Waitlists, LOIs, and why Shaq won’t return our calls

Hey friends 👋

Every Friday at noon Pacific, the Traction Lab goes live to talk startups and answer your questions.

This week, Cam and I bounced through a buffet of early-stage founder topics on LinkedIn Live — from traction signals to investor communication to (yes, really) getting funding from Shaquille O’Neal.

Here’s what we dug into:

• Why most “waitlists” are just undercooked newsletters — and how to build one that actually creates demand

• What LOIs (letters of intent) are good for — and what they’re not

• How to use early commitments to unlock funding without needing a full rollout

• What it really means when an investor says “circle back later” (and how to test if they mean it)

• How to segment your early audience without accidentally building a pyramid scheme

• Whether your TAM needs to be enormous… or just believable

• And why Shaq still hasn’t returned our calls (you had to be there)

If you’re navigating the hazy territory between early traction and investor readiness, this replay is packed with perspective — and a few spicy takes on the stuff founders tend to over-index on (or avoid entirely).

Join me Fridays at noon PST in the Substack app for live office hours.

You bring the questions. We’ll bring the brutal honesty, dry humor, and occasionally insightful commentary.

Until next time,

—jdm