While it would be great to launch your new company with a mountain of freshly injected cash, that’s rarely how companies get started. Sure, you read about companies in popular magazines getting millions to launch some newfangled idea, but you rarely read about what it took to get there.

The reality is that most companies go through a basic evolution in both the state of the company and the availability of capital. As the company transforms from an idea to an operational business, the check sizes and deal terms become much more attractive.

In the early stages where you probably are now, the number of options available to you may be a little more limited. Here are the four typical stages of a startup company and the capital that tends to be a...