[_m8fo]

Unfortunately there's no good general answer to this. One could say an email blast with a description of what you're trying to do with a credit card form would be the least possible work you could do. You're unlikely to get any real response from that method, though.

Others will say a fully functional prototype of what you're set out to do is what's necessary in order to fully allow prospects to understand what you're trying to do. Sadly this requires a lot of work which probably will be wasted, unless your goal was to simply to do it, and not to build a successful business as soon as possible.

in short, i'd say there are three criteria:

1. how long would it take you to make a functional prototype?

2. what's the potential upside of a good first-look?

3. what's the downside of a bad first-look?