How do you gain access to a lot of equity financing when you don't personally have a lot of cash to invest in a business venture?

A clarification may be in order:

- "Equity financing" is what you do when you want/need to sell stock/shares in your company. Freedom being what it is today, you are not "generally" allowed to do very much, and this activity is no exception -- with this activity being regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (New York). Best to have a clarifying conversation with a representative there before thinking far along this line.

Also, understand that ownership = control. You have to decide how much stock you'll sell, and whether or not to retain ultimate control. As long as you keep 50% + 1 of the voting stocks you'll have a majority vote.

- Options, as the previous post mentioned, are venture capital (been around for centuries), and socially networked investors (coming of age). Here are three to search the Internet for (though there are many more):
• VirginMoneyUS (Richard Branson's organization -- think "space tourism")
• angelsoft.net
• kiva.org (be the borrower...or the lender! Totally cool.)

These are just three examples among many.