If you want to own your IP (indie bussiness model) you must be able to hold on until at least alpha by yourself.
That's not universally true; you can secure a loan without writing a single line of code.
From what I've gathered, there are 4 ways of getting funding, excluding free money like grants and preorders and sugar-daddies. Venture capital, angel investors, small business loans, and person-to-person loans.
Both venture capital and angel investors are a few grades above what most indies need (venture capital deals mostly in 8-figure investments, angel investors usually in the hundred-thousands to low millions), and it's not terribly indie to take money from someone who will be a part of your company and expect a 20x return on their investment. Looks like ZeroSum's mini-essay is geared towards the venture-capital realm, which strikes me as counter-productive. He says that making a business without a business plan is like making a game without a design document; indies forsake design documents all the time.
A small business loan also needs a business plan, but since the interest rates are usually rather low and the only money the bank wants back is what they gave you plus interest; they're not looking for a huge profit, so when the debt is paid off everything else goes into your pocket. But you have to convince them you're not a bust. A friend of mine also suggested taking a class or two at a community college and taking out a student loan; better interest rate and delayed payment, plus it puts all your current student loans on hold.
Then there's P2P, which is more of a guarantee (prosper.com looks like just about everyone gets their money eventually), but if you don't have AA credit you're going to have a shitty interest rate. But you get some time before you have to make the first payment.
For my purposes at least, I'm shooting for a small business loan, and I'll use prosper.com if I can't secure one.
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