- Ask yourself first, do I want a huge piece of a small pie, or a tiny piece of a really huge pie? Keeping ownership yourself will give you a bigger piece of the pie, but will limit how big the pie can be. Giving ownership away to investors can make the pie way bigger, but you just have a smaller slice in it.
- Look into SBIR grants or SBA loans
- See if there are any state funds for small businesses for growing a business in the state
- Look into an incubator. Their whole purpose is to get funding for businesses
- Angel investors are a good place to start for something in the $200k - $2M range, but be ready to turn offers down if you think they are asking for too much
- Try to get a first round of convertible notes instead of straight equity financing.
- Be cautious with early investors if you think you may need more money down the road. We had an angel investor demand a non-dilute clause in his investment, and our lawyer told us that would mean nobody else would be willing to invest in future rounds, so we turned him down
- Be ready for intense due diligence by those investors. You said you are comfortable with your pitch and can offer returns. Be prepared to have that looked at from every angle by professionals whose sole job is to prove that you are full of crap. You have to be able to defend your claims or you will get nothing

Above all, protect your equity right now. If you can get some people to give you cash for a convertible note, do it. If you can get people to loan you money without taking any equity, do it (as long as you can service that debt and still have cash flow, because cash flow right now should be your #1 priority). If you can do a crowdsourcing campaign that doesn't take any equity, do it. Then, if you find an angel investor who is reasonable, has some resources to help you get off the ground, look into it but do so carefully. And finally, as a last resort, turn to venture capital. They should only be looked at as the mafia loan shark when you have nobody else to go to. They probably won't even let you in the door unless you are asking for $2M+, and they will take an arm and a leg and part of your soul to give it to you.