This time ten years ago I would get the DART into town and usually getting off at Westland Row and I would hang out in one of the nearby hotels. These were my “offices”. I had my mobile and laptop, which allowed me to work on the go! This went on for several months before a friend of mine was kind enough to give me a “real room” in their offices.

Given that we are having a ten year birthday bash this week there has been some reminiscing of the early days in Realex Payments. In particular, people are interested in the very early days and what was going on at the time. I could say that I had the amazing detailed plan, cash flow forecasts, and product specifications and that I raised venture capital – but that would not be true! The reality was different of course. Let me share two thoughts….

There was no plan, but there was a vision. The vision, while not referred to in a strategic way, was the aspiration of what the service would deliver. That vision was absolutely clear and didn’t change.  I spoke about it all the time, all of the time. It was everything. I knew the proposition for the online retailer and the bank inside out and back to front. I believed that it would work and never considered any extensions to it or diversification to other areas – e.g. shopping carts and hosting services. So the clear vision was mixed with an absolute belief. I guess that replaced the plan and the specification.

Secondly, there were no staff but there was a network. The other strong memory from these very early days was the excitement of meeting scores of people. Every person I met became a sounding board for some aspect of the vision. And I met people every day – people from all walks of business, web developers, merchants, bank staff, legal advisors, telecoms etc. These people were unwittingly my focus group and they helped to define the product. I learnt a great lesson at this time – people like to help and you should always ask!

There was no plan, but there was a vision. There were no staff but there was a network.

Colm