The People Behind The Platform.
Business is about making a difference, not just making money. From the founders right the way through the software, you can see that Macanta is more than a CRM.
It’s innovation. It’s customer service. It’s ease of use. It’s risk-taking. It’s sustainability. It’s charity. It’s development. It’s everything you need it to be and more.
And it’s the end result of a pretty cool story…
Peter
Daly-Dickson
1968
I was born in England (the middle of five kids) but moved with my family to Hong Kong shortly afterwards where I completed all of my schooling.
1981
After making the move overseas, I became the youngest ever member of the Hong Kong Youth Symphony Orchestra. My weapon of choice? The trombone!
1989
The call of my home country was too big to ignore, and I spent a few years studying Computer Studies at Bristol Polytechnic before returning to work in Hong Kong.
1992
Then it was back to the UK (I must have liked planes) to attend drama school at the Guildford School of Acting. And I always thought Pieter was the diva…
1998
At the ripe old age of 30, I made one of the biggest decisions of my life. I took the plunge and started my own business – Kyros Solutions.
2001
Then there was another big decision (in fact, it was definitely bigger) and I became a dad to my first child – and beautiful daughter – Gabby.
2002
MAJOR PROFIT! All the hard work paid off and I was handsomely rewarded for starting my own venture. Kyros Solutions was sold for… wait for it… £1.
2004
A great year for me in a lot of ways. Not least because I had the pleasure of meeting my now wife, Andrea, for the first time. Happy memories!
2011
Perhaps this is where the Macanta story gathers a bit of pace. In 2012, I became an Infusionsoft Certified Consultant and started Conquer The Chaos.
2012
Started Conquer The Chaos
Pieter
K de Villiers
1979
I was born and raised in South Africa, the third of four (often lovely, often nightmarish) children. My parents had three boys and one girl.
1993
After studying music since the age of 6, I worked my way up to represent my country on a tour to Reunion Island, playing in a mass-orchestra alongside 700 musicians.
1995
I couldn’t get myself to finish school and so chose to quit at age 16. I’d made this decision long before, but it took me a good 12 months to convince my mum.
1996
I learned a bit of Electro Trade Theory, Industrial Electronics Maths and Engineering Science. And I considered going to university to study Engineering full time.
1997
The degree wasn’t for me and, with the change of regime in SA, I made the spontaneous decision to go to the UK on a 2-year visa.
2002
I did as most antipodeans did at the time – worked in bars and pubs. Fortunately, I ran a pub in London that happened to be the local bar for my now wife, Sophie.
2006
Last orders at the pub. I left to work on building sites, studying Popular Music Performance in the day and working as a Sound Engineer in clubs in the evenings.
2010 - 2013
The best years of my life. I became a Dad to the fabulous Amelie (2010) & Olivia (2013). Every single day is better because they exist. Thank you, girls.
2014
2014 was a tough year. I was running my own electrical contracting and home automation installation business, and failed at it, deciding in July to pull the plug. The toughest decision, but once made, life immediately started changing for the better.
2014
A tough year. I pulled the plug on my fledgling electrical business and became an Infusionsoft Certified Partner. I set up another company, Barefoot Funnels.
Jean
de Villiers
1972
I was born in the RSA! As Pieter’s older brother, I’m the eldest of the four children and took on the duty of keeping him in check for most of his childhood.
1984
Big year. I got my Commodore 64. My grandpa thought it was rubbish until I used the speech synthesizer – typing a phrase phonetically – to greet him in Afrikaans.
1991
Ever the “good boy” and obediently following the “steady job” path, I embarked on my apprenticeship at Telkom SA. Exciting stuff indeed!
1994
I qualified as a telecoms cable engineer. “The Establishment” called me lazy when I created systems to help do my job quicker. But it still resulted in a promotion…
1999
I became a dad to a gorgeous little girl, who’s teaching me the true meaning of fighting spirit and perseverance every single day.
2004
A change of pace… And my journey in the UK began. I started work as an architectural glazing and cladding installer, working in London and Edinburgh.
2005
The building project had finished and I was lured back to my Mum’sto help in their village shop – all to fund my hobby of writing and recording music.
2006
I met an amazing English teacher named Nikki – my now wife. I proposed, and we were married in South Africa. Any excuse for a Garden Route honeymoon!
2015
Early 2006, I met an amazing English teacher named Nikki – my now wife. After nearly 3 years, I proposed – which was the easy bit. In order for me to get a spouse visa, we had to get married in South Africa – any excuse for a Garden Route honeymoon, hey?
2015
A surprise phone call from Pieter to say he was “hatching a plan”. Why don’t Nikki and I up sticks and move to Surrey to join him at Barefoot Funnels? Go on then!
Conquer The Chaos
2015
Peter managed to secure a one-year contract with Entrepreneurs Circle, where he had the pleasure (though it doesn’t always feel that way!) of meeting Pieter.
2016
Huge development. Peter started working on the very first version of Macanta. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t perfect. But it was a start. And he had high hopes!
2016
By later that same year, Macanta was ready to go. It was launched as an Infusionsoft add-on at PartnerCon. Peter was well on his way!
2017
He started working much more closely with Pieter and Barefoot Digital. They realised that they were very similar in how they operated and what they wanted to achieve.
2018
So much so… They decided to merge their companies – Conquer The Chaos and Barefoot Digital – to form Blue Peg Group soon afterwards.
Barefoot Digital
2015
Pieter was working for the Entrepreneurs Circle, where he first met Peter, although there was no talk of partnering up or launching Macanta at that stage.
2016
Pieter hosted Peter at his house and was shown some PDF printouts of a bright idea which would evolve into the first version of Macanta just a few months later.
2016
Pieter published Amazon bestseller ‘Barefoot Business: 3 Key Systems to Attract More Leads, Win More Sales and Delight More Customers Without Your Business Killing You’.
2018
Pieter and brother Jean were now in full flow, focussed on creating business automation systems using Macanta and Infusionsoft systems.
2018
Blue Peg Group was founded to continue the work Peter, Pieter and Jean were doing. But this time, it would be under one name and under one roof.
Macanta Software Limited
2019
Founded December - 2019
A Christmas miracle! Macanta was founded as the guys decided to put all their eggs into one basket and focus 100% on the business problems Macanta solves.
2020
Launched - 24 Feb 2020
Having worked tirelessly, Macanta was launched as a stand-alone platform – no longer reliant on Infusionsoft – and was able to integrate with any other system.
March 2020
Email Automation Added - March 2020
Having launched with internal process automation and outbound Webhooks, the next key milestone was adding an email builder and email automation to Macanta.
April 2020
Manufactured Homes Deal - April 2020
Part of Peter’s vision right back in 2016 was finally realised. A deal was signed with Manufactured Homes to use Macanta to build a white-label CRM for their industry.
June 2020
Zapier Integration
- June 2020
Although it was on their development roadmap from the very beginning, the guys pulled the trigger on the first version of Zapier integration sooner than expected.
July 2020
B1G1 - July 2020
Macanta was thrilled to finally partner with b1g1.com to provide mosquito nets to families in Kenya and education opportunities for Dalit girls in India.
November 2020
Macanta Mobile APP
- November 2020
Macanta launches with native apps in the iOS App Store and Google Play Store.
The Story Continues...
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