@seekingtruth94
The $250k contract I closed
That sounds like some sort of middleware software SAAS thing.
In my mind pharma means drugs. So usually drug startups that spun out of some research project. So a couple years of initial chemistry after it leaves the university, a year or two for phase 1 trials, then if your lucky and and trials are promising you get picked up by a big kid company to bring it through phase 2 and 3.
Your not going to sell shit until you have something hard to point to, likely meaning at least a few Mil of R&D if your a total shoestring company.
If your talking about something you can run out of a Starbucks and a few laptops, then sure go and sell what doesn't exist. If however your talking about a hard business where even an MVP is a few years of work (if it's even possible) then I don't feel that approach is appropriate or even ethical.... Tharanos as an extreme example.
There's always going to be some puffery with the sales and BD folks, but if the product is based on hard science and if it's not a guarantee that it's even possible, selling something that hasn't been developed yet is at best a terrible idea.