How much money do you think is enough to start and launch a startup?
A lot of people try to raise funding before they even begin.
And then sometimes I read those “zero to hero” stories. (Maybe they’re a bit "polished" by the media to have publicity.)
In any case, building products has become much easier from a technical perspective, which also makes it cheaper – especially for software startups.
In many cases, all you really need is ChatGPT or another AI model ($20), a domain (starting around $10), some DNS or hosting services (sometimes from $50), and your own time.
The basic costs can realistically stay around $100.
But the fact that the building is more accessible also creates overcrowding, which means you then have to invest much more time and money into marketing.
What would you estimate is the minimum budget needed to start a startup?
(Of course, it varies. In some cases, you also need to deal with bureaucracy from day one – company registration fees, social and health insurance contributions, and other administrative costs. This is valid especially for EU countries.)
Replies
Scarlett.
I think the honest answer is: as much as you can responsibly afford.
The goal is not to spend as little as possible. The goal is to use your resources intelligently. If you can invest $1M and realistically turn that into $100M, then spending that $1M quickly is not waste. It is leverage.
Time is money. That is why I think founders sometimes become irrationally cheap in the wrong places. They save on salaries, better software, good design, distribution, automation, or experienced people and then lose months or years.
Yes, you can technically start many software products with $100 today. A domain, hosting, ChatGPT, maybe some basic tools. But “building” a product and “building a real company” are not the same thing.
The harder part is no longer just building the first version. The harder part is distribution, trust, positioning, marketing, customer support, retention, and speed of execution. Every single day. For years.
@byalexai Agree with "time is money" part! Well said
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@byalexai You are always right here, especially when you mention people. I am just thinking about all of those who got replaced by AI atm (those massive Meta layoffs).
Propane
@byalexai the irony is that trying to save money by skipping good design or distribution usually just delays the inevitable — you end up doing it anyway, just later, when you've already burned time going in the wrong direction. the cheapest path isn't always the lowest spend.
Scarlett.
@atherkildsen 100%. Trying to be cheap is expensive.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@johnoed For what did you pay that amount?
@busmark_w_nika Thank you for asking. The majority of that money was spent on ChatGPT tokens. I was working hard and fast, and the cost was in the computation required to produce and test the product. I feel it's a good compromise. Otherwise, I would have had to hire engineers. So by comparison, I think it's a fair price to pay.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@johnoed Fair enough, developers would cost you even more
@busmark_w_nika Absolutely! But I recognize that if I had been a little more knowledgeable in CS, I could have reduced the cost significantly.
Depends on how much money the founders have in the bank. If they can pay rent and buy groceries for 6-12 months they can bootstrap completely.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@robert_douglass many people have that situation where no money is left in the bank account, so they need to work their asses of to succeed.
"Enough to start" is a different number from enough to last long enough to find out if it's working. And a lot of people budget for the first one...
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@edikan_peters Well, if something cannot catch in the first month, something is not good, either the product or the way it is shipped.
@busmark_w_nika yeah that's fair for some products. But results in the first month are often more about the size of your existing audience than the quality of what you built🤷♀️. Two identical products can look very different in the fourth week depending on who the founder already knows.
Propane
@edikan_peters this distinction is everything. I've seen people optimise for "cheapest launch" when the real question is "how long can I learn before I need this to work?" those are totally different numbers.
I am a solo founder, just bootstrapped Mazori ai , an Agentic Collaboration Platform, rooted in Governance and Trust. Agents and Humans collaborate on a Kanban Board to accomplish Sales and Marketing for SMBs. This is an enterprise grade build, running on a K8s cluster with DB Service, Temporal workflow orchestration etc. Also partnership with Bombora (buying intent), Prospeo, Hunters, Builtwith etc cost real $$.
So to answer your question, it really depends on what you are building. In my case bootstrapping required upwards of 150K USD. With Claude and other coding agents build velocity have increased But principles of software engineering , spec driven development and a clear understanding of architecture and deployment etc are all the more crucial.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@mazoriai Of course, when you have something very difficult to build or some hardware, it will not be cheap even if you want to have it cheap. :D
Marketing is 100x harder than development, with no limit on the spend.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@summerxia For me, both are a bit sciences :)
@summerxia Could you tell a bit more? Does AI still suck for marketing?
We've shipped 28+ apps at MRVL. Here's what the numbers actually look like from the inside.
The $100 build cost is real. We run most of our apps on Supabase (free tier covers you until you have real users), a $10 domain, and Xcode which is free. The AI tools have genuinely changed what's possible — things that took a team of five two years ago can ship in a week now.
Our fully loaded infrastructure cost across the entire portfolio sits around £340/month. Per app that's roughly £15/month. The marginal cost of shipping app number 28 was almost nothing.
But here's what nobody puts in the budget:
Distribution. That's where the real money goes.
The post is right — easier building creates overcrowding. The App Store has 1.8 million apps. Being well-built is now table stakes, not a differentiator. The actual competitive advantage is whether anyone knows you exist.
In our experience the real minimum isn't a money question — it's a time question. You can build for $100. But you need six to twelve months of consistent distribution effort before you know if you have something. Most people run out of runway on that, not on the build.
The budget we'd actually recommend:
Build: $100–500
First 100 users: $0 (Reddit, communities, cold outreach, content)
First 1,000 users: $500–2,000 (paid experiments to find what works)
Scaling what works: then raise or reinvest revenue
The funding question comes after you know what works. Not before.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@supamrvl Thank you for transparency! Appreciate that! :)
Propane
@supamrvl the 6-12 months of consistent distribution effort is the number nobody actually puts in their budget. the build is tractable now. knowing who you're building for and how to reach them — that's where founders really run out of runway, not on infrastructure.
Scade.pro
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@maria_anosova yes, but that time can also be calculated.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@vivek_bohara IMO, it can be zero to some point, but then you need to scale and also to invest into that scaling process.
Yeah, I agree with many answers I saw.
For example, I started building solo databridge.so 8 months ago (launched yesterday here). At the beginning it cost at least 20 / 40 USD but as soon as I started adding more and more things I need more tools to process and make my ideas possible. Like paying for Supabase, Vercel, Railway, etc etc.. but is not necessary for launch.. I think today, it could be around 20 - 50 USD to start.. but as soon as you decide to increase and reach more people, cost will increase.. also considering if you want to add more and more things to the site.
So I'd say the real question isn't the starting cost> it's how long you can keep going before you need to monetize or raise.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@damian_forzani It seems to be a matter of timing too imo. Because when the users want more, you need to enrich the product, and it will require additions.