<description>&lt;p&gt;Hey friends 👋&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;You know the pattern.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;* January: idea.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;* February: market research.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;* March: wireframes, logo, landing page.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;* April: four customer convos. Two said routing is a pain point.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ouch — that’s just a museum of artifacts nobody bought a ticket to.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This week, we break down &lt;strong&gt;Time to Customer&lt;/strong&gt;: the single most important velocity metric for early-stage founders, and the one most likely to make you squirm.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It’s a simple measurement — how long from “I have an idea” to “I tested it with a real customer”? Turns out, that gap is where most founders hide. Cameron and JDM dig into &lt;em&gt;why&lt;/em&gt; we delay, what “progressivity” looks like in the wild, and what it actually means to have a bias toward getting in front of customers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We run three scenarios through the TTC lens — from a dog grooming app that spent three months in pre-production before a single customer call, to a churn prediction startup that got a prospect to ask “what would it cost to get this every month?”, to a compliance platform that built an entire outbound playbook before sending their first cold email.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;tbh… conviction scores were grim, but we left every founder with a clear path forward. We hope.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And in frivolous Thoughts:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;* Cameron caught the Buffalo Traffic Jam live at a 200-person DC venue (Bands in Town is the app you didn’t know you needed), and&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;* JDM makes a strong case for Sofia Isella as the reigning queen of dark pop.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As always, thanks for listening.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;—Cameron and JDM&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Timestamps&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;00:00 Introduction&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;02:15 Time to Customer&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;05:30 Scenario 1: Mobile dog groomer routing app&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;12:45 Scenario 2: SaaS churn prediction platform&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;25:00 Scenario 3: Home healthcare compliance training&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;40:00 Frivolous Thoughts&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit &lt;a href="https://zerototraction.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&amp;#38;utm_campaign=CTA_1"&gt;zerototraction.substack.com&lt;/a&gt;</description>

Traction Lab Podcast

JDM and Cameron Law

Don’t avoid your customers.

MAY 23, 202630 MIN
Traction Lab Podcast

Don’t avoid your customers.

MAY 23, 202630 MIN

Description

<p>Hey friends 👋</p><p>You know the pattern.</p><p>* January: idea.</p><p>* February: market research.</p><p>* March: wireframes, logo, landing page.</p><p>* April: four customer convos. Two said routing is a pain point.</p><p>Ouch — that’s just a museum of artifacts nobody bought a ticket to.</p><p>This week, we break down <strong>Time to Customer</strong>: the single most important velocity metric for early-stage founders, and the one most likely to make you squirm.</p><p>It’s a simple measurement — how long from “I have an idea” to “I tested it with a real customer”? Turns out, that gap is where most founders hide. Cameron and JDM dig into <em>why</em> we delay, what “progressivity” looks like in the wild, and what it actually means to have a bias toward getting in front of customers.</p><p>We run three scenarios through the TTC lens — from a dog grooming app that spent three months in pre-production before a single customer call, to a churn prediction startup that got a prospect to ask “what would it cost to get this every month?”, to a compliance platform that built an entire outbound playbook before sending their first cold email.</p><p>tbh… conviction scores were grim, but we left every founder with a clear path forward. We hope.</p><p>And in frivolous Thoughts:</p><p>* Cameron caught the Buffalo Traffic Jam live at a 200-person DC venue (Bands in Town is the app you didn’t know you needed), and</p><p>* JDM makes a strong case for Sofia Isella as the reigning queen of dark pop.</p><p>As always, thanks for listening.</p><p>—Cameron and JDM</p><p>Timestamps</p><p>00:00 Introduction</p><p>02:15 Time to Customer</p><p>05:30 Scenario 1: Mobile dog groomer routing app</p><p>12:45 Scenario 2: SaaS churn prediction platform</p><p>25:00 Scenario 3: Home healthcare compliance training</p><p>40:00 Frivolous Thoughts</p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://zerototraction.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=CTA_1">zerototraction.substack.com</a>