Michael Goldstein, CEO and founder of SwitchPitch, started SwitchPitch 6 years ago with a question and hypothesis in mind: would partnerships happen faster if they started with the corporate need, rather than the startup solution? Michael answers some questions below about how Switchpitch started and evolved.

How did SwitchPitch start?

Answer: “I’m a startup guy…all I’ve ever done is startups. One of the challenges that startups always have is creating relationships with corporations. After I sold my last company, I decided I wanted to fix that problem; I wanted to make it easy for corporates to partner with startups. Historically, startups would go to big companies and say, ‘Here’s what you need, it’s the greatest thing’. What we did is have big companies present to a live audience of startups on what they need…and we had 20 projects presented to a live audience of startups…real deals came out of it..enterprises knew there was due diligence for startups. We did that for about 4 years in the US and Europe and we would eventually make it into an online platform. The platform replicates what we did at the event initially where companies can post needs to an audience of startups but then ultimately it’s grown into what it is now, which is a Startup Relationship Management tool used by big enterprises to align startups to internal business needs.

How has SwitchPitch evolved?

Answer: “it used to be a side project and then it became a way of doing business where there was budget, Chief Innovation Officers, and prioritization around working with external solutions. What we realized is that we had to add a layer of intelligence, so we built out an Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning (AI/ML) solution that analyzes the startups’ websites, crawls lots of different sources, and then uses natural language processing to really figure out what the startups are capable of. This makes it easier for innovation teams to uncover the startups with the capabilities that they need. The AI/ML is really what makes it very efficient for enterprises to find the startups that can do what they need, and to de-risk the partnership because they already have the due diligence done.

Why SwitchPitch?

Answer: "Everything that innovation teams see on the platform is designed to be intuitive to them. Other databases were built for investors, but if you’re a corporate innovation executive, you need more granular details, capability, and if the startup can handle the capacity and the context of what your need is. Where we shine is using machine learning and natural language processing to extract the details in ways that no one else is doing. We've come up with a proprietary way to identify the details of startups’ capabilities and align them to corporate needs. That alignment piece is really where we’re best in class - that’s why our clients renew and new clients come to us - we are the leaders when it comes to aligning startups for innovation used cases to internal business needs."

We’re proud to announce our new series, Startup of the Month!

SwitchPitch’s comprehensive SRM database includes hundreds of thousands of startups and we want to highlight one that has been highly tracked and utilized by clients this month.

Introducing Personetics Technologies! Personetics provides financial institutions the ability to offer personalized customer experiences online, accessible through mobile and tablet platforms. The product includes a library of predictions and solutions for digital users.

More specifically, Personetics uses AI to analyze financial data in real time which allows banks to understand customer financial behavior and offer specialized insight, advice, and wellness programs. It also enables for their own personalization Internet Protocol. This helps institutions find solutions for the unique needs of each of their customers.

Personetics was founded in 2010 in White Plains, New York by David Govrin and David Sosna with the goal of actualizing a world of "Self-Driving Finance" where banks proactively act on behalf of their customers.

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