The Truman Scout Story
In 1995 Jan de Ruiter gave up his job as a computer programmer at an entertainment laser company to start a retail business in computers and consumer electronics. As a tech lover with a strong passion for retail it was something he had dreamed about for years.
“There’s something magical about retail. Every morning when you open your shop’s doors and turn on the spotlights, it’s showtime for you and your team. It’s like slipping into a role with only one goal; delivering an awesome shopper experience for the people that have chosen to visit your store.”
With his roots in software development, and knowing what powerful software can do to help run a business, he soon noticed that there’s wasn’t any good software on the market that integrated all processes in the BTO computer business. After business hours, he started building a fully integrated process management software for his business, which took him about 3 years of obsessive programming to get version 1 out. It didn’t take long before other business owners showed interest in the software he had built.
Although his retail business was booming, he sold his shops in 2002 so he could fully focus on software to help businesses actually run their business. The client base slowly expanded to distributors and manufacturers of (consumer) goods and eventually field marketing agencies. They were facing different challenges that needed different solutions.