“My professor told me: strategically, you know who your customer is — they're the person that gives you money.”

Your real customer is whoever pays you — not whoever uses the product

Talking Parents initially targeted courts and judges as their customer, even sending the co-founder to courthouses around the country. Revenue only took off when they reoriented entirely around parents. The lesson scales universally: however logical the indirect channel looks, the person funding your roadmap should be the person you design for.