There are a couple of ways of doing this, but the most common ones follow these steps: Step 1) Give your pitch to an angel investor with the hope that they will be impressed with your idea and provide you with a small investment to get a sense of how it would do. Step 2) Use the money from step one to do customer development, evaluate market applicability, and give you enough resources for diving into more prototyping.  Step 3) Once you feel confident that you have reached step three, contact all angel investors in Silicon Valley and ask them if they could put up money for "up-and-coming" companies who are still looking for their first round of financing.