Don't try to raise funds. Don't consider it a win to get funding from some investor. Find some way to make money from the beginning without introducing some adversarial entity into your system that turns the CEO from your friend into the agent of investors. It is cool to run the equivalent of a lemonade stand. If you can do that, keep making it a little bigger and better. Make money the old-fashioned way -- don't hope to be acquired.

* This message pre-censored by HN in order to preserve curiosity.