For Lauren it was six to nine months of "if we build it, will they come" with zero demand signal: "I have no idea — like I've got a hypothesis, but until we've built it we won't know... there were a lot of dark nights of the soul."
See Lauren Barker's full take
The first season at Good Mind was "really really fun and creative" — summer, in her seasons framing. Then came the hard part: "six months where we were like, if we build it will they come," where "you're essentially just spending a lot of time and energy with a lot of self doubt." The defining feature was that no amount of thinking could resolve the uncertainty — only building could.
The validation came late. It was "only probably in the last three or four months" before recording that "we have had the signal that what we're doing is right — and that's given us a lot of confidence and relief." The answer to the phase 1 question — if we build it, will they come — turned out to be: "they have come, which is great."