We're told to skip small deals and start big. What about lending?

[Scott V.]

Hey everyone, first post on BP but been lurking for a bit. 

I know many people on here have started their REI journey with single family and other small investments. Some "gurus" out there say to skip the small stuff and go big from the start. This strategy makes sense to me because of the value of my time as well as my ability to fund down payments on medium size properties (10-20 unit apartment buildings in C areas). Economies of scale and lesser buyer competition come together to make a $1M apartment building make much more sense than a $70k SF home.

What these gurus never seem to mention however is how someone starting out is supposed to secure commercial lending when the requirements are so much different than residential. The main obstacles seem to be net worth and experience. I'm a relatively young (29) professional (dentist) and have high future net worth and income potential but I've only been out of school for a year and have low net worth and experience. Given these limitations, am I going to be constrained to the following options?

1) Be forced to start investing in small deals that will earn me negligible monthly cashflow to gain "experience" in the eyes of commercial lenders

2) Continue to sack away capital year after year until I have cash reserves that will allow me to obtain a commercial loan

I have heard some people say that they found co-signers on the loan who have high net worth but the last thing I want to do is approach family or friends with this when so many of them are also young professionals with little net worth or are highly leveraged and busy business owners. 

Any advice is welcome  and you won't hurt my feelings if you call me a complete dumbass. I'm trying to learn as fast as I can.