The SME Story: Ben Kinerman-Daltrey, co-founder of KinFitz & Co

What is the core business model of KinFitz & Co?
KinFitz & Co is a sales recruitment, training and coaching business, working specifically with startups and SMEs.

What were you doing before you started KinFitz & Co?
My co-founder and I were VPs at the seventh-highest funded startup in the Middle East, Bayzat, and helped grow its sales team from four to 150 people.

What gap did you see in the market that necessitated the need for such a company?
We worked with recruiters in the market when hiring for our previous company, and they never seemed to “get it” when we spoke about startup culture. We want to solve the problem of less funded startups who cannot afford to make mistakes when it comes to recruiting salespeople. Also, going through such hyper-growth in our sales organisation, we faced many challenges to scale training and coaching at the same speed our team was growing. We want to help other startups and SMEs overcome that challenge from all our learnings.

Does focusing on startups and SMEs make good long-term business sense?
For us, yes! We are keen to “stay in our lane”. We get startups, we understand what it takes to grow a startup, and we are well placed to advise and coach from our hands-on experience. We’ve witnessed the negative impact of unskilled sales professionals through our sales careers across Europe and the UAE, and the power of hiring good sales professionals, especially when every hire is a massive commercial decision.

What are some of the biggest challenges that you have encountered as an entrepreneur?
We began our startup journey on Day 3 of the nationwide lockdown. This was a huge decision for both Liam (co-founder) and I. We handed in our notice at our previous company at the start of January when Covid-19 wasn’t apparent in the region. We were both given the option to remain in employment, but we maintained the belief that we could solve the problems faced by many startups. In hindsight, starting up in a pandemic was the best decision that we made. We learned how to build a sustainable, revenue generating and scalable business.

What are your expansion plans?
We doubled our team last year. We hired both a consultant and a marketing executive. We are aiming to have a team of eight by the end of June, with 10-12 team members by the end of the year. We have gained clients across the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the UK. We are also looking into expanding our operation more in Saudi Arabia, potentially developing business in Israel, and we hope to expand into some of the other startup hubs across Europe. We have taken on more technical and non-sales roles which is a huge area of growth for us and are hiring internally to bring expertise to this field as well. Our online sales coaching platform will also start helping sales individuals who are seeking support on their professional development.