David Baxter admits when he and his startup co-founder approached a senior manger at McCain Foods about a possible partnership, they did so with a vague pitch.

“I’m not even sure that we had an idea,” he said.

The only thing Baxter and Shawn Carver knew was that they wanted to work with McCain on a project involving advanced analytics. The exact nature of the project would be determined by interviewing McCain employees and discovering what component of the international food business would benefit from advanced analytics.

Two years later, Fiddlehead has developed software that helps McCain forecast demand for its many products — from fries to pizza to frozen cakes.

Read the full article at financialpost.com.