I am designing my first web application for the masses at home during nights and weekends. My day job consists of programming and database design so I do have some coding experience.<p>I am trying to get this one idea to become a reality as cheaply as possible.<p>I have already purchased a domain address and have it pointed at my single-user DSL line at home. Doing this voilates my "user agreement" with my carrier but I figure that I can upgrade to a business line if I can drive enough/any people to my site.<p>I have my own doubts and would like to know what everyone else thinks about this.<p>Am I not going far enough to get my product established? Should I be leasing a slice of equipment at a co-lo? Is there a minimum amount of money needed to have a fair go at creating a successful, revenue generating web app?<p>I know that I should definitely have confidence in my vision, but I do not want to throw excessive cash at something that possibly could not have a chance of bringing money back.<p>I figure I can take more than one shot at a successful outcome if I can keep my costs as low as possible for the execution of any one idea.<p>The big questions: When bootstrapping, is there a minimum investment beyond which is just crazy? How far is too far?
My partner and I created <a href="http://www.friendfury.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.friendfury.com</a> back when Myspace was growing popular in 2 days, placed it on some $10/mo shared hosting, and generated $680 within the first 8 hours.<p>You don't need the best equipment; just enough to make sure you stay up through any traffic spikes (we had to upgrade within 30min of going online).<p>I like to think bootstrapping is the most powerful tool a startup can utilize, if you consider it a tool at all. It keeps you sharp and always looking for new and innovative ways to get objectives completed. For us, it paid off extremely well for a couple 18 and 19 year olds looking for a few bucks here and there.
Upper limit on your own investment should be set by you. Some sort of function of how much money you can spare to part with and how much confidence you have that your project will generate a financial return.<p>I use a virtual private server, atop which I have tried offering a variety of web services. The cost is pretty cheap. It seems a decent way to experiment while keeping my dayjob... I built up a library of functions to use, and can often whip out a version one in a few weeks of part-time work. If my prototype seems to be a waste of time, and/or I can't convince enough people it's a good idea, I either move on to something else or try it again.
Hosting at home over your DSL is kinda crazy. You lose far more in maintenance and uptime headaches than you win in price.<p>You can get a shared webhost for under $10/month, and it's good enough for probably 95% of possible consumer webapps. If it's not good enough, you can get a VPS or cheap dedicated server for $80/month or so. If you've got a day job, that should easily be affordable.<p>A colo definitely isn't necessary at this point, and is probably more of a maintenance headache than you need.
If you use a common language (PHP, Perl, possibly Ruby on Rails), you can get a crappy shared host for cheap (I have 1 yr of TextDrive for $100). This will let you host a web app (or several) and let you put a toe in the water. If one of the apps gets some traction, it's easy to move to beefier hardware later.<p>That's all you need from a money perspective. After that all you need to do is invest lots of <i>time</i> and <i>programming effort</i>. No price tag but a significant cost :)
I've boot-strapped projects while doing full time jobs. I have trouble imagining not being willing to put a few bucks into it. If you need to mentally justify it, think of it as the "risky" part of your investment strategy.<p>A virtual server can be a good starting point. I recommend rimuhosting. You can get something at the low end of workable for around 30 bucks a month, there. Shared hosting can be passable, it depends what framework you're using. Capacity is a problem to solve as-you-go, though. Legality aside, is your current problem hosting-related? If it's not, I say focus on building something users love.
Greetings.<p>Maybe find four or five other people/businesses who need a website hosted, and have them pay you for hosting. You can then get your hosting for free, by becoming some type of hosting reseller or maybe even renting a 1U server somewhere. If you find a reseller package, you would have less maintenance to worry about, most likely.<p>To answer your question, is there a minimum investment beyond which is just crazy? Well, that is probably too case-by-case to find a definitive answer. How far is too far? You'll know once you cross that line, i would hope.
> I do not want to throw excessive cash at something that possibly could not have a chance of bringing money back.<p>You may need to invest significantly more than that. You may need to throw your career at the project.