You should never risk you personal wealth on startup ventures, ever. Startups the SV way are hard to do, if you are not part of the bubble. As you said, you do

You should never risk you personal wealth on startup ventures, ever. Startups the SV way are hard to do, if you are not part of the bubble. As you said, you don't have an "in" so nobody is going to easily give you money. You have two options: 1. consider a different growth strategy, startups are not the only way to grow a business, focus less on growth and more on stable income, try to acquire at least one recurring client 2. build your reputation, then you will get capital, doing no.1 first will also help you with no.2.