Today sees the public launch of Company.com, a new social community service for small to medium-sized businesses. The website aims to provide companies with useful editorial content and reviews, a vetted Web-based vendor marketplace, a Q&A section and more.
Of course, there are hundreds of community websites for businesses out there, and so far it seems like the premium domain name is the only thing that makes Company.com stand out of that particular crop in any way. That said, the company is backed and advised by a slew of experienced entrepreneurs and field experts, so it would be premature to assess its fate upon launch.
Company.com says it’s setting out to build a truly trusted community of vendors, offering exclusive deals to website members, while presenting their offerings in a Comparison Shopping Engine Environment (CSE).
Initially, services will be focused on financial products and lending solutions that can help SMBs through the credit crunch, accompanied by user guides, answers to business-related questions, specific articles and interviews from experts related to the issues or products that solve for better efficiency and savings for the SMB.
Subscribers can also promote their business on the Company.com website and gain access to other subscribers, giving them the chance to find new customers and partners within the ecosystem.
Company.com aims to attract SMBs from a diverse set of distribution channels. The startup hopes to reach some 20 million SMBs through cooperative agreements that will launch in Q2 2010 – Company.com sais it has already successfully contracted relationships representing over 7 million small and medium-sized businesses in the States, although the company wants to keep the identity of these partners confidential until the agreements are fully implemented.
Company.com is funded by a group of angel investors, led by the company’s CEO Bill Wade and selected angels that invested in his prior companies Network 1 Financial and Verus Financial Management. Prior to Company.com, Wade served as Vice Chairman of Sage Payment Solutions, a division of Sage Software.
On its board, a set of seasoned executives: Kamyar Kaviani (Chairman and CEO of Application Corporation), Shervin Pishevar (founder and former CEO, now Chairman of social gaming company SGN), Colin Digiaro (one of the co-founders of MySpace, where he most recently served as SVP of International Corporate Development) and Peter Adams (former President of Matchpoint.com), among others.
To date, Company.com has raised total of $3.2 million in two closings, one in March 2009 and the second in January 2010.
As for the nice domain name: it has been under ownership of a private company co-owned by Bill Wade since 2001. It has no operational history, and Wade made the decision to launch a business around the attractive domain after he retired from Sage Software in 2008.
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