How we built a business out of recession — Chapter 6 — A new secret weapon

The story of CitNOW*

This is the sixth 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 roughly a 5-minute read and is 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.

Images from my phone which became part of a handout

It was obvious when I thought about it, probably driving somewhere in my trusty Vauxhall Corsa with no radio. Dealers doing well, hitting sales targets every month, were always going to be less interested in what I had to say; a few smart ones, the exception. Struggling dealers, there weren’t all that many, listened with enthusiasm and signed up quickly for pilots. But we didn’t offer much of a sticking plaster for their underlying structural issues, which didn’t magically disappear when our new tech was installed.

On that first, crisp Monday morning, Honda Holdrcoft was the only dealer with a live video presentation tool anywhere. Anyone enquiring on the phone from hundreds of miles away, the next town or five minutes down the road, could now view vehicles on…