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Comment by hooande | Hacker News Reader

I like this move by the businessleads.com team. If they hear back from Zuckerberg, this blog post is the set up to a pr knockout punch. Nothing is better for customer acquisition than a visible demonstration that the damn thing works. If they don't hear from him, we'll all forget this in a few months time. They'll be able to try another approach (or find another big name).

I'm not entirely sure about the service. Successful people are constantly being approached with half baked pitches and appeals for financing. It might be interesting to approach it from the other direction, using technology to solve the problem of people always asking you for money.

I'd be stunned if they actually hear back from Zuckerberg, or anyone who knows him well. Who would risk jeopardizing such a valuable relationship for a measly $2,500?

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Thanks! We've been sitting on this post a while, as we've been focused on building up the B2B bounties on the site. The leads we produce for businesses are actually way more exciting for them than a Zuckerberg meet, but we think this bounty drives our point home:

You want to get ahold of your state governor?

Put a bounty on it.

You want to get in touch with CTOs in the market for a new software solution you provide?

Put a bounty on it.

You sell chairs wholesale and want to reach event hall facilities managers?

Just put a bounty on it.

It's that simple.

Your point about Zuckerberg's contacts jeopardizing the relationship is one we focus on every day. It is very delicate. Certainly Mark will be seeing this in his inbox as bemused contacts forward it to him - perhaps not using a bounty link. But receiving compensation for putting together a business deal is at the heart of the way business is done. We've just digitized it and saved the connector that awkward follow-up call about the finder's fee.

Thanks for the feedback!

Bounties might reasonably be paid for help closing a deal, but only a fool pays for an introduction. Not that there is anything wrong with separating rich fools from their money.

Have you checked out the site? The "lead" is only submitted when the person has indicated that yes, they are interested, and answers whatever questions the bounty-poster wants answered to qualify them ahead of time. So it's not an introduction, but the person actually starting off the conversation with you, saying: "Yes, I'm interested", "Yes, your idea sounds interesting I'd like to have a discussion about possibly funding it" or whatever terms you define.

That said, we do have a demand for deal bonuses, payable when a qualified lead results in a closed deal. That's coming down the line.

Thanks for your feedback.

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