History of Broadbean
Our seed was first sown by Kelly Robinson on 7th September 2001. As CEO of a large recruitment agency, Kelly was fed up with poor advert distribution tools and even poorer client services. So he decided to build his own. Kelly developed a simple posting tool for his own company and in the process realised what a great product he had on his hands. Dan McGuire was hired to take the product to market and the newly named Broadbean Technology was born. The pair had one goal "To post the world's online adverts".
Response was encouraging at first but due to the dot.com crash, sales just weren't matching up to the positive feedback. The pair reached a crossroads and had to decide whether to persevere with the business or cut their losses. Dan was confident that the business could be a success, so Kelly asked him to put his money where his mouth was. Dan worked unsalaried in return for shares whilst Kelly was forced to temporarily return to his recruitment business.
Seven years later and Broadbean Technology is the European leader in job advert distribution and response tracking solutions. We are now well on our way to achieving our primary objective; the one that was written on a post-it note and stuck to a wall all those years ago, the one that said "To post the world's online adverts".
Our story so far
2001 - Birth of The Bean
Broadbean was founded by Kelly Robinson a serial entrepreneur with 15 years experience running staffing companies after he became frustrated that there was no quality web-based advert distribution service available. Knowing the time constraints recruiters face, he started the company on a shoe string budget in borrowed office space.
2002 - The first clients
Kelly secured deals with the first of our clients; Aston Carter, Zarak Group and Networkers MSB all of which are still with us today. It was at this time that Kelly asked a 21 year old Dan McGuire to join the business. Dan believed in the concept so strongly that he agreed to work for free in return for shares. This formed the start of a great partnership and the pair agreed on one simple goal "to post the world's online adverts"!
2003 - Aplitrak- Changing the way Recruiters advertise online
Already a strong player in the market, Broadbean acquired the customer base and technology from former market leader Castle Links.
Contributing to c40% of Broadbeans revenue, Aplitrak was the Brain child of our now Technical Director, Luke Hopkins. The system, which records the source of each candidate application, has been a revolutionarily contributor to how recruiters advertise their jobs and tracks the ROI from their online advertising spend.
2004 - Award for Innovation
Aplitrak won ATSCo award for Technical Innovation
Broadbean turned over £250k the bean grew to four members of staff.
2005 - Exceeding the £1 million target
Broadbean acquired customer base of WebSalvo and by October 2006 hit £1m in turnover for the first time.
2006 - 13,000 Bean users
Bean love was becoming a national phenomenon and we acquired our 600th client and 13,000th User.
The promotion of Ricky Wheeler to Marketing Director helped Broadbean to scoop Best Offline Marketing and Best Online Marketing Awards at Onrec.
Designed to allow technology partners to integrate their database applications with job posting product, AdCourier, Hybrid was launched and went on to win Best Technical Innovation at Onrec February 2007.
2007 - Fast growth and excellent accolades
The Bean was ranked the UK's 27th Fastest Growing Technology Company in the Deloitte Fast 50. After 5 years with the business, Dan McGuire received the Young Entrepreneur of The Year prize at the Growing Business Awards where he fought off excellent competitors for the title. At the same ceremony The Bean Team were finalists in the Innovative Company of the year category for our wacky but wonderful quirks. Contributing to this entry was evidence of our team spirit and the work we do with charity. We also received highly commendable status for our Innovative Technology at the London and South East Recruitment Awards. At only 26, Dan also received acknowledgement in the Lifetime Achievement category.
We grew to over 30 employees and turned over £2m. Sales for Q1 were up for 110% on 2006 and over 700% on 2005. There was a 97% renewal rate.
2008 - Broadbean continues to grow and is acquired by AND
Broadbean grew to over 900 clients and 25,000 users. Once again ranked in the Deloitte Fast 50, this time The Bean moved up to the UK's 7th fastest growing Technology Company. We almost doubled the amount of employees to over 50 and employed Dutch and French speaking members of staff. Broadbean was sold to AND and became part of the Daily Mail Group.
