u/Swami218 wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
Codesmith has scholarships you may qualify for. You sound like a great fit for them. One of your projects could be a version of what you’re trying to build
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
Yeah that's not a bad idea if you can wrap up all up before YC. There's no way in heck you could do anyting, including sleeping, after starting YC.
But you might also find some cofounders or contract employees through Codesmith alumni and they are making a bigger push for this kind of thing.
Working at startups for free/part time/contractor is a great way for bootcamp grads to get experience.
From my experience it's a terrible way to build a company because of the lack of experience of those people. But if you are a startup and have no funding and no experienced friends to help, I know a number of fresh Codesmith grads who don't have jobs, can't get interviews and this kind of thing would be potentially a win win.
There are some grads and alumni who are actually starting to do this! I've heard of two cases myself.
Side note from longstanding discussion about Fanzter :P, u/Swami218 Eric actually did a [blog](https://www.codesmith.io/blog/an-interview-on-entrepreneurship-with-codesmith-sr.-advisor-eric-kirsten) post where he clarified that Fanzter was not sold to Disney, that it didn't do that well and he left long before it closed up shop, and that Disney acquired IP and two engineers but did not acquire Fanzter or Coolspotters in any capacity. I also spoke to two of the three final employees and this aligns with there version. Although the "IP" in question seemed vague as the employees just worked on ESPN and one beleived it was a formality to pay back Fanzter's investors as ESPN wanted to hire the final two employees.