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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
How An Irish Entrepreneur Cracked The American Market | Dermot O’Shea, Taoglas
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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 generating over $100 million in annual revenue.
After starting the business with little more than determination, supportive families and a relentless focus on sales and cashflow, Dermot explains why he ignored the startup obsession with fundraising and instead concentrated on winning customers. He reflects on breaking into the American market, why the US business culture helped accelerate Taoglas’ growth, and why resilience has been the defining characteristic of his entrepreneurial journey.
Dermot also discusses building a high-performance culture, hiring people who believe in your vision, dealing with toxic employees, trusting your instincts as a leader, transitioning to private equity ownership, and why purpose - not money - is what continues to drive him more than twenty years into the business.
This is a conversation about entrepreneurship, sales, resilience, leadership, company culture, global expansion, private equity, purpose, and building a business that lasts.
“We were focused on selling. Everyone else was focused on fundraising.”
🎧 In this episode, you’ll learn:
• How Dermot built Taoglas into a $100 million global technology business
• Why sales and cashflow mattered more than fundraising in the early years
• How an Irish company successfully expanded into the American market
• The biggest differences between doing business in Europe and the US
• Why resilience is one of an entrepreneur’s greatest competitive advantages
• How to build trust with customers and win long sales cycles
• Why company culture becomes more important as your business grows
• How to identify and deal with toxic employees
• What Dermot learned from partnering with private equity
• Why purpose becomes more important than money over time
⏱️ Timestamps
00:00 - Cold open
01:06 - What is Taoglas?
04:42 - How Taoglas was founded in Taiwan
09:54 - Winning the first customers
14:16 - Starting with no salary and no funding
17:12 - Growing from $1M to $100M
18:21 - When nobody believed the business would succeed
20:52 - Why sales beats fundraising
22:22 - Why great sales is built on trust
25:23 - Expanding into America
28:29 - Europe vs America: two very different business cultures
35:22 - The mindset America taught Dermot
41:41 - Growing from two people to 350 employees
43:47 - Why toxic employees can destroy a company
49:42 - Resilience as a founder’s greatest strength
53:00 - Working less and leading differently
55:09 - Money, purpose and private equity
01:03:00 - Why Dermot may never retire
Topics covered:
Entrepreneurship, sales, business growth, scaling, leadership, resilience, company culture, startups, founders, cashflow, fundraising, global expansion, American business, European business, private equity, acquisitions, manufacturing, technology, Taoglas, antenna technology, B2B sales, customer trust, CEO mindset, hiring, business strategy, Irish business.