&quot;We were trying to do a boldly cutting edge Natural Language Processing startup, but without a top-notch Natural Language Processing expert.&quot;<p>Of the many, many, many management problems present in this article, this seems like the most atrocious. Attempting to complete a task neither google nor apple nor any big player has tackled is total madness. Where is the phd level research? You have to at least understand the technical aspects of your  project at a high level and bring on someone who has a deep grasp of them as a founder. Who wants to build this for you without having the equity and stake?<p>Someone should have just taken a pile of $1.5 million and lit it on fire.