Business Angels ;-) or I heard that it's wise to ask a good accountant in your city, if he know someone who could have some additional capital to invest.

EDIT Take a look for more about third element of funding at: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/11/debt-equity-and-a-third-thing-that-mightworkbetter.html

Wow, I'm experiencing a similar thing as of now. I'll share what I have learned up to this point, in hopes that it will help you.

To start, a few question:

1. By "developer", I'm assuming you're referring to a software developer?
2. Is your idea going to command extra people to work with you?
3. Is your idea bounded by some time constraint?

I've done a lot of research on the various mechanics that go into a startup (specifically a software startup). But to address your questions on funding:

• Banks - Banks will typically only loan an entrepreneur a small amount of money (compared to a venture capitalist). The chances of you getting financed from a bank dwindle slightly if you don't have a business plan laid out or show some way that you can repay the money. Ultimately, they don't really care if you succeed or not; just that they get their money back. Good sources, that tend to be a little more lenient, are credit unions. Perhaps you should look into that.

• Venture capitalism - It's a common misconception that to succeed as a high-tech business, that the first thing that you need to do is start raising money. As mentioned by rockacola, each time that you raise money from a VC, you aren't taking a loan. You are selling a stake in your company to someone that just wants to make money. The more money you raise, the larger stake they want. Fledgling companies don't have leverage of a good product to use against a VC, so VCs usually propose bad deals to an early startup.

• Savings - Living of a savings account is probably the safest way to go (in terms of not having to pay up to other people), but can also be the most dangerous. You have to plan significantly enough to ensure that you have enough saved up before you take the big leap of dedicating yourself full time. Usually if you are funded, you can use the funded money to fuel the business, and have savings to live; to keep your house, and your lights on, and fed. If you are going this route you have to have an end in sight, because if you're anything like me, there is definitely a finite amount in your account.

Ultimately, if your idea requires expensive things such as equipment, extra people, and/or office space, you may be forced to hunt down funding, but I would delay that as long as possible. For me, I have been working solo. Sure it would be nice to share the load with someone else, but I can handle it taking a little longer. I would suggest that you continue with your current job, saving as much as you possibly can (when I was working, I was living off half of my monthly paycheck, and putting the rest into savings. Hard work, but it's possible), and spending all other available time working on your idea. You would be surprised to see how much time you can devote to a project if you combine hours in the evening (after work), and hours on the weekend. I hope that this helps, and good luck!