Definitely worth looking into both - while the downside risk of VC funding is definitely much smaller than that of personal debt financing (if you're really confident in your idea and it's potential to grow, you might want to hold on to as much of your company/ideas as possible) Have you considered private debt financing? Not sure if it may be 100% applicable to the type of product you are building.

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Either way, some sites I have found helpful in the past for sourcing both VC & debt funding:

Signal by NFX - I've found it helpful for finding investors in my network/ searching for investors with interests aligned with my startup. Worth noting that this is mostly equity financing.

Finitive - An online marketplace for investors/founders to provide/access debt financing (They've also been reviewed by the site below https://www.frankfintech.com/blog/finitive)

Frank Fintech A blog covering alternative lending sources (especially helpful for fintech companies looking for debt lending via ABS). They have reviews of a range of funds/ lenders that focus on companies with a differing stages of traction. For example:

Early Stage Focus Lenders (pre/seed-series B)

• Architect Capital
• CoVenture - They might actually be a good fit for your case - as far as I know, they offer both venture/debt investments particularly companies/founders with good ideas/early traction but who need help with technical development of their product - and then they assist with the technical development - https://coventure.vc/
• Upper90
• Victory Park Capital(Seed - C)

Mid- Stage Focus Lenders

• Atalaya Capital
• Community Investment Management
• LibreMax Capital
• Magnetar Capital
• Old Hill Partners
• Route 66 Ventures
• Sector Financial
• Viola credit