Thanks for the helpful post. We're considering raising funds but aren't from Silicon Valley. How would you suggest getting our initial list of investors to contact and people to intro for us?
Where are you located? I think when you're fundraising you have to go where the money is. Plan to spend a few weeks in the Valley driving up and down the 280 (avoid the 101 it sucks).
You can use technology and services like Angel.co to make the connections and schedule the meetings... then you have to go out.
I raised this last round from my home in Hawaii. I spent the first few weeks doing phone meetings and then was in SF & NYC for another couple weeks doing partner meetings and wrapping things up.