When you're creating an entirely new category, you can't just sell—you have to educate. Kate Abrahams, founder of TrafficAI (a platform that predicts reputational risk events using workforce behavioral data), sits down with Naomi Simson to discuss the exhausting gap between building groundbreaking technology and getting customers to understand why they need it.

Drawing on her experience launching RedBalloon when "experience gifting" wasn't a thing, Naomi shares battle-tested strategies for market development: how to look bigger than you are, turn customers into your sales force through case studies, and build authority when nobody knows your category exists. Kate and Naomi explore keeping tech teams energized during years of customer education, what investors actually need to hear about new categories, and how to cut through the AI hype to demonstrate real value.

If you're building something genuinely new and struggling to reach customers who don't yet know they need you, this conversation offers practical frameworks for building customer reach and turning an interesting idea into a must-have solution.

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