Said
Stated in the interview
Every answer becomes a claim. It counts toward fit, but a business can’t be rated a strong fit on words alone.
Capital readiness · for sponsored supplier programs
Ready to win the contract.
Ready to fund it.
Winning the award is half of it. The vendor also has to carry payroll until the buyer pays, post the bonds, and prove it in the bid. CoFounder.AI gives every vendor in your program an AI business partner that finds the capital that fits, gathers the proof, and prepares the applications, with the vendor’s approval at every step.
12capital types assessed, from SBA loans and CDFI lines to factoring and surety bonds.
3proof levels on every claim: Said, Shown and Connected.
0documents shared with the sponsor. Your team sees status, never files.
1application packet per funding source, submitted only with the vendor’s approval.
The other half of readiness
A vendor can win the award and still lose the contract.
Public buyers pay on terms. A vendor billing monthly at net-45 carries roughly two and a half months of payroll and materials before the first check clears. Construction work adds bonds. Some RFPs ask for a letter of credit that a small firm can only get by locking up the very cash it needs.
Most vendors know two ways to fund that: a bank loan or their own savings. There are at least a dozen, and the cheapest one that works is rarely the one they ask for.
~2.5 moof costs carried before a net-45 buyer pays
100%of contract value, the usual performance bond on public construction
12capital types the assessment weighs, side by side
Listen
Hear the partner work.
Six vendors, six kinds of capital. Avery, a CoFounder.AI business partner, opens with what the books already show, makes a first guess, and asks only what’s missing. Every answer lands in the ledger as a claim, and the verdict arrives when the interview ends.
Contract capacity
Okafor Facility Services
Commercial cleaning, 4 years, 22 staff. Responding to a city RFP for a $480K, 12-month janitorial contract that asks for a bank letter or a 10% letter of credit.
0:00 / 1:45
Avery · AI business partnerI’ve read the city RFP. Two financial things matter. First, you have to carry payroll for about two and a half months before the city’s first payment clears, because they pay net forty-five on monthly invoices. Second, they want a bank letter, or a letter of credit for ten percent, which is forty-eight thousand dollars.
- Avery · AI business partner
Here’s my math. Twenty-five thousand to get started, plus thirty-four thousand a month in costs, means you’ll need about a hundred and ten thousand before you’re paid. You have about forty thousand available after your own reserve, so the gap is about seventy thousand. Does that sound right?
- Owner · Okafor Facility Services
Yes. Can we just get the letter of credit?
- Avery · AI business partner
You could, but I don’t think it’s your best move. For a business your size, a bank will usually want the full forty-eight thousand held as cash collateral. That’s cash you need for payroll, and it doesn’t close the gap. The RFP accepts a bank letter instead.
- Owner · Okafor Facility Services
Okay. What do you suggest?
- Avery · AI business partner
Two things together. First, a line-of-credit commitment letter for seventy-five thousand from a bank or a community lender. It closes the gap and it doubles as the bank letter the RFP wants. Second, as a backup, the city’s invoices could be factored from month one. Do you still owe on that merchant cash advance?
- Owner · Okafor Facility Services
About twenty thousand.
- Avery · AI business partner
Lenders will want that paid off, or paid off at closing from the new line. Proposals are due in five weeks and commitment letters take two to four, so we should apply this week. Our capital specialist can prepare the application. Nothing goes out until you approve it, and then it’s sent from your own email. Shall I have it drafted?
- Owner · Okafor Facility Services
Yes, go ahead.
- Avery · AI business partner
Done. I’ll also draft the financial capacity section of your response now, marked letter pending, and update it the moment the letter arrives.
Illustrative interview · fictional business · AI-generated voices
Said, shown, connected
Other tools score what a business says. This one records what it can prove.
Every claim carries a proof level. When a document or the books contradict what was said, the claim is set aside and the partner raises it with the vendor. Nothing reaches a funding source on words alone.
Shown
Backed by a document
The vendor uploads a tax return, bank statement or award letter. The figure is read off the page and checked against the claim.
Connected
Backed by live data
Where the vendor connects their accounting or billing system, revenue, receivables and cash come straight from the books.
Contract capacity
What would it take to carry this award?
For every opportunity a vendor pursues, the partner reads the RFP’s financial requirements, works out how much cash the contract needs before the first payment, and recommends the cheapest proof the RFP will accept.
Then it writes the financial capacity section of the response, so your buyers see how the vendor will fund the work, not just a promise that it can.
- Peak cash need, from contract value, payment terms and start-up costs
- The gap after cash on hand and committed credit
- A bank letter, a line of credit, factoring or bonds, cheapest first
- A letter of credit only when nothing else will do
Try an award
Can this vendor carry the contract?
$110Kneeded before the first payment
$70Kgap to close
- Line-of-credit commitment letter, about $70KCloses the gap and doubles as the bank letter most RFPs ask for. Prepared and submitted with the vendor’s approval.
- Invoice factoring from month oneThe buyer pays in 45 days; a factor advances each invoice in one or two. A strong backup when credit history is thin.
- Ask before posting a letter of creditSmall firms are often asked to cash-secure a standby letter of credit in full, tying up the payroll the contract needs. Most RFPs accept a bank letter instead.
Billed monthly. Carry period = one billing month plus the buyer’s payment terms. A planning estimate, not a credit decision.
From readiness to application
The partner doesn’t stop at a score. It prepares the paperwork.
An assessment that ends in a PDF leaves the hardest part to the vendor. Here, the partner’s capital specialist prepares each application from the evidence already gathered. Once the vendor approves, it goes out from the vendor’s own email, or the vendor files it on the funder’s site with everything ready.
The interview
Ten to fifteen minutes, by voice or chat. The partner opens with what it already knows and a first guess at the capital that fits, then asks only what’s missing.
The evidence
Right after the call, a short checklist: the four or five documents that back up what was said. Upload them, or connect the books instead.
The packet
Claims, proof levels, the figures read from each document and the contract-capacity math, assembled into one application packet per funding source.
The submission
The vendor approves each application first. It then goes from the vendor’s own email to the lender, CDFI, factor, surety or grant program, with a secure link to the packet. Where a funder only takes applications on its own site, the vendor files there with everything prepared.
Program capital partner
Your program can name one. Until it does, applications go directly to the funding sources the vendor chooses.
What your team sees
Funding status on every vendor. Never their files.
The readiness console gains a funding column: where each vendor stands, what’s left to close, and the last thing that moved.
- Status and gap titles only; no documents, amounts or scores
- Vendor data moves only with the vendor’s explicit consent
- The first determination is the baseline every outcome is measured from
Sample data
LiveVendor and funding readiness
| Vendor | Vendor-ready | Funding | Last activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Okafor Facility Services | Ready | Assessing | Line-of-credit application approved by vendor · submitted |
| Meridian Supply Co. | Ready | Ready | PO financing in place for RFQ 26-0412 |
| Bayside Mechanical | Gaps · 1 | Gaps · 2 | CPA review engaged · WIP schedule in progress |
| Brightside Home Care | Ready | Ready | CDFI line approved |
Two ways in
Every vendor chooses how much help they want.
AI-assisted
The AI business partner and its specialists
The interview, the evidence checklist, the capacity math and the applications, run by the partner around the vendor’s schedule. Day or night, by voice or chat.
Human-assisted
An advisor, at any step
A vendor who wants a person can ask for one at any point, and the advisor picks up with everything the partner has already gathered. Programs can bring their own advisors.
The questions you will ask
Answered before the meeting.
- Is this a credit decision?
- No. It is a readiness assessment. Lenders make credit decisions. The assessment makes sure the vendor walks in with the right application and the proof behind it.
- Does the AI apply for capital on its own?
- Never without approval. The capital specialist prepares each application. The vendor reviews it and approves it before anything is submitted.
- Who sees the vendor’s documents?
- The vendor, and the funding sources the vendor approves an application to or shares a packet link with. A packet link expires, logs every view, and carries documents only if the vendor includes them. Your team sees readiness status and gap titles, never documents or amounts.
- Which funding sources?
- Lenders, CDFIs, factors, purchase-order financiers, sureties and grant programs. Applications go by email from the vendor’s own account, or through the funder’s own site. If your program names a capital partner, the vendor can be routed there first.
- What if a vendor isn’t ready?
- Most aren’t, yet. Every gap becomes a task the partner works through with the vendor, and the assessment updates as each one closes.
- Is this available today?
- Capital readiness launches with sponsored supplier programs. The interviews on this page show how the program works; the businesses in them are fictional.
The ask
Bring us your vendors.
We’ll bring the business partners.
Thirty minutes. We play an interview with your procurement lead, run one of your own RFPs through the capacity math, and show where funding readiness lands on the console.
A readiness assessment, not a credit decision · Applications submitted only with the vendor’s approval · Documents never shared with the sponsor