Are you looking to improve your financial status, a better mortgage or credit card rate? Do you want to know where your credit score ranks compared to others in your income bracket? Dare to Compare, operated through Pertuity, Inc., is an online peer-to-peer financial comparison tool that addresses such concerns and provides advisory information to assist people with their financial matters.

FINANCIAL STRATEGIES—Thinking of creative financial strategies for his consumers, Kim Muhota, CEO of Pertuity, attends to his clients through technology. Mike Cham, left, and Scott Connelly, right, work with Muhota, center, to keep their status as first of their kind in the financial education field.

Dare to Compare is the first of its kind across the global financial marketplace, says creator Kim Muhota. He describes it as a free Web-based business that provides consumers a unique view of their financial picture. The tool presents your financial standing (based on the information you plug in) to help the user make informed decisions about borrowing, saving and financial planning.

“Our goal is to empower people with good financial information so they can make educated money oriented decisions,” he says.

Muhota says using DTC is an easy process. After logging on to www.pertuitydirect.com, the user creates a demographic profile inputting information such as age, income and total savings. Using proprietary, national consumer finance data, Pertuity performs a comparative analysis of each user against their peers for each of the parameters. He says results are generated on a percentile basis, thus maintaining individual confidentiality.

For example, a user might learn that they are in the 80th percentile in income and only in the 10th percentile in savings. “This insight provided as part of the results may prompt the user to think about potentially saving more money,” he says.

Muhota also points out that his product allows users to form their own groups for comparison purposes. “Groups may span a variety of formal and informal networks to include friends, class-mates, co-workers or family members,” he says. He adds that output is in a percentile format assuring that personal financial information is secure and never shared.

An added benefit to using DTC is the advice provided through the Expert Advice and blog sections of the Web site. “These sections are comprised of a collection of relevant advisory columns from independent financial experts as well as information provided from years of research and personal situations,” says Muhota. He reiterates that the basic purpose of his company is to provide resources to equip users with information they can use to change the way they view their money and facilitate a change in behavior.

Muhota launched Pertuity Inc. in September with the vision to simplify and uncomplicate money matters by providing tools, products and services that help make everyday financial decision-making easier. To accomplish the mission Muhota, Mike Cham, vice president of technology and Scott Connelly, senior software engineer; along with several part-time staff, utilize their combined years of experience in financing, debt management, credit repair, Web- based design and technology to innovatively change the consumer financial landscape.

A native of Kenya, and raised in Washington, D.C., Muhota received his undergraduate degree in International Business from Ohio Wesleyan University and his MBA in Strategic Management & Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He has worked at the PNC Financial Service Group as a vice president, and at Systems Research & Applications International as a treasury analyst.

Muhota says his first introduction to banking came from his father, who worked at PNC.

“While growing up in the D.C. area I stumbled into the technology field realizing that it was going to impact our everyday life,” he said.

Coming from a background where his parents emphasized the importance of education and insisted on excellence, he encourages young people and potential entrepreneurs to challenge themselves. “Always find extraordinary situations to put yourself into and you’ll find that it brings the extraordinary out of you,” he advised.

Muhota views Pittsburgh as a “great place” to start a business.

“There is a deep talent base here, the cost of living and rent is relatively low and there is a rich cultural component,” he said. He considers diversity in age and race and keeping young people here as challenges for region officials.

Deeming his business as the way of the future, he considers his niche as network marketing or social networking defined as using other people’s opinion to make decisions.  He lists MySpace, Facebook and Linkedin as examples of social marketing.

Expecting to expand, Muhota said he is looking to hire up to 25 software engineers and people with a strong technology background by early 2008 aiming to employ at least 25 full-time people. In the next five years Muhota and his current staff view Pertuity Inc. as a recognized brand in the consumer market.

After years of research in the industry, Muhota determined Dare to Compare is the first of its kind and he is excited about the possibilities and the opportunity to educate the consumer and to change the way they think about their financial affairs.