--- title: "Venture Building & ChimeHive | Decision Analytics" url: https://decisionanalytics.ai/venture-building/ description: "Five ventures since 2022 and one product in market. ChimeHive, our time tracking and job costing SaaS for bespoke manufacturers, is backed by Enterprise Ireland and investors." last_updated: 2026-10-14 publisher: Decision Analytics Ltd (CRO 724237), WorkIQ, Innovation Quarter, Tallaght, Dublin 24, D24 E1TT, Ireland contact: hello@decisionanalytics.ai --- Venture Building # Venture building: we build the software our clients needed. ChimeHive is our time tracking and job costing platform for bespoke manufacturers. It started with a problem we kept seeing in client work, and it is now live with paying customers, backed by Enterprise Ireland and private investors. - **2** Manufacturing customers live on ChimeHive - **€250k** Estimated margin improvement for our first customer - **5** Ventures built and tested How ChimeHive started ## "Did we make money on that project?" Our clients kept asking that question, and we kept running into the same problem. ### The problem The number we needed most, how long a job actually took, was never properly recorded. Timesheets were filled in from memory at the end of the week and typed into Excel days later, so every new quote started from a best guess. ### The evidence We saw it at one client, then at another, and realised it wasn't a one-off. We assessed more than a dozen time-tracking tools on the market, and none fitted the way bespoke manufacturers work. ### The decision Building our own product was an investment decision, and we made it the way we'd advise any client to: on the evidence. We built ChimeHive with those two clients, who became our first customers. Enterprise Ireland has since backed us to keep building. We still do the insight work at Decision Analytics. We just start a step earlier now. Featured product ## ChimeHive Time tracking and job costing for bespoke manufacturers, at the price and simplicity of a clocking tool. ### Who it's for Joinery, print, metal fabrication and construction businesses with 10–250 staff, where every job is different and margin depends on knowing where the hours go. ### On the floor Operators tap in to the job they're on, breaks come off automatically, and payroll is ready without anyone chasing paper. Managers see the time on every job, stage by stage, so the next quote is based on what actually happened. ### How it's built Hosted on Amazon Web Services, and built and supported by our own team, so customers deal directly with the people who wrote it. ### Research partners UCD Smurfit MSc Business Analytics capstone teams and a TU Dublin management consulting project have worked on ChimeHive features and strategy. ### What it does - Tablet clock-in kiosks, with opt-in facial recognition or PIN and QR clock-in - Time tracked against customer, job and production stage - Live view of who is working on what - Leave management - Breaks deducted automatically - Payroll and project-system exports, with no re-keying - Works alongside the systems you already use ### Data protection Facial recognition is opt-in, with explicit consent, and PIN or QR clock-in is always available instead. Biometric data is processed under GDPR Article 9. ### Backed by Enterprise Ireland Pre-Seed Start Fund, Local Enterprise Office, and private investors. ### Partners Sales and referral partners Pembroke Alliance and IWIN (Irish Wood Interiors Network). ### Where you'll see it Manufacturing conferences in Belfast and Glasgow, the RDS in Dublin, EXPO REAL 2026 in Munich, and the National Construction Summit, Dublin, 2026. Visit chimehive.com See the product, pricing and how to get started. Results ## ChimeHive customer case study Specialist joinery manufacturer, ~50 staff ### From paper timesheets to pricing on actual hours Hours were written on paper timesheets from memory, typed into Excel, then keyed again into accounts and project systems. Managers were a week behind on job progress, and quotes were built on estimates. With ChimeHive, staff clock time against each job and production stage. The business now prices new work on actual hours from past jobs. - €250,000 improvement in margin from more accurate quoting (customer estimate) - €45,000 a year saved in admin time (customer estimate) - Weekly payroll processing cut from a full working day to 30–60 minutes Savings are estimated with the customer: time saved at a loaded hourly cost, plus less error and rework. ChimeHive took our weekly payroll from a full working day to an hour at most. Payroll and admin lead, specialist joinery manufacturer The journey ## Five ventures since 2022. - 2022 Decision Analytics founded. First product: an AI decision-support platform for SMEs. Joined CeADAR, with an Enterprise Ireland Innovation Voucher; New Frontiers programme. - 2023 Co-founded E-Shared, a peer-to-peer EV charge-point sharing platform. Signed up 50 members and completed the NDRC pre-accelerator. First Local Enterprise Office Priming Grant. - 2024 Selected as one of 10 startups for the Furthr Foundry accelerator. Built In Sight, a retail shelf-visibility platform for food and drink brands, and piloted it across 18 supermarket stores. Second Priming Grant. - 2025 Built Electricity Analytics, an AI assistant for business electricity data, to a working prototype, with an Enterprise Ireland Innovation Voucher at TU Dublin. A client technology review revealed the problem that led us to build ChimeHive. First customer live in December. - 2026 Second customer live. Enterprise Ireland Pre-Seed Start Fund awarded, and investment from two private investors. Product launched under the ChimeHive brand, taken to manufacturing conferences in Belfast and Glasgow, the RDS and EXPO REAL in Munich, and presented at the National Construction Summit. What we learned along the way ## Each venture taught us something we now use with clients. - The Decision Analytics platform: Showed us that clients wanted outcomes, not another dashboard. - E-Shared: Taught us how to build a two-sided marketplace and run a community from zero. - In Sight: Proved we could build a data pipeline and run a live pilot with a brand in weeks. - Electricity Analytics: Sharpened our use of AI on real business data. - ChimeHive: Brought it together: a focused problem, real customers, and a product built with them. Why this matters ## Advice shaped by doing it ourselves. Every recommendation we make to clients and funders is shaped by having done it ourselves. We have validated ideas with customers, built prototypes, run pilots, stopped what didn't work, raised funding, and sold software to businesses. We know what it takes to turn a technology investment into a return. ### Our approach to building ventures - Start from a real problem: Our best ideas come from patterns we see across client work. - Validate fast: Customer interviews, pilots and letters of intent before heavy investment. - Build lean: Prototypes on cloud and AI tooling, in weeks not months. - Stop or scale: If the evidence isn't there, we move on and carry the learning forward. - Fund the growth: State supports first, then private investors once there's traction. FAQ ## Questions about ChimeHive and venture building ### What is ChimeHive? ChimeHive is time tracking and job costing software for bespoke manufacturers, at the price and simplicity of a clocking tool. It is built by Decision Analytics for joinery, print, metal fabrication and construction businesses with 10 to 250 staff. ### Why does a consultancy build its own products? Building our own product was an investment decision, and we made it the way we'd advise any client to: on the evidence. Every recommendation we make to clients and funders is shaped by having done it ourselves. We have validated ideas with customers, built prototypes, run pilots, stopped what didn't work, raised funding and sold software to businesses. ### How is ChimeHive funded? ChimeHive is backed by the Enterprise Ireland Pre-Seed Start Fund, Local Enterprise Office support and two private investors. In total we have raised €310k in grants and investment across our ventures. ### Who are ChimeHive's partners? ChimeHive's sales and referral partners include Pembroke Alliance and IWIN, the Irish Wood Interiors Network. UCD Smurfit MSc Business Analytics capstone teams and a TU Dublin management consulting project have also worked on the product. ## Invest or partner with us We're building ChimeHive for bespoke manufacturers in Ireland, the UK and beyond. If you'd like to invest, partner or resell, talk to us about where it's going next. Other ways we help ## Explore our other services ### Technical Assessment Independent technical judgement for funding decisions. ### Digital Discovery A costed investment roadmap your board can back. ### Digital for Business Know what to invest in, and what it will return.