What Telecoms Taught Shane Ian Murphy About Building Fintech

Shane Ian Murphy did not start out in finance. Before he founded Global Secure and co-founded TriParty Tokenisation, he spent years in telecommunications, working at BT and at CAE, a boxxe Group company, and later founding and owning Limitless Mobile, a US mobile business.

He says almost everything he is building today traces back to lessons learned in that industry.

"Telecoms is the best training there is for building anything people rely on," says Shane Ian Murphy. "When a network goes down, everyone notices. You learn very quickly that reliability isn't a feature, it's the product."

Lesson one: infrastructure should be invisible

The best telecoms networks are the ones nobody thinks about. Calls connect, data flows, and customers only notice when something breaks.

"That's exactly how money should work," he says. "Nobody should have to think about which app moves which currency, or whether their card will work abroad. It should just work."

That idea sits at the heart of Global Secure, coming in 2027, which brings accounts, cards, crypto, rewards and connectivity into a single app.

Lesson two: serve the small business properly

Working with business customers taught him how badly smaller firms are often served by large providers.

"Small businesses get the same complexity as big corporates, without the support," he says. "They need clear pricing, honest advice and someone who answers the phone. That stuck with me."

It is one reason Global Secure plans a dedicated business version of its platform after the consumer launch.

Lesson three: connectivity and money belong together

Running a mobile business gave him a front-row seat to how people use their phones abroad and how much they pay for the privilege.

"Roaming charges, SIM swaps, currency fees. They all hit the same person at the same moment, usually in an arrivals hall," he says. "Putting an eSIM in a money app sounds odd until you've seen that problem from both sides."

Lesson four: coordination is the hardest part

Telecoms projects involve many parties: network operators, hardware suppliers, regulators, resellers and customers. Getting them to work together is often harder than the technology itself.

He applies the same thinking at TriParty Tokenisation, which acts as a single point of coordination for asset owners who want to tokenise bonds, commodities and other real-world assets.

"The technology to tokenise an asset exists," he says. "What owners need is someone to pull together the custodian, the lawyers, the technology and the counterparties, so they deal with one team. That's a coordination job, and coordination is something telecoms teaches you."

Lesson five: trust is earned slowly

Perhaps the biggest lesson, he says, is that customers judge you on years of service, not on launches.

"Anyone can launch something," says Shane Ian Murphy. "The real test is whether people are still happy with you three years later. That's why we're taking our time with Global Secure and being careful with every asset at TriParty."

Lesson six: listen to the customer

In telecoms, complaints arrive fast and loudly. Shane Ian Murphy says that taught him to treat feedback as data rather than noise. Global Secure's pre-registration is partly about that: building a community of future members whose questions and frustrations shape the product before it launches.

"Your customers tell you what to build, if you let them," he says.

Looking forward

Today his work spans Europe, the Gulf and Asia, with a particular focus on Singapore, Hong Kong and the UAE.

"The industries are different, but the principles are the same," he says. "Build something reliable, be honest with people, and keep it simple. Telecoms taught me that, and I haven't forgotten it."

Shane Ian Murphy is the founder of Global Secure (www.globalsecureapp.com) and a co-founder and partner of TriParty Tokenisation (www.tripartytokenisation.com). He previously worked at BT and CAE and founded Limitless Mobile.