hey friends 👋

I’m JDM (aka Josh David Miller) and I’m a venture scientist — I partner with pre-seed and seed-stage startups to turn assumptions into data, and data into traction. I run design sprints at The Right Box , I’m co-founder of the Traction Lab incubator, and I’m a content creator.

Check out my recent content below, or read more about me .

Upcoming Events

Every week, I host live office hours to help early-stage founders cut through the noise and get real traction. It’s fast, practical, and occasionally a little spicy — and I’m often joined by smart friends who bring their own sharp takes to your startup questions.

• LinkedIn Office Hours

  Fri, Sep 5 @ 12:00 PDT
  Every week, Cameron Law and I go live on the Traction Lab page for a robust "ask us anything" office hours format. It's a lively discussion with a live audience. Come join the fun!

  
  

  If you can't join live, you can submit a question in advance here.

• Substack Live AMA

  Tue, Sep 9 @ 09:00 PDT
  Substack currently does not allow scheduling the livestream in advance, but all my followers are notified when I go live — so give me a follow!

  
  

  If you can't join live, you can submit a question in advance here.

• LinkedIn Office Hours

  Fri, Sep 12 @ 12:00 PDT
  Every week, Cameron Law and I go live on the Traction Lab page for a robust "ask us anything" office hours format. It's a lively discussion with a live audience. Come join the fun!

  
  

  If you can't join live, you can submit a question in advance here.

• Substack Live AMA

  Tue, Sep 16 @ 09:00 PDT
  Substack currently does not allow scheduling the livestream in advance, but all my followers are notified when I go live — so give me a follow!

  
  

  If you can't join live, you can submit a question in advance here.

Recent Content

I write two weekly newsletters, co-host a podcast, and create content on LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram and other places — all based around helping first-time founders launch sooner and scale faster with venture science.

These are four of my most recent pieces:

• Your experiment is lying to you

  Founding with AI · 2 days ago

  If your test can’t fail or doesn’t match your risk, the results don’t matter — you’re just burning time. (Part 3 of the Traction Science Series)

• One hit is not product-market fit

  Zero to Traction Podcast · 3 days ago

  That viral post brought in 1,100 signups in 72 hours — time to raise $750k, right? Wrong. We tear apart three "validation" stories that are really just expensive theater.

• 🧠 Your niche isn’t a slide — it’s the whole damn pitch

  Traction Thinking · 5 days ago

  Your TAM isn’t a number, your GTM isn’t a grocery list, and your differentiation isn’t a feature dump. They’re all just your niche in disguise.

• Replay: pricing experiments, waitlist reality, and investor ultimatums

  Office Hours · 8 days ago

  Watch now | A recording from JDM's live video