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> Early customers are kind of like a job interview, it has to feel right for both sides.

So right. I consulted for a while as a programmer. It took a few times being burnt before I could distinguish between the good and the bad clients, but after that the difference was night and day.

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Interesting. Could either of you expand on that? What qualities do you now look for in a client/customer?

The biggest thing I look for is to be clued in to the feasibility and difficulty of their commission. If someone wants a Facebook clone for $500 and/or finished in 3 weeks, I'd walk away immediately. I guess that's an exaggerated example but if a client is completely non-technical it's almost always too painful to work with them directly.

I don't agree with 'never say no to a customer' in software development work.

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