> Do you go to phase 1 or  2?

 well, i'd like to go straight to phase 2, because we have actual
products nearing completion: it's not actually "theoretical", it's
real.

 however....

> You need actual partners for phase2. For phase 1 you can have only letter of
> intent or mention it in project. Phase 2 you have little chances w/o phase 1
> won (in theory you do but in real life no).

 .... if you've actually had experience with this then i'm happy to
learn from that.