The government picks winners all the time when awarding contracts and has a lot of experience doing so (when the process is done right). For Arpanet they picked a winner with BBN.
Have you thought about other sales channels - Mail Order Catalog, Physical Stores, Licensing or Distribution to other Retailers?
$800/day or $300K/year isn't limping - it's a nice little business which might or might not have growth potential. Do some market research and answer those questions CyberFonic asked.
If you're in the USA contact the SBA. The SBA SCORE program is great for getting help with growing a business.
Chris Ostroot appears to still be recruiting for Trilogy and 'successfully
tapped 33 students from Carnegie Mellon's Class of 1998 -- more than any other technical employer
recruited from that university this year. In August, at Trilogy's annual awards banquet (which Trilogians
call "prom"), she was named the company's "Superstar" and was awarded a 1999 Saab convertible.' from http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/21/insanity.html?page=0%...
I once worked with a manager who was very up front about using performance reviews to retaliate against any subordinate who crossed her. Luckily she wasn't my boss.
I'm required to use IE6 as this is a work computer and the company's standard is IE6 which can't/won't be changed. This web site won't allow me to view the content as I'm using the IE6 browser.
"It is a scientific fact that, statistically, bug density does not change with programming language. So, a denser language means fewer bugs."
I don't agree based on my experience coding APL which is a very dense language. Maybe you get fewer coding bugs with a denser langugage but you encounter other much worse problems. Code you can't understand. Code that doesn't match the requirements. Code you have to rewrite if you ever want to change it. I prefer verbose code.
His premise that the further down the list the closer you are to a problem doesn't apply to all problems. I'm not closer to the problem of Global Warming that the President - probably the opposite.
You can buy 8x4 white panelboard at Lowes or Home Depot for about $15 a panel. The surface can get burned off if you use some caustic cleaners but it's cheap to replace.
How about a retainer agreement? They purchase some of your time each month. This limits your time devoted to their concerns but could also be a distraction from the startup. The rest of your time is devoted to your startup with the retainer giving you more runway.
Any chance your current employer could become a paying customer? Starting off with a customer gives you credibility for capital and other customers.