LIAM DARLING
Senior sales & go-to-market leader

Liam Darling

IoT, connectivity & mission-critical communications · Ireland · Australia · USA

1 verified life saved, plus many less serious incidents resolved fast

For more than 20 years I've sold technology that locates and protects people: nurse-call and duress systems in hospitals, child tracking in theme parks, and staff-safety panic buttons in hotels. I've built two companies, opened a new country from zero, and won against much larger competitors in 10 countries.

Liam Darling at Enterprise Ireland in New York, in front of the Lower Manhattan skyline, beside the US flag 40.71° N, 74.01° W · Enterprise Ireland, New York
20+
years in B2B technology sales
10
countries sold into
$5M
12-month enterprise pipeline built at HaloSOS
1 of 3
approved global providers to Four Seasons
3 of 10
top global theme park operators signed
3
Australian innovation patents granted
01 · What I built and sold

The product I founded and took to Four Seasons and Marriott

HaloSOS is the staff-safety platform I founded, where I led product direction, enterprise sales and partnerships. The 54-second film shows it on a hotel shift.

HaloSOS hotel product film · 0:54 · original brand
  1. 1
    I shaped the productOversaw the wearable panic button, devices and integrations, from roadmap to deployment.
  2. 2
    I made it work on site98.7% room-level accuracy using beacons and each hotel's existing Wi-Fi, through the HPE partnership.
  3. 3
    I sold itFour Seasons approval ahead of AT&T and PwC, and Marriott's first commercial site, with responders alerted in under 5 seconds.
HaloSOS console showing a multi-floor property list and the lobby floor plan opened over the street map
Digital floor plans delivered on alert: every floor of the property, one tap from the map
02 · Selected wins

Deals that changed the trajectory of the business

Each one was won against a larger or established competitor, and each became the reference that opened the next door.

HaloSOS console branded for a Four Seasons resort, showing a demo staff alert on the property map with Message and Crisis Alert controls
HaloSOS · Hospitality2020 – 2026

Approved global provider to Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts

How a start-up became one of only three approved global staff-safety providers, ahead of AT&T and PwC.

  1. SecuritySOC 2 Type 1, independent penetration testing and vulnerability scanning, then Four Seasons' full due diligence.
  2. CommercialHPE IoT to cut deployment cost; Microsoft AppSource private offers, so no local entity in each country.
  3. ApprovedLive demonstrations, then named 1 of 3 approved global providers, anchoring a Hilton, Marriott, IHG and Four Seasons pipeline.
1 of 3approved global providers; $5M (€4.5M) 12-month pipeline built
HaloSOS console for a Marriott hotel in Washington D.C., showing the property map with crisis alert, messaging, beacons and housekeeping tasks
HaloSOS · USAMid-pandemic

First commercial deployment, delivered remotely

HaloSOS's first commercial site: a 600-bed Marriott in Washington D.C., won at the height of the pandemic while hotels were closed, and deployed entirely remotely. Above: its live HaloSOS console.

2.5Mdevice-hours a year across all sites, starting here
98.7%room-level location accuracy
100%of responders notified in under 5 seconds
Announcement: St. George Hospital selects Spok for smartphone delivery of radiology results, with a diagram from CT scan to critical finding to an alert on the ordering physician's phone
Spok · Public healthcare2014 – 2016

First outside the USA, at St George Hospital

Revived a stalled relationship with NSW Health and closed Spok's first critical test-results deployment outside the USA, at St George Hospital in Sydney: critical radiology results delivered straight to clinicians' smartphones. It opened the door to multiple deployments of other Spok products across NSW Health.

70%of a $1.2M annual quota closed in Q1 of the final year
Centralised messaging platform diagram connecting nurse call, patient monitoring, infant protection, RFID, fire and security systems to pagers, smartphones, voice badges and digital signs
Tellen Systems · Australia2016 – 2019

Opened a new country from zero

As first in-market hire, launched Tellen's RFID and critical-communications business in Australia, won an NSW Health reference site against larger players, and earned invitations to closed bids across health and justice. Above: the centralised messaging platform, linking nurse call, duress, RFID and location tracking to pagers, smartphones and voice badges.

$0 → $500Krevenue in year one, then 50% CAGR for two years
Bilingual Italian and English Policino brochure for an Italian theme park, explaining how parents rent the KidSpotter wristband and locate their child by text message
KidSpotter · Theme parks2010 – 2013

Three of the world's top ten theme park operators

Co-founded a location-based child-tracking business using GPS, Zigbee and Wi-Fi, designed the indoor and outdoor tracking ecosystem, and sold into the US, Spain and Italy. Above: the bilingual brochure from an Italian theme park, where the service ran as Policino for three seasons. Parents rented a wristband at the gate and texted one word to find their child, and dozens of lost children were reunited with their families.

3 of 10top global operators signed; $1.25M (€1M) raised
03 · Ventures & IP

Built from the ground up

Two companies taken from idea to enterprise customers, and three patented inventions in safety and critical communications.

HaloSOS room beacon mounted on a hotel wall
FOUNDER & VP SOLUTION SALES · 2020 – 2026

HaloSOS

An IoT staff-safety platform running on hotel Wi-Fi, monitoring 2.5M device-hours a year across the US, the Caribbean and Thailand.

  • Partnerships with HPE (Aruba), Ruckus, Microsoft AppSource, RapidSOS, Zello and etip.io
  • Owned the product roadmap and business plan
  • Part of the team that raised $1M (€1M)
  • Opened stadiums as a second vertical
KidSpotter GSM child-tracking wristband in red with a blue module and three status lights
CO-FOUNDER & SALES DIRECTOR · 2010 – 2013

KidSpotter

Location-based services for theme parks: an early IoT ecosystem using Zigbee for indoor tracking and GPS outdoors, so parents could find their children anywhere in the park.

  • Two successful generations of the wristband hardware, including rack chargers
  • Multiple software releases of the tracking platform
  • Secured $1.25M (€1M) investment
  • Wrote the business model, P&L and cash flow
  • Sold into the US, Spain and Italy
IP Australia certificates of grant for innovation patents 2017101809, 2018100039 and 2018101851
INVENTOR · AUSTRALIA

Three innovation patents

I was granted three Australian innovation patents in 2018 and 2019, drawn from years of selling duress, location and critical-messaging systems.

  • No. 2017101809 (2018, co-invented with Fiona Moloney): a voice-activated duress alarm that sends its location to a server, which flies camera drones to the scene to give responders live video.
  • No. 2018100039 (2018, co-invented with Fiona Moloney): identifying and tracking a person threatening public safety, indoors or outdoors, showing emergency teams where people are relative to the threat, and guiding users along a live evacuation route away from it.
  • No. 2018101851 (2019): receiving messages from a paging network, in native paging format, on smartphones and tablets.
04 · Partners & ecosystem

Who I built with

Technology partners, enterprise approvals and channel partners from my time at HaloSOS and Spok.

TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS · HALOSOS
  • RapidSOSEmergency-data integration for escalating alerts to 911 responders
  • Zello PTTPush-to-talk integration for staff voice communications
  • etip.ioDigital tipping on the staff device, giving staff a reason to wear and use it daily instead of fearing privacy tracking
  • HPE (Aruba)Aligned with HPE's IoT platform to simplify deployment and reduce costs
  • RuckusEnterprise Wi-Fi the HaloSOS location platform ran on in hotels
  • Microsoft AppSourcePrivate offers that removed the need for a local tax and legal entity in each country
ENTERPRISE APPROVALS · HALOSOS
  • Four Seasons Hotels & ResortsOne of only 3 approved global staff-safety providers
  • World's largest hotel operatorPreferred vendor status
  • Marriott, Washington D.C.600-bed US reference site
CHANNEL · SPOK
  • NSW & New Zealand partnersRecruited, up-skilled and managed the indirect channel, moving partners from "believer" to "achiever" status
  • NSW HealthFirst Spok critical test-results site outside the USA (St George Hospital), then multiple further deployments
  • Clalit Health, IsraelSpok's first healthcare reference site in Israel
05 · How I sell

Six things I do well, and the proof

Each capability is tied to a result above, so you can check it.

Enterprise sales & bids

Beat AT&T and PwC through Four Seasons' due diligence to become 1 of 3 approved global providers; built a $5M (€4.5M) 12-month pipeline; owned Spok's EMEA bids and lifted UPC's win rate from 1 in 10 to 1 in 4.

HALOSOS · SPOK · UPC

Market entry

First in-market hire for Tellen in Australia: $0 to $500K in year one, then 50% CAGR for two years.

TELLEN · AUSTRALIA

Public sector & health

Revived NSW Health for Spok, landing its first site outside the USA and further deployments, and won closed-bid invitations across health and justice.

SPOK · TELLEN

Channel & partnerships

Built the HaloSOS partnerships with HPE (Aruba), Ruckus, Microsoft AppSource, RapidSOS and Zello; grew Spok's channel across NSW and NZ.

HALOSOS · SPOK

Commercial & finance

Converted about $1 in every $3 of pipeline, and my SaaS deals delivered 75–85% gross margin. Secured $1.25M (€1M) for KidSpotter, was part of the team that raised $1M (€1M) for Enterprise Ireland-backed HaloSOS, and built the business plans, P&L, cash-flow and scenario models.

KIDSPOTTER · HALOSOS

Locating tech & critical comms

Oversaw product development of the HaloSOS platform, including multiple devices and integrations, and contributed to its ongoing R&D and R&D tax credits. Indoor and outdoor location across Zigbee, BLE, RFID, Wi-Fi and GPS; mission-critical messaging, duress and nurse call; three patents granted.

HALOSOS · KIDSPOTTER · SPOK

How I lead

6Teams built and ledLed teams of six across operations, sales and software development at HaloSOS and KidSpotter, and managed outsourced marketing and sales vendors.
~10Partners recruitedRecruited and up-skilled around ten new channel partners for Spok across NSW and New Zealand, taking them from "believer" to "achiever".
100%Remote delivery, mid-pandemicLed the team through HaloSOS's first commercial deployment, delivered entirely remotely while the hotel was closed.

Education & training

  • BSc (Hons) Electronic Engineering, Dublin Institute of Technology
  • Miller Heiman: Strategic Solution Sales
  • BT Concert: The Global Sale
  • DCEB: Negotiation Skills

Sectors

IoT & geolocationTelecoms & connectivityCritical communicationsHealthcareAged careHospitalityShopping centresStadiumsSaaS

Tools

HubSpot CRMApollo.ioFigmaCanvaClaude & ChatGPT

Dual Irish–Australian citizen

06 · Territories

Ten countries, three continents

Direct and channel selling, as a first in-market hire, a regional director and a founder.

Ireland53.35° NEircom, BT, UPC, Multipage; HaloSOS, KidSpotter
United Kingdom51.51° NTelecoms and critical comms
United States38.90° NHaloSOS hotels; KidSpotter parks
CaribbeanRegionalHaloSOS hotels
Thailand13.76° NHaloSOS hotels
Australia33.87° STellen; Spok NSW/ACT; NSW Health
New Zealand36.85° SSpok channel and health
Israel32.09° NClalit Health reference site
Spain40.42° NKidSpotter parks
Italy41.90° NKidSpotter; Policino
07 · Career

From network engineer to founder

An electronic engineering degree and early years in Irish telecoms, followed by healthcare, hospitality and IoT.

  1. 2020 – 2026
    HaloSOS
    Founder & VP of Solution Sales · Ireland & USA

    IoT staff-safety platform for hotels; Four Seasons, Marriott, Hilton and IHG pipeline.

  2. 2019 – 2020
    BP Multipage Ireland
    Healthcare Solution Sales · Ireland

    Messaging, duress and nurse-call into Irish public healthcare; beat the annual target.

  3. 2016 – 2019
    Tellen Systems Australia
    Country Manager · Australia

    First in-market hire; $0 to $500K in year one, 50% CAGR after.

  4. 2013 – 2016
    Spok Software
    International Sales EMEA, then Regional Sales Director NZ & NSW/ACT

    Owned EMEA bid management; first Spok site outside the USA at St George Hospital; first Israeli reference site.

  5. 2010 – 2013
    KidSpotter
    Co-Founder & Sales Director · Ireland & USA

    Child-tracking for theme parks; 3 of the top 10 operators.

  6. 2005 – 2009
    UPC Ireland
    Network Consultant

    Enterprise connectivity; bid win rate improved from 1:10 to 1:4.

  7. 2003 – 2005
    Ocean (BT Ireland)
    Pre-Sales Systems Engineer

    Lead systems engineer on blue-chip telecom accounts.

  8. 2002 – 2003
    Eircom
    Network Consultant

    Ireland's national telecoms operator.

09 · Contact

Let's talk about your next market.

I'm looking for a senior sales or go-to-market role where the job is opening a new territory, breaking into a hard market or winning against a big incumbent.

Email me

liamdarlingire@gmail.com