It took 3 months to get this first contract, I was trying to break into a new space. Shortly afterwards the government gave many millions of grants to all my potential customers in the country to spend on consulting with a brand new company that was spun out of the government so the entire potential market dried up overnight. The customers didn’t care it was free money. This spinout then tried to hire me where they correctly pointed out that there is now no alternative to working with them and gave me a low ball offer. I left the country instead.