Putting Capital Back to Work: The Receivables Exchange Creates a New Way for Small and Midsize Business to Manage Cash Flow

Abstract

often led me to think about how we might disrupt the status quo or provide an innovation that favors a more efficient or convenient arrangement of the marketplace. In the last 20 years, we have seen numerous disruptions that have forever transformed businesses and lifestyles—cell phones and computers are the most obvious examples. Despite these advances, the way small and midsize businesses (SMBs) secure capital has changed very little for many decades. My vision for modernizing accounts receivable and getting working capital into the hands of small and midsize businesses, together with my partner Justin Brownhill’s idea for an exchange and his experience with electronic trading technology, led to the establishment in 2007 of The Receivables Exchange, and the launch in November 2008 of the world’s first online capital marketplace for buying and selling accounts receivable. In doing so, we succeeded in providing a new solution to the age-old problem of cash flow that almost all businesses face. Moreover, by establishing our headquarters in New Orleans, we also have had the opportunity to play a central role in building the dynamic and entrepreneurial city that has emerged since Hurricane Katrina. The credit crisis of 2008 and 2009 made it nearly impossible for a business of any size to get access to capital, much less the millions of SMBs that took the brunt of the financial fallout. Given that our launch occurred in the midst of the crisis, people sometimes assume that we developed The Receivables Exchange in response to it. However, the idea for the Exchange was born out of a fundamental belief that SMBs should have unfettered access to capital in the same way that large companies have access to the stock exchanges and the commercial paper market.