The Inspiration Behind InsideUp

What inspired us to start InsideUp? It's simple: our team of Internet business veterans saw a tremendous need among small businesses to be able to find reliable business service providers efficiently, and for business services firms to use online communities to educate and connect with business prospects, especially with small businesses.

According to a 2007 report published by Visa International, small businesses (businesses with less than 100 employees or less than $25 million in sales) in the U.S. spend $1.68 trillion yearly on business services, or nearly 35% of their total business expenditures.

Our own research at InsideUp has been centered on trying to understand how small businesses find business service vendors. Our research indicates that it takes a tremendous amount of work and time to find reliable and reputable business service providers. A business service provider, mind you, can be anyone from a recruiting company that helps you find staff to the marketing company that implements a direct marketing campaign for you.

InsideUp has taken on the challenge of helping to solve these problems for small businesses and the firms that want to provide business services to them. The Beta release of our community platform is a step forward on an ambitious road to provide a comprehensive online platform where small businesses can connect with business service providers. Lots more to come, so stay tuned…