Selling your holdings to finance the project is not an ideal solution, but I'm afraid there isn't any. However, I think you have to acknowledge the fact, that you as developers are in a special position and selling your funds shouldn't happen the "regular" way. I think, a good solution would be, to 1.: Announce your intention to sell part of your funds at a certain time and tell how much you are planning to sell, 2.: probably not use a regular exchange, but rather sell them directly to people, maybe via an auction.