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
The spend comes on growth imo , building is easy, building the growth engine is expensive. Also dont under estimate the time required to do growth properly
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@davem_0 Marketing is the most priciest item rn.
For Fluxerv I spent close to zero — Next.js, Supabase free tier, Gemini API. The real cost was time. Building has genuinely never been cheaper, but most people underestimate how long it takes to get something that feels right. Money isn't the bottleneck anymore.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@mpanpalli If the current state is better than before with money, that's a good sign!
“Hoy en día no necesitas millones para empezar.
Necesitas visión, disciplina y la capacidad mental de seguir cuando nadie cree en ti.
Muchas startups empiezan con una laptop, IA, un dominio… y una obsesión por construir algo real.
GraniteFreight Technologies empezó así. Y apenas estamos comenzando.” 🚛🟢
Il capitale può essere un fattore, ma la cosa più intelligente ( al momento ) è sfruttare il trend delle AI, ad esempio su internet troviamo tanti tipi di AI (anche gratuiti) con cui costruire, fare loghi, testi, immagini ecc.. Come riporta il commento di un utente in questo momento è molto più importante sapersi posizionare all'interno del mercato, e utilizzare al meglio possibile le proprie risorse e il proprio tempo, io stesso con uno stipendio da lavoratore dipendente sto cercando di applicarmi il più possibile poichè mi rendo conto che l'AI prenderà sempre più campo e ci servirà a tutti nel quotidiano. Con una cifra irrisoria, ossia di 100€ circa, si possono mettere in moto diversi sistemi redditizi con l'uso dell'intelligenza artificiale.
You can build a product for a few hundred dollars now. But getting consistent attention, trust, and paying customers can take a long time. (Read: finding product market fit means you have a viable startup). So distribution is once again highlighted as the limiting step. That's where money and time will go.
Sales and marketing are no longer “secondary functions”. They are core parts of product development itself, whether that's customer discovery or sales. The time/cost effort is in getting close to your customers
I've spent roughly $500 on my startup thus far, and most of that comes from spend on company formation and various tools and subscriptions. As a tech company you might assume that cloud spend would be pretty high (I use AWS) but it's so easy to get credits for cloud that I probably won't need to spend for that for the next year+.
bruh 100 dollars you just need a laptop to start a buisness and no money or if u want booster can start with 5$
It really depends on the type of startup, but for building the product itself, I’d say it’s possible to start with less than €300 if the founder has multiple skills (development, design, no-code tools, basic marketing, etc.).
Today, with AI tools, a domain name, low-cost hosting, and accessible online services, the initial technical costs can be very low.
However, where costs can rise quickly is marketing and advertising. If customer acquisition requires paid campaigns, sponsored content, or strong visibility, expenses can easily end up far exceeding the actual product development costs.
I believe their is no fixed number for this
the real answer is: "Enough to build a v1 and not starve for 6 months." If you’re a technical founder building a SaaS, you might just need $2k - $5k for server costs, APIs, and some basic tools. But if you’re non-tech and need to hire a dev agency or a freelancer, you’re looking at $20k - $50k minimum just to get an MVP that doesn't crash every 5 minutes.
However, don't get blinded by the "launch" cost. Most startups don't die because they couldn't launch; they die because they couldn't afford to iterate after the first launch failed (and it usually does). My personal rule? Calculate your "burn" for 6-12 months including marketing and living expenses. If you can’t see a path to that, you’re not starting a startup, you’re starting a countdown to burnout. Keep it lean, stay scrappy, and don't spend a dime on fancy offices or "brand identity" until you have actual paying users.
That's what I can share based on several SaaS project I have been working on lately
good idea~