Marketcircle is a software company that develops the award-winning CRM and productivity business app – Daylite. Built exclusively for the Apple ecosystem, Daylite empowers small businesses to get more done throughout the full customer lifecycle. From meeting prospects and taking control of your sales to managing the moving pieces on projects, all the way through to winning more repeated business, it’s all done in Daylite. Daylite is more than just a CRM app for small businesses. Its productivity-focused design helps improve team efficiency and makes collaboration easy – everything is organized, searchable, and accessible (even offline). You can easily access information and segment data tailored to your client’s history. Daylite is used today by thousands of small businesses in over 80 countries to manage customers, sales, and projects in one place. As a small business ourselves, Marketcircle is motivated to help small businesses achieve peace of mind and control over the chaos that comes with running a business.
Tell us about yourself?
Ever since I was a kid, I recall wanting to own my own business. I guess I was inspired by my family owning their businesses. My uncle was a businessman, and my mother owned a shop and restaurant – out of absolute necessity.
And one day, I was watching a documentary about eBay, and that’s where my idea of a negotiation platform came from and inspired me to create Marketcircle.
Marketcircle started as a .com company in 1999. At the time, we wanted to provide a negotiation platform that businesses could use to negotiate deals, as it seemed to be the most common way people did business.
By the time we tried to get funding, the .com bubble had burst. We ended up doing consulting work for a number of years, and as part of that work, we had long sales cycles, which could sometimes take months before a deal was closed. We were offering systems that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, so it was not a quick and easy sale.
We were having a hard time following up on deals, and things were falling through the cracks. We needed a CRM, and there wasn’t a product available for the Apple platform. So our choice was to either stay on Apple or switch to Windows and use a CRM-type tool. We decided to build our own CRM for Apple, but at first, it was more for ourselves than for commercial purposes.
With strong encouragement from Apple, we decided to turn our CRM into a commercial product. After a few years, the product income overgrew the consulting income. By 2007, we no longer needed to do consulting work because we started having more significant revenues from the CRM product, which we now call Daylite.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
I would tell myself that when it comes to prices, start high and work your way down, and the reason that I say that is because you want to find the right customers that won’t waste your time. If I were to start today, I would do the same thing. I would start high and then work that through and then have cheaper offerings in the future.
What problem does your business solve?
Daylite is now used by thousands of small businesses in over 80 countries to get more done throughout the full customer lifecycle. From meeting prospects and taking control of your sales to managing the moving pieces on projects, all the way through to winning more repeat businesses, it’s all done in Daylite.
Our productivity-focused design helps improve team efficiency and makes collaboration easy – everything is organized, searchable, and accessible (even offline). You can easily access information and segment data tailored to your specific client’s history.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
In a former life, we were a consulting company and struggled with the same things most businesses do – keeping track of relationships and commitments. So we began building a tool that could help us get organized and thrive. After a trip to MacWorld and a run-in with an Apple employee, we were encouraged to sell our tool, and that’s how Daylite was born.
What is your magic sauce?
As a small business ourselves, Marketcircle is motivated to help small businesses achieve peace of mind and control over the chaos that comes with running a business.
Daylite small business app is designed specifically for macOS and iOS. Unlike classic CRMs that are built for “the boss” to report on sales with fancy charts, Daylite is designed to support day-to-day work, not create it. From the first meeting to staying in touch, closing the deal, finishing the project, and following up for repeat business and referrals – it’s all in Daylite and shared with the team.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
We see an increased usage of iPhones and iPads for more business. Previously with these devices, you could only access a little bit of information, but what we’re noticing now with the bigger devices is that people want to be able to do even more heavy-duty stuff on their devices. That’s one of the things that we’re working towards enabling.
There was a little bit of a dip in this trend when people were working from home, and the desktop became more important again, but we were well positioned for that. Now that travel is resuming, and life is coming back to normal, so to speak, we see people wanting to take some of those capabilities back into the mobile space.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
Being true to yourself is one of my key learnings over the last 25 years, and that there’s no right or wrong way to get work done as long as you lean into your own habits. Take the opportunity to highlight what you consider the most valuable advice for entrepreneurs and innovators: prepare your ideas, prepare your proposal, learn from mistakes and move on. Never give up! When you combine these two, you can accomplish and achieve and still be happy.
How can people get involved?
Daylite is an award-winning CRM and productivity business app that empowers small businesses to get more done throughout the full customer lifecycle. From meeting prospects and taking control of your sales to managing the moving pieces on projects, all the way through to winning more repeat business, it’s all done in Daylite. Developed by a team of Apple enthusiasts at Marketcircle Inc., Daylite is a native app that was built exclusively for Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
Daylite’s seamless integration with the Apple ecosystem allows users to leverage Apple Contacts and Calendar, Siri, Notification Centre, and Multitasking on iPad. Daylite is used today by thousands of small businesses in over 80 countries to manage customers, sales, and projects in one place. Visit us at www.marketcircle.com to learn more or start a free trial.