To raise you have to talk to lots and lots of people.

To build a company you have to talk to lots and lots and lots of people.

So one reason funders try to make it hard to talk to them is to see if you can grind out all the conversations you're going to have to have with people that you have no connection to. Hire staff, lease buildings, sell products, get more investors, get accountants/lawyers/bankers, develop channel and consulting relationships....

So make connections with people. Get to know your local angel community (whether or not they write actual checks there are people who think they are angels), find people from your school or area that have built a company, find people that are in your space (customers, competitors, experts...). Meetups, conferences, twitter, hn, slack channels, youtube+++

I know a firm that got a capital markets fintech funded by pitching a commercial real estate investment firm (who bought strip malls and such) and getting $5MM from them. Not someone who would be in your top 1000 prospects but it worked and it was all just from talking to lots and lots and lots of people.