Julian Leach

Hi, I'm Julian. I'm working on my 3rd startup now, with a total of 22 years' experience as a founder, CEO and strategy consultant. My founder experience includes B2B/B2C, tech-enabled logistics, SaaS and product/services. I spent the last 11 years building Australian last-mile business Parcelpoint from garage startup to a national logistics network, working with customers such as Amazon and eBay. We got many things right (Net Promoter Score 81, Google rating 4.9 stars, exceptionally happy team). There's also a lot I would do differently next time. As a mentor I will help you break down whatever problem your facing, share my relevant experiences and try to understand how they may apply to your situation. My goal is to get you feeling confident about your direction, and clear about your next actions after we meet. In particular I can help you: - Get clarity on your true priorities if you're validating a business on a shoestring, or preparing for a capital raise. I've navigated the early stages 3 times with my own startups. - Sharpen your go-to-market approach, whether you're looking for first customers or repeatable sales. - Get ready for investors, from capital raising strategy to pitch deck preparation. I've raised >$20m in venture capital. - Stress-test your strategy, to tighten your market focus and/or sharpen your point of difference. - Build an aligned and motivated team. - Manage your board (whether it's entirely new, or expectations have stepped up after bringing on your first institutional investor). There's no escaping that it's a rollercoaster! I hope to help you navigate the ups and downs with more confidence and clarity.

• 

  Advice on funding

  I've raised >$20m in venture capital, including equity, debt and convertible notes. I have experience working with large VC/PE firms, family offices and high net-worth individuals, and I know how investors will think about your business. I'm happy to help you with fundraising strategy, planning or preparing your pitch.

• 

  Building a team

  I have led teams up to 35 people across 3 continents, and gone through all the stages from working in a garage by myself. Communication, empowerment and alignment are the areas where I can offer you guidance, whether more philosophical or down in the practical details of how to run effective strategy, planning and delivery across your team. Also happy to discuss organisation structure.

• 

  Go to market strategy

  I love GTM strategy, that special combination of the right product/sales/marketing to drive growth. Go-to-market evolves a lot during the early stages of a startup, and I'm happy to help you get the priorities clear for this stage and the next.

• 

  Idea validation

  I get very passionate about starting with the market and customer needs, not your product build. I'm also a big advocate of the hypothesis-driven approach. If you're just getting going, I would love to help you get your priorities in the right order. If you're already underway and disappointed with your traction, let's discuss how to take a step back so that you can accelerate in the right direction.

• 

  Product market fit

  PMF is such a key milestone for a startup, yet often misunderstood and hard to pin down. I can help you get clarity on where you really are in the journey, whether you've really nailed your ICP, where you need to focus to achieve product/market fit, and importantly what you should think about putting off until afterwards.

• 

  Sales

  I began my startup journey thinking I wasn't a salesperson, and would need to recruit one asap. As it turned out, I personally closed all our biggest sales for many years (Amazon, eBay, ASOS, Adidas and many more tier 1 brands). I believe there's no salesperson like a Founder, and I'm happy to help you get yourself feeling ready and confident. I can also help if you're working on sales planning and resourcing.

• 

  Hubspot

  11 years of experience

  Experienced using Hubspot CRM to run B2B sales pipeline. Mixed experiences as the cost can get a bit prohibitive. Currently using Pipedrive to see if it's a better fit for me today.