Thread: Experience with vaporware?

I know it gets a bad name (and that it's also overused) but I was wondering if anyone has experience with selling vaporware, or rather a product that does not yet exist or is under development without a working prototype?

My goal is not to have money change hands before there's at least a minimum viable product, rather a way where I can prospect for clients and work on polishing a presentation and, if they are interested, the can assist with co-creation.

Anyone have experience with this? I know there are drawbacks, however, if you were able to do it successfully, what worked for you? Would you do it again?

"Lean startup" is the term that people are tossing around these days to describe this.

Basically create a landing page with your pitch and try to get the person to leave their email address.

This should allow you to validate your idea and see if anyone is actually interested in what your selling.

Running Lean by Ash Maurya and Lean Startup by Eric Ries have much more information about this stuff if you are interested in learning more.