Intercom hit $50M in ARR faster than any SaaS company since Salesforce did. Then AI upended the model, and founder and CEO Eoghan McCabe got seriously ill and described waking up to a dark blur. Instead of playing it safe, he shut off $60M in revenue and rebuilt Intercom around a ruthless new focus. In this raw conversation, he explains why founders must trust their gut, reject the status quo, and rebuild for the agentic era.

00:00 Intro 
01:24 An Irish founder’s American dream
02:42 The record-breaking rise of Intercom 
4:00 Waking Up to a Dark Blur
06:14 Killing $60M revenue to survive 
08:41 How legacy companies avoid getting left behind
10:27  Eoghan’s ultimate advice for founders

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Intercom's founder shares his journey of returning as CEO during a health crisis to rebuild the $1.3B company. He implemented aggressive cultural changes, performance management reforms, and bet heavily on AI agents (Finn), sacrificing $60M in revenue to pivot the business. The story covers lessons on founder mentality, authentic leadership, willingness to make unilateral decisions, and the necessity of constant reinvention in tech companies, especially with AI disruption.

How I Rebuilt a $1.3B Giant with an AI Agent While Facing My Own Death | Intercom, Eoghan McCabe

Being kind makes you human. Don’t mix inhumanity with risk analysis and tough decision-making.

“founder mentality, authentic leadership, willingness to make unilateral decisions, and the necessity of constant reinvention”… yeah that’s not self-aggrandizing at all.
I think a more important point that is brushed over is that they COULD burn 60m in revenue. That’s a pretty nice cushion that a lot of businesses don’t have.
Anyone with an IQ over 90 could turn a company around if it had a $60m safety net.