Still, clearly remember my first government "Sale". Guess it's one of those "moments".
I Go to meet an IAS officer (as they are called in India), and she sends me to meet another guy, and he sends me to meet another guy. And, he was/ is brilliant. Still have no clue why he is working for the government!
So, I show him my portal, explain what I intend to achieve, why people will visit, and how much I would charge for the agency to advertise. (It was a travel guide website, closed a few years later.) And he goes through quite a few pages. And, he asked me questions, that nobody else had. He seemed impressed.
Then he turns his chair, turned on his apple monitor (the logo!!!), shows a website, and asks if I can redo/ fix it. I had no idea that the government used to hire extremely inefficient people (7 years later, I regret wasting time trying to explain mundane concepts to the wrong people). Anyways, I nod (surprisingly) and tell him I can redo the entire website in a week. Plus, I add I will do it free if they buy the advert space on my website. He bursts out laughing and says that the department does have money, and they will pay if I do a good job!
When I returned in 5 days, he was very impressed and he gave me work for, nearly 10X the amount I had asked for, as the advertisement fee!
I got to meet an extremely smart person, and over the years, I did meet a few more people like him. My first government customer/ client took me 2 minutes and I got my second sale after 2 years (excruciatingly slow)! Extremely lucky the first time :)
