3 ms·

What's the best course of action in this case? Surely, it isn't to ignore the email.

mcv 12y ago
According to Paul Graham, a polite but short refusal: http://paulgraham.com/corpdev.html http://paulgraham.com/corpdev.html . Well, unless you know you're ready to sell.
- falcolas 12y ago
  This person seemed ready to sell, and was interested in having discussions to that end, so that advice isn't of much assistance there, unfortunately.
  - iopq 12y ago
    He shouldn't be, because his business is growing and about to achieve success, but is not yet worth much. There is no way he gets a fair evaluation based on being popular for a few days.
    - ceejayoz 12y ago
      Some people are happy to take a $1M payout over the chance there'll be a $1B payout in a decade.
junto 12y ago
You first need to identify if you are in this position, which the "experienced" author previously had some experience of. Personally I'd use social engineering to get the information I would need to prove this and dig our all the information I needed about Googler #1 and #2. First you need the real contact details. More appropriately you need to make sure that the numbers quoted in the emails aren't throwaways. Ideally you need access to a corporate phone directory, which these days are harder to come by as a physical book. Years ago you could easily approach the right person (smokers outside are good because it is easy to start a conversation with a smoker especially if you smoke as well) and offer them a couple of hundred dollars for the internal corporate directory phone book). Cleaners are also a good target as they have access to lots of areas. You'd be surprised how many people will give that book over for a small amount of cash. As a secondary bonus, once you are finished with the phone book you can sell it on to a headhunter. They pay big money for such a useful item. These days that kind of stuff is harder but not impossible. Social networking has made it easier to get information about people and what they do, who their friends are and where they hang out. People are lazy about their privacy and that is useful if you are trying to dig up information on someone, especially easy if they have an uncommon name. Fight dirty tricks with dirty tricks is my opinion.

mcv 12y ago

According to Paul Graham, a polite but short refusal: http://paulgraham.com/corpdev.html http://paulgraham.com/corpdev.html . Well, unless you know you're ready to sell.

falcolas 12y ago
This person seemed ready to sell, and was interested in having discussions to that end, so that advice isn't of much assistance there, unfortunately.
- iopq 12y ago
  He shouldn't be, because his business is growing and about to achieve success, but is not yet worth much. There is no way he gets a fair evaluation based on being popular for a few days.
  - ceejayoz 12y ago
    Some people are happy to take a $1M payout over the chance there'll be a $1B payout in a decade.

junto 12y ago

You first need to identify if you are in this position, which the "experienced" author previously had some experience of. Personally I'd use social engineering to get the information I would need to prove this and dig our all the information I needed about Googler #1 and #2. First you need the real contact details. More appropriately you need to make sure that the numbers quoted in the emails aren't throwaways. Ideally you need access to a corporate phone directory, which these days are harder to come by as a physical book. Years ago you could easily approach the right person (smokers outside are good because it is easy to start a conversation with a smoker especially if you smoke as well) and offer them a couple of hundred dollars for the internal corporate directory phone book). Cleaners are also a good target as they have access to lots of areas. You'd be surprised how many people will give that book over for a small amount of cash. As a secondary bonus, once you are finished with the phone book you can sell it on to a headhunter. They pay big money for such a useful item. These days that kind of stuff is harder but not impossible. Social networking has made it easier to get information about people and what they do, who their friends are and where they hang out. People are lazy about their privacy and that is useful if you are trying to dig up information on someone, especially easy if they have an uncommon name. Fight dirty tricks with dirty tricks is my opinion.