Comment by yawnxyz

You could look into startup grants and accelerators which can give you some funding up front and don't take equity.

With friends/family (and to an extent, banks) you can ask for a loan instead of a gift, with the idea of paying them back (or with interest, if they're needy friends or banks...). You can also just straight up ask for donations (food, shelter, live with family/friends) to get your thing up and going.

There's also "slower funds" out there for tiny projects if you look around. You can also shop around for angel investors who want something like a fixed revenue share for certain years, without "owning your thing" or "being on the board". But the more people you take money from, the more "needy people" you'll have to deal with, even if on paper they don't own a thing.

Pick where you get your money from, and pick your friends...