This is an admittedly ambitious project

As I wrote about elsewhere, I don't think others can GENUINELY steal my ideas. They can potentially shaft me out of getting credit and also negatively impact my ability to get traction, but they cannot do what I would do with this if I can somehow breathe life into it and make it real.

Having dealt with having my ideas stolen previously, I'm not really worried that someone else can read my Elevator Pitch and make what I want to make -- though they might make some kind of cheap knockoff version and it may harm me and my efforts to make this happen.

What I am concerned about, which might convince VCs to NOT fund me, is the following:

1. I set out to learn to code over 15 years ago and still can't code, though I do know HTML, CSS and run quite a few websites. So I probably can't do the website all on my own or, if I can, it could potentially take years to make it happen.

I've been on Hacker News a long time. People who have an idea and want to hire someone else to make the tech tend to fail. People who decide to learn to make the tech themselves sometimes actually succeed.

2. I'm a fashion industry outsider. This means I lack experience and connections.

Maybe this matters less than I fear. I believe what I'm doing is radically different from current models for selling clothes online 

It's possibly for the best that I have no familiarity with how it's done currently. That could amount to baggage and mental clutter getting in my way.

3. I know a fair amount about sewing, etc, and tried my hand at sewing, crocheting and so on, but never really got the hang of it and I have no firsthand experience with knitting machines. I am concerned that not only will other people be unable to create what I envision, I also will be unable to do so.

My concept of HOW to start this has long been that I get access to a knitting machine and play around with it, learn to use it and develop clothes for myself that I like, THEN start a clothing line based on that.

I have long been subscribed to emails for an affordable knitting machine brand because I'm not exactly rolling in dough, and my impression is I probably need something higher end to pull this off.

I also fantasized for a time that I would get that community development job they kept telling me for two years or so I might have another shot at and as part of that job, set up a Maker Space that included a knitting machine and that would be my means to learn to use a knitting machine and develop pieces of clothing I like and am willing to wear. And I imagined that, as happened with Brenda French, founder of French Rags, people would go "Where did you get that?!" and that would lead to sales and, voila, a clothing line would be born.

When I asked about pain points in online clothes shopping, someone with an apparently new clothing business commented. Thirteen years later, their URL does not go to any kind of clothing store. I have no delusions that I'm guaranteed to succeed.

I've been interested in running a business of my own since my teens, which is over four decades. As part of that, I've read a lot about gender differences in how business founders approach business.

Among other things:

Men tend to get financing which can help them grow the business. Women tend to not and tend to follow a "pay as you go" model which helps suppress business growth.

Men are much more likely to pursue "startups" as defined by YC: Businesses with substantial growth potential that can make them rich. 

Women are much more likely to pursue "lifestyle businesses" that allow them to put family first and making money second.

At least that's how most people think of it. I think it's more complicated than that, but the reality is women tend to have smaller business footprints, work from home, etc.

An interesting "exception" to this rule is that Lucille Ball and her husband started the I Love Lucy show as a lifestyle business that revolutionized the TV industry and was as game changing as Star Wars was, both technically and in myriad other ways.

It was a lifestyle business in that they started the show because they wanted to start a family. Their careers were making that impossible -- she was shooting movies on location and he was traveling with his band -- and even TV shows of the day were not conducive to family life.

So they started their own show and did things radically differently from the rest of the industry. 

It took a while to make that happen. Before they started the TV show, they went on the road together to do a stage version because industry insiders insisted an American audience would never accept a White woman and Cuban man as an American couple, so they first needed proof of concept and evidence that they could attract an audience.

At that time, TV shows were done live on both the East and West coasts, so actors essentially did a live stage show twice in one day three hours apart. The two time zones between the coasts got a poor quality recording that wasn't archival quality. In other words, it wouldn't keep well and preserve the show for future viewing.

This was a grueling schedule for cast and crew and absolutely not family friendly for a couple in their forties wanting to have kids together.

Lucille Ball and her husband, Desi Arnaz, were both very talented. They wanted both better working conditions so they could have a family and eat dinner with their kids and also better quality work than the TV industry produced at that time.

The reason I Love Lucy has been seen so much in reruns for many years is because it was the very first TV show to create archival quality footage for every single show. They did that so that they performed once before a live studio audience and broadcast the same show to all US time zones.

In order to achieve that, they pioneered filming with three cameras to not miss anything and choose the best angle in editing. My understanding is this remains the industry standard.

They created the rerun almost accidentally because as a woman in her forties and pregnant for the first time, Lucy couldn't sustain the shooting schedule for doing a weekly show. She needed regular bedrest to not lose the baby.

So they repeated previously aired episodes when it took them two weeks to finish an episode instead of one. Ironically, this helped make the show extremely popular because latecomers were able to catch up on previous episodes in an era without VCRs, DVDs or YouTube.

Desi Arnaz had a home office so he could put in very long hours revolutionizing an industry and still eat dinner with his wife and kids. They were at the studio all day, went home for dinner with the kids and then he continued working from home late into the evening and on weekends.

I have a serious medical condition and that's a primary motive for wanting to design my own clothing line. I want clothes that can accommodate my condition and still look great and I simply cannot find both currently.

I'm clear I need this to be "a lifestyle business" that allows me to work as I see fit. If I can work on my terms, I can be consistently productive. If I can't work on my terms, the whole thing will fall apart.

I have a Certificate in GIS from the most respected GIS program in the world. I completed a one year program in an eight week summer boot camp and made As and Bs in all classes.

This was made possible in part because I was newly diagnosed, so the school gave me the handicapped dorm room next to the elevator, two floors up from my classes. Most other people had dorm rooms in other buildings.

One day, I came back from lunch, realized the rest of the afternoon was reserved for finishing the assignment I turned in before lunch and asked if I could be excused as I didn't feel well. My professor indicated I needed to finish my assignment, I reminded him I had already given it to him and he did a double take, then gave me permission to leave for the afternoon.

In possibly the same class, I consistently answered the math questions, immediately raising my hand, that most students couldn't answer. My Egyptian professor, whom I got along with very well and we chatted in French at times, asked me so often "How do you know that?" a male classmate eventually blurted in exasperation "She's obviously already worked it out in her head."

He was so fond of me and so unable to wrap his head around me being the strongest math person in class, I concluded he had trouble understanding math spoken with a female accent and that most people I met of either gender would be surprised at my knowledge of math, having never met a woman strong in math before. So I decided to never make an issue out of anyone having trouble believing that.

So, I know I can excel under the right conditions and these are some of my requirements:

1. I need to arrange a live-work space that allows me to be productive on my terms.

2. I need to acquire a high end knitting machine and get training in how to use it.

3. I need time to play with the machine and develop pieces in accordance with my vision.

4. I need to develop the website, which I'm effectively already working on with this mockup, but to turn this into the business I envision I need to learn to code and develop the tech piece for creating the wardrobe of your dreams on the website and then ordering it.

I have never gotten VC money before. I have no idea if those requirements play well with VC expectations and I'm a complete unknown and industry outsider.

Not exactly holding my breath here while I plug away at this and foresee potentially going the traditionally girly business founders route of bootstrapping something small that won't ruin me financially if it fails.