Business Builders

Brian Boland explains how he went from a corporate career at KPMG and CRH to acquiring an American freight brokerage and building it through five acquisitions into a business generating nearly $60 million in annual revenue. Brian joins Business Builders to share the story of building HTL Freight alongside his business partner, Onu Okebie. Originally from Tullamore, Brian moved to the United States...

I'm opening up four places exclusively for Business Builders listeners at The Room, taking place in Dublin on Friday, 23 October. I'll be interviewing Vincent Carton , former CEO of Manor Farm, and Nick Keegan , Founder & CEO of Mail Metrics, in front of a small, carefully selected group of business owners and investors. Two live, long-form interviews followed by audience Q&A. No...

THE ROOM | 23 OCTOBER 2026 Theme: Belief Applications are now open for a limited number of places at the first gathering of The Room. Attendance is limited to experienced business owners and investors and is subject to approval. Join me for a private morning of live interviews with Vincent Carton, former CEO of Manor Farm, and Nick Keegan, Founder & CEO of Mail Metrics, exploring the role beli...

Shane Leahy explains why rapid growth can become one of a business's biggest challenges, why great leaders build teams around their own weaknesses, and how the lessons he learned building Oxygen8 into a €100m+ global technology group are now helping him scale humanitarian aid in some of the world's most dangerous conflict zones. Shane Leahy joins Business Builders to share his journey fr...

Pat Byrne explains why great businesses fail when leaders stop challenging themselves, why resilience matters more than avoiding failure, and how CityJet evolved from a small challenger airline into one of Europe's leading regional aviation operators. Pat Byrne joins Business Builders to share the story of founding CityJet, transforming it from a startup airline challenging the Dublin–London...

Oltian Dervishi explains why every growing business eventually hits a ceiling, why founders must keep taking risks long after they've found success, and how Forte Pespa transformed itself from a traditional contractor into one of Ireland's fastest-growing offsite manufacturers. Oltian Dervishi joins Business Builders to share the story of building Forte Pespa from a small construction bu...

John Corley explains why great products still fail, why ambition matters more than most founders realise, and how Spanish Point Technologies became a global software company powering the music industry. John Corley joins Business Builders to share the story of building Spanish Point Technologies from a small Irish software consultancy into an international technology company employing more than 12...

Dermot O’Shea explains why sales beats fundraising, why America rewards ambitious founders, and how he built Taoglas into a $100 million global technology company. Dermot O’Shea joins Business Builders to share the remarkable story of building Taoglas from a two-person startup into a global leader in antenna technology, employing more than 350 people across ten international locations and generati...

🔔🔔 Brendan McGurgan explains why your business can’t outgrow the leader you’re willing to become; and why scaling starts with self growth first 🔔🔔 Brendan McGurgan joins Business Builders to share the lessons from scaling CDE Global from a 15-person engineering company into a global market leader operating across six continents, before founding Simple Scaling to help ambitious business owners...

🔔🔔 Charlie Hamilton explains how he led a business through the financial crash and Covid; and why the best leaders never stop dealing with reality 🔔🔔 Charlie Hamilton joins Business Builders to share the story of Canadia Flooring, one of Ireland’s leading flooring suppliers, and the leadership lessons he’s learned from three decades of building the business. Starting as an accountant before jo...

🔔🔔 Hannah Wrixon explains why the most successful women are often the least supported; and why she’s building a global network to change that 🔔🔔 Hannah Wrixon joins Business Builders to share the story behind Keller and why she believes one of the biggest challenges facing women in leadership is something few people talk about. After building and exiting multiple businesses, Hannah noticed a s...

🔔🔔 Danny Buckley shares how grief, purpose, and an ADHD diagnosis at 32 led him to build one of Ireland’s fastest-growing healthcare businesses 🔔🔔 Danny Buckley joins Business Builders to share the remarkable story behind ADHD Now and how a series of deeply personal experiences transformed both his life and his career. For much of his life, Danny believed there was something wrong with him. Un...

🔔🔔 Emmet O’Neill reveals how StoryToys nearly collapsed after years of venture capital funding, how he cut the business from 45 people to 15, and how that turnaround ultimately led to a €35 million children’s media company with more than 300 million app downloads 🔔🔔 Emmet O’Neill joins Business Builders to share the remarkable story behind StoryToys, one of Ireland’s most successful digital me...

🔔🔔 Cathal Friel explains how he built five public companies, turned a $20 million business into a $1.45 billion exit, and why IPOs may be making a comeback for ambitious entrepreneurs 🔔🔔 Cathal Friel joins Business Builders for a fascinating conversation on entrepreneurship, IPOs, public markets, distressed assets, investing, AI, and building companies across multiple industries. Cathal is a s...

🔔🔔 Ciarán Mulligan explains how he built and sold Blue Insurance, why crises create opportunities in business, and how becoming a father completely changed his perspective on success 🔔🔔Ciarán Mulligan joins Business Builders for a powerful and deeply personal conversation on entrepreneurship, marketing, scaling businesses, resilience, identity, surrogacy, and what really matters after success....

🔔🔔 Ed Murphy explains why most businesses fail to scale, what franchising taught him about systems and growth, and why founders themselves are often the bottleneck inside their own companies 🔔🔔 Ed Murphy joins Business Builders for a fascinating conversation on scaling businesses, franchising, entrepreneurship, systems thinking, and the realities of building sustainable companies over decades....

🔔🔔 Ed Murphy explains why most businesses fail to scale, what franchising taught him about systems and growth, and why founders themselves are often the bottleneck inside their own companies 🔔🔔 Ed Murphy joins Business Builders for a fascinating conversation on scaling businesses, franchising, entrepreneurship, systems thinking, and the realities of building sustainable companies over decades....

🔔🔔 Troy Armour reveals how he built Junk Kouture from a €1,000 idea into a global movement, and why he believes most entrepreneurs are driven by trauma, creativity, and the need to stand out 🔔🔔 Join the movement to help spread 1 Million good deeds at Mo Chuisle: https://30daysofgooddeeds.com/ Troy Armour joins Business Builders for one of the most wide-ranging and unconventional conversations...

🔔🔔 Colin Culliton reveals why you can’t build a successful business without making hard decisions - and the realities of scaling through crisis 🔔🔔 Colin Culliton joins Business Builders to share the story of how he built and scaled a multi-million euro print and communications group, and the hard decisions that defined his journey. What began as a small “me too” printing company with six peopl...

🔔🔔 Ciaran Burke, CEO and co-founder of Swoop, shares how he built a global fintech platform helping 300,000+ businesses access over £2BN in funding - and the brutal realities behind scaling a startup 🔔🔔 Ciaran Burke joins Business Builders to share the story behind Swoop and the realities of building and scaling a fintech company in the modern funding landscape. What started as a simple idea -...

🔔🔔 Willie McMahon built, scaled, and sold a 45-person engineering business - then walked away to help other founders do it better. 🔔🔔 Willie is giving away 10 copies of the book Traction on a first come first served basis. If you’re running a company with between 10 - 250 employees, contact Willie to get your free copy: willie.mcmahon@eosworldwide.com Willie McMahon, EOS Implementer and founde...

🔔🔔 Gowri Subramanian built a $200M global software company over 25 years - without venture capital 🔔🔔 Gowri Subramanian, CEO of Aspire Systems, joins Business Builders to share how he built and scaled a global technology services company from zero to $200M in revenue; entirely bootstrapped. What started as a group of seven friends with no clear plan or funding became a 4,500-person software an...

🔔🔔 Laura Dowling, founder of fabÜ, built a business by talking about topics most people avoid; and it changed everything 🔔🔔 Laura Dowling joins Business Builders to share how she turned women’s health - one of the most overlooked and under-discussed areas in healthcare - into a fast-growing brand, a platform, and a movement. What started as years of frustration working as a pharmacist and seei...

My guest today is Jayne Ronayne, Co-Founder and CEO of OAC Snacks, an e-commerce company focusing on high protein snacks that are simple, delicious and made for real life.  Jayne previously founded employee experience platform Talivest, which raised over €3 million in its lifetime (from some very big named investors) and was acquired by the Australian tech company Go1 in 2022. In this chat, Jayne...

Ann O’Dea joins Business Builders for a wide-ranging conversation about entrepreneurship, technology, artificial intelligence, and building a media business at the dawn of the internet. As co-founder of Silicon Republic , Ann helped launch one of Ireland’s leading technology news platforms at a time when almost nobody was reading news online. Advertisers didn’t believe in digital media, the audien...