Hey friends 👋

You have a handful of paying customers. People keep telling you the idea is great. And somewhere in the back of your head there’s a voice asking whether any of it is real, or whether you’ve just collected a small pile of people who didn’t want to hurt your feelings.

That voice deserves an answer. This week we pulled out the Strength of Evidence Matrix to separate a friend who said kind things from a stranger who actually paid you — and got into why “people lie in customer interviews” is a lazy description of a much bigger problem. Social pressure is the least of it. You’re also seeding the answer you want, and you’re talking to the aspirational version of someone who fully believes they’re about to start going to the gym.

The rest of the hour: landing a first corporate contract without eating the cost of every run, the three pricing dials founders forget they have, and what to fix when you’re trying to monetize a product before you know whose problem it solves.

Also, Cameron joined straight from a horse show, and JDM explained where his thing for “cerulean blue” comes from.

As always, thanks for listening.

—Cameron and JDM

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