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How we built a business out of recession — Chapter 15 — John to the rescue
The story of CitNOW*
This is the 15th chapter about CitNOW, the company started from a kitchen table in Winnersh, Berkshire. If you’d like to read from the beginning, here’s a link to chpt 1. Each chapter is a 5-minute read. It’s an early draft of a book.
CitNOW was founded by Andrew Howells and Donna Barradale in 2005, although the company was only registered in 2008. In February 2018, we sold the company to Tenzing, a UK private equity company. It has been sold again since.
Help sometimes comes from unexpected places. I’d known John for years. He’d been my Danish distributor when I worked for Videologic, a PC company based in Hemel Hempstead. At the time, it was making a bit of a ruckus getting video onto a computer screen, something we all take for granted now.
Since the warm welcome received when I first met him, John’s become a longstanding friend, attending both my weddings.
At some point, I explained the new CitNOW business to John on one of our irregular catch-ups. He was checking in to see how everything was going. I concluded after the call that he didn’t think much of the business, gently pointing out an immediate flaw he’d spotted. Why wouldn’t dealers use FaceTime** for free, rather than a proprietary…
