On: So you "just need a hacker", huh?

[carpal]

Well, funding is a different matter. If a beef-headed M.B.A. actually has some funding, they might actually be worth listening to.

However, 99% of the time they don't have funding, they've (at best) got "strong interest from investors" or some such.

[brk → carpal]

I wouldn't get distracted by funding, especially angel funding, which is what you'll typically find at the very early stages.

Beef-headed MBA's went to school with other beef-heads, and might know a few people who know a few people. Scraping up $1M is not terribly difficult when you know a few people. Put another way, one of my favorite quotes is "A fool and his money are soon venture capital".