Setting money on fire and looking busy doing it

Some founders raise money. Others raise blood pressure.In this episode, JDM and Cam broadcast from a studio so fancy it practically screams “series B energy” — but don’t let the sound panels fool you.This one’s all about pre-seed mistakes.Specifically, the seductive trap of looking busy instead of learning. Think: new logos, onboarding flows, full-blown rebrands, and Product Hunt launches no one asked for.To drive it home, they play a spicy round of Money or Momentum?, analyzing founder updates for real progress vs. very expensive wheel-spinning. If you’ve ever spent three weeks tweaking onboarding emails while your churn rate climbs, this one’s gonna sting (in a good way).In This Episode* Why startup activity ≠ startup progress* How to increase your learning velocity and stop mistaking motion for movement* What “time to customer” really means—and why founders waste too much of it* The psychological cost of progressivity (aka productivity theater’s craftier cousin)* Why feature creep is not validation, and neither is your fourth Product Hunt launchFrivolous Thoughts* Zero to Traction was featured as a “hidden gem” in the Entrepreneurship newsletter of podcast.today, and JDM & Cam debate whether it counts as validation — or just vibes.* Cam rocks a shirt with a blue-footed booby and shares a shockingly relevant fun fact: the emu and kangaroo are on Australia’s crest because neither can walk backward. A metaphor, perhaps?* JDM revisits Black Sabbath in honor of Ozzy Osbourne’s passing, only to discover that 1970s heavy metal now sounds… quaint.* Bonus round: The duo dubs themselves the “Ted Lasso and Foul-Mouthed Teddy Bear” of startup strategy.Sponsor: The Urban HiveA massive thanks to this episode’s sponsor: The Urban Hive.Brandon and Molly were kind enough to let us beta test their new studios before they officially launch later this summer, This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zerototraction.substack.com