How do you stay sane building for buyers who move on government time?

I decided to build compliance tooling for digital asset (tokenize funds, Stablecoin, and crypto) after being defrauded myself, and the hardest part hasn't been the tech, it's that our buyers (chief compliance officers, federal agencies) move on 9-month cycles while our runway moves on a 12-month one.
For anyone who's built for slow-moving regulated or enterprise buyers: how did you keep momentum and morale during the gap between building and the first real contract?