I started my business with less than $1000. I worked a full-time job and built my first video game product (<a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/386900/The_Cat_Machine/" rel="nofollow">http://store.steampowered.com/app/386900/The_Cat_Machine/</a>) by waking up earlier in the morning to get an hour or two in before my 'real' job, and working Saturdays, and doing that for a year. I found customers by putting an enormous about of effort into marketing, and finding only some of it paid off (but what did, really worked). Obviously, having a comfortable day job and not having familial responsibilities lowers many of the risks of starting a business, I'm not sure how I would have approached it had I a family or less secure employment.<p>The biggest expenses were commissioning a composer friend of mine to produce an excellent soundtrack, and licensing a couple of pieces of development software, but that was <$1000. That product has funded my current product, so it's still early days for my business, I'm only a few years into this.<p>I feel like product one taught me so, so much, and product number two has been a similar learning experience. I'll probably know what I'm doing by my sixth or seventh game!