Intercom switch sees Eoghan McCabe return to chief executive role

Irish tech unicorn Intercom has announced a change at the top, with cofounder Eoghan McCabe returning to the chief executive role he vacated in 2020.

In a message to employees, Mr McCabe laid out ambitious plans for the company, pledging to go head to head with Zendesk in the customer support market and become the dominant platform.

“I have a very specific vision for what we need to be and what we need to do to get there. It involves going back to our roots, some extreme focus, and a bet that we’ve never been willing to make before: picking a lane and being clear about what we’re not going to do,” he said. “We’re going to become the dominant platform in the customer support space, and redefine that space. We will go head-to-head with Zendesk.

Mr McCabe said his decision to step back in 2020 was due to his need for a break. He took on the role of chairman as then-chief operating officer Karen Peacock took over as CEO.

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“In the two years since, I got the break I needed, started some new passion projects, and found more time for investing in and helping some great new founders, a number of which are former Intercom employees. But I could never stay too far from this company,” he said in a blog post published on the company’s website. “I still deeply cared about its success and its place in the world. Recently, some of our board members asked if I’d come back and I felt called to finish what I started.”

Ms Peacock will take on an advisory role at the company and will pursue other projects outside Intercom. Mr McCabe thanked her for her work at the company, saying she had fundamentally redefined the way Intercom works.

“She brought a very large amount of maturity and sophistication to Intercom that will live on well past her time here,” he said. “And she oversaw a ton of growth and change that’s provided us with the raw materials we’ll use to build our path to this new vision for the future.”

Founded in Dublin in 2011 by Mr McCabe, Des Traynor, Ciarán Lee and David Barrett, Intercom brings messaging products for sales, marketing and customer support together. Its products enable companies to communicate easily with customers through their own websites and apps, on social media and by email.