EE 415 - Inside the €1B+ Business Empire of John Purdy
Release Date: 05/15/2025
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info_outlineIn this episode of The Entrepreneur Experiment, Gary Fox sits down with John Purdy, co-founder of Ergo and a seasoned leader who has helped shape the Irish tech landscape over the past three decades.
From launching Ergo in 1993 with just a handful of people to scaling it into one of Ireland’s top IT services companies, John shares the highs, the hard decisions, and the philosophies that guided him through it all. John shares a rare behind-the-scenes look at how he scaled Ergo without external investment and spun out an eventual unicorn, Fenergo, along the way. He opens up about the emotional and strategic decision to step away as CEO after 28 years, and what he’s doing now to give back—both to founders and to causes close to his heart. If you're building a business or figuring out what comes after success, this is the playbook.
Show Notes:
In this episode, we cover:
🚀 Growing Ergo from a printer repair business to €200M+ in revenue
📊 How John bootstrapped and resisted outside investment for decades
🏗️ Spinning out Fenergo—now valued at €1.2 billion
🔁 Why he stepped down as CEO and how he let go without meddling
🧠 What he looks for before joining a startup board or investing
🔥 The brutal honesty of what it takes to scale and survive the “messy middle”
🤝 How personal values define great founders
💬 "The team that got me the last trophy won’t get me the next one." — John Purdy quoting Sir Alex Ferguson on leadership and succession
Links & Resources Ergo Technology Group: https://ergotechnologygroup.com/
Connect with John Purdy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnpurdy
Book mentioned: Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
Recommended Podcast: The Tim Ferriss Show
Visit my partners
Enterprise Ireland: https://bit.ly/EIreland
Azure Communications: https://bit.ly/azureEE
Nostra: https://bit.ly/nostraee