Title: I am a single founder who has put a lot of work into the product that I have.<p>Joining up with a YC type system wasn't going to happen for me for various reasons so I instead sought after some small investment money from individuals and that has worked for me.  I am about to close another round and I wanted to share the document I used this time and the formula that I believe will work for people like myself:<p>The Formula:<p>1. Create a version that works good enough,
2. Add users, even if it is for free.
3. Continue to enhance the software,
4  Once you have some traction, find people who see the vision to invest in that vision<p>Once you have a strong product you can find people who believe in it and in you since you are the one who created the product.  Your product lends you credibility.<p>I found myself needing more resources to get to the next step, which is to finish the programming for a vertical market on the officezilla.com system.  I have been working too much to pay the bills and I needed some room to maneuver so I was stuck with selling off another 5% which will leave me with 90% of the company.<p>Here is the document I used to close the last amount I needed...  I had a hard time with OpenOffice on the formatting and my grammer isn't great... but people tend to focus on the strengths of the system and not your grammer if your dealing with the right person.<p>The document:
http://www.officezilla.com/officezilla2008.pdf<p>For the single founders out there, I am not nearly as smart as most of the people on HN but regardless if you have passion and don't give up you will be successful.  I am not quite there yet, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it is really pulling me forward.<p>Funding from a "VC" is next to impossible but there is money out there from angel investors, people who see your vision and like your product.
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