Meet the team - Darren Shaw

I am a failed developer. I enjoyed the problem solving and the logic, but programming just wasn’t for me. I found myself in wholesale telecoms as the world was moving to IP convergence and mobile phones were starting to do more than just make calls and send SMS. I slowly moved from technical and operational roles into business development and the product side of the industry via BT, O2 and Manx Telecom.

I consider myself lucky to have gained a broad understanding of telecoms, from engineering and finance to roaming and operations. I have also had the privilege of working with some of the biggest names in telecoms and some great people along the way. That understand of the industry and those long-term relationships have been so useful when it has come to building eSIM Go

I became aware of the standards around 2016. But it wasn’t until 2018 when Apple started to include eSIM as standard that I really started to take notice. At that time, we were shipping millions of plastic SIM cards per year to MVNOs and sponsored roaming customers and sometimes the cards went twice around the world due to rules and regulations. Suddenly all those logistics and costs were gone, and barriers to entry were removed. It was a paradigm shift in how connectivity would be acquired and distributed.

I look after our products and partnerships. On the product side, I'm responsible for the management of all our solutions and features, constantly iterating and predicting where the industry is headed. Right now, we are continually iterating and building at a tremendous pace and each iteration is improving on the quality, security, and features of our solution. Overseeing constant changes and releases is keeping me busy!

On the partnerships side, I manage our key suppliers, network partners, and building our own global coverage. Coming from a wholesale background we understand the challenges and needs of our network partners. Entering agreements with connectivity partners on a long-term strategic basis. Making sure its commercially attractive and ensuring we are a light touch when it comes to on-boarding and ongoing support. But also choosing the right partners. Not all connectivity is the same quality, and our solution is based on the simple principle “it just works”. Which means no outages, no congestion and the end-user experience is so seamless you don’t give a second thought to the fact you are using an eSIM.

The culture is fantastic. It's disruptive, positive, fun, and inclusive. There's so much talent across the teams, and we've accomplished so much in such a short time. It's exciting to see where we'll be by the end of 2023, as the pace at which we're scaling and developing is mind-blowing. As we grow, people continue to be valued. Everyone is given a voice and their opinion is listened to and valued. That is all reflected in the long-term strategic relationships we build with our customers and network partners.

eSIM Go is also a true COVID company. We have a multi-national team working across multiple locations and a strong onus on flexibility and work life balance. The infrastructure the IT team have put in place means we have the freedom and flexibility to work remotely and around home life.

Still working hard. The occasional late night still just working from the company villa in Ibiza. I can dream.

Our mission has been from day one has been “to make connectivity easy”. We have taken companies like Stripe and Twilio as out benchmark and replicated that same approach and philosophy for wholesale telecoms. Taking complex technical integrations that typically would take 6 months+ and deep pockets and condensing that down into a process that takes less than 10 minutes and is accessible to all. We will continue to work on that same principle over the next 5 years.

I expect we will be partnered with some of the largest names in the airline and travel industry. We will also have a huge base of smaller partners from travel agents to enterprises who need and want secure, low cost and high-quality global data connectivity. Many of those customers will have never spoken to a member of the eSIM Go team. They will have signed-up and gone through a process of educated themselves before creating their own white-label solutions.

My 11-year-old son keeps me busy with football, Mario kart and basketball on weekends, and I commute to see my better half Natasha in Belfast on a regular basis. I love getting to as many gigs as possible and regularly attend Glastonbury and festivals. To balance all of those late nights and travelling out, I like to run and do the occasional half marathon. I've never been fast but getting out for a run and clearing my head helps me gain some perspective after a long day. The goal is to eventually run a marathon in the next few years.