Kirk Drage

CEO LeapSheep. Scaling radically better support for startups & innovators. Transitioning support models away from lived experience towards data and algorithms.

[Kirk Drage @kdrage]

@strategyzer Unbelievably valuable article every startup founders, early stage employees, mentors, advisors and investors should read. https://t.co/eCZd8TWwkr

[Strategyzer @strategyzer]

You can understand customer interest without even building a product. Important lessons in testing here. https://t.co/G8XPjZ4aJs

[Kirk Drage @kdrage]

@erica_wenger @seobrien Great advice. Fundamental to a product business. Understanding of this - a useful datapoint to help qualify investors/advisors you want around you.

Also, Founders must filter feedback. You'll get more bad advice than good. Great advisors help you frame feedback from others.

[Kirk Drage @kdrage]

@jjen_abel This is so true.

In a pre-product market fit market, you not only need to develop your product, you need to develop the support ecosystem around your product.

This is why timing market entry, beachead segmentation, and focusing on earlyvangelist customers is so important.

[Kirk Drage @kdrage]

@jjen_abel Nailed it as usual @jjen_abel

Here's the terms we use...

Persevere = mkt, sell, deliver the CX you've built.
Iterate = Improve the CX for the same market.
Pivot = redefine your market and build new CX

[Kirk Drage @kdrage]

I viscerally feel this when I look at our industry. I deeply appreciate the disagreeableness personality trait that's needed to call such things out. I love founders working on truly hard problems.

[Patrick Ryan @ry_paddy]

"VC has ceased to be the funder of the future, and instead has become a funder of features, widgets, irrelevances."
Peter Thiel / Founders Fund

[Kirk Drage @kdrage]

@jjen_abel There is ALOT of terrible startup advice EVERYWHERE.

We operate in a largely unrecognised Innovation Industry that's yet to be professionalised. Not much different to the Medical Industry of 400yrs ago.

Patients have no way to distinguish the quacks from the professionals.

[Kirk Drage @kdrage]

@BrianKorchin @jjen_abel 1. Find advisors that have worked a) deeply with b) many startups over c) long periods with d) skin in the game.
2. Follow experts eg @sgblank @paulg @mwseibel find advisors that align with them and can help you implement.
3. Find advisors with systems - intuition doesn't scale.

[Kirk Drage @kdrage]

@jjen_abel @jjen_abel Could not agree more! Most true startup experts are locked behind competitive entry business models accessible to <1% of founders. True startup experts are mostly created through lived experience often taking decades. This is the problem we're tackling at LeapSheep.

[Jen Abel @jjen_abel]

One of the most expensive (and under-discussed) things in the startup world is talking to and learning from the wrong people.

[Kirk Drage @kdrage]

@kristinalford 3.8 at Mount Barker. https://t.co/0UfjL7YNlt

[Kirk Drage @kdrage]

This is good for founders. This is also good for existing and future investors.

[Andrew Gazdecki @agazdecki]

Instead of selling equity to investors, figure out ways to optimize spend at your startup.

[Kirk Drage @kdrage]

Great reality check. Customer fans, sustained growth, multiple 6 figure cap raises, 7 figure valuations - all great progress, still doesn't necessarily mean you've reached PMF.

[Elizabeth Yin 💛 @dunkhippo33]

8) This is especially true for companies pre-product market fit. These days, I'm seeing companies hit $50-$100m valuations pre-product market fit.

I may look smart if I can get a 10-20x markup here. But, honestly, ANY pre-product market fit can go to 0 if they can't find PM fit

[Kirk Drage @kdrage]

@VickieChapmanMP If this works, can we think bigger than a program?

Could it be structured as a startup with its first paid customer pilot. Ability to attract investment unlocks the possibility to scale nationally and internationally. It also enables more investment to improve the service.

[Kirk Drage @kdrage]

Might this be a key reason we're falling so short on commercialising the immense value created by the Australian Research community each year?

[Jen Abel @jjen_abel]

The more technical your pitch, the more you’ll get delegated to executors/users VS leaders.

[Kirk Drage @kdrage]

I love how clear these trends are. What's needed is support for individuals to be able to act on this knowledge in a way that's affordable and accessible.

Little point being able to predict the future if you can't capitalise on that for yourself and your community.

[Sam Altman @sama]

Technology prediction for the 2020s:

[Kirk Drage @kdrage]

This is true in my experience. However, neither a great product nor great sales and marketing will save you if you've chosen a poor market. A poorly defined market will cause you to fail at worst, at best it will sap resources unnecessarily.

[Andrew Gazdecki @agazdecki]

Avoiding sales and marketing because you have a “great product” is a losing strategy.

[Kirk Drage @kdrage]

Great thread @trengriffin shining a spotlight on the challanges with mainstream media reporting on startups and startup investment. Like any specialist profession, specialist professionals are required for quality.

[Tren Griffin @trengriffin]

1/ "Fact check in aisle one!"

Which Theranos board members were from Silicon Valley?

https://t.co/X86TeceY4C

[Kirk Drage @kdrage]

Also works if you replace SCIENCE with STARTUPS...

[Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman]

SCIENCE:

If you don't make mistakes, you're doing it wrong.

If you don't correct those mistakes, you're doing it really wrong.

If you can't accept that you're mistaken, you're not doing it at all.

[Kirk Drage @kdrage]

@AlexOsterwalder I agree with the premise.

Perhaps better described as "Leadership by Influence". You earn the right to lead by creating value for others so they follow you by choice, for their own benefit, rather than by decree. It's about win-win relationships.

[Kirk Drage @kdrage]

Most founders don't do this. Most investors don't demand this. A cheap and easy way to boost chances of startup success - if you can overcome your urgency bias.

[Jen Abel @jjen_abel]

If 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗹𝗮𝗴𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿, how do you know if you're on right track beyond conversions?

Collect:

✅ head-nod from ICP around specific unmet need
✅ quantitative data re: implications not solving
✅ clear examples/cost how ICP solved in past

[Jen Abel @jjen_abel]

You have 1 job in sales ...
know the problem better than the customer does.