This is obvious, but please consider applying to YC—if accepted, it will not only give you initial funding, but increase your chance of obtaining further funding, even in a down market.
Less obvious, so worth adding: if you don't get accepted, keep applying for future batches. Repeat applications are more likely to get funded. The main thing is to demonstrate progress since the last time you applied.
Edit: also, YC is very invested in not overlooking applications from compelling founders who don't have any elite or industry connections. It's one place where you can prove yourself based on how good you are, not who you know. Not that YC is perfect in that respect, but it's something people here really care about and have a lot of practice with.
Edit 2: these recent comments from pg are also relevant:
I’m about to leave my job to work on a fashion startup with my husband. There are some technical aspects to the business that I am building into products, but my immediate focus is to get his clothing store online.
I know the product(s) I want to build will be compelling, but my concern is not having enough cash to hire a small team.
At what point is it best to apply? After you have a working application environment? After you have 1-2 people on your team?
I’ve also raised from Amplify and can confirm that they’re some of the most helpful investors I’ve worked with. They helped with strategy, intros, and subsequent rounds.
Second this, and not just for fashion. I went through amplify.LA at our geospatial analytics startup, Mapsense. The amplify folks were some of our best investors.
https://apply.ycombinator.com/
Less obvious, so worth adding: if you don't get accepted, keep applying for future batches. Repeat applications are more likely to get funded. The main thing is to demonstrate progress since the last time you applied.
Edit: also, YC is very invested in not overlooking applications from compelling founders who don't have any elite or industry connections. It's one place where you can prove yourself based on how good you are, not who you know. Not that YC is perfect in that respect, but it's something people here really care about and have a lot of practice with.
Edit 2: these recent comments from pg are also relevant:
https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1538223184679403521
https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1538224086123483142