How does one go about finding investors in the first place? A couple buddies who weren't into tech are putting together a product and haven't even considered outside funding because everything seems so opaque to them. The whole plan is to try and incrementally make enough money from early sales while working out of a garage to scale up. They're a couple of midwesterners who have never had any connection to the tech or finance industries.
This is a big "that depends" - what market are they addressing? What kind of capital do they need? IMO, they are doing the right thing by avoiding VC cash early on. No better example of this than Mailchimp.