I work in a different vertical industry and I can tell the company perspective: they will die for pennies and ignore the value that comes from outside if someon

I work in a different vertical industry and I can tell the company perspective: they will die for pennies and ignore the value that comes from outside if someone important in the company will not benefit from it, one way or another. Regular people are not allowed to talk to external companies (you can get terminated for that) and the people that are in positions to talk are usually very political, very incompetent and very morally corrupt (sometimes fully corrupt, like taking paybacks or bribes). This is known by others, so external contacts are avoided in general and they try to build stuff inhouse instead, even if it is poor quality because they pay IT poorly so they don't attract and retain good people. I was a few times in VP level discussion with huge IT companies. Our VP was basically asking for impossible things that he was willing to pay for, otherwise "regular stuff" was just a matter of money, "for free if possible". I don't know how much it helps you, just telling why it is difficult to penetrate some of these companies and what is the thinking on the other side. Make a VP happy to bring in your solution - that is your chance. I am not telling to bribe anyone because I am completely against it, but be aware that some of your competitors will. It is a cutthroat world.