Cincinnati Innovates Featured Entry: Merchant Reputation & Consumer Insights

Sanjiv Karani's idea for Neputation – or one's "internet reputation" (get it?) sprang out of the well of personal experience following a negative encounter with a moving company. After mistakenly believing his complaint-free search of the company on the web coupled with prominent placement on Google search results were signs of a trusted company, Sanjiv discovered a consistent track record of dissatisfied customers scattered about the web. Unfortunately these comments were not in one central place where he could read them before being ripped off by the moving company. Thus was born the idea for Neputation, an integrated one-stop-shop for those seeking a quick search on any company's reputation.

Sanjiv has two pieces of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, which also happen to be his personal innovation mantras: "Seed for the need” and “Need for the speed." In other words, focus your innovation in solving a real customer need while understanding that speed-to-market is your only sustainable competitive advantage.

"Innovation is a strategic experiment where you incorporate key learnings and insights along the way," says Karani who hopes his site will be the only name that comes to people's minds when they want to better understand a company's reputation.

To see complete details on the proposal, please click here.

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