My new gig...
Today is July 1st, Canada Day.
It's also the day I start my new gig. I'm joining Pat Phelan and his amazing team over at Cubic Telecom in Cork, Ireland. A lot of you might know Pat, he is very well known in the VoIP space and is the person behind AllFreeCalls (Yak4Ever), Roam4Free and the very widely read blog by the same name.
I met Pat while I was working at Jajah. What really struck me about him was his combination of clear vision and realistic focus on revenue generation. He intuitively knows what customers want, what they are willing to pay for and how much they will pay. I've been involved with startups for a long time. A lot of people focus on raising money to achieve their vision. Pat doesn't... he focuses on selling stuff. I can't tell you how refreshing this is.
I have been offered a few gigs since I left Jajah. None of them really got me excited. Two weeks ago I went to Cork and met with Pat's team. That got me really excited. What a great group of people. For me the team is everything. It doesn't matter what you do for a living, if you're with a strong dynamic team and you're having fun, any ambitious vision can become reality.
So what am I/we going to do?
Well I can't really tell you the specifics just now. We will launch our product in September and there is a lot of work to do before then.
However, what I can tell you about is Pat's vision. He wants a world in which you can pick up your mobile anywhere in the world and call anyone in the world for as long as you like and not worry about the price.
The real beauty is that the solution is not technical. No downloads, no special numbers, no websites. It's a simple service that anyone can understand yet surprisingly, nobody has done it yet.
Given my background and experiences over the last seven years I have seen just about every proposal in this realm and Pat's approach is the best I've seen. I'm so excited I can barely stand it!
Looking forward to hearing more specifics!
Posted by: Dick Hardt | Sunday, 01 July 2007 at 17:46
Hey, Vyke me soon man :)
Look forward to see this materialize. Can fully support your aversion to "get the money and run" mentallity visible in many start ups.
Posted by: Jakob Snilsberg | Monday, 02 July 2007 at 01:41
Sean,
Congratulations on the new gig. I can't wait to learn about this solution as I'm sure it's worth at least one write up on one of my blogs.
As soon as you can divulge a few more details, please let me know so I can break the news.
By the way, if you see Mr. Sean Kelly aka King Kelly (one of he winningest professional cyclists to ever grace the peloton, give him a shout out from this yank. It's been so long he probably won't remember me but I can assure you that I remember him...
Cheers,
Oliver
Posted by: Oliver Starr | Monday, 02 July 2007 at 01:46
Congratulations Sean. Keep us apprised and best of luck!
Posted by: Trevor Kray | Monday, 02 July 2007 at 09:33
This is perfect for you Sean. I expect we'll see big things from both O'Mahony and the Cubic Telecom team.
From a BC vantage point, Telus - ever the laggard in customer service - announced their hugely expensive BlackBerry 8830 World Edition Smartphone with international roaming. Clearly there's a world market, though few companies are likely to succeed unless they get the economics right. Sounds like Cubic Telecom truly understands that. Yay!
Posted by: Judy Bishop | Tuesday, 03 July 2007 at 09:59
Congrats on the new appointment Sean. From what i've heard & read theres going to be leaps and bounds in the cubic future with you aboard.
Posted by: Ronan | Thursday, 05 July 2007 at 06:40