The easiest criteria for becoming an accredited investor is to be a millionaire. So I'm assuming from your post that you are not a millionaire. Startup investing is very high risk, and if you can buy a meaningful stake in one startup, your odds are actually worse than the roulette table. So you need to invest in multiple startups without going broke, and for that you probably should be at least a millionaire. Regulations stopped you from doing something foolish.

If you take that money you've been saving and invest it in something more conventional, it won't explode 100x overnight but you'll definitely get somewhere.