The Story of Certa: Building the Future of Enterprise Relationships

Sometimes the biggest business opportunities come from observing persistent friction points in established industries. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Certa founder Jag Lamba shared how his time at McKinsey Consulting revealed a critical problem that would later become his company’s mission.

From Consulting Insight to Company Launch

After beginning his career as an engineer, Jag joined McKinsey Consulting, where he noticed a fundamental inefficiency in how large companies operate. “What we do is third party risk compliance and ESG,” Jag explains. “In layman’s terms, we enable companies to safely and efficiently work with all their third parties.”

The problem was clear: despite being a basic process for every company, managing relationships with vendors, partners, and customers had become increasingly complex. “The amount of regulation, information security, privacy needs, reputation impact, ESG needs… there were just so many rising needs that it was really painful,” Jag recalls.

This pain point manifested in what Jag calls “the infamous procurement and compliance bottleneck.” Companies were taking “three to six months if you want to work with a large company.” This friction in the business ecosystem represented a classic efficiency problem that needed solving.

Early Validation and Customer Trust

What’s remarkable about Certa’s early days was how quickly large enterprises were willing to trust a new company with such a critical function. One of their first major clients was Uber, secured through an introduction from an angel investor who, ironically, passed on investing in the company.

“I felt really strongly from every part of me that I knew that they were taking a risk on a new company,” Jag shares. “And I had this commitment inside me. I said, I’m not going to let my clients down.” This commitment showed through in everything from response speed to product flexibility.

The Three-Year Journey to Product-Market Fit

Success didn’t come overnight. “It definitely took over three years,” Jag admits, before they felt they had a viable business and product. The journey involved multiple phases of validation:

First, they confirmed the problem existed based on the seniority of meetings they were getting. Then they tested whether it was universal or if they’d just gotten lucky with a few clients. Finally, they made a crucial decision: “We actually completely redeveloped the product. Once we fully understood the problem, then we knew, okay, what is the solution that would actually meet the need.”

This complete rebuild proved transformative. As Jag notes, “Most companies at some point need to completely rebuild the product. So we did that, and then once we re-did the product, it really took off.”

Evolution Beyond Traditional Categories

Rather than fitting into existing market categories, Certa created its own space. While competitors focused solely on supplier risk management through basic SaaS applications, Certa built something more comprehensive. “What this needed is like a no code, low code platform which enabled multiple functions within the client to build their own ideal apps,” Jag explains.

This broader vision led them to define themselves as a third-party lifecycle management platform rather than just another risk management tool. Their layered architecture approach has also enabled them to stay ahead of technology curves, with Jag noting they can now offer “all the no code, low code features… via simple natural language.”

The Future of Business Relationships

Looking ahead, Jag’s vision for Certa is both simple and ambitious: “Companies will be able to onboard and work with each other with one click.” He envisions a future where forming business relationships becomes as seamless as “accepting a LinkedIn connection” while maintaining all necessary compliance and safety checks.

This vision represents more than just efficiency—it’s about fundamentally transforming how businesses interact and form relationships in an increasingly complex regulatory environment. For the thousands of companies struggling with lengthy onboarding processes and compliance challenges, that future can’t come soon enough.