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Pure Telecom was founded by former colleagues Paul Connell and Alan McGonnell in 2002. The pair had put their entrepreneurial brains together after the dot-com bubble burst to come up with a recession-proof business model. Using their vast experience in the telecoms industry, they set up Pure Telecom.
With an initial focus on targeting business customers using a large wholesale network, Pure Telecom was born in Sallymount Avenue, Ranelagh. Its emphasis on excellent customer service was engrained in the company from the start. Paul, Alan and head of operations, Jonathan Long, spent their days calling prospective customers directly and attending sales meetings, winning business as they went. The company’s first customer, Willis Computer Supplies, signed up in May 2002 and remains a customer to this day.
Within 12 months of establishing Pure Telecom, the two founders knew they were onto a good thing.
Paul Connell said: “Within that first year, Alan signed a business customer that guaranteed our cash flow, ensuring we would be turning a profit by our second year in business. It was then that we knew we had something valuable.”
Five years on, Pure Telecom’s business was thriving. The company moved to its first office in Dublin’s Citywest to facilitate its growing staff base and made a significant step that would seal its future success: moving to the residential telecoms market.
Alan McGonnell said: “We saw an opportunity to expand our volume into the residential market and we took it. It was a completely new area for us, but we did our research and it made financial and commercial sense. The Irish telecoms industry is rapidly evolving and we have always made sure that we were at the forefront of that change; allowing us to capitalise on the digital age, rather than lose out.”
With a razor-sharp focus on customer service and price, the company was very quickly attracting a large volume of residential customers from across Ireland. As its customer base grew, so too did the Pure Telecom team and in 2009 the company moved to its current home in Citywest Business Campus.
Since then, Pure Telecom has become a thriving business employing more than 100 people. In 2016, it signed up its 40,000th residential customer and the co-founders now have plans to reach 100,000 by 2019. That, they say, will be helped by increased availability of broadband in rural Ireland through the National Broadband Plan.
Paul says: “We have seen a significant uptake in broadband services in the areas that are being served by private and government-funded fibre rollouts and we are committed to playing our part in increasing those numbers. We work very closely with some of Ireland’s major wholesale providers and that allows us to ensure that we are there as soon as the broadband is. We are therefore in a very favourable position for when the National Broadband Plan is announced.”
After more than 20 years of being colleagues, Alan and Paul believe it is their teamwork and shared drive for success that has made Pure Telecom the success it is today.
Alan says: “We’re both working from the same page when it comes to the business and the direction in which it is going. Our desks face each other in the office so that we can make quick, impactful decisions that ensure that we are always pushing boundaries, rather than reacting to what is happening around us.
“Of course, our team has also been crucial in shaping the business we have become today and we try to be the best employer we can be. We have a sports and social committee that encourages everyone to take part in extra-curricular activities and we also have Agents of the Month, awarded to those who have excelled in their work and targets. We believe we have created a great place to work and enjoy celebrating our success with our team members. We also raise thousands each year for great charities.”
