Business Builders

John Teeling joins Business Builders for a candid, wide-ranging conversation about risk, resilience, and the 20-year bet that helped revive Irish whiskey.  When John entered the industry in the 1980s, Irish whiskey had fallen to under 2% of the global market. Consolidated into a struggling monopoly and written off by many, it looked like a declining category.  Instead of walking away, he built.  F...

Evelyn Kelly joins Business Builders for a powerful conversation about rare disease medicine, scaling a global consultancy, and what it really means to build a business with purpose. From starting at her kitchen table in 2017 with no formal plan, to growing Orphan Drug Consulting from €250,000 to €5 million in just four years, Evelyn shares how she built a specialist pharma consultancy that has he...

Michelle Walsh joins Business Builders for a grounded, honest conversation about scaling a family business, navigating relentless growth, and learning the hard lessons that only come from being in the arena. From unexpectedly stepping into a food manufacturing business straight off a flight home, to helping grow RibWorld from €7 million to nearly €50 million in turnover, Michelle shares what it re...

Philip McKernan joins Business Builders for a powerful conversation about success, identity, money, and the quiet cost of living a life that isn’t fully aligned with who you are. Rather than framing success as growth, scale, or financial achievement, Philip challenges the idea that more money or momentum will ever resolve a deeper sense of unease. Drawing on his work with entrepreneurs, athletes,...

Neuroscientist and psychologist Ian Robertson joins Business Builders to unpack what confidence really is , how it shapes success, and why it can quietly turn against the very people it helps elevate. Ian is Emeritus Professor at Trinity College, Dublin and author of two best-selling books: How Confidence Works: the new science of self-belief. Penguin The Winner Effect: the science of success and...

Sam Moffett, founder of Moffett Automation, shares what it really takes to build a world-class, high-stakes business where failure simply isn’t an option . From growing up inside a family manufacturing company in rural Ireland to delivering fully automated warehouse systems for some of the world’s biggest operators. Sam explains the fundamental shift from selling products to selling outcomes, and...

Tim Sparsis, founder of The Attic Company, shares an honest account of what it really takes to grow a trade business from the ground up — from arriving in Ireland with an old van and borrowed money to building a company that now delivers hundreds of projects every year. Tim talks openly about the early days of doing everything himself, the fear of hiring when cash was tight, and the moment he real...

Business leader and entrepreneur Pádraig O’Céidigh shares a deeply reflective conversation on success, stress, and the question most people never stop to ask: what is enough? Drawing on decades of experience in business and life, Pádraig speaks candidly about decision-making under pressure, the hidden cost of ambition, and why many of the richest people he knows are not happy. He introduces the id...

Mail Metrics co-founder Nick Keegan shares a raw and revealing account of what it really takes to survive the early years of a startup — from three years with no customers to building one of Ireland’s largest customer communications businesses through bold pivots and high-risk acquisitions. Nick speaks candidly about the naïve mistakes made at the start, burning through investor capital, letting s...

Tom Rowan, founder of Rowan Engineering, shares a grounded and refreshingly honest account of how he built a forensic engineering and environmental consultancy from one customer and no grand plan into a 30-person business working with insurers, public bodies, and major Irish organisations. Rather than chasing hype or overnight success, Tom explains how his ambition evolved gradually — from simply...

After losing his engineering job during the 2008 crash, Daniel Plewman found himself unemployed, on the dole, and unsure what came next. A chance moment — his wife struggling to source quality scrubs from the US — sparked the idea that would eventually become Happythreads, an e-commerce scrubs and healthcare uniform business now operating across Ireland, the UK, France, Spain, Germany and beyond....

Former Paddy Power co-founder Stewart Kenny shares a brutally honest account of how he built — and then left — the world’s biggest betting company. From his father’s influence and early fascination with risk to the creation of Paddy Power’s fearless marketing, Stewart speaks candidly about success, addiction, ethics, and why he ultimately left the industry he helped define. 🎧 In this episode, you...

Niall Jones, co-owner of Anglo Irish Refrigeration, joins host Conor Kearney to share his journey from redundancy to running a €30M+ business. In this episode, Niall gets candid about the personal risks of buying a company, the adrenaline of nonstop growth, and how culture—not spreadsheets—has become his most powerful business tool. If you’re interested in acquisitions, scaling SMEs, or what it re...

What can a magician teach us about leadership, resilience, and growth? In this episode of Business Builders Podcast, Ciaran McCormack shares how his early lessons in crowd control and stage presence became the foundations for running one of Ireland and the UK’s most successful retail groups. From balloon animals to Apple, to steering a company through examinership and rebirth, this is a story abou...

Hire world-class accountants and in The Philippines. Visit Outsource Direct to scale your operations with higher flexibility, maximum efficiency and much lower costs. Subscribe to the Business Builders Newsletter for the very best ideas I've discovered on business and personal growth. In Series 10, Episode #94, I interview Sean Mac Fhearraigh, co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Assay...

Hire world-class accountants and in The Philippines. Visit Outsource Direct to scale your operations with higher flexibility, maximum efficiency and much lower costs. Subscribe to the Business Builders Newsletter for the very best ideas I've discovered on business and personal growth. In Series 10, Episode #93, I interview Laura Dillon, head of Waterland Private Equity. She elaborates on Wate...

Hire world-class accountants and in The Philippines. Visit Outsource Direct to scale your operations with higher flexibility, maximum efficiency and much lower costs. Subscribe to the Business Builders Newsletter for the very best ideas I've discovered on business and personal growth. In Series 10, Episode #92, I sit down with Ross Keating, founder of The Lennox Academy, a sales training busi...

Hire world-class accountants and in The Philippines. Visit Outsource Direct to scale your operations with higher flexibility, maximum efficiency and much lower costs. Subscribe to the Business Builders Newsletter for the very best ideas I've discovered on business and personal growth. In Series 10, Episode #91, I interview Laura McDermott, Founder and CEO of Colectivo, a sustainability consul...

Hire world-class accountants and in The Philippines. Visit Outsource Direct to scale your operations with higher flexibility, maximum efficiency and much lower costs. Subscribe to the Business Builders Newsletter for the very best ideas I've discovered on business and personal growth. In Series 10, Episode #90, I sit down with Ciaran Marron, founder and CEO of Activ8 Solar Energies. Ciaran sh...

Hire world-class accountants and in The Philippines. Visit Outsource Direct to scale your operations with higher flexibility, maximum efficiency and much lower costs. Subscribe to the Business Builders Newsletter for the very best ideas I've discovered on business and personal growth. In Series 10, Episode #89, I interview Michael Flynn, famously known as Mattress Mick. Michael shares his rem...

Hire world-class accountants and in The Philippines. Visit Outsource Direct to scale your operations with higher flexibility, maximum efficiency and much lower costs. Subscribe to the Business Builders Newsletter for the very best ideas I've discovered on business and personal growth. In Series 10, Episode #88, I interview Fionn Barron, co-founder and Chief Customer Officer at Tracworx. Fionn...

Hire world-class accountants and in The Philippines. Visit Outsource Direct to scale your operations with higher flexibility, maximum efficiency and much lower costs. Subscribe to the Business Builders Newsletter for the very best ideas I've discovered on business and personal growth. In Series 10, Episode #87, I talk to Stuart McCaul, founder of Ishikawa Technologies. Stuart shares his journ...

Hire world-class accountants and in The Philippines. Visit Outsource Direct to scale your operations with higher flexibility, maximum efficiency and much lower costs. Subscribe to the Business Builders Newsletter for the very best ideas I've discovered on business and personal growth. In Series 10, Episode #86, I interview Greg Clarke, founder and CEO of Digicom, a company specialising in hig...

Hire world-class accountants and in The Philippines. Visit Outsource Direct to scale your operations with higher flexibility, maximum efficiency and much lower costs. Subscribe to the Business Builders Newsletter for the very best ideas I've discovered on business and personal growth. Welcome to Series 10, Episode #85, where I chat to Rachel Bright, a celebrated children's book author an...

*This episode was originally aired in April 2022* Hire world-class accountants and in The Philippines. Visit Outsource Direct to scale your operations with higher flexibility, maximum efficiency and much lower costs. Subscribe to the Business Builders Newsletter for the very best ideas I've discovered on business and personal growth. This week I caught up with Brian Keegan. Brian was founder...