A Beer With the CANDDi team

‘A Beer With’ is a new series here at GreatPreneurs, each week we want to grab a beer with a start-up and hear about what they are up to.

When everyone began rushing out of their offices in Manchester as it hit 5pm on Friday, we headed through the frantic crowds to the Malmaison Hotel where we were set to meet Tim Langley. Tim is the founder of CANDDi, a start-up based in Manchester and Newcastle. CANDDI specialise in something called Prospect Analytics. This is basically live analytics to an extreme level. The technology is able to tell companies not just how many people are on their website but who and what they are doing. Creating rich profiles of personal information means that companies can follow-up on leads instantly with detailed information about their interactions on the site which might reveal details about products they have been browsing. The depth they are able to achieve is almost creepy, following potential clients across time and devices. The result is an incredibly powerful sales tool.

Just when we thought that we were experiencing our first stand up, Tim showed up. Tim is a very enthusiastic and eccentric leader, naturally this meant that he brought some of his team along. This added bonus meant that we also got to hear the insight of his top employees which included a previous Google Sales Pro. We were given a full perspective of working, or as they called it ‘living’ in a start-up. If a customer has a question at 3am, a customer gets an answer at 3am. The team described how sometimes you are just concentrating on surviving till next week, but then the high points are the greatest feeling in the world. This week, however, had been one of those survival weeks. The comment was perfectly timed with the arrival of a round of beer, two for everybody but I am sure that was just a funny coincidence.

Tim had started the idea 4 years ago in 2009 when his friend approached him with an idea for a business. It was not an original idea but it was one they believed they could build into something successful. Since their beginnings they have had the best part of £500,000 investment and will potentially be looking for more in the future to help them grow even more. They have also now seen their team expand to eight employees.

So what is in store for CANDDi in the future? The team seemed pretty confident that they were in a strong position compared to their competitors. CANDDi prides itself in constantly innovating, whereas their competitors become more obsolete as they fail to add features.

The team members finally dropped off, one by one to head home after a hectic week. CANDDi seems an exciting start-up to be in, let’s wish them all the best for the future.