Matchmaking API

Connect’s system-to-system Matchmaking API enables referral partners (and self-referring service partners) to integrate with Connect’s product catalog and create matching leads to service partners without any user interaction.

If you already know certain information about a user, such as their name, email, address, FICO score, etc., it is possible to present the user with Connect product offerings without them having to fill out an entire Connect questionnaire - or even know that they used Connect. You can also retrieve the list of questions from the Connect API and prompt the user directly to fill in any gaps in the requirements.

Forms, Questions, and Products

A bit of terminology:

A ‘Form’ is a set of questions.
A ‘Question’ is an individual question asked on the form, such as “Net Profit”.
A ‘Product’ is an product offering with several filtering criteria which an applicant must meet prior to being matched.
A ‘Product Kind’ is a category of product, such as a Loan. Future products may be things like Grants or BusinessServices.
A ‘Submission’ is a set of answers to a form.
A ‘Lead’ is a link between a product and a submission

Since not every product is a good fit for every applicant, products have filters, and those filters act on answers to questions. Each product kind requires different questions be answered in order to determine if the applicant is a good match, or to simply be a useful lead - for example, knowing the person’s first name can’t filter them, but a service partner would need to know who they’re talking to when they reach out.

Products commonly have filters such as AmountRequested, which could be a range from $100,000 to $150,000, or YearsInBusiness which may only allow businesses with TwoToThree or ThreeOrMore years.

The following is an example of the minimum question set required for a Form to match with any Loan product:

`Loan` Products Questions

Filtering questions:

Filter	Enum Name
AmountRequested	Integer
BusinessAddress	Address Object
BusinessIndustry	Industries
BusinessType	BusinessType
Collateral	Collateral
CreditScore	CreditScores
HasBusinessPlan	`true` or `false`
NetProfit	Integer
PriorBankruptcies	PriorBankruptcies
RevenueLastYear	Revenues
RevenueProjected	Revenues
UseOfProceeds	UseOfProceeds
YearsInBusiness	YearsInBusiness

Informational questions:

Field	Type
BusinessName	String
Email	String
FirstName	String
LastName	String
Phone	String

Relevant API Calls

get-questions - Retrieve a flattened list of questions
post-submission - Submit answers to questionnaire
get-matches - Retrieve product matches for a submission
post-match - Create a new lead for a matching product

Get Questions

In order to determine which questions you must gather to get matching Products, you can invoke this endpoint.

Specifications: GET /api/{referralpartner}/form/questions

Route Parameters

{referralpartner} - [Required string] This is a specific, unique value provided by Connect that represents your organization.
slug - [Optional string] and references which Form you are utilizing, if this is your organizations’ default form, the querystring value should be omitted entirely.

Response

The response will be an array of Questions. Each Question has several properties, the most important properties of which are: id and required. Several other properties may appear on a question to indicate validation, custom language, or how to position the question on a screen, if applicable.

type Question = {
    // id of the question is also the property name of the answer in all other API calls
    id: string;

    // If no value is provided, the C2C will assume this value
    defaultValue?: any | undefined;

    // Validation
    isRequired?: boolean | undefined;
    minValue?: number | undefined;
    maxValue?: number | undefined;

    // Form requires a full NAICS code in the `BusinessIndustry_NAICS` field
    requireFullNAICS?: boolean | undefined;

    // Custom question type multi or single choice options
    isDropdown?: boolean | undefined;
    options?: QuestionOptionViewModel[] | undefined;
    none?: string | undefined;

    // Display properties
    kind: QuestionType;
    isLabelAlwaysOn?: boolean | undefined;
    prefix?: string | undefined;
    postfix?: string | undefined;
    isDollar?: boolean | undefined;
    col?: number | undefined;
    colSpan?: number | undefined;
    label?: string | undefined;
    placeholder?: string | undefined;
}

The response is an array of Questions, which may look like the below JSON.

[
    {
        "kind": "AmountRequested",
        "id": "AmountRequested",
        "col": 2,
        "isRequired": true
    },
    {
        "kind": "UseOfProceeds",
        "id": "UseOfProceeds",
        "col": 2,
        "isRequired": true
    },
    {
        "kind": "FinanceNeededBy",
        "id": "FinanceNeededBy",
        "col": 2,
        "isRequired": false
    },
    {
        "kind": "BusinessName",
        "id": "BusinessName",
        "col": 2,
        "isRequired": true
    },
    {
        "kind": "BusinessType",
        "id": "BusinessType",
        "col": 2,
        "isRequired": true
    },
    {
        "kind": "BusinessIndustry",
        "id": "BusinessIndustry",
        "col": 2,
        "isRequired": true
    },
    {
        "kind": "YearsInBusiness",
        "id": "YearsInBusiness",
        "col": 2,
        "isRequired": true
    },
    {
        "kind": "BusinessAddress",
        "id": "BusinessAddress",
        "col": 2,
        "isRequired": true
    },
    {
        "kind": "FirstName",
        "id": "FirstName",
        "col": 2,
        "isRequired": true
    },
    {
        "kind": "LastName",
        "id": "LastName",
        "col": 3,
        "isRequired": true
    },
    {
        "kind": "Email",
        "id": "Email",
        "col": 2,
        "colSpan": 2,
        "isRequired": true
    },
    {
        "kind": "Phone",
        "id": "Phone",
        "col": 2,
        "colSpan": 2,
        "isRequired": true
    },
    {
        "kind": "ContactMethod",
        "id": "ContactMethod",
        "col": 2,
        "colSpan": 2,
        "label": "How would you like to be contacted?",
        "isRequired": false,
        "isLabelAlwaysOn": true
    },
    {
        "kind": "ContactTime",
        "id": "ContactTime",
        "col": 2,
        "colSpan": 2,
        "label": "What time do you prefer to be contacted?",
        "isRequired": false,
        "isLabelAlwaysOn": true
    },
    {
        "kind": "RevenueLastYear",
        "id": "RevenueLastYear",
        "col": 2,
        "isRequired": true
    },
    {
        "kind": "NetProfit",
        "id": "NetProfit",
        "col": 2,
        "isRequired": true,
        "defaultValue": 0
    },
    {
        "kind": "BusinessNumEmployees",
        "id": "BusinessNumEmployees",
        "col": 2,
        "label": "Number of full-time employees",
        "isRequired": false,
        "isLabelAlwaysOn": true
    },
    {
        "kind": "PriorBankruptcies",
        "id": "PriorBankruptcies",
        "col": 2,
        "label": "Prior bankruptcies",
        "isRequired": true,
        "isLabelAlwaysOn": true
    },
    {
        "kind": "Collateral",
        "id": "Collateral",
        "isRequired": true
    },
    {
        "kind": "RevenueProjected",
        "id": "RevenueProjected",
        "col": 2,
        "isRequired": true
    },
    {
        "kind": "HasBusinessPlan",
        "id": "HasBusinessPlan",
        "col": 2,
        "isRequired": true
    },
    {
        "kind": "OwnerDemographics",
        "id": "OwnerDemographics",
        "isRequired": true
    },
    {
        "kind": "CreditScore",
        "id": "CreditScore",
        "col": 2,
        "isRequired": true
    }
]

Post Submission

Once all the answers to the required questions are known, whether by looking them up from an existing system or prompting the user with them, the Post Submission endpoint can be invoked. The post submission endpoint expects a JSON object in the body, with each required question’s id as a property of the object. The order of the properties does not matter, so long as all the required questions without DefaultValues have been answered. Any values which do not correspond to Question ids will be ignored.

Specifications: POST /api/{referralpartner}/form

Route Parameters

{referralpartner} - [Required string] This is a specific, unique value provided by Connect that represents your organization.
slug - [Optional string] and references which Form you are utilizing, if this is your organizations’ default form, the querystring value should be omitted entirely.

Querystring Parameters

ipaddress - Pass along the client’s IP address to help with fraud detection. This is optional, but highly recommended as it will assist in identifying potential fraudulent activity or spam. If this is not provided, Connect will mark your lead as ‘synthetic’, assuming the lead is trusted and skip fraud detection.

Body

{
    "RequestedAmount": 75000,
    "UseOfProceeds": "WorkingCapital",
    "BusinessName": "Johns Plumbing Supplies",
    "BusinessType": "LLC",
    "BusinessIndustry": "InformationTechnology",
    "BusinessIndustry_NAICS": "541511", // only required if `requireFullNAICS` is true
    "YearsInBusiness": "ThreeOrMore",
    "BusinessAddress": {
        "Line1": "2122 Generic Ave N.",
        "City": "Minneapolis",
        "State": "Minnesota",
        "PostalCode": "55413"
    },
    "FirstName": "John",
    "LastName": "Smith",
    "Email": "john.smith@johnsplumbingsupplies.com",
    "Phone": "123-456-7890",
    "RevenueLastYear": "_500000To1000000",
    "PriorBankruptcy": "None",
    "Collateral": [
        "CommercialRealEstate",
        "ResidentialRealEstate"
    ],
    "RevenueProjected": "_500000To1000000",
    "HasBusinessPlan": true,
    "CreditScore": "_700Plus"
}

Response

The response will be a 201 Created status code, with a location header containing a URL to the submission. This URL can be used to retrieve the matched products for the submission.

HTTP/1.1 201 Created
Location: /api/{referralpartner}/form/submissions/{submissionId}

Get matches

Once a submission has been created, it can be retrieved by invoking this endpoint. This endpoint is available indefinitely, but matchmaking will only be performed once — this functionality may change in the future. The matchmaking itself is actually performed when the submission is created, in post-submission, and this endpoint exists to retrieve the matchmaking results.

Specifications: /api/{referralpartner}/form/products

Response

The response will be an object with a property called products, which contains the products matched, or an empty array.

type ProductResponse = {
  // The submission's unique id
  id: string;

  // The products matched
  products: Product[]

  // Additional resources which may be helpful to the applicant
  otherResources: AdditionalResource[]
}

type Product = {
  // The product's unique id
  productId: string;

  // Partner metadata
  partner: PartnerMetadata;

  // Product details
  details: ProductDetail;
}

type PartnerMetadata = {
  headquarters?: string | undefined;
  name?: string | undefined;
  description?: string | undefined;
  areasServed?: string | undefined;
  amountFinancedToDate?: number | undefined;
  smallBusinessesServed?: number | undefined;
  establishedYear?: number | undefined;
  languages?: string | undefined;
  website?: string | undefined;
}

type ProductDetail = {
  // URL of the product or partner's logo
  productImage?: string | undefined;

  // Name of the product
  name?: string | undefined;

  // Kind of product (e.g. Loan)
  kind: ProductType;

  // Terms of the loan product, when type = 'Loan' - OPTIONAL
  termsRange?: NumberRangeViewModel | undefined;
  interestRateRange?: NumberRangeViewModel | undefined;
  timeToFundRange?: NumberRangeViewModel | undefined;
  loanType?: LoanType | undefined;
  applicationFee?: FeeViewModel | undefined;
  originationFee?: FeeViewModel | undefined;
  collateralType: CollateralType;
  paymentFrequency?: PaymentFrequency | undefined;
  maxMoneyAmount: number | undefined;
}

{
    "products": [
        {
            "productId": "1c7c521b-e6fe-43e5-aca5-f7f285d1722d",
            "details": {
                "productImage": "https://connect.crfusa.com/images/products/f7fde75f8cc84941888bef65de09eff9",
                "name": "My Small Business Loan",
                "kind": "Loan",
                "termsRange": {
                    "min": 1,
                    "max": 5,
                    "unit": "Years"
                },
                "interestRateRange": {
                    "min": 6.75,
                    "max": 9,
                    "unit": "Fixed"
                },
                "timeToFundRange": {
                    "min": 15,
                    "max": 30,
                    "unit": "Days"
                },
                "loanType": "TermLoan",
                "collateralType": "Secured",
                "paymentFrequency": "Monthly"
            },
            "partner": {
              "name": "MyPartner",
              "headquarters": "Minneapolis, Minnesota",
              "partnerDescription": "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Mauris est justo, congue ut tempus quis, ullamcorper vitae tortor. Praesent vitae laoreet urna, in feugiat sapien. Nam sapien ligula, aliquam eget justo pretium, consectetur tincidunt tellus. Duis gravida lobortis nunc, eu faucibus felis commodo tincidunt.",
              "areasServed": "Minnesota",
              "amountFinancedToDate": 1000000,
              "smallBusinessesServed": 10000,
              "establishedYear": 1998,
              "languages": "English, Spanish"
            }
        }
    ]
}

Apply Lead to Product

In order to generate a matching lead, the submission must now be linked with a product. This is done by invoking the Post Match endpoint.

Specifications: POST /api/{referralpartner}/form/apply

Route Parameters

{referralpartner} - [Required string] This is a specific, unique value provided by Connect that represents your organization.
slug - [Optional string] and references which Form you are utilizing, if this is your organizations’ default form, the querystring value should be omitted entirely.

Querystring Parameters

skipFraudCheck - [Optional boolean]. If your system has already verified the user, the match will be created regardless of the outcome of Connect’s internal fraud detection.

Body

{
  "submissionId": "e5fa496a-bf93-44a8-b0b0-7573dceace34",
  "productId": "544448ec-a3c7-4781-9781-5ae7e27dcc80"
}

Response

The response will be an object containing contact information for the product’s service partner. It may also optionally include a formHandoff which can be used to send a user directly into a product’s application system, see Form Handoff for more information.

type ApplyResult = {
    // Partner info
    partnerName?: string | undefined;
    website?: string | undefined;

    // Contact information
    contactImage?: string | undefined;
    contactImageType: ProductContactImageType;
    contactName?: string | undefined;
    contactTitle?: string | undefined;
    contactEmail?: string | undefined;
    contactPhone?: string | undefined;
    contactAddress?: string | undefined;
    contactQuote?: string | undefined;
    contactAboutMe?: string | undefined;
    productId: string;

    // Matching product details
    details: ProductDetail;

    // Form handoff info
    formHandoff?: FormHandoff | undefined;
}

type FormHandoff = {
    // URL to POST user to
    endpoint?: string | undefined;
}

Example JSON

{
    "partnerName": "MyPartner",
    "website": "https://www.mypartner.org/",
    "contactImage": "https://connect.crfusa.com/images/partners/918a07db8d7443d194beb9baff7201bc",
    "contactImageType": "Partner",
    "contactName": "Some Person",
    "contactTitle": "Loan Officer",
    "contactEmail": "contact@mypartner.org",
    "contactPhone": "612-100-4444",
    "contactAddress": "MyPartner\n123 E Somewhere Ave.\nSuite 100\nMinneapolis, MN 55411",
    "contactQuote": "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.",
    "contactAboutMe": "Mauris est justo, congue ut tempus quis, ullamcorper vitae tortor.",
    "productId": "1c7c521b-e6fe-43e5-aca5-f7f285d1722d",
    "details": {
        "productImage": "https://connect.crfusa.com/images/products/f7fde75f8cc84941888bef65de09eff9",
        "productName": "My Small Business Loan",
        "kind": "Loan",
        "termsRange": {
            "low": 1,
            "high": 5,
            "unit": "Years"
        },
        "interestRateRange": {
            "low": 6.75,
            "high": 9,
            "unit": "Fixed"
        },
        "timeToFundRange": {
            "low": 15,
            "high": 30,
            "unit": "Days"
        },
        "loanType": "TermLoan",
        "collateralType": "Secured",
        "paymentFrequency": "Monthly"
    },
    "id": "83a7f974-f02b-456f-8978-9cf9621787fe"
}

Address Object

The BusinessAddress field should be provided as an object with the following properties:

Property	Type	Required	Description
Line1	String	Yes	Street address, line 1
Line2	String	No	Street address, line 2 (optional, e.g. suite or unit)
City	String	Yes	City
State	String	Yes	State or province
PostalCode	String	Yes	Postal or ZIP code

Example:

{
  "Line1": "2122 Generic Ave N.",
  "Line2": "Suite 100",
  "City": "Minneapolis",
  "State": "Minnesota",
  "PostalCode": "55413"
}

Enum Values

`Collateral`

CommercialRealEstate: Commercial Real Estate
ResidentialRealEstate: Residential Real Estate
Inventory: Inventory
AccountsReceivable: Accounts Receivable
Cash: Cash
InvestmentAccounts: Investment Accounts
NewEquipmentMachinery: New Equipment/Machinery
FurnitureAndFixtures: Furniture and Fixtures
Vehicles: Vehicles
UsedEquipmentMachinery: Used Equipment/Machinery
VacantLand: Vacant Land
LeaseholdImprovements: Leasehold Improvements
Other: Other

`UseOfProceeds`

WorkingCapital: Working Capital
StartABusiness: Start a Business
AcquireABusiness: Acquire a Business
PurchaseInventory: Purchase Inventory
PurchaseMachineryOrEquipment: Purchase Machinery or Equipment
MakeBuildingImprovements: Make Building Improvements
BuildingAcquisition: Building Acquisition
RefinanceExistingDebt: Refinance Existing Debt
Other: Other

`BusinessType`

SoleProprietorship: Sole Proprietorship
LLC: LLC
Corporation: Corporation
NonProfit: Non-Profit
Other: Other

`YearsInBusiness`

Startup: Startup
LessThanOne: Less Than One Year
OneToTwo: One to Two Years
TwoToThree: Two to Three Years
ThreeOrMore: Three or More Years

`PriorBankruptcies`

None: None
_1Prior: 1 Prior
_2OrMore: 2 or More

`CreditScores`

_700Plus: 700+
_660To699: 660–699
_640To659: 640–659
_620To639: 620–639
_580To619: 580–619
Below580: Below 580

`Revenues`

LessThan100000: Less Than $100,000
_100000To250000: $100,000–$250,000
_250000To500000: $250,000–$500,000
_500000To1000000: $500,000–$1,000,000
_1000000To5000000: $1,000,000–$5,000,000
MoreThan5000000: More Than $5,000,000

`Industries`

AccomodationAndFoodService: Accommodation and Food Service
Agriculture: Agriculture
BusinessServices: Business Services
Construction: Construction
DentistsPhysicians: Dentists/Physicians
EducationalServices: Educational Services
FinanceAndInsurance: Finance and Insurance
GasStationsAndConvenienceStores: Gas Stations and Convenience Stores
HealthcareAndSocialAssistance: Healthcare and Social Assistance
Hotels: Hotels
InformationTechnology: Information Technology
Landlord: Landlord
Manufacturing: Manufacturing
Mining: Mining
ProfessionalServices: Professional Services
RealEstate: Real Estate
Restaurant: Restaurant
Retail: Retail
TransportationAndWarehousing: Transportation and Warehousing
Utilities: Utilities
WasteManagement: Waste Management
WholesaleTrade: Wholesale Trade
Other: Other

`BusinessServices`

Accounting: Accounting
BusinessPlan: Business Plan
BuyOrSellABusiness: Buy or Sell a Business
CashFlowManagement: Cash Flow Management
CompanyFormation: Company Formation
CustomerRelations: Customer Relations
CreditCounseling: Credit Counseling
FinancingOrCapital: Financing or Capital
Franchising: Franchising
GovernmentContracting: Government Contracting
HumanResourcesAndManagement: Human Resources and Management
InternationalTrade: International Trade
LegalIssues: Legal Issues
MarketingOrSales: Marketing or Sales
PrivateSectorProcurement: Private Sector Procurement
TaxPlanning: Tax Planning
TechnologyAndECommerce: Technology and E-Commerce

`OwnershipDemographics`

Women: Women
Veteran: Veteran
LGBTQ: LGBTQ
BlackAfricanAmerican: Black/African American
Asian: Asian
Latinx: Latinx
MiddleEastNorthAfrican: Middle East/North African
NativeAmerican: Native American
AlaskanNative: Alaskan Native
NativeHawaiian: Native Hawaiian
PacificIslander: Pacific Islander
Mixedrace: Mixed Race
Disabled: Disabled
Other: Other

`ContactMethods`

Email: Email
Phone: Phone

`ContactTime`

Morning: Morning
Afternoon: Afternoon
Evening: Evening

`FinanceNeededBy`

Today: Today
InNextTwoWeeks: In Next Two Weeks
InNextTwoMonths: In Next Two Months
MultipleOptions: Multiple Options

Matchmaking API

Forms, Questions, and Products

Loan Products Questions

Relevant API Calls

Get Questions

Route Parameters

Response

Post Submission

Route Parameters

Querystring Parameters

Body

Response

Get matches

Response

Apply Lead to Product

Route Parameters

Querystring Parameters

Body

Response

Address Object

Enum Values

Collateral

UseOfProceeds

BusinessType

YearsInBusiness

PriorBankruptcies

CreditScores

Revenues

Industries

BusinessServices

OwnershipDemographics

ContactMethods

ContactTime

FinanceNeededBy

`Loan` Products Questions

`Collateral`

`UseOfProceeds`

`BusinessType`

`YearsInBusiness`

`PriorBankruptcies`

`CreditScores`

`Revenues`

`Industries`

`BusinessServices`

`OwnershipDemographics`

`ContactMethods`

`ContactTime`

`FinanceNeededBy`