I have good news for you: generate revenue. Don't get stuck in the thinking that your only options are friends/family/fools, angels, VCs, or crowdfunding. Why not let you customers pay you to change their world, or some very small but significant part of it? If what you're building has value to them, price it and sell it to them. I am almost positive you don't need an engineer to help you get to your first paying customer, and I don't even know what industry you're serving. If you are committed, scrap your way to being a revenue-generating company.