‘In a way, my old dream of becoming an astronaut sort of came true’

There are few enough people who can say they got career advice from the playwright John B Keane. But that’s exactly what happened to Jacinta Tobin when Keane used to visit Tobin’s, her parents’ pub, in Kilmaley, Co Clare.

“I was struggling with university choices because maths was my best subject and I wanted to do something like electrical engineering and be an astronaut. But given that Ireland didn’t have a space programme, this was a bit unrealistic,” she says.

“On one occasion I was having a discussion with John B about the left and right sides of the brain and wanting to do something that nurtured both. Having talked it through with him, I eventually decided on a course at DCU that combined languages and business.”

Tobin started earning her keep in her family’s shop when she was knee-high. She got her first wage packet at the age of four for sweeping the floor and her parents used to stand her by the till and teach her sums long before she went to school because she needed to be able to give accurate change.

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The business, which included a shop and pub, a public phone and a petrol pump, was at the centre of Kilmaley life and Tobin grew up with a solid grasp of the realities of hard work and the ability to pull a good pint of Guinness.

A combination of itchy feet, curiosity, a thirst for adventure and the alluring prospect of blue skies and golden beaches encouraged Tobin to leave Ireland for Australia in 1997 where she began her career in sales and marketing with Capgemini. Postings in the US and London followed before she finally settled down in California, where she has been for the last 20 years working in various global sales, marketing and operational roles with start-up and established companies including Cloudmark, Twistlock and the enterprise security company, Proofpoint.

Asked about the attraction of working with start-ups, Tobin says: “I love the challenge of being in at the very beginning when the value proposition and product market fit are being thrashed out. It’s amazing how invigorating it is to be constantly resourceful and creative when you’re figuring out what is still a nebulous puzzle on the fly.

I really appreciate going home and at heart, I think I’m more of a homing pigeon than a wild goose

“The teamwork that gets created in that kind of environment is also incredible. It’s almost like improvised theatre where you have to fully rely on each other, learning as you go. There isn’t a formula so you’re trying to be smarter every day because you’re building something new whether that’s in terms of new geography or in a new industry vertical.”

Earlier this year, Tobin changed direction, moving from cybersecurity to space security and defence when she joined the space intelligence company LeoLabs as chief revenue officer.

“In a way, my old dream of becoming an astronaut sort of came true but has morphed into working alongside an astronaut in making space more secure,” she says.

Looking back over her professional life, Tobin says the path she took is not that surprising given she learned the nuts and bolts of sales and marketing from watching her parents at work. “I credit my folks with giving me my good grounding in business sense while my dad was customer centric long before that became fashionable,” she says. “He was very aware of market forces and was constantly trying to figure out the right way to set up the shop to make it look good or what new products would increase the spend from the existing customer base.”

Tobin, who is on Silicon Valley’s list of the top 50 women in tech, now lives in San Francisco with her young son. In her spare time, she likes to hike and she loves music which she says is a legacy from her childhood when there was live music in the pub most nights.

“I’m not sure I’ve had more opportunities living abroad, necessarily,” she says. “However, it makes a big difference to have a homogenous market made up of 300 million people who all speak the same language and have the same buying patterns. That makes it an easier place to build start-ups and grow companies in the initial years.”

Tobin thoroughly enjoys life in the US but acknowledges that, compared to Ireland, “people tend to be less connected, less trusting and nobody knows each other. There is also more of a tendency to project perfection and less intellectual and emotional honesty. In Ireland we have empathy close to the top of our skin whereas US companies and cultures are more data driven.

“What I really love about the US are the opportunities, the weather and the optimism – it drives me,” she adds. “California is an unusual and extraordinary place. On one hand, it’s the fourth largest economy in the world, underpinned by the entertainment industry in LA and the technology sector in Silicon Valley. Then on the other, you’re a five-minute walk from the mountains and overlooking the beach.

“There are huge, great things about being here. Blue skies included. But I always miss home and I’m reconciled to living in this split between the two countries.

“I often say to myself: you can have it all, you just can’t have it all simultaneously. I really appreciate going home and at heart, I think I’m more of a homing pigeon than a wild goose.”