I'm trying very hard to avoid the "success if getting investment" path because I think it's an anti-pattern, which in turn leads to other anti-patterns. It's much much better to get funded initially out of your own pocket, and then next out of customer's pockets. The earlier you get a real customer who pays you for what you give them, the earlier you validate your business/product, and you indeed have a real business, with effectively an infinite runway.