[iancmceachern]

In my experience it's a class thing. If you have the type of pedigree where you parents, friends or family can put in $100k plus to allow a founder or two to pay their living expenses while they get it running and secure seed or round A funding. It's always a catch 22, serious investors want one or more of the founders to be full time dedicated to invest, and that founder needs to pay their living expenses while doing so. In my experience the founders that get funded are either people with the pedigree that comes with money, or people that are experts on their field, have worked whole careers in industry and have some money socked away to float themselves for a year or two while they get it going. There is a third category of consultants/freelancers that create products as a thing to work on when consulting is slow, but these are often bootstrapping type things that don't really go looking for money.