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
Just $20 claude or other AI subscription and $10 domain. That's enough to launch as product.
Supaboard AI
You really need $0 to start a successful business.
Me and my co-founder were college students when we founded our company. We use to reach out to people on Linkedin to make there websites. At the same time Covid happened and most shops went shut. We approached these businesses to build there online presence and doing that we made enough money to pay back tuition. From that time till today, I have built two startups, exited the last one couple of years ago.
Today my startup @Supaboard AI has turned into a real product with a team of talented folks looking at every aspect of the business. We make a lot of money, we spend a lot of money as well! But that's not how it started. It started with a free domain, GCP credits, AWS credits, Notion for Startups, and a few more solutions.
So I guess, you can start with whatever you have, a skill, some pocket money. There are enough resources online to built a business for free.
Depends on what you're building.
Hardware play - a lot of startup capital that is solving a very real need.
Pure software - nowadays it's more about distribution, so it varies. But gone are the days of spending $20K to get an MVP from a dev shop.
Services - a website, a professional email, a phone and a list of potential clients.
If you're a solopreneur that has a 360 view of what needs to be done, and have some technical skills to vibe code a working version of the product you want to distribute, then not a lot: mostly, sales and marketing.
If you know the communities, have the network and know where to place a bit of money for advertising, then prob, a couple of K.
The rest of the back office stacks fall into place once there's revenue.
For example, I aim to release a music app next month here, and as am new to the music/games' ecosystem, my biggest challenege is breaking through those communities and start building a small user base.
If I find the right distribution channels, then I'll probably invest a $3-5K.
I guess it depends on what kind. It can be done with next to nothing but will if you can sustain basic expenses and have the equipment, but to be able to launch properly, have money for expenses and focus exlucsively on the project? to advertise, etc. 10k, 100k? 1M?
So far I am in about $1,000. I am a solo entrepreneur and a first time app builder. My costs were mostly due to email verification requirements for ready only access to emails from Google and Microsoft. Google security review was $675 and Microsoft required a registered business so I got an LLC for $250. That and the website costs with some extra time on Claude got me to around $1,000. Looking at previous costs to create an app, this sounds cheap to me and I am happy with it.
I've personally spent $0 on my project Arcadia because I don't have much money. I'm not againts spending, but I feel like you don't need to spend much. For example, don't spend too much money on AI; learn coding - painful at first but saves you money later.
Enough to reach your first real signal — not your first polished version. I launched Composa on essentially zero budget. The expensive mistake isn’t building too little, it’s building too much before you know if anyone cares.
Launched 5 Shopify apps on $0 raised. Railway ~$20/month, Resend free tier, Shopify Partner program is $20. The real cost was 3–6 months of building before first revenue. If you can cover living expenses, the infra is almost free now.
My initial thought is that people can go so much further than they expect with little to no money - especially when it comes to setting up validation exercises. In an ideal world, you shouldn't have to spend more than a thousand bucks before finding out if it is worth putting more money into your idea.
You should put money into your idea in stages and if you first start by ensuring the idea is worth it, this can save a lot of money and headache.
Thanks for the good question!
I think the minimum cash budget is often lower than people expect, but the minimum distribution budget is higher than people expect.
You can build a software product very cheaply now. The expensive part is learning whether anyone cares, getting in front of the right users, and surviving enough failed positioning attempts.
So I’d separate it into two numbers: the cost to build v1, and the cost to get enough signal from the market. The second number is usually the real one.