FORTIFY DURABILITY RATING™
Durability ratings
for private companies.
Know where you stand. Fortify what's weak. Move forward with the
confidence that comes from verified operational intelligence — built
before risk appears in the financials.
Public companies are evaluated, rated, and held to a standard. Private SMBs have had to walk in blind — and hope the numbers tell the whole story. They never do.
Financial statements are lagging indicators — they tell you what happened. The Fortify Durability Rating™ is a leading one — it tells you what's building. The private SMB has never had this standard. Fortify provides one.
In 1900, John Moody began publishing financial data on American companies. By 1903 his manual was nationally recognized. Then the Panic of 1907 wiped him out. He sold everything and started over.
Two years later he came back — not with more data, but with something new: a, judgment. In 1909 he published Moody's Analyses of Railroad Investments — the first systematic rating of securities using a letter scale. For the first time, investors had a common language for risk.
Others followed. Poor's in 1916. Standard Statistics in 1922. Fitch in 1924. By 1936, Congress had made ratings the law — banks could only hold bonds that met the standard of a recognized rating manual.
Today, Moody's, S&P, and Fitch rate the bonds and debt of large corporations and governments worldwide. The private SMB — the $5M manufacturer, the $15M distributor, the $30M regional contractor — has never had an equivalent.
The numbers are sobering. 2025 bankruptcies up nearly 15% year-over-year. 82% of those failures were caused not by bad products or weak markets — but by cash flow and operational problems that competent analysis would have flagged months or years earlier.
That is the gap. Fortify is built to close it.
-- THE GAP FORTIFY FILLS - BY THE NUMBERS
59%
of small businesses that sought financing didn't get all of it — or got none at all.
Federal Reserve Small Business Credit Survey · 2024
3
top denial reasons — all addressable before they appear in a credit file:
· Too much existing debt
· Weak cash position
· Low credit score
Federal Reserve Small Business Credit Survey · 2024
82%
of business failures are caused by poor cash flow management — not lack of profitability. Most were making money. The structure failed underneath them.
U.S. Business Research · Multiple Sources
0
rating systems existed for the private SMB before Fortify — despite 30 million businesses and trillions in annual lending activity.
Fortify Global Partners · 2026
The four moments every
owner eventually faces.
Borrow
Walk into your bank with a verified operational picture. Know what they're going to ask before they ask it. Arrive as the borrower every lender wants to work with.
Grow
Scaling without a solid foundation is how businesses break. Know what needs to be fortified before you step on the gas.
Sell
The discount a buyer takes in due diligence is always larger than the cost of finding it yourself first — while you still have time to fix it.
Endure
Covid. A health crisis. Losing a key person. The businesses that survive disruption aren't lucky — they're structurally prepared.
"The businesses that borrow well, grow smart, and sell for what they're worth all
have one thing in common — they knew where they stood before anyone asked."
" I didn't realize how dependent the business was on me until we entered the sale process. The buyer saw it in the first week. We lost six months and left money on the table that we'll never get back.
Business owner · $8M revenue · M&A transaction
" We've always been able to read a balance sheet. What we couldn't do was look around the corner. Fortify closes that gap.
Commercial lender · Regional community bank · Indiana
One score. Independently verified. Continuously monitored.
The Fortify Durability Rating™ converts operational health into a measurable, verified composite score — forward-looking operational intelligence. Not a snapshot of what happened, but a signal of what's building.
It is not a survey. Not a checklist. Not a financial ratio.
→ Operate consistently
→ Manage the full spectrum of business pressures
→ Scale without breaking
→ Sustain performance over time
Always Ready
Elite durability. Prepared for any opportunity or disruption. Fortify Certified ✦
Nearly Ready
Strong foundation. Minor gaps before the next high-stakes moment. Fortify Certified ✦
Getting Ready
Functional, but key areas need attention before they become problems.
Not Ready
Significant vulnerabilities present in any high-stakes moment.
At Risk
Critical gaps. The roadmap is the value — the work begins now.
Why continuous monitoring changes the game
A quarterly score update is a check-in. Monthly monitoring is an early warning system. The difference is whether you're steering or reacting — and whether your advisors and lenders are seeing the same signals you are.
Seven pillars. One score.
The Fortify Durability Rating™ is built across seven distinct dimensions of operational health — each verified independently before contributing to the composite score.
Financial Integrity
Risk & Resiliance
Leadership & Governance
Human Capital
Operational Systems
Growth Engine
Institutional Structure
-- PILLAR WEIGHTS AND COMPOSITE METHODOLOGY AVAILABLE TO QUALIFIED PARTNERS AND CLIENTS UPON REQUEST.
COMPOSITE METHODOLOGY
The FDR™ score is drawn from an substantial list of relevant independent sources — each verified independently and cross-referenced before any rating is issued. Methodology details are available to qualified partners and clients upon request.
What your rating reveals.
Every FDRTM report delivers a full pillar-by-pillar diagnostic - showing not just
where a company stands, but the exact shape of its operational health.
A score that moves with you.
Fortify tracks your composite score, your strongest pillar, and the one holding you
back - so you can see exactly where to focus and how far you've come.
"
"Originally, we built Fortify to prepare business owners for the moment they'd worked their entire careers toward — a sale. We knew the tactics of the army that arrives in due diligence. Fortify was born to stand against that.
Then came the pivot — bankers came to us. They kept saying: this isn't just a sale tool. Every business in our portfolio needs this. And we need it too, as we make our difficult lending decisions.
That's when Always Ready became the mission. Not just ready to sell. Ready for anything."
Jeff Harvey
CO-FOUNDER - FORTIFY GLOBAL PARTNERS
Three conversations.
One rating.
Fortify serves owners directly — and through the
trusted advisors and institutions already in the room.
BUSINESS OWNERS
Know before it costs you.
Discover how your business is evaluated by buyers, lenders, and advisors — and what needs to change before they find it themselves. The diagnostic is the beginning, not the end.
LENDERS
Know which companies will thrive.
The Fortify Durability Rating™ gives you the operational picture that sits behind the numbers. Not wondering. Not wandering. Anticipating. A well-prepared borrower makes a better long-term banking partner.
ADVISORS
Bring structure to complexity.
Give your clients something concrete to act on. A verified operational rating — and a clear path to help them fortify what's weak before the next high-stakes moment arrives.
-- GET STARTED
Always Fortified.
Always Ready.
A stronger business makes a better borrower, a better partner, and a better deal. Find out where you stand — and whether your business qualifies for Fortify Certification.
OFFICIAL SPONSOR
Aaron Baddeley
4-Time PGA Tour Winner - Australia