Geoff Ralston, a partner at Y Combinator, sets out in this blog post his starter guide to raising a seed round.
The initial capital raised by a company is typically called “seed” capital. This brief guide is a summary of what startup founders need to know about raising the seed funds critical to getting their company off the ground. This is not intended to be a complete guide to fundraising. It includes only the basic knowledge most founders will need. The information comes from my experiences working at startups, investing in startups, and advising startups at Y Combinator and Imagine K12. YC partners naturally gain a lot of fundraising experience and YC founder Paul Graham (PG) has written extensively on the topic 1, 2, 3, 4. His essays cover in more detail much of what is contained in this guide and are highly recommended reading.