I had a call from someone trying to sell me information/research services.  What I never got after a 20 min conversation is why their service would be useful.  The biz-dev guy was in a little over his head.  Claiming (maybe even truthfully) that their research was solid.  That their analysts knew what they were talking about and could have a good grasp of cleantech trends.  And that they were focused on VC/PE.

 

Then he tried to sound smart and offer reserach on the current trends in PV Silicon.

 

I'm probably wrong on this, but I haven't seen early stage VC return potential in PV Silicon type companies for a while.  The industry is following Wind's footsteps and growing up.  Not that there isn't money to be made in the sector, but unless you're at the lab bench/research stage, the technologies that are currently going in are incremental in nature.

 

The sales guy failed to grab me in the first minute, and didn't hold my interest very well afterwards.  I'll take a look and see what they've got.  But it's hard to convince someone that you're special if you only offer me too services.

 

Also difficult if you're not well tuned to the needs/desires/wants of your customer.