We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jonathan Labadie a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jonathan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

To me, success is about consistency and commitment—especially when it’s inconvenient. It’s not some big breakthrough or overnight win. It’s doing the right thing, the hard thing, even when no one’s watching, and especially when you have every excuse not to.

Nick and I started M2 Labs while both working full-time jobs—and that hasn’t changed. We still work full-time jobs. Every product, every post, every new release has been squeezed in during early mornings, late nights, and weekends. It’s not always glamorous. It’s shipping boxes in between meetings, testing pedals when you’re running on fumes, and learning entire new skill sets just to keep the vision moving forward.

M2 Labs came from a simple idea: make the kind of gear we wished existed. We had no roadmap, no big budget—just a love for analog circuits and a shared drive to make something that felt personal, real, and built to last. That spirit is still what drives us today.

One moment that really crystallized what success looks like for me happened recently. We had a pedal ready to ship, but the enclosure had a visible scratch on it—nothing major, but it didn’t meet our standards. I shipped it to Nick, who’s based in Denver, and he swapped it into a fresh enclosure and shipped it right back to me in Atlanta. We did all of that just to make sure the customer got something we were proud of. The pedal worked fine. Most people probably wouldn’t have cared. But we did. That’s the point.

Success is saying, “This matters,” and following through—every time. Whether we’re soldering a circuit or figuring out how to scale production across continents, the thing that’s kept us going is never compromising on the quality we expect from ourselves.

If you care enough to do it right—even when it’s hard, even when no one notices—I think you’re already on your way.

Jonathan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m Jonathon Labadie, co-founder of M2 Labs. We’re a boutique analog pedal company, but really, we’re just two guys chasing down the tones we could never quite find anywhere else. Nick and I started this while both working full-time jobs, and honestly, that hasn’t changed. What has changed is the amount of people who now trust us with a spot on their pedalboard—and that means a lot.

I got into this because I was tired of gear that looked cool but didn’t really do anything new. Or worse, gear that felt like it was built for mass appeal instead of for actual musicians. I wanted pedals that had a purpose—and some personality. So we just… started building.

We focus on making analog pedals that feel alive under your fingers. Our first release, The Bomber, is a great example. It’s dynamic, responsive, gritty when you push it—and it’s become the sound of some players we really respect. That’s surreal in the best way.

What sets us apart isn’t just the sound—it’s the way we operate. If someone emails or messages M2 Labs, it’s always Nick or me responding. We don’t hand anything off. We troubleshoot, follow up, replace things if needed, and we do it all ourselves. Because this is our name on the enclosure. That personal connection isn’t a side note—it’s part of the build quality.

What I’m most proud of is that we never compromised. We didn’t cut corners when it would’ve been easier. We didn’t scale just for the sake of looking bigger. We stayed small on purpose—so we could keep putting this level of care into every single unit.

If you’re looking for something different, something thoughtful, something that doesn’t just sound good but actually feels right to play—there’s a good chance we built it for you.

Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?

We funded M2 Labs entirely ourselves. No investors, no loans—just cash. Every part run, every tool, every decision has come straight out of our pockets. We decided early on that we didn’t want to owe anyone anything, especially not when it came to the creative direction or quality of the products.

Doing it this way means we grow slower, sure—but it also means we’re in full control. We don’t have to answer to anyone but each other, and that lets us obsess over the details, take risks, and do things the way we actually believe they should be done.

The tradeoff is that every dollar has to count. There’s no “burn rate” or safety net. But that’s also why it works—we’re careful, deliberate, and deeply invested in every decision because we’ve literally paid for every step along the way.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I think what’s helped us start building a reputation is being honest about where we are and what we’re doing. From the beginning, we knew it didn’t matter how much we loved the pedal—what mattered was whether it held up in the hands of real players, producers, and engineers who had no reason to sugarcoat their feedback.

So instead of just shouting into the void, we focused on slowly getting The Bomber out to people we respected—people who were doing the work, making records, playing shows, running sessions. And then we listened. We made adjustments. We kept refining.

We’re still building. We know we’ve got a long way to go. But I think what’s earned us some early respect is that we’re not trying to fake it—we’re trying to earn it, one pedal at a time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.m2-labs.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/m2labsofficial/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/M2LabsAudio

Image Credits

Photo with the pedal is me (jonathan labadie)
The photo with the guy at the electronics workbench is Nick Cannon.