How to get funding for a startup depends heavily on your goals for the company, where the company is at, whether it is a business with early cash flow or something that will need to scale in order to start driving revenues. If you have friends and family with money, that is the easiest place to start. It's also a good way to gauge your pitch and ability to get people excited because if you can't get your former rich boss who likes you to invest, you're going to have a hell of a time getting a stranger to.

Most startup founders start to think about fundraising far too early. These days, unless you have a tremendous professional background and an idea that is in your area of expertise, most investors will want to see a working product with customers/traction before they will write a check. Fundraising too early can be a tremendous waste of time and can burn your contacts if they think you are delusional about where the company is at and whether it is investable.

You can look into government grants, pitch competitions and other sources of revenue. You can also try to find paying customers whose need for your service is so bad that they would be willing to pay to help you develop it.

There are too many variables on this to provide a concise answer. Feel free to schedule a call with me if you want to provide more details and get better feedback.