u/ApplePrimary2985

I've always had a funny ability of gravitating towards strong characters.

I'm basically from the hood, grew up in lower-working class conditions, severely dysfunctional family, and rebuilt my life at 18 starting homeless. I managed to work and go to school, then eventually made it to a highly ranked university where my story started.

In college, I was introduced to a venture capitalist who exited out of his company into the NASDAQ. He became my first mentor, and we worked on a series of projects together. I was sort of a generalist for him. The most successful project was a $50M bond raise for building a hospital on indigenous lands.

We wrapped up the engagement after I graduated from college and had the opportunity to work for another successful entrepreneur who had also exited his company into the public markets. He is sort of notorious and well-known within his industry which manufacturers apparel in the US. At the time his new business was doing around ~$250M annual revenue and I worked on government contracts which was about 60% of revenues as a generalist for administrative work.

During the pandemic, I was approached by my first mentor who was launching a startup for turnkey healthcare facilities in frontier markets to establish and run COVID testing sites. This was at the time when each test kit received a premium from the federal government, so the economics were strong to host these centers. I offered to introduce him to my second mentor, who had multiple manufacturing locations with roughly ~3000 employees and needed this sort of testing program in place. My first mentor had offered a very high retainer agreement and a % of residuals on top-line. After I made the introduction and the project was approved, I requested the contract formalized and they froze me out completely. (I later discovered that the project flopped, the CFO stole the money, and the first mentor fled with $1M of investment capital - his LP called me inquiring his whereabouts but I had no knowledge.)

After that chaos, I went to work in corporate sales and discovered very quickly that it wouldn't offer the growth I desired. It felt more like adult daycare with an unmanageable amount of conspiracy and politics. The company I worked for had a notoriously toxic culture and reputation in market. They burned me on a commission check within the first eight months, so I left to pivot into first opportunity which paid six figure base, selling the equivalent of commodities into US market on behalf of offshore manufacturers.

The business was slow, boring and siloed but I had a lot of autonomy and downtime, so I started a consultancy for sales development which experienced some early traction. I helped startups develop their sales and marketing programs with the insights gleaned from working in past environments, hired workers across borders to delegate cold-calling, market discovery, and pipeline generation, then I caught a lucky break.

I met a founding MD to a large institutional investor. He offered to have me on as a finder if I could bring him one deal. I managed to do this within a couple months of manically networking and by a total long-shot the company secured a large capital commitment. It has been a 24+ month process with first distributions still pending but I am secured for compensation.

However, my network is exhausted, I am exhausted, and totally out of my depth. I have outgrown all of my contacts via friends, family, and business. I am trying to invest in my own education but feel scattered between too many things and unable to determine best course forward. The founding MD spoke about bringing me on full-time to work within their firm, claiming the contract was in final draft, then reneged earlier this year, not before burning me for $500k on another deal and torching a critical relationship I had developed to another multi B family office.

That being said, I just need a f*cking break. I am out on my ass again with some savings. I am trying to use my fee agreement to secure an advance for cash-flow but it's slow-going as I don't have the contacts/network for this. I am possibly picking up W2 work again after being laid off due to tariffs late last year and it's just not what I want to do.

I know the future is in personal branding and the creator economy. I've been looking at the economics of this. I have some relationships to firms which help with distribution and growth. I'm trying to expand this further but I'm open to all conversations.

Tl;dr not quite sure what I need, just taking a shot in the dark that someone with more insight reads and relates to this to help me out of whatever funk or period I am in.

God bless.

Opportunity to provide a short-duration advance against a high-upside contingent receivable tied to a live institutional transaction. Structured repayment comes from future deal proceeds with contractual documentation already in place and potential for an attractive risk-adjusted return.

If not here, please recommend parties which may be interested.

Opportunity to provide a short-duration advance against a high-upside contingent receivable tied to a live institutional transaction. Structured repayment comes from future deal proceeds with contractual documentation already in place and potential for an attractive risk-adjusted return. $30,000 minimum.

If not here, please recommend parties which may be interested.

Opportunity to provide a short-duration advance against a high-upside contingent receivable tied to a live institutional transaction. Structured repayment comes from future deal proceeds with contractual documentation already in place and potential for an attractive risk-adjusted return. $30,000 minimum.

I had a call with recruiter this morning that large and known company (which just underwent significant layoffs) wanted to "back-fill" for role which comes online in July. They said there were 4 rounds of interviews, one mock call and the last interview was a series of mock calls like 3 scenarios back-to-back to assess behavior. All the calls are recorded via AI. I am wondering if this is typical or a fishing expedition for training their AI models and corporate development on candidate knowledge?

The offer was interesting "Hourly rate where we ensure you're paid for overtime, RSUs which vest immediately and are paid quarterly, and fully remote." I've not heard of anything like this and the recruiter said the same. It feels like a carrot on a stick.

I had a call with recruiter this morning that large and known company (which just underwent significant layoffs) wanted to "back-fill" for role which comes online in July. They said there were 4 rounds of interviews, one mock call and the last interview was a series of mock calls like 3 scenarios back-to-back to assess behavior. All the calls are recorded via AI. I am wondering if this is typical or a fishing expedition for training their AI models and corporate development on candidate knowledge?

The offer was interesting "Hourly rate where we ensure you're paid for overtime, RSUs which vest immediately and are paid quarterly, and fully remote." I've not heard of anything like this and the recruiter said the same. It feels like a carrot on a stick.

tl;dr How do you guys go about finding work, positioning yourself correctly to companies and recruiters?

I've built a consultancy over a few years on a fee basis. I would collect a few minor retainers while working on larger commission-only deals. I managed to do one which will net a huge windfall in the coming year. My plan was to just continue pedaling-on with these small retainers working remotely or wherever until the larger check comes. However, I met a girl and now I'd like to get more stabilized.

Simultaneous to running my consultancy, I held W2 roles as Sales Manager for offshore manufacturers helping them develop their presence in the North American market (averaging around ~2 yrs at each; One was chinese-based and geopolitical tensions made me want to shift to Indian based co who made better offer.) The tariffs crushed their business Q3 2025 and I was laid off around that time. I wasn't in a rush to find new work as the industry/market wasn't looking great at the time anyways, I have some savings, and planned to take some time for myself. However, I got dragged into some shake-y startup from a headhunter which turned into a bust, I had an accident, and the bills are compiling faster than expected as a result of staying near the HCOL area rather than taking off abroad.

I am highly competent with GTM strategy and execution, territory discovery, sales management, running sales calls and closing on mid-market/enterprise business with a knowledge of corporate finance, private equity, and AI/technology. However, it's all seeming to be commodified with the noise of this AI hype-cycle. I recognize there's some validity, most is b*llshit.

Within the last 2 months, I started a new engagement with a fintech startup who is mid-raise but they overstated their stage in the round and have only closed about half which is going to service existing operations meaning they can't afford to pay me for services yet. It may change in the next 2-3 months and I have a large opportunity in pipeline, but still, can't wait around. I used the time to build agents and enterprise app for qualification, reducing a lot of the busy work, and struck up another retainer agreement for a rep which is using my system to build his book of business. However, it's minimal.

How do you guys go about finding work, positioning yourself correctly to companies and recruiters?

I'm trying to hunt for roles which can leverage my connections and experience in finance but it seems less viable as I'm non-institutional having worked with buy-side FOs, intermediaries, and now this startup. However, I do have a lot of contacts to pubco CEOs, CFOs, and C-suite which could be viable. Is it worth mentioning in the resume? Do I build a portfolio which just gives away my entire strategy when it comes to this stuff?