I have a very good friend that's been working on his tech start up for three years. Yes, three years. He has no technical background and neither does his cofounder. They don't get along at all and seem to think because they have an idea and a patent it means someone will fund them. To date, $150K has been wasted on busywork and there is no MVP anywhere in sight. They allegedly have a VC interested...that has been "interested" for the past year. Yeah, every red flag that you can imagine and more.

Does anyone have any good case studies, articles, etc. that are from really big names that I can direct them to in hopes of getting them on the right track? His partner doesn't want to listen to me for a number of reasons. Neither of them has every successfully run a start up either. Any ideas?