[sgoraya]

We let a mid-sized oil services company beta test our software for free and had our lawyer draft a non-compete/IP protection contract letter;

For the amount and quality of feedback we received, allowing the free beta test worked out great - I could not have paid a group of QA testers to provide as good feedback as I got from the beta test company;

In addition, most companies do not like to 'pay to test' a product.

In our situation, the company ended up purchasing our software and about 18 months later was acquired by Halliburton - Halliburton has its own software division and no longer needed us;