market with industry-shattering technology. Our competitors aren’t even going to know what’s hit them.
Why are you excited about the industry you are building in?
I love solving business problems. One man’s headache is another man’s opportunity. There is so much opportunity in vendor credit in this market that we often don’t know where to begin. It’s our job to focus on our strategic vision, not get distracted, and produce excellent results.
What has been the biggest lesson you have learned so far on your journey?
Start-ups are hard -- really hard. I’ve learned this repeatedly with my four companies, but every time it hits me like a fast-moving train. I must remind myself that everything takes more time and money than we first believe.
Who have been your biggest supporters up-today
I have an amazing, tight-knit group of entrepreneurs with whom I routinely get together. From a business perspective, that’s about as good as it gets. From a personal and morale standpoint, I couldn’t do this without my wife’s support.
Asks: What do you need help with? (Not fundraising related) .
Ooopphhhh. Where to begin?!
Nectarine is hiring Elixir developers and building out their SaaS sales team. There are dozens of current popular opinions about how to scale and if anyone is interested in sharing notes - please get in touch with Alex. He is always interested in connecting with other software companies in the risk, compliance, fraud prevention, lending, and fintech space.
