The agent layer for B2B commerce
Ask Frank a sourcing question the way you'd ask a colleague. He searches 1M+ Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers in every category, writes to the ones who fit, chases what's missing, and comes back with a sourced answer.
Free to ask. No login, no onboarding, nothing to adopt. Write in any language and attach whatever you already have. Frank never passes your contact details to a supplier unless you ask him to.
The network
Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers already known to Frank: what they make and what they can do.
of buyers mapped: who buys what, and from whom.
category covered, from finished goods to the materials and components behind them.
TIER 1
Assembly, cut-make-trim, finished-goods manufacturers and the agents who represent them.
TIER 2
Mills, tanneries, dye houses, component and trim makers. Frank asks them for their own suppliers and keeps going, tier by tier.
Every category, one address
The problem
01
Find counterparties02
Qualify them03
Gather specifications04
Check requirements05
Request quotes06
Answer questions07
Compare options08
Negotiate terms09 · forever
Chase missing informationIllustrative timings for a typical multi-supplier request.
About 6–7 weeks
1–7 days
Why it's still manual
Marketplaces, portals and supplier platforms all depend on the other side logging in, filling in forms and keeping data current. Adoption never came, so the data went stale and the work went back to email.
So Frank doesn't ask anyone to adopt one.
Meet Frank
“Find companies that can supply this, meet these requirements, at this price, in this timeframe.”
“Find the companies most likely to need what we sell, qualify the opportunity and start the conversation.”
How Frank works
01
The right companies, from a map of who buys and sells what.
02
Reaches out on the channels they already use.
03
Turns replies, files and sheets into structured data.
04
Chases gaps on his own until the picture is complete.
05
A decision-ready outcome, or the transaction itself.
Always on
“Chrome-free Tier 2 tanneries in Tamil Nadu, current LWG rating, 50,000 sq ft monthly, sampling in four weeks.”
“Six match on current evidence, attached, each claim sourced and dated. Nine more fit on capability but hold no current LWG certificate on file. I've written to those nine this morning.”
“A brand asked about you. Your capability matches, but we don't have a current LWG certificate on file. Reply with the latest one and it goes into the answer.”
“Attached. Gold, renewed in March.”
LWG_Certificate_2026.pdf“Seven of the nine replied overnight, checked against the issuer: thirteen tanneries now. Two didn't respond, listed as unconfirmed, not dropped.”
“FSC-certified oak veneer panels for contract furniture, E1 or better, 2,000 m² a month, delivered to Rotterdam within six weeks.”
“Eight mills match on current evidence, attached, each claim sourced and dated. Five more fit on capability but hold no current FSC chain-of-custody certificate on file. I've written to those five.”
“A buyer asked about you. Your capability matches, but we don't have a current FSC chain-of-custody certificate on file. Reply with it and it goes into the answer.”
“Attached. Valid to 2028, and we can hold the six-week window.”
FSC_CoC_Certificate.pdf“Four of the five replied overnight, checked against the FSC database: twelve mills now. One didn't respond, listed as unconfirmed, not dropped.”
Every reply adds to the network. That certificate is now part of the answer for every buyer who asks next. Frank checks the whole network first, then asks only the suppliers who fit. Same loop in every category.
Product, end to end
The loop that finds a supplier also builds the product. Send a sketch, a concept or a tech pack, and Frank works it through to a costed, sourced, production-ready specification.
A sketch, a mood board, or one line in an email.
Read as written, with ambiguity flagged before it costs a season.
Every line sourced, with alternates and lead times.
Compliant substitutes when something is restricted or discontinued.
Who can sample, how fast, and from what.
Landed cost, line by line, from real quotes.
Capacity and timing confirmed with each factory.
Certificates and evidence collected at every tier.
Need something else? Describe a new standard, regulation or report format once in an email, and Frank does it that way from then on.
Agent-ready
What comes in
Fragmented, unstructured, invisible to software.
What Frank builds
Structured, machine-readable knowledge agents can act on. Unknowns logged, never guessed.
For suppliers
Buyers are starting to send agents to find suppliers. Frank turns what a supplier already has, their emails, catalogues and certificates, into a record those agents can read, and puts it to work for them.
Capabilities, certificates and capacity, structured so Frank and buyers' own agents can match you to real demand.
Keeps your record current, flags certificates before they expire, and tells you what's missing to stay on the shortlist.
Live buyer requests matched to what you make and when you have capacity, so you hear about the right orders.
Reply to one email instead of filling in a hundred portals and questionnaires. Every answer is reused for the next buyer.
“We're a tannery in Ambur. Chrome-free and vegetable, 40,000 sq ft a month, LWG Silver. Attaching our capability sheet and certificates.”
Capability_Sheet.pdf LWG_Silver.pdfFrank structures it, checks the certificates at source, and tells the supplier what's missing. Being included is free, and payment never changes whether or where a supplier appears.
Two ways to use Frank
Open · the network
Not a marketplace. Nothing is listed, nothing is bid on. Ask about any of the 1M+ Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers Frank knows, in any category. Every relevant supplier can appear, paying or not.
Free to ask. Pay for the work, in credits.
Private · yours
Same Frank, pointed at your approved suppliers, your documents and your standards, on top of the open network. Live in minutes: it's email, there's nothing to implement. Built with Microsoft on Azure.
Private deployment. Your data never enters the open network.
In production
“Frank gives the industry a single research assistant across a fragmented supply base. Brands can ask real questions about suppliers, materials, capabilities, standards and traceability. Frank identifies the gaps automatically, goes back to any tier of the supply chain for what's missing, and continuously builds a better picture of global supply.”Andy Polk, Senior Vice President, FDRA (opens in a new tab)
Live today with paying customers in fashion and footwear, including a multi-billion-dollar U.S. footwear brand and a major European fashion group.
Built by the team behind Material Exchange, which connected 150+ brands with 100,000+ suppliers.
Principles
Money never buys inclusion, ranking, recommendation or an introduction.
Never passed to a supplier unless you ask.
Private information never enters the open network and never trains an LLM.
Every claim is sourced, dated, and its provenance shown.
Where he's uncertain he says so, then goes and closes the gap.
Consumer agents are becoming the interface to consumer commerce.
frank@askfrank.com goes to Frank, who starts working on your request. To reach the people behind Frank (partnerships, private deployments, press or anything else), write to contact@askfrank.com. Frank doesn't read that inbox.