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From Basement to Boardroom: How Shena Brien Built Ireland's Most Customer-Obsessed Telco

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"If you have an idea and you feel passionately about it, you will not fail. If you have enough dedication, and you believe in your product, you believe in yourself — you will not fail."

🏢 From Basement to Boardroom: How Shena Brien Built Ireland's Most Customer-Obsessed Telco!

🎙 In this episode of the InvestHer Podcast, host Anne Ravanona speaks with Shena Brien, Co-Founder & CEO of IPTelecom, one of Ireland's leading cloud communications companies. Shena shares what it really takes to bootstrap a tech company from scratch, grow it organically for over a decade, and then make the leap to private equity — all while building one of the most gender-diverse teams in Irish tech.

🌍 Discover how Shena and her co-founder, Brian Chamberlain, turned a house basement, second-hand servers, and a shared passion for customer service into a 40-person, PE-backed scale-up now targeting a place in Ireland's top five telcos. With a 50/50 gender split across the company, Shena is rewriting what leadership in the telecom sector looks like.

💡 Don't miss this episode with insights on:

  • Why staying self-funded for 13 years gave IPTelecom the structure and stability to attract the right investor — at the right time
  • How Shena "interviewed" potential investors just as hard as they interviewed her, and what made Development Capital stand out
  • Building a gender-diverse, multinational team (15 nationalities!) in a male-dominated industry — without a quota in sight
  • The "telecom in a box" concept that powered an international proof-of-concept in South Africa — and what it signals for IPTelecom's global future
  • Why zero downtime and customer centricity aren't just values — they're a competitive moat
  • Hard-won founder wisdom: direct debit billing from day one, outsourcing HR until you're ready, and why your employee handbook is your Bible
  • Her message to every woman who hesitates to walk into a room full of men: you belong here

Learn how to build a fundable, scalable business — on your own terms.

🔗 Listen Now 🎧 Apple Podcasts | Spotify | ▶️ Full Show Notes

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Podden och tillhörande omslagsbild på den här sidan tillhör Anne Ravanona: entrepreneur, funding expert, women's advocate and podcaster. Innehållet i podden är skapat av Anne Ravanona: entrepreneur, funding expert, women's advocate and podcaster och inte av, eller tillsammans med, Poddtoppen.