I’ve considered switching jobs, postdocs, master’s programs, a second PhD, and shared research facilities. However, jobs and postdocs may require existing expertise, master’s programs may offer insufficient hands-on training, and independent equipment access can be prohibitively expensive (and even then, access alone may not provide the necessary training).
Are there any other realistic ways to retrain in experimental fields that require specialized equipment and can’t be learned at home?
Once you have reviews and other people say its plausible, you can go present to VCs and acquire the funding.
Also, building subscale POCs could be a good option depending on your idea and help cut down costs significantly, especially if you can use or modify COTS parts to make it work for the POC.
For example, when Rocket Labs was starting out they salvaged components from junk yards and so on to keep costs down like paying $5 for a used valve and refurbishing it rather than pay $100 for a new one (Peter has talked about this in various interviews).
lrvick•1h ago