That sounds like a very scary strategy to me. How do you plan to know if your product will be of use once built? Well, you never really know, do you? In many

That sounds like a very scary strategy to me. How do you plan to know if your product will be of use once built? Well, you never really know, do you? In many cases, potential customers don't really know either. I basically know what I want, or think I want, and can build that. The goal is to build it quickly, watch people use it, and then adjust based on that. I knew exactly what my one big customer, my 3 smaller customers, and a few potential customers wanted. I couldn't produce all of that, and erred towards producing what the people who were giving me the most money wanted. The important goal (for me) is to have some buffer time where earning ze monies isn't a life or death problem, thus giving me the ability to insulate myself a bit from people who can give me money (you know, assuming it makes sense). "Arms length" doesn't mean I don't talk to people, and I don't spend time watching how they work. It means we're not financially linked right away.