The iGaming Leader Podcast

Tommy Kearns: “You’re Incorrect, Tommy” – Inside Xtremepush’s Culture of Challenge

In this episode, Leo talks with Tommy Kearns about how rugby shaped the way he runs a company: trust, loyalty, accountability, direct feedback and a role for everyone. He is clear about what he does not want around him. “I don’t want yes men around me.” Everything gets challenged until the team reaches alignment, and then everyone commits.

He also covers the harder parts of the story. Tommy lost his money in the property crash after selling his Mexico business. Xtremepush was bootstrapped and profitable within 13 to 14 months. It then took growth capital in 2021 and went negative for nearly 24 months. He also talks about the 2023 Thunderbite acquisition, why Xtremepush put CRM, gamification and loyalty into one platform, and why he thinks trust matters more in the AI era.

Tommy Kearns

CEO & Co-Founder, Xtremepush

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01 · Watch the episode

The full conversation

Watch on YouTube ↗

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04 · The guest

Tommy Kearns

CEO & Co-Founder, Xtremepush

Tommy Kearns is CEO and Co-Founder of Xtremepush, a leading company now serving 230 iGaming brands around the world, including more than half of the EGR top 50. A former professional rugby player at Connacht, he co-founded Xtremepush in 2014 with Kevin Collins.

He is a technology entrepreneur with a track record in the global internet and mobile industry, building businesses that solve large customer problems for large enterprises, with technology and automation where relevant.

Connect with Tommy on LinkedIn →

03 · In this episode

Moments worth queuing up

00:00:00 Introducing Tommy

00:03:00 Rugby career at Connacht and the lessons that carried into business

00:08:00 Challenge and commit: no yes men and the leadership team

00:12:00 Why toxicity is viral, Leaders for Leaders and hiring for urgency

00:19:00 Lean culture: single-digit churn, pod systems and Keep Driving Hard (KDH)

00:22:00 Career path: the Caribbean, Mexico, the 2009 property crash and the origin of Xtremepush

00:28:00 Bootstrapping, growth capital in 2021 and the first acquisition

00:32:00 One platform for CRM, gamification and loyalty, 24 months in the red and the Thunderbite acquisition

00:38:00 XpertOS, agentic AI, trust and the power of saying no

In their own words

01 / 06

“I don’t want yes men around me. I want people to challenge my thoughts. My thoughts are directionally very good, but specifically not always correct.”

02 / 06

“Toxicity is viral. It needs to be rooted out.”

03 / 06

“You can’t learn urgency. You either have it or you don’t, and you have to test for it.”

04 / 06

“You have to have felt failure. You have to feel it. You have to really feel it, not just see it.”

05 / 06

“Success is not permanent, but neither is failure.”

06 / 06

“Trust is going to become more important, relationships are gonna become more important.”

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