[brudgers]

Suppose everything goes swimmingly and the prototype gets finished for $10k of freelance work. The company is still in a bad position because the money is gone and so is the development talent. So to continue it probably has to raise more money. But now it does so with a track record of not being honest with investors...remember, the original investor put their money in with the expectation that after the $10k was gone there would still be a way to get development done...but there isn't.

Even if every person really does have their price, $10k is pretty low to sell one's integrity. At least among anyone I'd care to associate with.