Driving industry-wide innovation | Christian Ritosek, Co-Founder and CEO of CANDIS

Earlier this week we brought you a new episode of Tech Salescraft featuring the innovative thoughts of Christian Ritosek, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of CANDIS. Crafting a firm that has experienced immense success, Christian imparts the knowledge and advice that has led his team from strength to strength. From the intensity of funding rounds, to the pressures of national and international expansion, this episode is brimming with attuned insights. A truly brilliant conversation that showcases a firm at the forefront of industry-wide change and innovation.
“What is often missing in early-stage B2B SaaS companies is a strong sales understanding. A lack of strength in the sales department can deter investors.”
Embedding sales into the DNA of CANDIS ensured Christian and his team were able to convince investors they possessed strong market potential and were situated on an upwards trajectory. Christian and one of his fellow Co-Founders have a passion and background in sales, allowing them to truly embed a well-founded sales process from the start. But for those firms without such a depth in sales, Christian strongly recommends prioritising investing in a sales team as early as possible. It will allow you to better gauge market perceptions of your product; and if you’re able to sell your product in the early stages, it eases immense amounts of pressure later on. Bringing in a sales team that is invested in your product and keen to see it succeed will accelerate the potential of any firm!
“Prior to Series A, I was getting involved in every aspect of the business. But after Series A, I couldn’t do that. So we invested in people that shared our values and wanted to live our culture.”
As a business grows, delegation and people investment become to critical to ensuring no aspect of the firm becomes overwhelmed. As an experienced Founder, Christian knows the importance of creating a team that is specialised and able to relieve the pressures many founders face. Hiring the right people can be difficult and many firms will often hit hurdles and challenges during the initial onboarding process. Christian knows this all too well and so offers us clear advice to overcome such obstacles: invest in recruitment. Whether you bring in an internal Head of People, or form relationships with talented recruiters, delegating the task of people investment to professionals will undoubtedly give your firm a competitive advantage in a dense space.
“Yes we CANDIS!”
When James asked Christian to describe the culture of CANDIS, Christian offered a refreshing response will undoubtedly set a precedent across the industry. Instead of adorning the office walls with detached value statements, Christian asked his team to summarise the culture, and many, uncoordinated, stated that is was, ‘Yes we CANDIS!’. Capturing the positivity, drive and determination of the team, it came to capture the culture that was led by the ambitions and skills of employees. In having an employee-led culture, Christian and his team were able to better attract more like-minded individuals and create a collective vision that all are passionate about achieving.
Thank you Christian for joining us on Tech Salescraft! It was a fantastic episode that provided us with unique approaches to sales, culture and hiring- we are undoubtedly leaving this conversation better equipped to deal with the challenges of entrepreneurship and scaling! You can watch the full episode now on YouTube, or listen across all major podcast streaming platforms.