I had a fascinating couple of days in the big smoke listening to some serious deal-makers discuss the philosophy behind leveraging.  The big marketing firms, especially American ones, believe in one simple philosophy; create competition to drive demand.  It’s not about a sale, it’s about the buy, and often times, about the ego.  Create a scenario by which someone at the top feels pressured into being the first.

Technology challenges this paradigm because of the fear that whatever it is you are selling, may either not work the way you want, or could become prematurely obsolete.  Suresh has stated on several occasions that “product is in the hands of customers”.  I wonder if they’re using that same philosophy...creating demand between competitors?  If POET took a “beggars not choosers” approach, we probably would have seen some kind of deal announced already.  Not a significant one, just a validation that it works and that there is some kind of value.  If the company truly believes what they have is disruptive, they will leverage the snot out of it.  

Just my 2 cents, but the thought crossed my mind that partnership mining might involve the same tact no matter what the product or service is.