Me too. Or at least that's what I think you would call what I'm attempting to do. Different from hiring or getting hired as a code monkey. Perhaps we should talk in private.
What exactly are you guys calling a "start up hedge fund?" Are you trying to assemble group of traders with complementary strategies or just looking for OPM? Or both?
I'm working on my own money and in Romanian we have a saying, "you can't steal your own hat". Anyone looking for other people's money has no place on this thread. Including as an employee or contractor, as disgustingly observed everytime someone makes the slightest hint of offering money instead of asking for them. What I'm attempting to do is pretty rational, I wanna break free from slavery. For that I need: 1) Money. Don't have enough or I wouldn't have to slave for them. 2) Relevant Knowledge. If I had enough of that ("beat the market"), then solving #1 would be easy. 3) Time not Wasted on Slavery. If I had enough of that, then solving #2 would be easy. But due to the lack of #1, most of my time and most importantly, all my prime time is spent slaving for just enough money to buy me time to slave indefinitely, never #2. If I make the slightest of an attempt, in your glorious capitalist system, at pointing out the viciousness and unfairness of the system, I'm getting fucked worse than my father was during communist times. Back then, like now, they fired your wise ass. But back then they also re-hired you (well, for a lesser position but at least you didn't starve). Now it's only go fuck yourself and starve, smartass. 4) And finally, what buys #3? #1. Vicious circle completed. I have a tiny little bit of #4, some scraps of #3 and some 30 years worth of savings in #2 (I could never had gotten where I am if I didn't start early, and I only realized that around the age of 10). a) What I want is to break free from slavery. b) What I'll do is find other Spartacus-alikes and ally myself with them. c) What will come out of this will hopefully not be another bloodbathed (#b) #communism or #capitalism.
Scarcity vs. Abundance is the choice you make in your mind. It's going to sound preachy, but I think you are making it harder on yourself than necessary. "You are exactly where you need to be." - Zen saying.
So true. OP would attract more opportunity just by simply changing his attitude. With his current perspective he is only creating more of the same and attracting those with similar attitudes. The vicious cycle he describes is one of his own making and a self-fulfilling prophesy. He is not a slave to his job. At any moment he could quit. He disempowers his choice everyday. He has reasons not to quit which are rational. He could empower his choice to work and list all the benefits it provides. If he were simply to shift positional perspective with his employer and examine the attitude of an employee with an attitude as his current one, it would provide insight why he's not attracting the type of opportunities he sees as 'freedom from slavery.' There are tons of coders out there, what's he bringing to the table other than a piss poor attitude? The only logical outcome is that with his current attitude, he gets fired from his job which he unconsciously has a desire to achieve.