Ian ORourke

Summary

I've founded, scaled and exited several companies and been involved in the technology and start-up industry for the past 25+ years in Silicon Valley, Austin, Taiwan, London and Australia. I founded Adthena as a SaaS business providing search intelligence to major global brands, starting in London and expanding across the USA and globally. Adthena has won 30+ industry awards including "Software of the Year" 8 times; "Best Software Innovation". Due to Adthena's success I was the winner of London WCIT "Developing Entrepreneur of the Year" in 2016 and shortlisted again in 2017 and shortlisted for "Business Leader of the Year" at the 2017 Tech Leaders Awards. I now mentor and coach several startup CEOs through the tumultuous founding journey. Prior to Adthena I co-founded and built both Oovie and Treeview Estates. We built Oovie to be Australia’s largest network of DVD rental machines before being successfully acquired by Hoyts in 2009. Concurrently, we developed Treeview Estates, a substantial retirement village in the Blue Mountains outside Sydney. In my early career I was based in San Francisco and Hong Kong at Intershop, an eCommerce software pioneer. I was involved with Intershop from the early stages through a successful Nasdaq IPO and beyond. I established Intershop’s Asian operations growing sales from zero to US$8m in under three years, establishing offices in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea. I speak proficient Chinese having lived and studied in Taiwan. I'm an active member of Entrepreneur's Organization and YPO. Some Relevant Experience: - US, UK and Asia market entry and expansion. - Fundraising US$40m+ in SaaS growth equity/debt to fuel US expansion - Built and led C-level leadership teams and implemented Scaling Up and OKRs management systems - Built a desirable, valuable company culture of ~150 people across 3 continents and led through COVID, War, Inflation, Recession, Bank Failures and more - Grew enterprise value to >US$150m - Acquired & integrated our competitors. - Successfully built and sold a business to a major strategic investor - Coached and mentored other Founder/CEOs I'm an avid rock climber and always on the lookout for people to climb with.