> You need customers. Real ones. The kind that pay with real money, not hypothetical market share.
That's reasonable, sure.
But don't you need to have a working product before you can sell it?
If someone handed me, a total stranger, a stack of money for a product that didn't exist, I'd question their sanity, not turn to them for business advice.
Selling stuff that doesn't exist yet is pretty common, whether it's a preorder or a corporate contract. It doesn't mean you're getting the cash before you deliver the product. But it helps validate that there's someone out there who will give you the cash once you have the working product.