If you're raising 1M+ in the midwest, it's straight forward. Get a meeting with a VC associate in the region (Chicago: HP VC, Origin, OCA) and they will tell you exactly what they're looking for in a Series A.

I've never had any success with getting institutional money at the seed stage, but if you do get it, it's even easier to bypass some of the troublesome checklist items you get in the A round.