Reputation (Reputation Management Platform)

The company was founded in 2006 by Michael Fertik under the original name ReputationDefender; its initial business was helping individuals manage their online reputations, and it was a pioneer in what came to be called personal information management. Fertik, a HarvardHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private research university in Massachusetts, established by the Massachusetts Bay Colony legislature in 1636 and named in 1639 for early benefactor John Harvard. Its principal campuses are in Cambridge and the Allston and Longwood neighborhoods of Boston. It includes Harvard College, graduate and professional schools, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Two governing boards share oversight. Alan M. Garber was president as of October 2026, and the endowment stood at $56.9 billion at the end of fiscal 2025.Open the full entry alumnus, likened the company’s model to that of antivirus companies, with the aim of giving individuals real control over their digital lives.⁠[1][2][2][3][3]

ReputationDefender’s Series A was led in 2008 by angel investor Mike MaplesMike MaplesMike Maples (Mike Maples Jr.) is an American venture capitalist and co-founding partner of Floodgate, an early Silicon Valley seed fund, who has invested in companies including Twitter, Twitch, Lyft, Okta, and Applied Intuition. Earlier he was a member of the startup team at Tivoli Systems and a co-founder of Motive Communications; he coined the “Thunder Lizards” concept and wrote the bestselling book “Pattern Breakers.”Open the full entry; in 2009 it raised a further $8.65 million in two tranches, with Bessemer Venture Partners investing $4 million in May and Kleiner Perkins investing $4.65 million in August, Bessemer participating again, and David Cowan and Ted Schlein of the two firms joining the board. The company announced the round on January 12, 2010.⁠[4][4][4][4]

At the time, the company sold four monthly subscription products, MyReputation, MyPrivacy, MyChild and MyEdge, which monitored information about users on the web and in semi-private databases and helped remove inaccurate content or promote users’ own vetted profiles; the service worked case by case, assigning each client a “personal search agent,” but removal was not guaranteed, and newspaper articles and court records were nearly impossible to remove.⁠[4][4][3][3]

By 2011, the company was operating under the name Reputation.com. In July of that year, it raised a $41 million Series D led by August CapitalAugust CapitalAugust Capital is a San Francisco Bay Area venture capital firm co-founded in 1995 by David Marquardt and John Johnston. It primarily backs early-stage information technology businesses and makes selected later-stage investments. Its investment history includes Epinions, Shopping.com, Splunk, BILL and UpGuard. The firm’s brand, management services company and individual funds are distinct entities.Open the full entry, with participation from Insight Capital and existing investors Jafco Ventures, Kleiner Perkins and Bessemer Venture Partners, bringing total capital raised to more than $65 million; its services were then still aimed mainly at individuals, helping users monitor and control what was said about them online.⁠[5][5][5]

In August 2015, Michael Fertik stepped down as chief executive officer to become executive chairman, and company president Shrey Bhatia, who had joined in 2011, became chief executive officer. The company was then headquartered in Redwood City, California, counted both businesses and individuals as clients and had raised more than $60 million in venture funding from firms including Bessemer Venture Partners, Floodgate, Kleiner Perkins and Icon Ventures.⁠[1][1][1][1]

On August 21, 2018, Reputation.com appointed Joe Fuca, a former DocuSign senior vice president and FinancialForce president, as chief executive officer; Fertik, who had served as interim chief executive officer during the search, returned to the role of executive chairman. The company then described itself as a complete reputation and customer experience management platform for enterprise, with revenue growing more than 50% year over year.⁠[6][6][6]

When Fuca took over, the company was reorienting itself to enterprise services and at the same time sold its consumer business to a private equity firm. Fuca later explained that the market of individuals seeking to defend their reputations was limited in size.⁠[2][2][2]

On August 20, 2019, Reputation.com announced $30 million in equity financing led by Ascension Ventures, with new backers Akkadian Ventures, Industry Ventures and River City Ventures and returning investors including Kleiner Perkins, August Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Heritage Group and Icon Ventures; it was the second round since the company’s pivot. Fuca said the company’s valuation tripled with the round.⁠[2][2][2][2]

At the time, three of the top five automotive manufacturers and more than 10,000 US auto dealerships used its services, it had 250 healthcare customers and more than 100 property management customers, and it calculated a Reputation Score from structured and unstructured data.⁠[2][2][2][2]

On January 25, 2021, Reputation.com announced a rebrand, dropping the “.com” from its name to become Reputation and introducing a new logo and website. The company then had more than seven locations and more than 500 employees worldwide.⁠[7][7][7][7]

On October 5, 2023, Reputation appointed Joe Burton as chief executive officer, with his predecessor Joe Fuca remaining on the board. Burton had previously been chief executive officer of Telesign, a provider of customer identity and engagement solutions, and of communications equipment company Poly, and chief technology officer of Unified Communications at Cisco.⁠[8][8][8]

On March 17, 2026, marking its 20th anniversary, Reputation introduced the “Reputation Performance Engine,” a strategic framework for the AI era. Burton said the last era was defined by search rankings and the next would be defined by AI recommendations, with AI systems deciding which brands to surface based on reputation signals such as reviews, ratings, responsiveness, consistency and third-party validation.⁠[9][9][9][9][9]

On May 4, 2026, Reputation made three AI capabilities available to all customers: the first lets users ask questions in plain English and get instant answers drawn from synthesized platform data; AI Reputation ManagerReputation ManagerReputation Manager is an online reputation analysis and management company headquartered in Milan, Italy, that provides reputation monitoring, analysis, crisis response and harmful-content handling services to companies, brands, institutions and public figures; it is known for its “Reputational Engineering” (Ingegneria Reputazionale®) method and for “Top Manager Reputation,” a monthly ranking of the online reputation of Italian executives.Open the full entry shows how brands are presented by AI-powered search engines including OpenAI, Gemini and Perplexity; and AI Location Presence Insights audits the data signals AI search engines use to decide which locations to recommend.⁠[10][10][10][10][10]

Reputation’s AI-native platform turns reviews, business listings and surveys into actionable intelligence and gives each location clear, prioritized actions; its products include modules for reviews, listings, location pages, surveys, social media, competitive insights and issue routing, serving industries such as healthcare, automotive, real estate, food and beverage, financial services, care and living, and retail.⁠[11][11][11][11][11][11]

As of October 2026, the company’s legal entity is Reputation.com, Inc., and its chief executive officer is Joe Burton; it has offices in San Jose and San Ramon, California; Scottsdale, Arizona; Lehi, Utah; Liverpool, United Kingdom; and Hyderabad, India, and its recent press releases have been issued from San Ramon.⁠[11][12][10][13][13][13]

Reputation: Official website: https://reputation.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[5]

X: Public account: https://x.com/Reputation_Com (opens in a new window)⁠[14]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/reputation-com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[14]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzgjQHzKoKoCHAXhRB45pfg (opens in a new window)⁠[14]