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Comment by blunte | Hacker News Reader

My #1 frustration is having ideas that are pretty good (I know this because I see them done by someone else within 1-5 years of me wanting to do it), but not yet knowing how to raise capital.

I see all the crazy shit like WeWork and other companies where people have millions thrown at them while never making a profit (and even actively cheating their investors). I don't want to be one of those guys, but I would like a shot at doing one of my ideas. Yes, I could work on it in my "garage" while doing my day job, but because I am so personally invested in whatever job I do, there's not a lot of me left over.

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If you are struggling with being overly invested in your day job I suggest you go contracting. Get payed a day rate for a fixed number of hours a day, either work a day or don't no inbetween. Bill for the number of days you did at the end of the month (or week). Sick days and holidays cost you hundreds of dollars per day. You will learn to value your time (even if it costs a small amount of your soul). As an added bonus you will have money and a business in place already.

The problem with contracting is that you have to learn to sell. Which is also one of the main skills of raising money, something that the GP post struggles with.

I myself would love to have a more independent job but I suck terribly at selling myself.

Yeah, that is an absolutely essential skillset. If not that, you at least need to have an eye for other people's talents and how they could be best utilized, and know how to connect the dots for other people.

This is definitely something you can get a LOT better at with practice and study though!! You probably will never be ungodly talented, but you probably don't need to be either.

You have to sell yourself as an employee as well. For example I am able to sell my self to clients but can't get a real company to give me the time of day.

You're on a ycombinator website. They might be a good place to start.

You have to front-load the risk onto yourself and prove that your ideas are as good as you think.

Once you have some form of a track record (not employment, but the ability to produce a result on your own), then you have a little more leverage.

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