In this episode of Founders’ Tales, Chris Hopkins from Evolution Recruitment sits down with Jack Porter, Co-Founder of BirdDog, a sales technology company helping teams improve research, deal quality, and overall performance. Jack shares how BirdDog started as an investing platform before an unexpected pivot into sales tech, driven entirely by real user behavior. What began as a failed idea quickly transformed into a focused product after sales professionals began using the platform for research, revealing a much stronger opportunity.
The conversation explores the realities of early stage building, including spending months refining data quality before generating revenue, the impact of poor onboarding on customer churn, and the importance of deeply understanding user needs before trying to scale. Jack also explains how BirdDog differentiates itself by clearly proving ROI to customers through measurable outcomes like deal size, close rates, and time saved.
Jack reflects on the challenges of fundraising, including multiple VC rejections that ultimately led the team to bootstrap the business. This decision allowed them to maintain full control, focus on product quality, and build at a sustainable pace without external pressure. This episode is a practical look at building a startup the hard way, staying focused on customers, learning from mistakes, and creating long term value in a competitive market.
