Hello, I'm Kyle Quinn Dreger.
You might know me as KQD.
Briefly:
- Ohio born & raised, homeschooled
- Studied CS and (because I liked a girl) English
- Dad x3 (because same girl liked me)
- Writer, programmer, runner in my free time
- Building Patriot Software since 2014; CEO since 2024
Some things I believe:
- My faith
- Discipline > motivation
- Develop (and keep) a sense of urgency
- There is no substitute for hard work
- Learn from others, but compete against yourself
- Playtime with your kids will always teach you something
- Always tell your teachers and coaches thank you
- Routinely save time for you to be alone
- Attitude and effort matter more than you think
- Take 100% ownership over your situation and problems
- Develop natural skills > following your passion
- People vastly underestimate the value of being kind
- Often you'll need to imitate before you can innovate
- Actively seek out your weaknesses by inviting critique
- Writing helps you think, so write a lot
- All first drafts are terrible
- Simple and concise storytelling is an S-tier skill
- If you have a problem you can't solve, run three miles
- To be seen as a leader, raise up new leaders
- When you borrow a car, return it with a full tank
- Don't complain: less than 100 years ago, 24-year-olds stormed the beaches of Normandy
Specifically on tech/business:
- Moving fast is the most important thing in business
- You never have enough information, learn to make good bets anyways
- Keep things as simple as possible
- Moving fast requires smaller teams, and smaller teams are more fun
- Moving fast, in general, is more fun
- Speed increases learning velocity, which is your company's most important metric
- You do not have to compromise quality
- A majority of tech companies are ~1-4x overstaffed
- Wait as long as humanly possible to hire (most aren't ready for the pain this brings)
- A company's real culture is who they hire, fire, and promote
- Performance reviews should be one yes/no question: "Would you enthusiastically hire this person again, right now?"
- Most tech companies get deadlines wrong
- Have deadlines
- Almost all "here's how to measure engineering" metrics are dumb
- Deadlines help contain scope and force decision making
- Work fills the time allotted, so allot less and bet on iterations
- Readjust if the team can hit the deadline but the quality isn't there
- None of this really matters
- Business is a sport; play it with everything you've got
- Make time to appreciate and enjoy your life, family (especially kids!), and the teammates playing the game with you
General advice: Work incredibly hard, spend as much time with those you love as possible, be kind, and give everyone a square deal.
Oh, and the BIC Cristal Xtra Smooth Blue Medium Point pen is the best pen out there. Terrible name, though.