That "sounds" hopeful but I don't have any fund and know-how knowledge. I might go for entrepreneurship way but it will also require lots of preparation in terms of ideas, funds and technical know-hows.
It just depends on if you have the background and talent to warrant that role. I think that is an exceptional case for someone to get funding and support to build a venture without any operating experience.
I have a few solid ideas that I believe I could execute well, in a wide variety of industries. Mind you this is after purging many ideas that fail vetting. However, my limitation is lack of capital. I'm not well connected and wouldn't know where to begin to look for funds.
If your certainty that they will make you money is so high, is there really no avenue to get the funding? (assuming you are willing to take the work) Like saving money, finding investors, borrowing, etc? Isn't it possible to bootstrap a concept in a few months with savings (for example by moving to a place with cheap food and accomodation off of savings).
That's pretty much the route I'm taking, save for the non-technical part.
I'm writing a SaaS for biomedical data analysis, while completing a graduate degree in Experimental Medicine. I don't anticipate graduating any time soon, but I see it as an opportunity to develop the foundation of a start-up while supporting myself.
It's sort of a way to avoid having to go the fundraising route (at least for now), and can potentially allow me to onboard large clients without even talking to VCs.
I was happy to find that PG wrote about this sort of thing (albeit fairely indirectly):
"Another way to fund a startup is to get a job. The best sort of job is a consulting project in which you can build whatever software you wanted to sell as a startup. Then you can gradually transform yourself from a consulting company into a product company, and have your clients pay your development expenses."
Indeed and there's lots of ways to make money there - but you won't get any easy funding. VCs aren't interested in businesses that won't offer a potential 100x (or better) ROI, and banks don't like funding R&D so your only chance is either being from "old money" yourself or knowing "old money" (aka someone who can afford to sink a dozen million euros as an angel investor).
Have you considered starting a company? It's a bad financial choice in the short-term but it gives you significant flexibility and potential to get to a high salary within a few years whether you succeed or not (since you'll then have industry experience you can pivot from into big tech). Your background would be an easy fit for getting funding IMO.
Happy to talk more about it if you're interested and introduce you to some circles that might help, phil@multiprocess.io.
Raising money from friends and family is certainly a common path to entrepreneurship, but it is far from the only.
My original point was that acquisition entrepreneurship could be an option for someone with a broad skillset like the OP. How I funded the first one doesn't really impact that as everyone will have a different path and I simply took the one that was available to me at the time.
If an existing path can't be found then it will have to be made. That could mean working and saving for a while, starting a side project with the goal of it becoming a profitable business, partnering with a friend and earning equity through sweat, etc.
First step is to develop an edge, after that if you don't have access to capital, you can raise money, same as having a successful startup with traction...
I don't think Venture Capitalists fund "complete newbie, probably straight out of school, yet buzzing with an idea and looking for an investor to fund his concept" these days. You have to either be a known entity in your field, have experience, and usually have at the very least a working proof of concept. Of course there may be exceptions, but your probably better off going to friends and family (going the 'Angel' route, do a search on the concept) then trying to find those exceptions...
While it might be nice to get YCombinator funding, angel investors, Venture Capital, etc, that route may not be in the cards for all.
Alternatively, you can devote part-time to contracting, the rest working on your startup, while leveraging the cost of living advantages of some interesting foreign lands.
By no means do I advise this route to all (indeed, if you get into YC, go for it!) -- but it might possibly be a Plan B for your startup, if you so choose.
Don't forget angel investors. Not easy to get, but then again neither is venture funding. You can often raise enough for a YC-style startup - I know an entrepreneur who raised over $4M from angels and no institutional funding.
The upside of this approach is that it may open other paths to success. A VC is likely going to push you to go big big big. Angels are more likely to be happy with a modest success.
The company I currently work for also started this way to my knowledge, and I think we're better off for it. It may be harder than getting funding right from the start, but I wouldn't say it's implausible.
I think I'll just leap on my own. And if I funding was based on enthusiasm I would have been a millionaire years ago. It takes a little more than that to get a spot.
A venture backed business is really hard to execute properly with tons of expectations. Lots of people have really basic ideas that they should just self fund or start small.
I have approached some angel investors for my ideas, but they told me I don't have technical background to be funded and I'm too much of risk for them. Then I started contacting my friends (computer engineering students) at college, but they were very reluctant to be part of a start-up cause majority of are looking to earn "quick money" to cover their debt for tuition fees.
If you are interested, and if you have technical background I'm perfectly willing to share my ideas with you. So what do you think?
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