@rahulchhabra07: Funding routes: NSF grants, a $50M raise, skipping VC

The US government will give your startup up to $1.55M and take 0% equity. @NSF's America's Seed Fund is open again after Congress reauthorized it in April. Three tracks: - Phase I: up to $305K to prove the idea - Phase II: up to $1.25M to build it - Fast-Track: up to $1.55M, both phases in one go Who can apply: - US-based startups with 500 or fewer employees - 51%+ owned by US citizens or permanent residents - Not majority owned by VCs - All the work done in the US How it works: - Send a 3-page Project Pitch first - NSF invites the best ones to submit a full proposal - Next full proposal deadline: Nov 4 Phase I funding rates have run about 10 to 20%. It's work, but nobody takes your cap table. Application link 👉 https://t.co/f5CcZoC1bf Bookmark and tag a tech founder who needs this.

Mark Cuban says if he were 20 today, he'd skip venture capital entirely. His reasoning: a $100K/month AI consulting business for small businesses beats chasing a 0.1% VC lottery ticket. The math is brutal and obvious once you say it out loud. Most founders spend years grinding for a shot at diluted equity, a 10-year exit, and a 95% failure rate. Cuban is pointing at a different path — one where AI tools let a 20-year-old build real cash flow fast, without giving up ownership or control. The contrarian insight isn't "consulting is underrated." It's that the AI moment has made consulting scalable in ways it never was before. One person can now deliver what used to take an agency. $100K/month is $1.2M/year. Profitable from day one. No board. No cap table. No begging for a Series A. That's the business Cuban wishes he'd had access to at 20.