Podcast Ep 282: Payslip founder and CEO Fidelma McGuirk shares the remarkable story of building a global technology company from Westport, Co Mayo.
Since founding Payslip in 2016, McGuirk has demonstrated that geography is no barrier to entrepreneurial success, growing the company’s revenue seven-fold in just four years while maintaining impressive growth rates year-over-year.
Payslip provides automation and AI technology for multinational companies to manage their global payroll operations, serving blue-chip clients including Olympus, Mango, Booking.com, and Just Eat across multiple continents.
“The focus has shifted from growth at any cost to steady, stable, predictable growth with profitability”
The company processes payroll for over 100,000 people worldwide, with its platform now available in English, Chinese, and Japanese.
What makes this achievement even more fascinating is that it has been accomplished from Ireland’s western seaboard, challenging traditional assumptions about where technology companies need to be based.
Geography is history
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“Will AI remove the need for payroll professionals? No, but professionals not using AI will become outdated and less efficient than those who do”
McGuirk discussed the realities of scaling a technology business in regional Ireland, the importance of responsible AI implementation in handling sensitive employee data, and the evolving landscape of hybrid work arrangements.
She also shared valuable insights on fundraising lessons learned during the pandemic, the advantages of building a loyal workforce outside major tech hubs, and the critical role of government support programmes for female entrepreneurs.
Perhaps most significantly, McGuirk’s story serves as an inspiring example for the next generation of regional entrepreneurs, particularly women in technology.
“We provide automation and AI technology for multinational companies to manage their global payroll operations. What this means in practical terms is: if you’re a multinational with staff in different countries, there are different rules and regulations in every country for calculating payroll and being compliant with local tax offices.
“Companies have moved to the cloud for finance and HR systems, but payroll sits between these two functions. If you’re managing payroll across 28 countries, you need a standardised way to manage that so it integrates effectively with your business operations. That’s where Payslip steps in.
“Our technology includes a Global Payroll Control Platform that customers use to standardize and automate payroll across all countries, plus AI and integration automation tools to ensure our technology talks to all HR and finance systems.”
Growth and scale
Payslip founder and CEO Fidelma McGuirk
McGuirk says the company has focused on a successful strategy of breaking into key markets in a methodical manner.
“Our revenue is seven times what it was in 2021, and we’re growing at about 46% to 49% revenue year-over-year. We have customers using our Global Payroll Control Platform across all continents, processing payroll for more than 100,000 people worldwide. The platform is now available in English, Chinese, and Japanese – for example. Olympus uses it in Japanese to run their international payroll.
“Staff-wise, we grew significantly after 2021, but with natural attrition that we didn’t necessarily backfill, we now have about 100 people across Ireland, Spain, and Bulgaria, plus some remote workers. We’re EBITDA positive this year, which is significant given how the investment market changed with interest rate changes. The focus has shifted from growth at any cost to steady, stable, predictable growth with profitability.
Location, location, location
Payslip’s success demonstrates that location isn’t a barrier to building global tech companies. Payslip successfully serves international clients from rural Ireland, with customers including Olympus, Mango, Booking.com, and Just Eat.
“Geography hasn’t been a barrier at all. Our customers – global payroll leaders and CFOs in multinational companies – don’t know if we’re in Westport, County Mayo, Westport, Connecticut, or Westport, New Zealand, and they don’t care. What matters is having the best technology that solves their problems and fits their ROI model.
“Our customers’ global payroll teams are always distributed anyway – they’re rarely in one office. The only exception is Mango in Spain, where their entire team is in their phenomenal Barcelona offices. So selling from Westport isn’t a problem for customers.
“The key questions are: where do we need to be to make the sale, and where do we need to be to service customers? Making sales from Ireland works fine – our entire sales team is based here. We participate in trade shows and have international sales trips like any company. Post-Covid, servicing customers online is expected and acceptable.”
From a talent and recruitment perspective the west also works for Payslip. “There’s an advantage being one of only four technology companies in County Mayo – people who want to work in tech have some choice. Our jobs are very interesting – dealing with blue-chip companies worldwide, developing technology that goes live every two months with immediate customer feedback. Unlike legacy companies where technology might take three years to develop and never go live, we’re agile, iterate quickly, and stay close to customers. Anyone working at Payslip gets to contribute directly as the voice of the customer and help develop market-leading solutions.”
When it comes to AI innovation, Payslip is seizing the day. The company has developed responsible AI features for payroll processing, taking a cautious approach due to the sensitive nature of employee data and the critical importance of payroll accuracy.
“AI is a bit like the ECDL course from 15 to 20 years ago when everyone had to learn keyboards and computers. AI is the next step in technology evolution.
“Within global payroll, the industry has evolved from calculators and dot-matrix printers to Excel and email. When I ask people about their tech stack, however, they laugh – having a tech stack was new to them. We’ve made structured, automated workflows standard, with 100% automation in Payslip.
“We’ve been on the AI journey for three years, taking a very cautious approach because payroll deals with personal identifiable information (PII) data and cannot fail – people’s mortgages depend on it. We can only apply AI where we have useful, structured data. We’re the only technology that unifies global payroll data worldwide in our proprietary global-to-local data model, giving us the building blocks for AI.
“We have core guidelines: everything is opt-in for customers, PII data is always customer-owned, and they decide use cases. We have three AI areas: agent, intelligence, and assist tools. Assist and intelligence tools are live, with agent tools coming by year-end.”
“Will AI remove the need for payroll professionals? No, but professionals not using AI will become outdated and less efficient than those who do.”
Advice for budding entrepreneurs
There is an emerging generation of young, women entrepreneurs coming from rural Ireland who, like McGuirk, don’t see geography as a barrier. The key is simply getting started.
She offers a roadmap for others looking to follow a similar path.
“I’m familiar with programmes like Acorns, funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine, and connected to Going for Growth. These are key pillars in entrepreneurship support for female entrepreneurs. When Going for Growth started 17 years ago, for every female-led business, there were two male-led ones. The programmes provide frameworks, community, and ‘the board you can’t afford.’
“If you’re starting a business, look at what your local LEO (Local Enterprise Office) can do, what Enterprise Ireland offers, and definitely explore programs like Acorns or Going for Growth if you’re female.”
Payslip has disrupted the traditional Excel-and-email approach to global payroll management. McGuirk’s future plans in clude continued growth through customer acquisition, expanded UK market presence, and the upcoming launch of “AI Alpha” branded features on the Payslip platform.
“Our plan is straightforward: continued growth. We want many more customers using Payslip to deliver scalability to their global payroll operations. We’ve done well in the US and German/Benelux markets, and we’re looking more at the UK market next year.
“We work extensively with Enterprise Ireland offices in Berlin, Amsterdam, and Stockholm. Next month, we’re participating in a trade mission with the San Francisco office as part of a Workday event – Payslip is Workday’s Global Payroll Platinum Innovation Partner.”
From her vantage point in Mayo, McGuirk can take satisfaction in knowing that technology made in Mayo is making a global business impact.
“If you look at all our customers together, you could spend your whole day using their services – book holidays on Booking.com, get tour guides, dress with Mango, use Olympus cameras, eat bananas from Fyffes, order food from Just Eat. We’re really pleased with that breadth.”
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