I have FAANG attached to my name with multiple years of experience, where else would you recommend as a replacement or competitor to YC? I am aware of angel investors’ existence but looking for anything besides that
Assuming you are at a very nascent stage with your startup, there are still all sorts of options out there, including but not limited to —- Kickstarter, loans, raising from friends and family, running on a shoestring budget offshore, raising convertible notes from local investors (you probably have some of these people in your extended network already), selling preorders, self-funding (e.g. via collateral loans), grants, incubators (other than YC), etc.
There are a lot of variables, and several options to choose from depending on your particulars.
Like, what better incubators or accelerators will be looking at 5+ years at FAANG as a shoe-in (honestly, I’m a bit skeptical that’s even a shoe in at at YC, but what do I know) and give me better terms and/or more support? I know Sequioa has a small incubator now and I’ve actually talked to them, but I assume there are some good ones out there that would be hard to learn about except through word of mouth.
And yes, when it comes to startups (i.e. business) and funding, word of mouth is very powerful and not to be underestimated.