P RACTICAL T ACTICS 91 obtain an infusion of cash soon, the company is likely to fail, taking down the value of his own investment with it. "If I only had more time to find a better option," he tells himself. Biocellular's CEO and the venture capitalist on the other side of the ne- gotiation are in very different places with respect to time. Free of time pres- sure, the VC can drive a hard bargain. They can say "Take it or leave it." The CEO, on the other hand, is in a tight spot. His bargaining position weakens with every passing week. The lesson in our examples (KrazyKid and Biocellular) is that you should think about time as you enter any negotiation. Is time on your side or is it working against you? If time is working against you, you may want to avoid a negotiation. The Exploding Offer If time is on your side, consider using an exploding offer, an offer that is valid only up to a certain time in the future. Beyond that point in time, the offer "explodes"--that is, it is no longer valid. Poof ! This type of offer is often ef- fective when the other party is resisting any commitment, playing one party off against another, or generally dragging its feet. The exploding offer also gives the other side little time in which to find or develop an alternative, as in this example: