wrote in message
oups.com...


They can find out as much as they like without my lifting a finger.
I'm not asking them to buy anything from me. I don't need to convince
them of anything. If I'm looking for a partnership, and they are
looking to assume some of the risk, then I'll use the word "WE".
Otherwise, I expect them to act like a company trying to sell me a
service. "WE" doesn't apply to anyone trying to minimize their risk to
zero.


Ed, I've been kind of hit and miss in this discussion, so apologies up front
if this is ground you've already covered.

There is one thing that has somewhat haunted me while I've watched the
pieces of this thread that I have. I keep seeing your desire for a
partnership and for a risk buy-in. Don't get me wrong... I don't believe
those are inappropriate ambitions. I do wonder though, if maybe you aren't
looking in the wrong places for those contributions. That's more the kind
of thing I would expect out of an investor - a venture capitalist. It just
seems to me that you might be mixing up a need for marketing with a need for
a business partner. Those two are really different animals. Typically, if
one is able to secure financing the marketing comes much easier, as the
proof of a good business plan, etc. are theoretically already established.

Frankly, I'd want to keep apples in the apple basket and oranges in the
vodka if I were you. I'd be looking for investment/risk partners in the VC
space and then going after marketing once positioned. I'm a sales guy and
the last thing I'd want is to entrust my business development to a marketing
group. Their focus is just not in that place. By its very defininition,
Marketing has to assume the marketability of a product (proof already
established) and assumes the creative responsibility for making that happen.
If it is simply the study of marketability that one is engaged in, then
that's a service to be paid for and typically from a different organization.
It would be hard to hope for risk sharing at that point.

Like I said - if I missed the obvious points by not staying closely coupled
to this thread then feel free to discard my ramblings. Well, at least some
of them. I'm sure there *must* be a nugget or two in there somewhere
though...

--

-Mike-