Ask HN: founders, how much you had in the bank when you started your business?

$80,000

In the UK we borrowed money against our property (as house prices had inflated) in order to set up our business. We had no money of our own (£300 or so), just overdrafts to live on and were refused unemployment benefit. It was 2 months or so before we were going to be able to open our studio (building works, planning permissions, etc.) and neither of us was employed by the company into which the money had been vested (as director's loan).

Hard times!

90% of UK businesses fold in the first year, I can see why.

Basically the message was, sit and do nothing and we'll give you a house and pay you unemployment (until your payed in years of NIC have run out at least). Start a business on credit and we'll let you starve.

What you have in the bank is irrelevant, it's how far down the development road that money will take you that counts.

That's a calculation only you can do with your current living costs in addition to estimated cost of equipment, services, software, office space, and probably lots of other things you would never imagine (legal costs, accounting costs, cost of incorporating for example?)

If you're asking the question then I guess you haven't done these calculations yet - but putting them all down on paper (or spreadsheet more appropriately) as well as a realistic development timeline will tell you what you need to know.

Good luck! If you never try you'll never know.

20k USD and living costs of 400 USD per month. Also, very marketable skills:

Teaching English in China can get you that 400 USD rather quickly. Also, if you can do basic web development, you're pretty marketable (this pays relatively better than English, but English jobs are possibly easier to find than software consulting).

Unlike a lot of people starting a business, I had almost no fear of starving on the streets. When it comes to ensuring that I both have food and own as much of my time as possible, I try to eradicate risk as thoroughly as possible. Having a minimal financial footprint and redundant contingency plans allows me to do that.

Thankfully, these days, I don't need the side-jobs, I mostly just focus on growing my business's profit. When I want something unusual (new monitor, new advertising campaign), I just sleep a little less and pull in the extra money with some software consulting.

You can call it the lazy loading approach to finance.

What city do you live in? Can you break down the $1.5k and $2k rates?