Home / Articles / Fund it with time: what a startup needs most is time, the best place to find it is the job you have, and money is only ever a way to buy more of it

Fund it with time: what a startup needs most is time, the best place to find it is the job you have, and money is only ever a way to buy more of it

By Dinis Cruz · 2026-10-19 · article v1.0.0 · newsroom v0.12.132 · startupsfundingfounderstimegen-z-bookarticle

Abstract: How do you fund a startup? My answer starts with what a startup needs most, which is time. A startup is like a work of art: it is all-consuming, you have to love it and lose yourself in it, and making money should be a side effect of being good at it, not the reason. So the question is how to find as much time as you can while earning a living. The best alignment is to make money around the area you want to go into, and the best start is your own revenue stream: make the work you already do more effective, or sell to people you already know, because if you are not solving a real problem you are chasing shadows. You have more time than you think: stop watching streaming. In a weird way, the best place to start a company is while you are employed, because the constraint makes you focus, and if you are good, many employers would rather have you part time than lose you. I did exactly that. It is still a gamble. I paid off all my debt, started my GenAI startup and went back into debt, and I am using the money from an exit to pay myself instead of taking an executive role. Debt is paying someone to buy your time. What you do not want is regret.

In short

• A startup needs time first. Money is a means to buy it.
• It is a work of art. All-consuming; money should be the side effect, not the motive.
• Start with your own revenue stream. Make the work you already do better, and sell to people you know.
• You have more time than you think. Stop watching streaming.
• The best place to start is in a job. The constraint makes you focus.
• Ask for part time. A good employer would rather have half of you than none.
• It is a gamble, and debt is buying time. I went back into debt to do this.
• Avoid regret. There has never been a better time to start.

Time first

How do you fund a startup? It is a personal question, and the answer depends on a lot of circumstances; I have lived through several of them. But I think it starts with this: the most important thing a startup needs is time.

And you have to accept that it will become an obsession. The way I look at it, a founder is like a creator, an artist. It has to be all-consuming. You have to be passionate about it, lose yourself in it, love it. That is why, in my book, making money from it should never be your motivation. Making money should be a side effect of being successful at it, which is why I think so much about how you structure it, how you map it with open source, and how you make the most of your ideas. I guess my roots in music connect there.

So the question is not where the money comes from. It is how you find as much time as you can, while, in most cases, still earning a living. I have always seen money as a means to an end.

Start with your own revenue stream

The best alignment is when you start to make money around the area you want to go into. You are always learning, and you are using the technology you are excited about to make the money.

That is why I think being profitable, working inside something you already work on, is always the best model. You already have a revenue stream, and you start by making it more effective. Even if that is all you achieve, it is already a major success: you increased your revenue, you enjoy what you do more, and you became much more productive.

So that is what I always recommend first. Do not go looking for companies. Look at what you are already doing, or what people you know are doing, and sell it to them. If you are not solving a real problem, you are going to chase shadows. That can work, but it is much more difficult. And sell it early: can you sell it?

You have more time than you think

If you are good enough to be thinking of creating a startup, you are probably already successful at something, or you have few expenses, and you have this drive to create. If you have no time at all, you cannot do this. But most of us have more than we think. Do not watch streaming. There is always time in your life; the question is how you use it.

The best place to start is in a job

In a weird way, the best place to start a company is while you are already employed. You have an income, so you have time. And the constraint on your time is actually good: it makes you focus on what matters, and ship it.

The way to do it safely is to work in the open from the start, tell your managers, keep it on separate machines, and never compete with your employer. That is the subject of open source what you build.

Ask for part time

Many companies, depending on your role, will be more than happy to reduce your time. I literally did that. I was working at a company and said: I would like to build things. I am happy here, but we have run out of things for me to build. So instead of leaving, I would like to go part time, fewer days a week, and do another gig. They were fine with it, because I gave them a good solution.

So go to your boss and say: I would like to explore this, it is something I need to do. Assuming they are happy with you, most would much rather have you half the time than not at all, because replacing you is a nightmare. And if you are not in that position, maybe you should leave anyway: time is too short, and you should be somewhere that matches your skills.

It is a gamble

Ultimately it is a gamble. You will move out of your comfort zone, and you might get into debt. I did. Ironically, I had finally paid off all my debt and got back into the black, and then I started my GenAI startup and went straight back into debt. It does not matter. Debt is a means to an end: you are paying somebody to buy your time, and if you succeed, you clear it.

I was also fortunate to have had an exit from a company I worked for. I could have used that money for other things. I have been using it to pay myself, so that I do not have to take a CISO role or an executive role, and can do what I have wanted to do. That is why I am so happy. It is a choice, and a risk I am taking, but it comes from that urge to create, which is what I feel I am: a creator.

Investment is a different decision, and it should come later, when you are profitable and know what you are building; sell, don't issue is how I think that deal should look.

Avoid regret

What you do not want is regret: to look back and say, if only I had tried. As I say in the book, this is a unique time to be alive, and there has never been a better time to create a company. That does not make it easy. There is a lot of competition, because the pool of people who can do it is now much wider. But if you are the expert in your problem, you have the advantage.

What this does not claim

• This is my path, not a plan for everyone. Debt and an exit are personal circumstances.
• Part time depends on your role and employer. It worked for me because I offered a good solution.
• Debt is a real risk. It buys time only if you can carry it.
• This is not financial advice.

Where this comes from

A voice memo from me on 19 October 2026, written for this newsroom and for the book, Generation ZX Founders (GenAI Edition). Related: open source what you build, can you sell it?, start a company, sell, don't issue, the expert founders. Written up and checked by this site's agent, newsroom.writer; the editorial responsibility is mine.

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