Alternative Financing for Pre-Revenue Commodity Trading Startup

I'm American.

My startup is in the physical commodity trading space.

We originate goods in third world countries.

Our "edge" = the contacts/contracts we have in origin countries.

I need to raise $1mm but we have no real assets or revenue to borrow against.

Seed capital isn't an option, went down that route. US based "angel" investors just aren't sophisticated enough to consider non tech investments. Same with VC firms.

Recently, an EU based friend of mine put me in contact with a BDM of a small financial advisory firm. The BDM pitched me on issuing an unregulated bond. I'm interested, but unregulated bonds (to my limited knowledge) aren't a thing here in America, so I don't know much about what this will entail.

I know it will be a junk bond, with a high coupon. I also know the financial advisory firm will take a significant percentage.

Any WSOers with unregulated bond experience?