It's funny that you mention "well connected idea guys" not letting a programmer sit in on investor meetings. I actually surprisingly was invited to the last investor meeting that the startup that I work for was involved in. All 3 of us sat there, and I have a feeling the reason why I was invited is because I'm the stereotypical "programmer" in how I dress, I have a slight beard, sort of unkempt. My guess is that they figure the chances of getting funded are better with me there, than with me not there.
The investor kindly pointed out some very important facts about how our registration process and our product that I had very much agreed with him on and had voiced these concerns and opinions PRIOR to the meeting and they were ignored. The registration process on our site takes about 3-4 minutes before a user can get into the app, and I had been saying all along that no user in their right mind is going to wait that long, the investor 100% was on the ball with this one, the product guy did not agree, based on our tester feedback this supposedly wasn't an issue (all testers are in some way connected to the co-founders though, relatives + friends). When was the last time the user knew what they wanted though? Sometimes you need to know what's best for your users and making them wait 4 minutes for a product when they're not sure what it does, is definitely a lesson in futility. Me being involved in web development since I was in middle school, I knew 100% the investor was going to bring that up and I'm glad he did, but we've still continued to ignore that sentiment which I believe is a mistake
The investor kindly pointed out some very important facts about how our registration process and our product that I had very much agreed with him on and had voiced these concerns and opinions PRIOR to the meeting and they were ignored. The registration process on our site takes about 3-4 minutes before a user can get into the app, and I had been saying all along that no user in their right mind is going to wait that long, the investor 100% was on the ball with this one, the product guy did not agree, based on our tester feedback this supposedly wasn't an issue (all testers are in some way connected to the co-founders though, relatives + friends). When was the last time the user knew what they wanted though? Sometimes you need to know what's best for your users and making them wait 4 minutes for a product when they're not sure what it does, is definitely a lesson in futility. Me being involved in web development since I was in middle school, I knew 100% the investor was going to bring that up and I'm glad he did, but we've still continued to ignore that sentiment which I believe is a mistake