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Business Builders
I created Business Builders as a weekly interview series to have honest conversations with business owners, entrepreneurs, and investors about their journeys; their successes, setbacks, and the lessons they’ve learned along the way. As a growing business builder myself, I want to learn directly from my guests and share those insights with you. My goal is to provide listeners with practical takeaways, fresh perspectives, and real inspiration to help you on your own path to building and growing a business.
Business Builders
A Big Exit, Confidence & Resilience Ciarán Mulligan, Yes Insurance
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🔔🔔 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.
Ciarán is the founder of Blue Insurance, the business he built into one of Ireland’s best-known insurance brands before selling in a reported multi-million euro deal. Now, he’s building again with YES Insurance - but this conversation goes far beyond insurance.
He explains how Blue Insurance scaled by moving quickly, spotting opportunities during crises, and staying aggressive while competitors pulled back. From exploiting cheap advertising during recessions to building niche insurance products before competitors saw the opportunity, Ciarán shares the mindset that helped grow the company from a small operation into a major international business.
He also reflects on the realities of entrepreneurship: negotiating relentlessly, staying lean, surviving economic crashes, dealing with uncertainty, and knowing when the right time to sell actually is.
But this episode also becomes something much more personal.
Ciarán speaks openly about growing up gay in Ireland, being bullied in school, building confidence over time, and why authenticity mattered to him as a leader. He also shares the emotional story of his surrogacy journey with his husband Brian, including the devastating loss of their first son Connor, the battle to bring him home from Georgia, and how becoming a father ultimately reshaped his priorities and outlook on life.
Along the way, the conversation explores marketing psychology, hiring, scaling teams, founder mentality, innovation, customer care, travel, wealth, ambition, and why business success alone is never the full story.
This is a conversation about entrepreneurship, resilience, family, identity, leadership, and building a meaningful life beyond business.
🎧 In this episode, you’ll learn 🎧:
- Why Ciarán kept advertising during economic crashes while competitors stopped
- How Blue Insurance scaled from a small startup into a multi-million euro company
- Why diversification was critical to surviving crises
- The marketing strategies that helped Blue Insurance dominate its niche
- Why being “lean” became a core operating philosophy
- How to negotiate aggressively during downturns
- The importance of spotting opportunities before competitors
- Why founders need to stop micromanaging as companies grow
- The biggest lessons Ciarán learned scaling teams and hiring people
- Why communication skills are essential in business
- How working nightlife jobs helped build his confidence and people skills
- His perspective on leadership, customer care, and company culture
- The realities of selling a business after years of building it
- Why making money didn’t fundamentally change who he was
- The emotional story behind his family’s surrogacy journey
- The devastating loss of his son Connor and the fight to bring him home
- Why becoming a father changed his priorities completely
- What success means to him now after business success and personal loss
- Why YES Insurance is his next big chapter