In the movie Blade Runner, there were a species of sub-humans called Replicants that despite their human appearance and actions were just robots. In order to discern a replicant from a regular human, one had to administer the telltale Voight-Kampff test.

The Voight-Kampff test involved a series of questions designed to evoke an emotional response from the subject. Humans would answer the questions with passionate, emotional responses. Robots would answer the question like, well, robots.

Recently I began developing a Voight-Kampff test for entrepreneurs.

I wanted to be able to quickly determine whether the person sitting across the lunch table was a true-blooded entrepreneur or a robot built by entrepreneurs to do their bidding. The test is finally ready to go public, and I am naming it the “Schroter-GoBIG Test” since I don’t have another German partner to share the name with.

This test could possibly save you two of your most valuable resources – your time and your inspiration. If this battery of questions saves you from having to slog it out over just one painful pitch meeting, it’s worth its weight in gold.

Question 1: “Is this a good idea?”

Entrepreneurs are full of new ideas, and if they’re lucky, they get to bounce them off other entrepreneurs. A frequent problem is that the person on the other side of the table is a robot masquerading as an entrepreneur. When this happens, a good idea is quickly converted into an endless list of reasons why it will never work.

Therefore the first question of the Schroter-GoBIG test is to ask the person across from you: “Is this a good idea?”

If the subject responds with a list of reasons why the idea will fail, without any advice on how you could make it work – bam! – you’ve found a robot. Robots are programmed to respond to problems by creating more problems, and are not designed to be solution-oriented. (This trait does make them excellent middle-managers.)

On the other hand, if the subject begins with reasons why it will fail but quickly makes recommendations for how you could modify the idea to succeed, you may have found an entrepreneur.

Question 2: “Should I jump in and do this?”

One question alone isn’t enough to get a reliable positive identification. Even though some robots may be able to spot and respond to problems, a true robot is quickly overwhelmed by risk.

Your next question hits this notion head on: “Should I jump in and do this?”

Of course the robot sitting across the lunch table will programmatically begin assessing your risk factors and indicate that you could not possibly start a venture and assume risk. Their tiny microprocessor will query terms like “spreadsheet,” “market analysis,” and if they are a really old model, “50-page business plan.”

If you look closely, you may actually see sweat coming from their foreheads and steam from their ears. Risk is a concept that robots are not designed to handle well, and their reactions will reflect that fact brilliantly.

The entrepreneur will respond quite differently. Instead of knotting their stomach and blowing a gasket, the entrepreneur will begin thinking back to all of the good times they have had when coming up with a new idea and getting a company launched. They will smile, and before you even finish your sentence will respond with two words:

“Do it.”

True entrepreneurs know that risk is inherent in anything that you do. They embrace risk as a necessary aspect of progress and innovation. Some even seek it out and enjoy the thrill of the unknown, like the guy writing this column.

Question 3: “Are you buying lunch?”

By this point a robot may know you’re trying to trick them and answer “yes” to try to throw you off their trail.

This last question actually has nothing to do with the test at all, but it’s a fantastic way to get the robot to pay for lunch. After all, it’s the most value you’re going to get from this meeting!

Find Fewer Robots

If you’ve got a great new idea your next step should be to locate those people that can actually help make your idea happen. Or in some cases, you want people that have made their own ideas happen, and can provide a good sounding board for why your idea might just be really bad.

Either way, the best help you can get in developing your idea is from entrepreneurs that know how ideas actually become companies. The challenge is trying to quickly identify those that can truly help shape and grow your vision and to weed out those that will simply bog it down in the quicksand of doubt.

There is a time and a place for recruiting legions of number-crunching, task-tracking, risk-avoiding, agenda-setting, bureaucracy-inducing, fiefdom-building, blackberry-wearing, foot-dragging, chest-pounding, middle-management robots to manage your great empire – just not today.

When that time does come be sure to title the robots appropriately – “VP.”