Ask HN: I don't know how to raise money. How should I?

Where are you based? This will have a large impact on your next steps. Don't cold call VCs, that isn't the way to go. Go through your network. Maybe even leveraging the network of your clients, if you have a good enough relationship with them.

Do a bit of research into the VCs/Angels in your area. Find out who they are, what sorts of businesses they like. Get on angellist. Build a network there. Talk to people. Keep working. If you've got B2B customers and money coming in, focus on that. For most companies, that is more important than raising a first round of funding, assuming you can continue to bootstrap. The more money you have coming in and the longer you go without, the better leverage you'll have with investors, and possibly an easier conversation.

You say you need the money to scale and grow quickly, but are you sure you need to scale and grow quickly? There are definitely some businesses that do need this, but not all. It's easy to get caught up in the excitement and think 'I need money to scale', but what specifically do you need the money to do? Hardware is so cheap at the moment, and you're a developer, so those costs are minor. If you think you need money to scale with marketing, you don't at this stage. Wait a month, or two.

I've started the fundraising dance, and worked for a VC on a few of their start-ups, and I can tell you that it is very time consuming.

As far as getting a co-founder, everybody says to do it, but that isn't so easy either. Start looking.

Basically, my advice would be to network as much as possible, and get as much advice and help as you can. See what you can do with favours and such, without going for funding right away.

See if you can build your business to 10,000 a month. That may mean getting somebody to help you out, and that may mean sharing equity with that person. It doesn't necessarily mean they are a co-founder. Co-founders and employees are very different animals.

Congrats on taking the first promising steps with your new venture. Best of luck.

Move to the Bay Area. The actual financial EVs are strongly in your favor starting here over anywhere else. Your family might be far more open to the idea of moving here than you think. Ask them. A lot of people, including kids, have been properly convinced by the media that California is kind of awesome.

I think Oakland is the best place to actually build a company while raising a family here right now, by a long shot. The Oakland hills are fantastically livable, and the city of Oakland desperately wants you to start a successful company that will eventually want a waterfront corporate campus in the redeveloped area around 5th Avenue east of Jack London Square. However, your initial fundraising will happen in San Francisco and Mountain View, so San Mateo is the cheap, nice, developed, delicious, urban core halfway between San Francisco and Mountain View.

Befriend the leaders of companies that are leading angel and venture funded companies. Instead of asking for money, ask for advice.

Sign up for https://angel.co, fill it out, follow your friends and people you're a fan of.

Apply to incubators, including YC, for the experience of getting rejected from incubators while psyching yourself up for the experience of getting rejected by angel investors and honing your short form pitch.

Does your business school ever invest directly in companies founded by startups, or is there a group of alumni investors? Ask.

Do any of your well-paid coworkers and bosses from your previous job want to invest and live vicariously through you?

I like 1.5 million as a totally arbitrary amount you should raise.

You have an MBA, can't you leverage that network? maybe some of your classmates has some insight, or maybe there's a university service that helps new companies (there is one at the university where I did mine).

I would definitely try to network as much as I could, go to startup events, meetups, demos, etc. though your product isn't at the demo stage.

I think pedalpete's advice is good as well.

Why do you need to raise money if you already have customers lining up to pay?

It sounds a bit like you are on the verge of making money from what you know how to do and instead of just doing that, you're trying to do something you don't know how to do first.

What is wrong with bootstrapping for now, focusing on delivery, and fundraising (or not) later?

The end goal of any business is not fundraising, but cashflow.