Ask HN: As a graduating senior, how did you get into startups?

Graduating Computer Engineering + CS with honors at a top 15 engineering school in the US here. Unfortunately, my town is dead and I have no interest in staying here. I have professional experience with Python (Sqlalchemy and django mostly), Java, Titanium Mobile, and a few other technologies. Class and hobby experience with C++ and embedded C.

After a few internships with IBM / a local startup, I think a startup-to-small-sized company is the right fit for me. I want a team that works hard and cares about what they do with as little bureaucracy as possible. I know I'm not ready to lead a huge team from a dev perspective, but can get there and I definitely have the people skills already. Despite whatever technical skills I may have, I think my business sense would probably trump it in the long term, and I know I can talk to customers / investors.

As someone not living in SV/Boston/NYC and still in school, can you recommend any places to look / figuring out interview planning? Right now my plan is to get in touch with companies that interest me and try to set up a week or so of in-person meetings/interviews assuming I can coordinate the timing/compensation. Beyond that, email communication is my only other plan. On a related note, would it be bad to suggest that the company brings me on under a provisional (6 months to a 1 year) basis before evaluating me for full time?

I've had no trouble in the past going to my school's career fair and talking to recruiters to generate leads, but this hunt is a little different.

I'm not looking for advice that necessarily applies to my specific case; I'd appreciate any advice/stories of how you transitioned from senior year to a startup. Please don't mistake my startup enthusiasm for naive "I want to be a startup hustler!" stuff. (private messages are welcome too, of course :-) )