Well, most of that is solved by conceding equity rather than hiring an employee. Two people can realistically, if pushed really hard, produce something that ca

Well, most of that is solved by conceding equity rather than hiring an employee. Two people can realistically, if pushed really hard, produce something that can succeed. A part time lawyer...Are you doing something involving other peoples money? Designers are cheap on a contract basis, usually available for less than $5k, as long as you are fine with diving in and filling the actual gaps, starting all the CSS yourself, etc. Let the designer do just that, design, and if you are OK with an image of a good design rather than a fully implemented HTML/CSS layout, you can get by with MUCH less than $5k. Finally, our colocated machine is a mere $50 a month. Granted, it's on our own hardware ($2000 split between my other founder and myself), but it would have been less than $70 a month for dedicated leased hardware. There are many options, depending on the type of business you are starting. I'd argue that some of the best heavily involve the founder(s), rather than farming out to other people, as it gets the founder(s) intimately familiar with the roles they will be hiring out later.