published on
May 3, 2023

A chat with Ronan Gallagher, Commercial Director

WRITTEN BY
Ella Moody
·
posted on
Life at Florence
A chat with Ronan Gallagher, Commercial Director

Today on Behind the Scenes we’re talking to Ronan, our commercial director. Ronan has previously worked in Fintech before joining us here at Florence.

Who are you and what do you do at Florence? 

My name is Ronan Gallagher and I’m the Commercial Director at Florence. My goals are to improve our customer experience, drive our growth and build out a high performing sales team. 

What made you want to join Florence? 

I’ve worked for three start ups before and this is my first time going into health-tech. I was really intrigued by the product that is properly disrupting an industry that was quite old school. I also really aligned with the overarching mission and values of the company which is to ensure people get the care that they deserve.

That’s quite exciting because there’s a huge opportunity - if you rely on the best of tech and the best of people then the world's your oyster!

What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given? 

I have two that I use actually. 

One is ‘be world class at everything that doesn’t require talent’. 

You can be coached and trained in terms of your messaging and how you sell stuff, but it takes no talent to be on time, follow a simple process, bring enthusiasm, be kind, be empathetic, be supportive of people on your team and bring a lot of energy. 

The basics are the foundation, it’s about the little things. If you’re on a call, be present in that call, give that person full attention.

The second one is, ‘be brutally honest with yourself’. 

A lot of people might give excuses to other people like “I’ll get around to it, I forgot about it” but you need to be able to look yourself in the mirror and say you did the best that you could have. Never lie to yourself.

What’s your favourite thing about working at Florence? 

I really like that we’re building something from the ground up so that’s really exciting. I like building things with other people who are really interesting, smart and capable. 

I’ve only been here two months but I've learnt a huge amount, which I love. 

I love learning, I’m a big believer that your brain is a muscle and you need to exercise it and my brain is getting a lot of exercise here!

What’s the biggest challenge Florence is facing at the moment? 

It’s definitely trying to scale fast, but also doing it in a sustainable manner so that we’re setting up the foundations for future success.

What’s a fun fact about you that might surprise us? 

I got a compliment once from Bill Clinton - he told me my tie was nice. 

What piece of advice would you give to someone thinking about joining Florence? 

Fully commit to it and be fully aware that a lot of the processes you’d find at more traditional companies aren’t in place at the moment so you’re along for the ride.

It’s a bit of a rollercoaster, but in an exciting way! Be prepared to dive into a lot of different projects! 

Where do you see Florence in 5 years?

On the commercial side of it we’ll be the absolute market leader in the UK, best in class and have successfully expanded internationally. 

I think we’ll also have a phenomenal culture and we’ll be known as a great place to work and a great place to start your career as well. 

I’d love to have this great alumni of Florence people who are able to look back at their time at Florence and think “I loved the culture, I loved who I worked with and I loved what we did”. 

If you want to be part of an industry-disrupting team then apply to work at Florence here.

Keep reading