so why not leave a bug in the room? i imagine it would be very easy to leave a bug in the trash that would be thrown out later. and i bet no vc is checking for that.
(this might seem crazy, but 20 years ago a fellow postdoc did exactly this to listen in on a meeting. he was an electrical engineer and built the bug himself, but i am sure you can buy things these days) (yeah he was kinda sleazy).
(obviously one "why" is that it's ethically questionable. but from another pov it's very much a hack solution. i see posts here urging founders to think outside the box, never give up, go to extremes etc etc...)
I don't actually advocate doing any of this, but I bought a book on "Spy Techniques for the Office" (or something like that) a long time ago (I think it was on the bargain rack at Barnes & Noble)... anyway, one of the techniques they mention for spying on a meeting when you're not in the room goes like this:
Go to the meeting, and put your phone on the table. Have the phone set for no ring, and auto-answer. Excuse yourself to go to the restroom. Then, using another phone, call the phone laying on the table. Listen to what is being said in your absence.
In this case (listening after the meeting has adjourned) you'd need to find a way to "forget" your phone, so it couldn't just be lying right on the table top. I suppose you could pitch it in the bin, ala Cypher in The Matrix, if you could do it without being noticed. Could be awkward if somebody found it though.
You could probably also build a very small, easy to conceal audio recorder using one of the voice recorder ICs meant for something like an answering machine. Leave it in your jacket pocket, and then "forget" your jacket when you leave the meeting. But the risk is that somebody notices the jacket and decides to be nice and chases you down to bring it to you.
Hmm... looking at one example of such a recorder IC setup, this one can only do 64 seconds of voice. Maybe not very useful. But you could probably use an rPi and an SD card and build something that could record significantly more. Or use an Arduino and a cellular shield and build something you can dial into...
Oh, wait, looking here[1], it looks like you can get voice recorder ICs that go up to 16 minutes. Not sure, offhand, how much supporting circuitry and power it would take for one of these things, though, so not sure how small it could be built.
Anyway, like I said, I don't recommend actually doing this. Just food for thought.
They talk about your attitude when you were talking to them. Are they convinced by your eye contact and shoes? If you don't take care of your appearance, you won't meticulously consider the niceties required to face customers and leading on gently around your products.
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 25.4 ms ] thread(this might seem crazy, but 20 years ago a fellow postdoc did exactly this to listen in on a meeting. he was an electrical engineer and built the bug himself, but i am sure you can buy things these days) (yeah he was kinda sleazy).
(obviously one "why" is that it's ethically questionable. but from another pov it's very much a hack solution. i see posts here urging founders to think outside the box, never give up, go to extremes etc etc...)
Go to the meeting, and put your phone on the table. Have the phone set for no ring, and auto-answer. Excuse yourself to go to the restroom. Then, using another phone, call the phone laying on the table. Listen to what is being said in your absence.
In this case (listening after the meeting has adjourned) you'd need to find a way to "forget" your phone, so it couldn't just be lying right on the table top. I suppose you could pitch it in the bin, ala Cypher in The Matrix, if you could do it without being noticed. Could be awkward if somebody found it though.
You could probably also build a very small, easy to conceal audio recorder using one of the voice recorder ICs meant for something like an answering machine. Leave it in your jacket pocket, and then "forget" your jacket when you leave the meeting. But the risk is that somebody notices the jacket and decides to be nice and chases you down to bring it to you.
Hmm... looking at one example of such a recorder IC setup, this one can only do 64 seconds of voice. Maybe not very useful. But you could probably use an rPi and an SD card and build something that could record significantly more. Or use an Arduino and a cellular shield and build something you can dial into...
Oh, wait, looking here[1], it looks like you can get voice recorder ICs that go up to 16 minutes. Not sure, offhand, how much supporting circuitry and power it would take for one of these things, though, so not sure how small it could be built.
Anyway, like I said, I don't recommend actually doing this. Just food for thought.
[1]: http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en/integrated-circuits...