I quite often hear from startups: "You can ask AI all this. What can you say that AI can't?"

So, here's a dialogue with a startup (the dialogue was public, so I'm not revealing any startup secrets here):

- Marketers, B2B salespeople. How can a startup interest you, attract you to cooperate, when there's no revenue yet, only prospects? What could attract, seem promising?
For example, the topic of post-quantum cryptography. Demand is initiated by the regulator. Waiting for a response from the grant agency. Where to look for those who might be interested?

My answer:

- 1. At the initial stages, you pay a marketer for their time.
If your project is interesting to them, they may partially consult you for free, but they will fully work for someone who supports their family.

2. The scourge of new businesses - after 2-3 months: "I'm tired, I'm leaving. I'm fed up with this business, now I want to make daiquiris for sharks in Jamaica."
Therefore, experienced people don't invest in newcomers until they see that they are ready to work hard.
When they see it - you can talk about working for a percentage, a share, cost + % etc.

Startup:

- What is a marker that shows you're working?)) At the stage when there are no clients, there is an MVP. From work - expanding the MVP, adding new features, but this is barely noticeable. And waiting for a response to the grant application. This is not visible at all) The response will essentially be a marker of whether the business model works or not. The response will contain a full analysis and they must respond within the specified timeframe.

My answer:

- What if the grant is not given?

Startup:

- Launch of the sales system. For now, I can't even open a Sp. z o.o. before the response, to issue invoices. An automated email system is ready for sending to companies in the EU that fall under the regulator's requirements. I'm slowly building up my LinkedIn.



What AI sees here - you can check yourself by simply feeding the dialogue into AI.

Here's what I see and what AI does NOT see:

- I don't really understand your specifics.

/Specifically, I didn't google why you can't open a Sp. z o.o. and issue invoices before the grant response. But the founder confirmed in response to my question that if the grant is NOT given - there will be a sales launch/

For me, it looks like you've chosen to postpone finding product-market fit, testing the MVP, and launching the project until a factor you don't control.

One grant, no backup streams.
The business model could collapse if the grant isn't given.

You chose to polish features "to launch shuttles into space" - instead of building a sales system.

This all looks like risk factors and signs of future problems in partnership.

In such cases, I work for a fixed fee or fixed + %/option.
___

Explanations:

1. The founder tied all critical business actions to a single grant, without creating backup options. The very test of "will anyone even buy this" is postponed until a factor the founder doesn't control.

Grant refusal entails a collapse/change in the business model - the founder ties the very confirmation of their working business model to the grant agency's decision. (Which is generally incorrect, since the grant agency may assess compliance with legislation, not "will they buy this." And the grant doesn't replace the test of "will clients pay for this"). And the founder chooses not just to passively sit and wait, instead of building an alternative business model independent of a single external factor. But to pour resources into features that may not be bought by anyone.

That is, when a business is built on someone else's ecosystem or completely depends on an external factor the founder doesn't control - it's not your business. And here either the founder builds a business model that is more manageable for them, or agrees to completely depend on an external factor.

And it's clear that the grant will provide more opportunities for development and sales can be postponed (which is generally a minus for a marketing partner if their payment is tied to sales). But the founder's vector is visible: "you can leave the entire business dependent on someone," rather than "build a business model resilient to external factors with 100500 backup options."