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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
From Professional Rugby To Building A €100m+ Business | Shane Leahy, Oxygen8
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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 from professional rugby into telecoms and entrepreneurship, eventually helping grow Oxygen8 from a €30 million business into a global technology group generating more than €100 million in turnover, with operations spanning Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Australia, the US and beyond.
Shane reflects on the leadership lessons he carried from professional sport into business, why different people require completely different styles of management, and how recognising his own weaknesses helped him build stronger teams around him. He also discusses the challenges created by rapid international growth, a fraud of more than $10 million that forced the group to restructure, the importance of learning from failure, and why putting the right management structures in place became essential as Oxygen8 scaled.
The conversation also explores Shane's decision to step back from the day-to-day running of his businesses and establish One for Humanity. Using the same proof-of-concept and scaling principles he learned in business, Shane and his team have helped establish 19 hospital units along the front lines in Ukraine and deliver more than $200 million worth of medicine, while also supporting humanitarian projects in Gaza and elsewhere.
This is a conversation about entrepreneurship, leadership, professional sport, scaling, international business, failure, resilience, team building, self-awareness, humanitarian aid, purpose, Ukraine, Gaza, technology, organisational structure, founder mindset, and using business experience to make an impact far beyond business.
"You learn a hell of a lot more from your failures than you do from the successes."
🎧 In this episode, you'll learn:
• How Shane went from professional rugby into business and telecoms
• How Oxygen8 grew from €30 million to more than €100 million in turnover
• Why Shane believes great leaders need to manage different people differently
• How to identify your weaknesses and build a team that complements them
• Why rapid growth can expose weaknesses in a company's structure
• How Oxygen8 responded after suffering a fraud of more than $10 million
• Why failure can teach you more than success
• How Shane applied business principles to humanitarian aid
• How One for Humanity helped establish 19 hospital units in Ukraine
• Why Shane believes simply showing up for people can make a profound difference
⏱️ Timestamps
00:00 - Cold open
01:18 - What is Oxygen8?
04:17 - From professional rugby to business
06:38 - What rugby taught Shane about leadership
08:19 - Building a team around your weaknesses
11:06 - Why failure teaches you more than success
11:58 - The challenges of building a global business
12:19 - The $10 million fraud that changed Oxygen8
14:51 - When rapid growth becomes a problem
16:09 - Expanding across the world
19:14 - The opportunity in mobile payments
20:27 - Setting goals for growth
22:09 - Stepping back from the business
22:57 - Why Shane became involved in Ukraine
25:08 - Scaling One for Humanity
28:19 - Finding a new purpose in life
30:14 - Building frontline hospital units
32:03 - Delivering millions of dollars of medicine every month
32:57 - Taking the humanitarian model into Gaza
37:12 - Learning from failure in humanitarian work
38:34 - What life is like on the Ukrainian front line
41:21 - Why Shane continues to put himself in danger
43:12 - Hope and determination in Ukraine
46:51 - Applying a business mindset to humanitarian aid
54:29 - How the experience changed Shane's perspective on life
56:45 - Ireland's position in an increasingly uncertain world
01:05:38 - "It's the best thing I've ever done"
01:07:08 - The final message from Shane's father
Topics covered:
Entrepreneurship, Shane Leahy, Oxygen8, leadership, professional rugby, business growth, scaling, international business, telecoms, mobile payments, Africa, team building, organisational culture, management, resilience, failure, founder mindset, self-awareness, business strategy, One for Humanity, humanitarian aid, Ukraine, Gaza, frontline medicine, purpose, technology, Irish business.