PayStream Advisors was very excited to see Tradeshift CEO, Christian Lanng, on the business news show, Lou Dobbs Tonight. Lanng spoke with Dobbs about the Tradeshift platform and its ability to speed up payment processes between larger companies and their smaller supply chains. As a company, Tradeshift is trying to solve the problem of frequent late payments between these big buyers and little suppliers. According to Lanng, more than $16 Trillion globally is locked up in late payments from large companies with big, complicated processes. Small companies are not getting paid and because of this, they can’t hire the next employee, can’t get access to finance, and go bankrupt in the thousands, impacting economic growth.

How does Tradeshift specifically prevent late payments from strangling these small businesses? In the interview, Lanng explained how Tradeshift uses business transaction software to automate “the whole process between large businesses and small suppliers globally, making the actions of the supply chain much more efficient.” Their solutions give companies all the data they need to get access to better credit and finance, and to get paid faster.

Dobbs wondered whether the large buyers would be opposed to any of this automation, asking Lanng how much big companies relied on lag time. Lanng brought it back to the big picture, pointing out that though large companies used this method to conserve cash flow, it was ultimately more strategic to automate the processes. “You’re hurting your supply chain and your suppliers can’t grow. If they can’t grow, you don’t get cheaper products or cheaper prices.”

Dobbs also brought up Tradeshift’s movements over the past few years. From a “cold garage” in Denmark, Tradeshift has grown into a global company with over 200 employees in five countries. They set up most recently in Silicon Valley, and Lanng says that even though the Valley is the tech capital of the world and an extremely competitive environment, Tradeshift thrives and stays sharp off the competition. For them, staying sharp is important as they continue to grow in what they consider to be the last frontier of cloud-based business software: supply-chain processes.

PayStream feels this was a wonderful opportunity for Tradeshift, and we believe Christian Lanng did a great job in showing the company’s mission and drive. Check out the rest of their Lou Dobbs Tonight interview here.