To successfully build for law enforcement, founders need more than surface-level market research. The advice is to gain firsthand experience through extensive ride-alongs or even becoming a reserve officer. This deep immersion is critical for understanding the culture, speaking the language, and building truly effective solutions.

Tock rejected traditional focus groups and instead embedded its software engineers directly into restaurants to work shifts as hosts. This forced immersion gave the engineering team firsthand experience with the end-user's pain points, leading to a far more intuitive and effective product than surveys could produce.

Instead of a generic pitch, Peregrine's founders conducted deep research on police commanders, including the specific cases they had solved. This hyper-personalized outreach demonstrated credibility and genuine interest, which was crucial for gaining the trust of a skeptical, high-stakes customer and securing their first design partner.

To truly understand the industry, Qualia's team, including the first 25 hires, rotated through living in their first customer's basement. This unparalleled access provided deep domain knowledge and ensured they built what was actually needed, a strategy the founder credits for their success.

Don't jump straight to building an MVP. The founders of unicorn Ada spent a full year working as customer support agents for other companies. This deep, immersive research allowed them to gain unique insights that competitors, who only had a surface-level idea, could never discover.

The only reliable way to understand a customer is to "forward deploy"—work alongside them in their actual environment. This direct experience of their job closes the context gap that interviews can't bridge, revealing unspoken needs and frustrations.

To build deep customer empathy, embed every new employee—regardless of role or seniority—with a real customer for several days. Their sole task is to solve one real problem, creating an immediate, visceral connection to the company's purpose.

To truly understand a B2B customer's pain, interviews are not enough. The best founders immerse themselves completely by 'going native'—taking a temporary job at a target company to experience their problems firsthand. This uncovers authentic needs that surface-level research misses.

Instead of burning investor money on discovering a problem, founders can take a job in their target industry. This "paid research" approach provides deep, first-hand insights and validates pain points, potentially saving years of pivoting and preserving capital for scaling a proven solution.