The Bankruptcy Infrastructure Play

Corporate bankruptcy is broken. Not legally—but operationally. The professionals managing complex chapter 11 cases navigate a maze of conflicting regulations, fragmented data systems and mounting security risks. They lack reliable tools to manage cases efficiently or protect creditors’ sensitive information. It’s a market ripe for disruption, and it’s where Eric Kurtzman and Jonathan Carson saw their opportunity.

At Stretto, the legal-tech company they co-lead, the two have built the market’s most comprehensive platform for bankruptcy and insolvency professionals. Through strategic acquisitions and organic innovation—including new AI-powered tools designed specifically for bankruptcy case management—they’ve positioned the company as the ecosystem’s essential infrastructure. The result: recognition as industry innovators by Goldman Sachs, Ernst & Young and Entrepreneur Magazine, and continued growth in a sector most executives never think about.

Tell us about Stretto and its growth over the years.

Stretto began with a vision to serve legal and financial professionals engaged in bankruptcy matters with best-in-class technology, along with industry expertise and market insights. We started our journey in 2017 with a build-and-buy strategy by acquiring Bankruptcy Management Solutions, the market leader providing chapter 7 bankruptcy technology and services to bankruptcy trustees.

In 2019, we continued with our purchase of CIN Group and its Best Case software used by consumer bankruptcy attorneys to prepare and file more than 80 percent of bankruptcy cases in the country. Concurrently with these efforts, we organically built the largest portfolio of software and services in the chapter 11 corporate-restructuring market, drawing on our expertise from building a similar business in the early 2000s.

Our deep understanding of the complex challenges facing professionals, businesses and others involved in a complex corporate bankruptcy positioned us well to become the market leaders in this arena for a second time.

We identified an opportunity to build the largest and most comprehensive technology platform servicing the bankruptcy and insolvency industries, and we’ve enjoyed successfully executing on that vision, with growth still to come from various exciting initiatives.

What are the complex challenges facing professionals, businesses and others involved in corporate bankruptcy?

Data privacy and security can present significant challenges within the bankruptcy process, particularly in chapter 11 cases where legal professionals must protect personal information while maintaining transparency. As data protection regulations proliferate, today’s corporate bankruptcy landscape has become a landmine of potential challenges for professionals navigating the intersection of privacy and bankruptcy law.

This “intersection” generally takes the form of a patchwork of often conflicting state, federal, international and local—i.e. bankruptcy court—regulations. To address this, Stretto has implemented robust data governance frameworks and transparent processes that allow legal professionals to maintain control over sensitive information.

Furthermore, Stretto leads a working group of claims and noticing agents and chief clerks from two of the nation’s most influential bankruptcy courts focused on creating standards and procedures to follow if a data breach compromising creditors’ personal information occurs.

The emergence of AI also has introduced both challenges and opportunities for bankruptcy professionals and other stakeholders in the process. The legal industry hesitates to accept new technology, and the proliferation of numerous AI-enabled solutions has created heightened confusion and mistrust among practitioners.

Through Stretto’s engine, known as Stretto Intelligence, we have created AI-fueled tools, research and insights to make it easier for bankruptcy professionals to find the right AI solution to suit their specific needs. As our company’s debut offering from Stretto Intelligence, we launched Stretto Conductor, an AI-powered platform specifically designed for bankruptcy case management and communications.

Stretto Conductor not only automates bankruptcy document analysis and streamlines information retrieval but also ensures that critical case information reaches stakeholders instantly.

What are the benefits of co-leading a company?

Having a co-CEO is like having a spouse, complete with jobs and kids and friends and family. There are more problems than one person can solve, more opportunities than one person can pursue.

As co-CEOs, we pass the problems and the opportunities back and forth to whomever is best suited to manage each situation. We possess different strengths and weaknesses, and fortunately, those differences complement each other when it comes to leading a business.

Jonathan’s core strength involves vision, market orientation and understanding the professionals we serve and their various wants and needs in their own practices. Eric brings operational and execution expertise, plus a bent towards negotiation and ensuring everyone is rowing in the same direction, towards the goal.

Even more than complete synergy, when it comes to strengths and weaknesses, we defer to each other completely when navigating an issue that falls into one of our core wheelhouses. Like a great marriage, being a co-CEO requires great trust and great respect.

What’s next for Stretto?

Stretto continues forward on its mission of maintaining a tight focus on the bankruptcy ecosystem, while also supplementing our various services and solutions with ancillary offerings to better serve professionals and fiduciaries.

Looking ahead, Stretto plans to expand its suite of AI-powered innovations to transform bankruptcy and insolvency administration, with a continued focus on elevating the efficiency of case management by way of new AI-enabled applications and services, ranging from accelerated bankruptcy-case research and analytic summaries to secure generative AI and bankruptcy case-filing forecasting data.