Some funding is worth looking for

You don't want funding...

You have a nice product or service idea ? You want to develop it ? But you're not Jeff Bezos. (Beg your pardon ? Ah! You _are_ Jeff Bezos! OK. Please stay calm and drop that stuff you're smoking, because it isn't doing any good to your brain ;-) When your business becomes profitable, you don't want to have to share the profits with VCs, don't you ? (Well, OK, Jeff probably shares losses more than profits, but you get my point :-) )

So you don't look for external funding because you'll have to pay back some day.

... but what if you don't have to pay back

Be aware that many governments are ready to help you get started. It's really worth spending some time wandering through the maze of your local government web sites. You may probably find interesting subsidies offers.

I spent a couple of my vacation evenings plus the whole day today filing a request for subsidy for professional investment expenses. If my request is accepted, it should help pay for quite an interesting set of new equipment, including hardware and software.

It's not the perfect deal though: The biggest investment when your starting up as an ISV is the lack of salary while you're developing version 1.0. And these subsidies usually are about expenses, not salary.
But hey! It's way better than nothing ! A couple of brand new computers fully equiped with all the software I need plus some money to pay a professional designer for logos and stuff. It's well worth a day of paperwork !

Don't forget to join recommandation letters

Now, be aware that the people who are going to read your literature don't get a clue of what you tell them about your product. The trick is to look both attractive and serious. You need them to believe in you. An effective way to reach that goal is the recommandation letter: Respectable people telling nice things about you. That's what the guy behind the wallet wants to hear.

Ask your ex-boss to write that you are the super-heros of software, with the whole set of super powers ! No, wait, don't ask him to write it: Write it yourself and send him a copy of the text that he simply has to print on company letter paper and sign it!

I keep as a relic two letters written my first boss (back during my University years. The guy _looks_ like a university teacher, right ? :D) and by my final year thesis director. Each time I needed to send a resume to someone, I joined a copy of these two letters, even 10+ years later. It never made any bad.