[ChuckMcM]

Fortunately, it's a wonderfully quick way of weeding out the idiots.

Make it your first question, "How much equity are you planning to give this person when you find them?"

Then you can threshold your response, one way to do that might be: < 45% hang up and walk away. >= 50% take the second meeting.

You will pretty instantly weed out all of the "I'm going to change the world, won't tell you how unless you sign an NDA, and I'm being GENEROUS by offering you 10% if you do all the work." folks.

It may be rude to ask this first but your time is valuable and really it's like bidding in bridge, a shorthand to let you know if there is a game contract in there somewhere.

[o1iver]

I have been thinking about this exact strategy for a while. Like most programmers, I often get approached by "idea" people and I am thinking about telling people right away that they shouldn't even pitch unless they offer >= 50%... Like you say "your time is valuable".