I am already familiar with most of what you said here and I am not a first-time founder with an assumption that I need to raise money. I have taken steps to prove that the business I am building is something users want, generated revenue without a product, and only looking for the fund to develop a product and execute a clear, proven GTM strategy.

"Learning about investing is a huge time sink. " - honestly found these lines here insightful and helpful.

Here is a secret, YC is highly biased depending on countries. Where I am from, only one company was able to make it into the YC with founders from a US educational background, and in-person meetings with partners. Population-wise this country ranks #8. Not that it matters for me as mine is a product targeted for the internet population globally. But you get the point, YC is not much welcoming to most SE/SEA countries.

So we are left with local angels. Now, these people got their own businesses and believe wholeheartedly they know better when it comes to startup investing.

"AFAIK a SAFE valuation is the valuation when the shares convert during an A round - after you have built the business. The point of a SAFE is so you don’t have to value the business now." - This is exactly what can solve the problem. I don't want to value my business now, in fact, it's even better if we don't put a valuation cap at all. But the angels we talk, like to know their ownership when investing in %.

To simplify, let's imagine I share a valuation cap and this is when things get ugly. For example, "So you have $1.6K MRR and you are looking for a valuation of $1M? You are delusional."

How can I make them read all those YC blogs/conferences when they are familiar with traditional valuations and not willing to correct existing learnings? With revenue multiples, there is no simple way to value my company today. But I need $100K to build now and am ready to offer you 10% in the future. "Nah, this is not for me, I want 50%." - response from angels, wasting both of our time.

Bootstrapping is what favorable at this point and I am doing this already. But that comes with the problem of going too slow - fulfilling the orders manually, charging a higher fee (~$1K/order), finding leads, and running a sales process. Which can be a good lifestyle business for surviving but not enough to get a product developed and grow faster.

Anyway, truly appreciate the valuable advice shared in detail. Likely I have no ways other than bootstrapping at this point.