"I did not meet a single non-technical person who had done any of this leg work. I would have taken them and their idea very seriously if they had".
In the last year I've met more than a dozen such groups. Of those, 2 had actually done some legwork on their own - one had attended a tradeshow showing nothing more than a powerpoint and had collected some leads. (initially, that was impressive). Another had done a lot of exploratory work, and when I asked them to do XYZ, they actually did it and gave me the results from it.
In both cases, I've extended a bit more of my time to work with these people in hopes of getting the project to a point where we might work together long term. In one case, we simply parted ways because the vision was shifting a lot on his end - no focus. In the other case, that team has actually called it quits - they had simply underestimated the time and effort involved in making it work, and I appreciated the halt vs dragging it on for months on end.
But rarely do I meet groups or people that have done any significant legwork at all - they're the typical "idea man/woman", and just need someone to "make it work".
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"I did not meet a single non-technical person who had done any of this leg work. I would have taken them and their idea very seriously if they had".
In the last year I've met more than a dozen such groups. Of those, 2 had actually done some legwork on their own - one had attended a tradeshow showing nothing more than a powerpoint and had collected some leads. (initially, that was impressive). Another had done a lot of exploratory work, and when I asked them to do XYZ, they actually did it and gave me the results from it.
In both cases, I've extended a bit more of my time to work with these people in hopes of getting the project to a point where we might work together long term. In one case, we simply parted ways because the vision was shifting a lot on his end - no focus. In the other case, that team has actually called it quits - they had simply underestimated the time and effort involved in making it work, and I appreciated the halt vs dragging it on for months on end.
But rarely do I meet groups or people that have done any significant legwork at all - they're the typical "idea man/woman", and just need someone to "make it work".