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.
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.”
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.
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.”