Danny Kaltenborn was born on December 1, 1975, as the son of the academic couple PD Dr. Ing. Georg Kaltenborn and Dr. med. Elisabeth Kaltenborn was born in Halle an der Saale. After obtaining the general university entrance qualification at the Heidegymnasium Pretzsch, he began studying business administration at the Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg and graduated with a major in internal accounting / controlling, finance/banking management, and money & currency.
During his studies, he completed a year abroad at the University of Wolverhampton. Furthermore, he was active as the Chair for Internal Accounting / Controlling at his home university.
After completing his studies, he gained a foothold in the chemical industry and he lives in Switzerland. He is set out to accelerate business processes for SMEs and individuals in the area of finance.
He has dedicated his work to make sure that businesses have a good financial system and helping them make sure they have a proper credit rating system. This educational background and passion led him to write a book on Credit Risk Management – Recommended Practice (Code of Best Practice) Published on, (03/2015) and English translation in 2017, the book went on to be recognized as the number one book and resource in credit rating across Switzerland, Back in 2015 the book ‘Credit Risk Management – Code of Best Practice’ was published, originally in German. Because of the positive feedback, it was launched in English two years later. Importantly, the book describes how to set up a state of the art credit management in a company.
It includes a standard credit policy and procedures, standard agreements, key performance indicators, credit risk scoring models, reporting instruments, sources of information, and definitions. The book and content have since become the standard teaching reference of the Association of Credit Management Switzerland. In the meantime, the book is recognized as one of the “must-read” publications in this global field. He has since been recognized as a major voice in the finance and credit score business, been invited to a number of seminars and workshops across Europe.
With his book over the shelve of every financial businesses and finance interested persons around the country, he saw the need to create a fast, easy, and cheaper means for companies to become more creditworthy and create a better financially stable system, by founding a start-up called Emerald Rating, Emerald Rating combines Swiss financial excellence, a state-of-the-art credit rating methodology and decades of B2B experience, Elements of his books sections, and further research, are the foundation of the Emerald Rating methodology.
His start-up has since been focused on helping companies, and start-ups set up more viable and sustainable financial systems and credit score.
InLife International Magazine recently caught up with Danny and here’s what went down:
Could you please tell our readers a brief background about yourself and how you started your business?
After finishing my studies in business administration and economics at the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany and an internship at Dow Chemical implementing Activity-Based Costing for four newly built chemical plants at the Dow Central Germany site, I started working as a manufacturing cost accountant for those plants. Later I moved to the corporate auditing department of Dow Chemical auditing accounting processes all across the globe and functions. One of the functions was credit management, in which I took over the role of being the subject matter expert and credit manager for Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and India being the next step in my carrier.
I joined the Association of Credit Management Switzerland for being responsible for professional information and taking over the president role later on. One outcome was my book ‘Credit Risk Management – Code of Best Practice’. The credit scoring model in there is the foundation for Emerald Rating in combining financial excellence with information technology by applying artificial intelligence (AI) in terms of robotics process automation (RPA).
What are you currently doing to maintain/grow your business?
Emerald Rating is in the early stages of the company life cycle. The product platforms (technology) are created. We are actively increasing the visibility of Emerald Rating by attending FinTech trade shows like the Hong Kong FinTech Week or the Singapore FinTech Festival. We are publishing articles all across the globe in various languages. We are sponsoring the Association of Credit Management Switzerland. We are also doing lobbying work with various chambers of commerce in Europe.
What social media platforms do you usually use to increase your brand’s awareness?
Social media is a big topic for us. The most important one is LinkedIn. It allows us to publish articles and link clients to our website. Further, we are linked to Associations of Credit Management, which is a pool for potential customers that we want to attract. In sync with trade shows we are using LinkedIn in getting connected with decision-makers in companies in all countries and industries, and setting up one-on-one meetings for understanding future ways of collaborations. Among that, we are using Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for building our brand awareness in a more simplistic way.
What is your experience with paid advertising, like PPC or sponsored content campaigns? Does it work?
We are using the Facebook network mainly for campaigns channeling to our website including articles published there.
What is your main tactic when it comes to making more people aware of your brand and engaging your customers? How did your business stand out?
If products and design are ready, engaging customers go through intelligent networks addressing messages to the right audience. In LinkedIn, we use the Sales Navigator to set up direct meetings with decision-makers. The Facebook network is more spread but targeted to finance people.
What is the toughest decision you had to make in the last few months?
Canceling the Swiss Credit Management Forum.
What money mistakes have you made along the way that others can learn from (or something you’d do differently)?
I am using Emerald Rating platforms to analyze my own financial structure and make rational decisions.
What new business would you love to start?
A world in financial technology that is built in a way that trust is not needed between the players. In other words, they can focus on business solutions.
If you could go back in a time machine to the time when you were just getting started, what would you do differently?
Nothing.
What advice would you give to a newbie Entrepreneur setting up their first business?
In all what you do stay authentic.
To find out more about Emerald Rating please find the details to the website and social media pages below:
Linkedin page: Emerald Rating
Website: Emerald Rating
