At least they made it out of that first stage! Full-time employees get stuck in that stage all the time by just scheduling meetings but never actually getting any real work done that drives revenue. Looks like they were able to realize that meeting with people without a specific agenda and monetized path forward is usually just wheel-spinning.

By making that leap and going out on their own, they were able to accelerate that learning process and condense it to months rather than years (or never). Painful, but useful.