Sandra! So nice to hear from you here ❤️ ❤️
Great questions! I think the best way is to actually proactively try to help a company you're really interested in with something that you think they need, based on what you can learn about them online. The way I created my first job at another startup was just texting the founder a bunch of product improvements that I thought he should make. He ended up hiring me in a product role even though I'd never done it before and I'd never actually even worked at a startup before.
For example, someone could find a company you knew sold to a certain niche and and find some leads for them with suggested messaging for a GTM role. Or look at a company's website and send them feedback about how to improve it for a PMM or design role. These are the kinds of things that catch people's attention right away because you're already solving a problem and thinking critically about their business. That's really all people care about, I think, especially smart people in the startup world, where it's often the case that most people don't really have a background in what their current job is before. Hope that helps but lmk if you have more thoughts on this!
(For what it's worth I know this depends on the industry but I think startups in America, at least, are very open to this kind of approach, though older-school industries like finance, law, etc. or even startups abroad where norms are more formal might be different)
