[ahlatimer]

You generally don't get investment money day 1. If you are able to pull that, it's because you've had success being a founder before (or have rich friends/family). But as a first-time founder? I think you'd be wasting your time without having something real to show. Generally, that's an MVP with some degree of traction.

To get to that point, you have to do a lot of the things bigger companies have to do. Those things just tend to be less complex and you have fewer people to do them. Accounting, sales, engineering, marketing, etc., etc. all exist, to some degree, in a two-person company. At first, you learn to do them yourself. You'll probably suck at them. It's okay. They all have some degree of a feedback loop. If you're open, you'll figure it out. Eventually, with success, you'll hire other people to do them.

From there, you can get access to a great network by doing an incubator as someone else mentioned, or by just getting out there and talking to users (do this day 1). But you're worried about years 2-4 when you haven't even started year 1 yet.

If you want to discuss in more detail, I'm a founder with a product in banking that's been moderately successful. Email's in my profile. Feel free to reach out.