It sounds to me like the "programmer" failed to pay attention to "the business guy." The programmer says "maybe you could first tell me roughly what this would

It sounds to me like the "programmer" failed to pay attention to "the business guy." The programmer says "maybe you could first tell me roughly what this would be about" yet the business guy already said "we want to do a partnership with your company because of your nice product Z" The programmer said "phone calls are for details" while the business guy said "When do you have time for a meeting, so I can talk to you in detail" So what exactly is the problem? This guy wants to set up a meeting to discuss the details of a business partnership. And the programmer blew him off because... because he wants to build his company? While I agree that face-face meetings and phone calls are expensive time wise, I would argue that the initial meeting of a partnership or potential big client is probably more important. Sure you may want to try to screen out bad meetings from good meetings, but you don't do that with a "what do you want to talk about?" Maybe something more along the lines of "I'm sorry but I'm extremely busy right now trying to get the next release out. Perhaps if you could tell me some more highlights on the potential partnership I can see about possibly squeezing a meeting in there." You don't really want to be rude to potential partners and clients, well not if you want to build your business