Just as 才 can express lateness, 就 (jiù) can be used to indicate that something happened earlier than expected.

Structure 
The pattern is as follows:
subject+time+就+verb+object
In English this might be expressed with "as early as", but usually it’s not specifically marked.

Examples 

From the example sentences it is clear that 了 naturally occurs with a verb used after 就. This is because verbs following 就 generally have the feeling of being completed.