One way to suck less is to raise angel money after you've made some progress, such as demonstrating some technology viability, some market traction, or at least commitments from other people to join you if you get funded.
If I had to do it again, I'd completely forget about the money-raising and spend the three months focused on the product, and worry about everything else much later. That's not a great fit for the Techstars program, though some of the most interesting companies to come out of it have ended up boot-strapping, eg Occipital/Red Laser.