60 Seconds With

“Learn from your competitors, but never copy” – 60 seconds with: John Molloy, Oomph.ie

By Business & Finance
19 June 2018
John Molloy, Oomph.ie, life assurance
John Molloy, Managing Director, Oomph.ie (Photo: Sasko Lazarov, Photocall Ireland)

John Molloy, Managing Director, Oomph.ie, talks providing competitively-priced life assurance and advice on running a business.


Q. What was your first job?

My first temporary job was a part-time barman in The Tuning Fork in Rathfarnham (sadly recently demolished) while in college and my first full-time job was an Account Manager in Norwich Union Insurance, Dún Laoghaire in 1988.

Q. What would you regard as your greatest achievement to date?

Giving up smoking.

Q. In three words or less, how do you define success?

Contentment, freedom and happiness.

Q. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

Learn from your competitors, but never copy.

Q. How do you motivate yourself and your staff?

Even if we are on the right track, we will get run over if we just sit there.

Q. If you could step into the shoes of one business person for a day, who would it be and why?

Charlie Munger, American financier and philanthropist, Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and the low-key partner of Warren Buffet. If I could step into his shoes for a day it would lead to a lifetime of accrued knowledge.

Q. What’s your motto?

I don’t have the power to make life ‘fair’, but I do have the power to make life joyful.

Q. What are your aspirations for the future of the business?

To grow our online life assurance portal, www.oomph.ie, to the largest online independent provider of competitively-priced life assurance to families in the country by 2020.

To grow our Core Life Assurance, Pensions and Investment Business, Orca Financial Ltd to a €1,000,000 recurring annual income business by 2028, adding value through timely transparent financial advice to our clients nationwide through continued long-term relationships.

Even if we are on the right track, we will get run over if we just sit there.

Oomph.ie was set up to make purchasing life assurance an easy and convenient experience and yet attain the most competitive prices available from the main six providers of life assurance in Ireland.