I feel this deeply, finishing school with big ideas and no safety net is exciting and scary at the same time, I’ve been there with two half-built apps, family urging a job, and past spend that didn’t pan out, I remember staring at a blank runway and wondering who to trust and how to not get copied. What finally helped in my early builds was shrinking scope to one killer use case, getting ten real users to pay or pre-commit, and using those receipts and metrics to open doors, that shift turned conversations with investors from hope to proof and the fear of copying dropped because traction beats secrecy. Start with a simple funding ladder: validate with a lean build, then tap MSME benefits like government grants, startup schemes, and subsidized loans, Indian MSME status can unlock credit guarantees and incentives, which are faster than equity asks at idea stage. Price the raise by mapping 6 months of essentials only: one dev or designer contractor, hosting, and user acquisition, then add 20 percent buffer, convert that to a small pre-seed target and pair it with milestones like 1k MAU or 50 paid pilots, investors fund clear milestones not headcount. Protect the idea with practical steps: share problems and outcomes, not full architecture, use short NDAs for deep dives with potential partners, ship fast and build a moat through distribution, community, and data, copying is common, out-learning the market wins. For speed without big cash, hire part-time specialists, use revenue share or milestone-based contracts, and recruit a trusted technical or product collaborator with clear vesting, it spreads load without heavy upfront burn. From a coach who built and scrapped multiple lean products before finding traction, this is doable, the persistence shown so far and getting MSME registered are smart moves, keep that bias to ship and focus on one app first. A clear milestone plan turns no into not yet. Austin Erkl - Entrepreneur Coach