When will I be able to use Clarity to call potential customers? Because what they think matters most

To answer this, you need to have a working model for your customer LTV (Life Time Value). Most startups can't accurately estimate their LTV, so if you don't have good enough data, then building your CAC based on assumed LTV numbers can be fatal. In this case, it's better to evaluate your CAC costs based on the months of revenue it takes to recover the cost to acquire the customer, and ultimately this calculation should be net of any costs associated with providing the service on a monthly basis and, even more conservatively allow for a healthy degree of churn. Keep in mind that this calculation doesn't evaluate your true profitability only the capital efficiency of your customer acquisition spend. Hope this helps. Happy to talk this through in more detail and with more specifics to your business.

Did you know that having an fancy expensive website doesn't do it either...I mean you can pour thousands of dollars into a website... but without traffic, it wont be worth it... Find you target demographic.. Schools, Community Centers etc... and go old school... HANG UP A FLYER!.... that will get you going... if your product is awesome... the organic word to mouth method will get you students... So two things.... do not be afraid to go OLD SCHOOL... and be sure that your product is of quality...

I'm the CTO of https://3dagogo.com a marketplace of proven to print 3D designs. We look at the two sides differently. There's not a single customer. In our case you have designers and purchasers ( sometimes the same person can be both ). Cost and methods for acquiring designers are very different than those to attract purchasers. I would clearly separate the sides and come up with separate cost structures. In my opinion when you're looking at the marketplace from the purchaser perspective, the other side's acquisition costs can be seen as fixed marketing costs.

Lot of ways 1. Target their fans on facebook - if they are big (20k+) you should be able to select them as an interest 2. Bid on the same keywords as them on adwords search and/or display - this requires some technical chops but there are ways to find your competition's placements. If you can get there and present a better ad and/or outbid them, you can get the clicks they are used to getting. 3. Find where their customers are spending time online - another thing that will take some chops but you can find out what blogs, facebook pages, etc your competition's fans are looking at and get in front of them there. This is an indirect method. Most of the other options you will have are some variation on that theme. Make sure you have a way to stay in front of them (like retargeting or email marketing) if you want to make your investment go as far as possible! Good luck

I'd avoid the cold email. The best way to get inside big companies like distributors is to "social engineer" a connection to someone there. Find a 2nd or 3rd degree connection on LinkedIn. Hang out at a restaurant near their HQ and look for people with the right badge on. Ask your potential angel for help connecting you. If they can't, they might not be the right investor for your company at this stage. Their investment should get you more than money, it should come with connections, advice and mentoring. Basically, there's no easy way to do this and every situation is different but it's going to take a lot more than a cold email or phone call.