I’m not sure I understand how this can possibly work. There needs to be trust in both directions before any agreement (or pre-agreement or agreement to pay for discussion of agreement, or as many levels down as you choose to go). And if this trust exists, It’s often FAR more efficient to implicitly roll the bid/negotiation cost into the final contract.
If Alice trusts Bob enough to pay $100 + 1.25/minute without any defined outcome (or duration; I presume “either party may terminate at any time”), and Bob trusts Alice enough that there’s some future benefit to the conversation (not necessary if the money is sufficient and each minute is paid in advance), they should just do the normal dance: 10-minute elevator pitch to give a few more details and firm up the future-value hypothesis, then maybe an hour or two of negotiation of rates and responsibiities, then get to work. Possibly with additional negotiation, paid or not, about long-term ownership stakes or contract terms.
Basically, with trust, it’s inefficient to have the paid-bid phase. And without trust, they can’t even start the paid-bid phase. There are probably some middle-ground situations where this works and is needed, but I’m not sure I can identify any.
I’m not sure I understand how this can possibly work. There needs to be trust in both directions before any agreement (or pre-agreement or agreement to pay for discussion of agreement, or as many levels down as you choose to go). And if this trust exists, It’s often FAR more efficient to implicitly roll the bid/negotiation cost into the final contract.
If Alice trusts Bob enough to pay $100 + 1.25/minute without any defined outcome (or duration; I presume “either party may terminate at any time”), and Bob trusts Alice enough that there’s some future benefit to the conversation (not necessary if the money is sufficient and each minute is paid in advance), they should just do the normal dance: 10-minute elevator pitch to give a few more details and firm up the future-value hypothesis, then maybe an hour or two of negotiation of rates and responsibiities, then get to work. Possibly with additional negotiation, paid or not, about long-term ownership stakes or contract terms.
Basically, with trust, it’s inefficient to have the paid-bid phase. And without trust, they can’t even start the paid-bid phase. There are probably some middle-ground situations where this works and is needed, but I’m not sure I can identify any.