https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18527510

After that post I'm considering applying for grants from organizations like Mozilla, Alfred P. Sloan, Knight Ridder, etc.

The app I'm developing doesn't really lend itself to being financially supported by corporations like the way Google supports Kubernetes.

Polar (https://getpolarized.io) is a personal document repository for PDF and web content and supports offline caching of pages locally for annotation and syncs with Anki for flashcard support. It's designed so that students and researchers can maintain their own personal knowledge repository for their entire life - not just while they're in school.

Most people forget 80% of what they learned while taking classes. I want to change that - mostly because I want to be the smartest guy in the room and I dislike forgetting things - which is only human.

The problem is that the grant application process is LONG. I suspect if I applied now I'm not going to see any money to support Polar for at least six months.

There HAS to be a middle path here. Technology just moves too fast to wait six months and it seems like there must be a better option.

Additionally, I would LOVE advice from anyone who has gone down the grant application process before. Specifically:

- Can I apply for more than one grant at the same time?

- How much work is involved in the grants. Many people were saying that you have to network and basically get your grant pre-approved by networking before it's actually approved by a committee. Seems like a ton of work.

Raising angel funding is another option but it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation right now as our initial user base isn't big enough to attract and angel. This might change soon (hopefully) as I'm trying to grow the community as fast as possible.