🔔🔔 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 and technology services business working with global enterprises across the US, Europe, and beyond. But the journey was slow and difficult. It took years to find product-market fit, pivot away from a non-scaling business model, and reach profitability.

Gowri explains how Aspire evolved from an industrial engineering consultancy into a software product engineering company, a pivot that unlocked growth. Instead of raising venture capital, the company reinvested profits and used debt funding to scale, taking a long-term approach.

Moving from $10M to $100M required one set of capabilities; but, scaling beyond that meant competing with global firms like Accenture, Capgemini, and Infosys. Gowri shares why every stage requires a different company, strategy, and mindset.

The conversation also explores AI and its impact on the software industry. Gowri explains why AI threatens traditional time-and-materials models, while also creating opportunities in legacy modernisation, enterprise transformation, and custom software.

Beyond strategy, this episode dives into leadership, culture, and long-term thinking. Gowri shares why people and open feedback are critical to scaling, and why he’s focused on building a business for the long term - not for exit - including creating impact through philanthropy in India.

This is a conversation about entrepreneurship, scaling, AI disruption, and building something that lasts.

“Business is a rat race - there is no finish line.”

🎧 In this episode, you’ll learn:

How Gowri built Aspire Systems into a $200M global company
Why the first 7 years of business were the hardest
The importance of pivoting when a business isn’t scaling
How to grow without venture capital
Why scaling from $100M to $200M is so difficult
What changes at each stage of growth
How to compete with global firms like Accenture and Infosys
The real impact of AI on software businesses
Why AI is both a threat and an opportunity
How culture and people drive success
The role of persistence over decades
Why teaching skills creates more impact than charity

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 - Cold open
00:55 - Introducing Gowri Subramanian and Aspire Systems
02:00 - What Aspire Systems does
05:00 - Moving from India to Singapore and Ireland
06:00 - Starting with no plan or funding
09:00 - 7 founders to 3
12:00 - Early business model and pivot
13:30 - Shutting down one business
14:30 - Road to profitability
18:00 - Early ambition
21:30 - Bootstrapping vs VC
22:30 - Growth to $100M
25:30 - Scaling challenges
27:30 - “Business is a rat race”
29:30 - AI and the future
34:30 - Culture and leadership
37:00 - Open feedback
40:00 - Founder mindset
47:30 - Angel investing
50:00 - India’s growth
59:30 - Philanthropy
01:05:00 - Long-term vision

Topics covered:

Entrepreneurship, scaling a business, bootstrapping, venture capital, AI and business, software industry, technology services, leadership, company culture, global expansion, startups, India economy, product engineering, long-term business building, philanthropy, founders

🔔🔔 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 seeing women suffer in silence with issues no one was talking about, evolved into a business, a movement, and a platform for education.

Laura explains how she spent over a decade developing formulations before launching fabÜ from her couch, without retail backing or a traditional business plan. By building an audience on Instagram and speaking openly about topics many considered taboo, she created demand first - and the business followed.

Along the way, she uncovered something deeper: women’s health has been historically misunderstood, under-discussed, and often dismissed. From menopause to intimate health, many women simply aren’t given the language, knowledge, or confidence to understand their own bodies.

In this episode, Laura shares how she turned that insight into a brand, a live show, and a bestselling book - all while staying true to her voice and refusing to sanitise the message.

She also opens up about failure, launching without a plan, living with ADHD as a founder, and why building a business doesn’t always follow a straight line.

This is a conversation about entrepreneurship, identity, and the power of saying the things no one else is willing to say.

“People are embarassed to talk about it - but that’s exactly why it matters.”

🎧 In this episode, you’ll learn:

Why Laura started fabÜ and the problem she saw in women’s health
How she built a business without a traditional plan
The realities of launching a product with no retail backing
Why Instagram played a key role in growing her audience
How taboo topics became her biggest advantage
What women’s health issues are still not being talked about
How to build a brand by being unapologetically yourself
The role of ADHD in her entrepreneurial journey
Why founders should trust instinct over “perfect” market research
How purpose and mission can drive long-term business growth

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 - Cold open
00:55 - Introducing Laura Dowling and fabÜ
02:10 - Launching the business from her couch
05:30 - Preventative health vs “sick care”
08:45 - Building an audience on Instagram
14:00 - ADHD and the entrepreneurial mind
21:00 - Why we don’t talk about women’s health
24:45 - The talk that changed everything
27:30 - Turning taboo into a business
30:15 - Breaking stigma and building a brand
35:30 - Growing without a traditional plan
39:15 - Ask for forgiveness, not permission
43:15 - Trusting instinct over market research
53:00 - Hiring, team building and culture
01:00:00 - Asking for help and final advice

Topics covered:

Entrepreneurship, women’s health, fabÜ, supplements, startup founders, personal branding, Instagram marketing, ADHD and business, health education, building a brand, taboo topics, consumer products.

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 talks about:

• Why she’s turning her back on the business “holy grail” of SAAS, and getting into the difficult & competitive food industry

• Starting and Growing Talivest to a successful exit

• Why she views being dyslexic as an advantage in business

• Burnout, fund raising, and the importance of healthy food in our lives.

• Much more

Topics covered:
Entrepreneurship, SAAS, software companies, raising venture capital, food startups, OAC Snacks, protein snacks, food manufacturing, consumer brands, startup founders, healthy snack industry, product development, building a food brand.

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 audience was tiny, and the future of the internet was still uncertain.

Instead of waiting for the market to catch up, she built for where the world was going.

From cycling floppy disks between newsrooms in the early days of digital publishing, to navigating the 2008 financial crash, media disruption, and the rise of AI and the modern tech industry, Ann explains what it takes to build and sustain a niche media company for more than 25 years.

But this episode goes far beyond journalism.

Ann reflects on the emotional reality of founding and running a business - worrying about payroll even decades into entrepreneurship, learning the hard lessons of hiring, and the importance of having a co-founder when building a startup.

She also shares her views on the future of artificial intelligence, technology, and digital media, and why diversity in STEM is essential if we want the best minds solving the world’s biggest problems.

This is a conversation about resilience, curiosity, leadership, and building a business that evolves alongside the technology shaping the modern world.

🎧 In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why Ann launched Silicon Republic when almost nobody was online
• What it was like building a digital media startup in the early internet era
• The realities of entrepreneurship - even after 25 years in business
• Why having a co-founder can make or break a startup
• The difference between chasing clicks and building real audiences
• How the 2008 financial crisis nearly destroyed the business
• Why curiosity is one of the most important traits in journalism and leadership
• The risks and opportunities of AI in media and technology
• Why purpose matters more than money for long-term entrepreneurs
• Why women in STEM are essential for the future of innovation

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 - The early days of the internet
01:17 - What Silicon Republic actually does as a business
05:22 - The realities of entrepreneurship
12:16 - Why founders should consider having a co-founder
17:53 - Why niche audiences beat clickbait
25:36 - Lessons from the 2008 financial crash
29:32 - Why purpose matters in business
31:46 - Hiring the right people
42:49 - The future of AI and technology
59:32 - Why women in STEM matters

Topics covered:
Entrepreneurship, startup leadership, Silicon Republic, technology journalism, artificial intelligence, AI and media, digital publishing, founders, building a media company, tech industry trends.

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.

From buying a shuttered chemical plant in Dundalk and installing second-hand pot stills, to navigating bank loan recalls, political pressure, and years without meaningful profit, John explains what it really took to build Cooley Distillery; and why the payoff took nearly two decades.

But this episode goes far beyond whiskey.

John shares lessons from decades in mining, resources, and investing, where high risk doesn’t mean high reward, but high probability of loss. He breaks down the difference between risk and uncertainty, why “the Euro is an orphan,” and why unsophisticated investors should never be in speculative markets.

This is a conversation about long-term conviction, imposter syndrome, stubborn belief, and building businesses that outlast downturns.

At 80 years old, John reflects on endurance, energy, family, legacy, and what it really means to take responsibility when you persuade others to back your vision.

🎧 In this episode, you’ll learn:

- Why Irish whiskey collapsed - and how it came back
- What it takes to break a monopoly
- The difference between risk and uncertainty
- Why high risk usually means high loss
- How to build a distillery from scratch
- What investors get wrong about speculative markets
- The psychological cost of entrepreneurship
- Why you don’t need to love the product to build the business
- How patience compounds over decades
- What most founders misunderstand about conviction

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 - Why banks shouldn’t accept uncertainty
01:23 - Growing up in Dublin and early responsibility
17:06 - The £1 million target by 40
24:18 - “A euro is an orphan”
33:10 - How mining companies are really funded
46:30 - The failed takeover of Irish Distillers
58:15 - Buying a plant “for bottles”
01:00:14 - “I sold women’s knickers…”
01:02:17 - 20 years before real profit
01:08:18 - “The value of a half-built hole is zero”
01:13:16 - Energy, longevity and playing rugby at 60

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 helped over 70 companies launch medicines in more than 100 countries.

But this isn’t just a growth story.

Evelyn works in the world of orphan drugs — treatments for rare diseases, many of which affect children. With over 7,000 rare diseases globally and fewer than 10% having approved treatments, she explains the regulatory, commercial and supply chain realities behind getting life-saving medicines to patients.

The conversation explores what most people never see: clinical trial constraints, reimbursement battles across Europe, US pricing pressure, post-Brexit complexity, and the volatility currently hitting the biotech investment market.

Alongside the technical depth, Evelyn reflects on leadership — absorbing hard feedback, building processes that allow scale, being responsible for other people’s livelihoods, and why managing risk isn’t about fear, but about stability.

This episode is a grounded, high-level look at the intersection of purpose and process — and what it takes to build a resilient business in one of the most complex industries in the world.

🎧 In this episode, you’ll learn:

– What orphan drugs actually are — and why they matter
– How rare disease medicines get from lab to patient
– Why Europe is becoming less viable for pharma launches
– The real commercial realities behind life-saving drugs
– How to scale from €250k to €5m without losing control
– Why process matters more than headcount
– The leadership lessons from absorbing difficult feedback
– How to manage risk without limiting growth
– Why branding and integrity go hand in hand
– What volatility in the US means for global pharma

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 – “We got that medicine to a child”
01:07 – What orphan drugs actually are
07:01 – Cystic fibrosis and Ireland’s unique prevalence
18:12 – Starting at the kitchen table in 2017
20:20 – Scaling from €250k to €5m
21:38 – Why process is the key to growth
26:59 – The BBC story that made it real
31:16 – Integrity vs selling what clients ask for
34:36 – Learning leadership the hard way
38:39 – Leadership for Growth and putting a board in place
52:26 – Why pharma investment has slowed
55:07 – Rolling with the curveball
58:07 – Avoiding burnout as an entrepreneur

🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.
👇 Full episode link in the comments.

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 really takes to lead through expansion, crisis, and eventual exit. Over nine intense years, she helped build a 250-person operation supplying major supermarkets across Ireland, the UK, and Germany — all while learning first-hand how easy it is to lose control when growth outpaces structure.

Rather than glamorising scale, Michelle reflects on the summer that nearly broke the business — when booming demand exposed weak controls, poor management information, and the cost of avoiding the “hard stuff.” That experience reshaped how she thinks about leadership, information, delegation, and strategic planning.

The conversation moves through succession in family businesses, the emotional complexity of selling a company built over generations, the stress of private equity due diligence during Covid, and the personal toll of running a high-pressure operation in a volatile industry.

Now working with founder-led and family businesses, Michelle brings that lived experience into advisory — helping business owners step out of operational firefighting, build real management teams, and regain control of the numbers that actually drive profit.

This episode is a practical and deeply human look at what scaling really demands — and why facing the hard decisions early can save you years of pain later.

🎧 In this episode, you’ll learn:

– Why rapid growth can quietly destroy profitability
– The hidden risk of not having real management information
– How founders become the bottleneck in their own business
– Why building a management team is harder than scaling revenue
– The emotional and financial realities of selling a family business
– What private equity due diligence actually looks like
– Why gross margin by customer matters more than revenue
– The danger of overconfidence in leadership
– How to step out of day-to-day firefighting and think strategically
– The importance of facing the “hard stuff” before it becomes a crisis

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 – The summer that changed everything
02:10 – Michelle’s advisory work with family businesses
09:30 – Growing RibWorld from €7m to €50m
13:15 – Moving factories and scaling under pressure
29:00 – Losing control during peak demand
31:00 – Installing systems that track profit daily
32:20 – Why founders default to operational firefighting
38:50 – What do you actually want from your business?
46:06 – Why the family decided to sell
49:30 – The emotional aftermath of the sale
52:17 – Private equity, Covid, and extreme due diligence
56:34 – Why meat is a brutally competitive industry
1:14:05 – The two biggest problems in SMEs
1:19:21 – Michelle’s biggest personal leadership lesson

🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.
👇 Full episode link in the comments.

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, and leaders around the world — as well as his own experience of losing everything — he explores why so many people reach impressive milestones yet still feel unfulfilled, restless, or disconnected.

The conversation moves through identity, failure, purpose, and self-awareness, examining how entrepreneurs often over-identify with achievement, postpone meaningful work, and build lives around what they want to avoid rather than what they truly want. Philip also reflects on the role of money, environment, and fear in shaping our decisions — and why most people never bring their greatest work into the world.

This episode is a deeply human look at entrepreneurship as a personal journey — not just a commercial one — and an invitation to stop betraying yourself in the pursuit of success.

🎧 In this episode, you’ll learn:
– Why most people think they want success but actually want meaning
– The hidden cost of not changing when things are “going well”
– How founders over-identify with achievement
– Why money can never fix a misaligned life
– How fear keeps people from their real work
– Why failure can be the doorway to purpose
– The importance of self-relationship for entrepreneurs
– Why environment and place shape creativity and clarity
– How to stop postponing the work that actually matters

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 – Why entrepreneurs neglect their relationship with themselves
02:00 – Crisis, crossroads, and waking up too late
03:18 – Getting ahead of the conversation before regret sets in
03:35 – Why success isn’t what people actually want
04:54 – Dying with your best work still inside you
05:28 – Losing everything and letting go of chasing money
08:10 – The therapy moment that changed everything
10:14 – Discovering how much emotion we store in the body
14:25 – How our life story quietly shapes our decisions
15:20 – Building a life around what you don’t want
16:47 – The real estate crash and starting again from zero
21:12 – Why busyness can’t outrun truth
25:14 – The cost of not changing
30:31 – Our dysfunctional relationship with money
37:13 – Why protecting lifestyle blocks real purpose
40:48 – The “three mountains” of life and work
43:13 – Burning the ships and committing fully
45:56 – Why everything Philip chased was a chase
50:13 – Success, ego, and the Irish relationship with ambition
55:12 – Why most people never bring their gifts into the world

🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.
👇 Full episode link in the comments.