I got my first ASN in April, 2021 from a LIR. It was an amazing experience. If you live in the west part of North America like me, you can get a IX VPS at FreeRangeCloud (disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with them). You can connect to Unmetered Exchange, EVIX and OPTiX just using one machine. You can also contact HE to get a free transit at Unmetered Exchange.

For software, I'm using Bird, because I couldn't get OpenBGPd insert routes into my FIB. (I'm using OpenBSD, not the portable one)