I know what you mean about not wanting VC’s. Angel investors are much better! I quite easily raised $1M to start up a small company in 1998, but didn’t end up taking the money because the Japanese economy (where I was starting the company) took a downturn and I wanted to sit it out. I know of a company that has had multiple $25M rounds of investment cash from a single, super-wealthy Kuwaiti oil prince.
I’m my own consulting company and have been since y2k. I do ASIC deisgn, mostly for wireless. Last year I started a movie production company on the side.
