Profile Analysis

The Business Investors Group (BiG) has been behind me and my i-snapshot team since its sales-management package was a twinkle in my eye two years ago. Since then, BiG investors have seen their initial investment of £200k reap the rewards of growth and a second chance to invest.

The March 2008 investment round raised a further £1million from a combination of north east and USA investors and is being used to fund the global roll-out of the i-snapshot offering and development of two associated products: textmereminder.com and saveoursale.com.

Underpinning the investment success is an impressive ‘hockey stick’ of growth. From two employees 18months ago i-snapshot and its parent company Profile Analysis now offer employment to 30 people in Middlesbrough, Hamburg and the USA and are recording UK sales of £75k per month on a 90% plus gross-margin. In addition to the owned offices, the company also has seven international distributorships and is looking to build sales to £30million over the next three years. At that point it may be a good time to sell!

We attribute our success so far to the introduction of disruptive technology in a seemingly crowded marketplace. I have always been a great reader and have built a business model that is scaleable and reproduceable across country boundaries. It is based on suggestions from the Crossing the Chasm consultancy in the USA. We are now boasting an international client list of large companies with between 100-300 field sales staff and offering our larger customers a return on their investment in seven days.

With my eyes firmly focused on global growth, I still feel indebted to the Business Investors Group who helped me get my idea to market in the early days, investing in disruptive technologies is always a tough call. I’m also delighted that BiG members had the vision to support my product and help take it to market. They deserve the returns that they will receive from those investments.

Alan Timothy
Chief Scientist
Profile Analysis