Startups getting "alligator rolled" by Strategics

Mike, how do you avoid getting teased along by the strategics? Because I hear this a lot from startups. We're talking, oh, things are going great. We have a meeting with the business development people every few months. They want more information. We got a data room and then nothing happens. It just goes on for years, you know? Yeah.

And there are some former employers of mine that are classic for doing that, you know, 2 years to do a distribution deal, right? It's mind-numbing and it, it can be paralyzing. We used to call that at GE the alligator role. You take them All the way to the bottom of the Amazon, you roll 'em around until they pass out, and then you got the carcass to eat. I'm not proud of that by any stretch, but your best way to do that is go get somebody else that's gonna move faster.