A group of us have been working on a collaborative project for a period of time and we have an opening to pitch to someone who may be able to help turn this from a set of ideas into reality. One member of the team has subsequently set up a later meeting with the funder for a related project (the funder only funds certain sorts of projects). I, as director, set up the meeting but he will be seeing a number of other applicants too.
Said member’s project does not employ the same means and methods, although he does have access to the supporting literature of our project (e.g. scope of markets, market research, etc.) that he has not contributed to. Funds are limited so this is competitive. He will also be at our pitch and this strikes me as a conflict of interest.
I am highly irked by this as the person in question is very enthusiastic but delivers little. I also think he is a nice and genuine, if slightly insensitive, guy (if he was a total **** this might be easier). I as director have put in significant hours to get this going. He has told me in advance, but I am still bugged by this. I found out last night and the meeting is Monday so I have no time to meet in him person and I am reticent to get into an exchange of email.
The outline is vague, I know, but you can understand why!
Any thoughts? “Just go riding, relax, prep for the pitch and blow his project out of the water” is an acceptable response.