What Microsoft used to do in situations like that was bundle a developer's product while they got the feature ready for their product.
We did a deal like that with them in 1985 with our Ready product, they ended up paying us a lot of money (several million) while they got the outliner feature ready for Word. We were able to use the money to develop our next product which put us over the top. A total win-win.
You guys should be tapping into the power of the community. While you're struggling to keep up, they're struggling to make businesses out of their projects.
