LinkedIn Live: The Gap Between an Idea and a Customer with Tom Sauer of Mile Square Labs
Episode with Tom Sauer (Mile Square Labs)
Most founders obsess over the product. Far fewer obsess over the moment someone on the other side says, “That’s right.” Tom Sauer argues that’s the gap between an idea and a customer: not more features, but a clearer problem, a tighter story, and a faster path to proof.
The conversation
On a recent LinkedIn Live, TechUnited CEO Aaron Price sat down with Tom Sauer, founder and managing partner at Mile Square Labs. Tom’s an operator-turned-advisor with go-to-market leadership at LivingSocial and Fundera (the “Kayak for small business loans”), has raised capital as a founder, and today mentors New Jersey founders through TechUnited’s Uplift program. We covered what makes a pitch land, how AI changes the early grind, and what he learned from a venture that didn’t go to plan.
Lead with pain, not features
Tom’s core point: too many founders pitch what the product does instead of what it solves. Early conversations should anchor on a repeatable pain, the solution in plain language, and proof in numbers.
- Answer “so what?” fast. Frame the world as it exists today, the common problem your customer nods at, and why it matters now.
- Build credibility early. Why you? Show the work — customer stories, market data, and specifics from your own experience.
- Aim for “that’s right,” not “you’re right.” “You’re right” keeps the other person at a distance. “That’s right” signals shared reality. Example: “AI will dramatically change the job market in 3–5 years” is a “that’s right” anchor that earns permission to talk about your AI upskilling product.
The minimum effective deck
Attention is scarcer than founders think. Tom’s take: you have half the time and half the attention you expect. A 7–10 slide deck is enough to earn the next meeting if it does three things:
- Frames the current state and the widely-felt problem
- Shows your solution clearly tied to that problem
- Offers proof — macro signals if you’re pre-customer, or better, real customer evidence
Keep the goal small: progress the conversation. You’re not compressing your entire company into a document; you’re creating clarity.
Use AI to compress the reps
Founders can remove a lot of guesswork before ever meeting an investor or customer.
- Role-play the other side. Instead of “help me make a deck,” prompt an AI model to act like a specific investor — “You are the partner meeting at Newark Venture Partners.” Have it grill you. Iterate until your answers hold up.
- Treat machines like interns. Shift from “it’s all on me” to system thinking. For Tom’s mentees selling into healthcare, he suggests using AI to prioritize targets, map routes, and pull context: “Find the ten nearest pediatricians, route Tuesday visits, and give me one personal opener for each.”
- Trade doomscrolling for $20 of leverage. Tom’s blunt: if you’re serious about building, spend the extra subscription so you don’t hit usage limits. The repetitions you can rack up — testing angles, drafting outreach, simulating objections — are compounding.
Underneath this is pattern recognition. The sooner you surface the patterns in questions, blockers, and buying processes, the sooner you can systematize how you sell.
Build systems, not heroics
AI is changing day-one choices. Tom now asks founders different questions than even three years ago:
- Do you need a CRM at all, or can you stitch a lightweight workflow until signal strengthens?
- What profile of seller thrives in your motion, and how do you give them “eight arms instead of two” with automation?
- Can you map the buying process — who says yes, what they say yes to, how they decide, and the lowest-cost way to reach them — before you scale a team?
Whether you run a corner shop or a software startup, the universal is the same: map it to the money. Without a map, you’ll live the “first week” over and over again.
When the clock beats the engine
Tom also talked candidly about a venture he stepped away from in early 2025: a “Hims for sleep apnea” concept. The lesson wasn’t about the product; it was about narrative control and timing.
- Be 360° transparent with investors. You don’t need to do everything they say, but no one should be surprised when changes are needed.
- Conviction matters — and so does timing. Complex, regulated care models require more than demand; they require orchestration across physicians, specialists, and fulfillment. Sometimes the macro and the moment don’t line up before the clock runs out.
There’s value in naming this plainly. It keeps you focused on what you can control: clarity, transparency, and speed to learning.
Why this matters now
Capital is expensive. Attention is scarce. AI has lowered the cost of reps to near zero. Founders who:
- Anchor their story in undeniable customer pain
- Keep the first deck to the minimum effective dose
- Use AI to rehearse, prioritize, and personalize at scale
- Map the buying process before adding headcount
will shorten cycles and preserve cash. Operators will avoid busywork. Investors will see the signal they’re scanning for: a founder who knows the job is creating customers, not slide counts.
New Jersey advantage
Tom started Mile Square Labs in Hoboken for a reason. Proximity equals power. New Jersey sits next to the capital and customers of New York and Philly without the overhead. Add in a deep bench in telecom and healthcare — many with corporate venture arms — and a founder mentality tuned to getting things done. That combination is why conversations like this keep happening here, and why Tom lends his time as a mentor to founders in our community.
Want ongoing support?
Conversations like this are part of Uplift, TechUnited’s mentorship program connecting founders and operators across New Jersey.
If you’re building and want strategic guidance: Apply to be matched with a mentor
If you’re an experienced operator ready to give back: Apply to be a mentor
Growth doesn’t just require capital. It also requires perspective.