> what i would be selling would be my research topic to venture capitalists, instead of a product to people. (obviously making some mentions of "well um this co

> what i would be selling would be my research topic to venture capitalists, instead of a product to people. (obviously making some mentions of "well um this could be a sellable product one day" and like, a halfassed marketing campaign in order to better sell my idea to vcs.) "Well um this could be a sellable product one day" is not likely to go over well as a sales pitch. VCs review hundreds or thousands of business ideas. If your idea is "if we do enough basic research it might turn into something," they're likely to say "come back when you have a business plan." To reuse the nuclear fusion example I gave in another comment, those companies didn't go to investors saying "we need more money for basic fusion research." Instead, they typically presented a business plan with a very clear end goal - commercially viable fusion reactors - along with a development plan with milestone dates by which certain critical stages would be completed, ending up with a projected date for bringing a commercial fusion reactor online. But then they went away and started doing the research, because for sure nothing is going to happen without that. If all this makes you think "ok so writing a business plan is like writing a grant proposal with extra steps," just keep in mind that you'd be going into a relationship with misaligned goals - investors are going to want to hold you to account, see progress towards the goals you've defined, etc. Part of the reason you're hearing so much about this approach is because the investors are trying to make money, and they need fresh blood who's going to do the hard work of making it for them. In most cases they're not going to sit around letting you do research in peace.