<p><pre><code> The last place we had to spend money before we could launch our very first version was on legal advice.
Terms of use, privacy policies and refund policies all needed to be reviewed by a expert.
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You most likely don't even need that, just copy paste stuff from other websites
You know, I think you can do it for far less. The key is human assets and time. Legal copy you can acquire for free, or if a founder is a lawyer everyone wins. Marketing is free, provided you're willing to do it. Hosting is really all you have to pay for, and that starts at a paltry $20/month at SliceHost or lower on shared hosting. What is it that costs so much?<p>Sure, rent, food and everything isn't free but my day job covers that. I guess a good designer might cost you some cash, but even that doesn't amount to $5k if you do some leg work yourself (i.e. sketches, html breakdown).
I think it's very possible – if you have another source of income to pay for rent, computers, food etc..<p>My development has going strong with no extra investment on my part, other than time.