After a decade of successful entrepreneurship, and several years of pursuing the frontier of Open Innovation, I'm concluding that there are two (dangerously) common characteristics that are enemies of a successful new business venture/innovation.
The first is hubris - overbearing pride. These types of folks are best characterized by arrogance and sloth in their response to your invention/business. They're either ever so much smarter than you, or they can't be bothered to actually engage the brain cells to see if you may be on to something. These are the types that cut you off in the middle of your elevator pitch and tell you what's wrong with your idea; these are the types that have no data of their own, but disregard your data completely; these are the types that tell you what the consumer will or won't do, independent of any data or experience that you may actually have in the area. These are the types that are all talk and no action. When you run into hubris, it's exceedingly rare that you'll ever get a good deal done. So my general response has been to just move on and use these chuckleheads as motivation to keep pushing ahead and prove them wrong!
The second is what I've come to call the cohort of Overly Wise Men. Ever run into these folks? They want to study the market and understand the risks. They want to ask 30 gazillion questions and theorize about the answers rather than running the experiment. They will identify all the obstacles to success and demonstrate that when you put them on a list, the obstacles run into double (or God forbid - triple) digits. They will take time to be reflective, to see what other people think, to talk with buyers at the retailers. They'll do the prudent thing over the risky thing pretty much day in and day out. Why? Because they don't really get rewards from taking risks; they get punished for making mistakes. Most would argue this is a compensation structure and organizational structure issue; I'm not entirely sure there isn't something else at work here. I'm not discounting the importance of surrounding structures influencing behavior, but I'm starting to theorize that Overly Wise People are chemically/biologically different from entrepreneurs.
Overly Wise People, I think, are simply are overly careful because it's in their DNA. I think Overly Wise People don't enjoy running/flying around corners before others and not knowing what they'll find. I think they don't get the same spring in their step and joy in their heart when they make something out of nothing. For them, I suspect, much of life is merely an anti-climactic response; their studies and reflection assured them of the answer before they did anything. So the action was wise, prudent, and predictable. I think many of them simply don't get any pleasure at all from the wild swings that come from pursuing paths leading to unknowable conclusions. I think they literally and figuratively fear the unknown more than they enjoy the endorphin rush of "Look what I did!"
Yes, I know, I'm being perjorative by using the word "overly" as it suggests there is an optimal amount of carefulness, and these knuckleheads have too much of it. But that's my point - for inventors/entrepreneurs, the line for carefulness CANNOT be the same as it is for Overly Wise People. It is axiomatic that the world of inventing/entrepreurship is high-risk. It's high-risk because there are big winners, and there are failures (sometimes big failures). Period. If there weren't big winners and losers, it would be called caretakership or something.
And if you're still in a high-risk outcome game/stage, Overly Wise People will be lousy partners. Same with Hubris People.
I haven't yet found a use for Hubris People. I will say, however, that Overly Wise People are critical once the higher risk aspects of your business have been reduced. They optimize and focus on execution and operations in ways that inventors and entrepreneurs can't. They can make it more stable and really grow it. They're called "managers" for a reason -- they manage risks and outcomes very well given a starting point and a desired ending point. But if the starting point is close to zero, and the ending point is unknown, man, are they lost. So my conclusion is to figure out how much risk is still in your equation for your venture to succeed, and at some point, recognize that Overly Wise People are a burden, or a requirement to advancing you cause. Figure out when you need them, and try to avoid engaging them much more than a moment too soon...
So, let's call this Funk's Theorem #1: Match the lifestage/risk of your invention/business with the appropriate DNA of the involved partners/acquirors. And, as is likely obvious, if there's a big gap between what you have, and the risk tolerance (e.g., DNA) of employees at a company you want to make a deal with, find a way to bridge that gap...