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I have a very immature idea of a B2B startup, and I want to gather some feedback on it.

Assuming, that "future customers" are business people, what is the best way to communicate with them on early stages? Is it reasonable to appoint meetings without having any prototype? Or it would be better to write emails and make calls not to waste their time?

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I would walk in an office building and start talking to people to get the contact information of the right person to talk to. People usually love giving their advice and opinion; just say you're an entrepreneur looking to talk to people with experience in the particular field you're targeting. – frenchie Dec 12 '12 at 12:23

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You wouldn't want someone wasting your time, so you need to offer something in return.

Share something truly of value to them - reports, research, etc. - related to your target markets "pain point". Ask to chat with them 5 minutes to gather further information - be clear that its not a sales call. Be prepared to ask some good questions that validates the need, and if appropriate, ask for permission to follow up with them to share additional information that you gather from other conversations.

Take such information, create a MVP, then ask if they would be interested in validating the concept. At this juncture, many would ask for payment to participate if the validation process yields significant savings / value generation for the participant.

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