[drewmck]

"It is in the education sphere"

My immediate knee-jerk reaction (as someone currently in an emerging field within education): pursue it as a side project. You have a background and connections in this field, which is extremely important. Education is a notoriously difficult market to crack without some leads, and even then it could take years.

If you feel you need a set amount of time to complete this (say, a few months full time) then see if you could take a leave of absence from your current employer. If you're already on your way out for whatever reason, see if you can find some contract work on the side while you build this. You could even score some contracts within the edu industry which will also serve to build relationships toward your product offering.

[byoung2]

I can't take time off from work right now (1 month old baby at home, and my wife is taking time off from work), so it would have to be a night and weekend thing for now. The reason I floated the Kickstarter option is that I could buy a few months off with any money raised there. The problem as you correctly pointed out is that education is tough to break into...universities are hard to convince, and school districts are notoriously difficult to deal with. The WordPress model I alluded to involves going directly to the teachers. I think that's where the real potential lies.

[mtrimpe]

Something I still wish I had done for my current startup is pitching the idea to the companies it can benefit most and offer them to work on it freelance for half your usual rate while keeping full IP.

That would allow you to work on your startup, validate the idea and providing income.

And if it doesn't work out you've learned a lot just by having a couple of talks with highly relevant influencers in your target market.

I haven't read it yet, but Never Eat Alone might apply well here...