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Image / Editorial

IMAGE Start-up of the Year, Aisling Teillard: ‘Trust your gut — it comes from a place of experience’


By Grace McGettigan
27th Nov 2019

Aisling Teillard, CEO, Tandem HR Solutions winner of Start-up of the Year in partnership with Enterprise Ireland Presented by Jenny Melia, Divisional Manager, Enterprise Ireland at the Image Business Woman of the Year Awards 2019 at the Clayton Hotel-photo Kieran Harnett

IMAGE Start-up of the Year, Aisling Teillard: ‘Trust your gut — it comes from a place of experience’

Aisling Teillard

In a data-driven world, we can easily forget to listen to our guts, says Aisling Teillard 


Aisling Teillard, CEO of Tandem HR Solutions, was named IMAGE Start-up of the Year 2019 at a black-tie event in Dublin’s Clayton Hotel on Monday night.

Aisling left corporate life in 2015 to build Tandem, a SAAS based HR technology. Tandem provides an intuitive technology to facilitate employees owning their own development through real-time feedback practices.

The technology is now used by large scale enterprises globally, including AXA, Societe Generale, KBC, Chloe, Cartier & Mont Blanc.

We caught up with Aisling shortly after her win, and asked her to share the best — and worst — business advice she has ever received.

The best…

“Trust your gut because it’s so underrated. Your gut comes from a place of experience. Every time I haven’t followed my gut I’ve lived to regret it,” she says.

“I think people are obsessed with data these days and data-driven decision making and yes, that’s important — sometimes the data tells volumes. But sometimes there’s something right inside you that just knows — and that’s the direction to travel.”

And the worst…

“I’ve been told that my plans are overly-ambitious, and people will always tell you that your plans are overly-ambitious, but there’s no such thing. That’s not even a thing that anyone should ever consider. There’s no such thing as overly-ambitious. There’s just potential — and what can be.

“I hate people telling me that — and I get told it all the time!”

Photo: Jenny Melia and Aisling Teillard, by Kieran Harnett


Read more: Sinéad McSweeney, Businesswoman of the Year 2019: ‘We need to rethink “lean in” and talk more about leaning out’

Read more: Social Entrepreneur of the Year, Emma Reidy: ‘You can’t go it alone — you need to be part of a team’

Read more: Chupi Sweetman, Entrepreneur of the Year 2019: ‘If you’re thinking of starting a business, the time is now