Microsoft wants to fling money at startups. Don't all rush at once

Paraphrasing slightly...

"Traditional desktop and laptop sales are down the toilet, our mobile strategy has failed although we do make some great 2-in-1 hardware (that often doesn't wake up) and we are having to play dirty tricks on our own customers just to get them to upgrade to Win10, even though it's free! We have no idea what's coming next, let alone have any ability to shape it - but someone out there has some great ideas and we want a piece of them before we lose all relevance."

buzzword bingo

Full House

I'd get them to invest in MY company, but...

I'd get them to invest in MY company, but... the kinds of things I work on wouldn't be in their _perceived_ best interest. And I'd hate to have the ones pulling the purse strings directing me to do things WRONG. Having the $ would be nice, especially NOW. I could probably use it to turn things profitable for them in the long haul, while paying my rent and having some left over to buy things.

But having them breathe down my neck and do what THEY perceive as "the future" ('play' to get paid in other words) would just get in the way. Past Performance Predicting Piss Poor Products in their case. *sigh*.

Preparation is key

You will want to learn key protocols for dealing with the Redmond giant: https://rcpmag.com/Articles/2007/07/01/Minding-Your-Microsoft-Manners.aspx?m=1

And maybe look at what happens when you "win" a partnership deal: http://www.asymco.com/2011/02/11/in-memoriam-microsofts-previous-strategic-mobile-partners/

Time to brush up my pitch for my disruptive startup that uses machine learning on hololens to enrich the experience of windows users on Office365.

Basically, I plan to bring back Clippy, but this time in virtual reality.

Would you trust M$ with your great idea?

EEE