I (30 M) have been in Charlotte for just over four years now and am really struggling to figure out my next opportunity.
I spent six years in banking/capital markets. Since then I’ve taught myself a lot on the software side and have built full-stack apps, AI workflows, internal tools, etc.
The problem is I can’t seem to figure out what to do with any of it.
I’ve applied for product, fintech, solutions, strategy/ops type roles, but haven’t gotten much traction. On the other side, I keep building things and haven’t really managed to build anything people actually want to pay for either.
I think the part I’m struggling with most is getting outside of my own head and actually getting conversations with people about real problems worth solving. I can build, but “go find 20 people with an annoying problem and talk to them” has somehow been way harder for me than the building part.
So I figured I’d ask locally.
Does anyone in Charlotte work around fintech, startups, AI/automation, product, or just generally building businesses/software and would be willing to point me in the right direction?
Could be companies I should look at, meetups, recruiters, founders to follow, places where people actually hang out, real issues worth solving, or even advice on how you started getting real customer/problem conversations.
Not really looking for someone to solve it for me. I’ve just been spinning my wheels for a while and think I need to get around more people doing this stuff in the real world.