$18k - is not that much at all, and it will disappear fast. If you don't have any family to back you up with some reserve/emergency cash when you ran out, i wou

$18k - is not that much at all, and it will disappear fast. If you don't have any family to back you up with some reserve/emergency cash when you ran out, i would be really careful. You will use it within 5 - 7 months. Keep in mind, that just even for renting, you will have to give a first, deposit, (and sometimes last month). Assuming you are going to have roommates, if your rent is 1k (can be more, can be a bit less in crappy area), + moving costs, you could see easy 4k gone, just when you land there. The chances to get funding, or any revenue within that time are pretty much 0, unless you have a solid prototype already build, do you? My advice, is move to SF, find a job (hopefully one that will pay relocating costs), or maybe even a contracting one, and then develop your product on the side. When it is at least 60% done, and you have a bit more savings, go full swing into it. The rule of thumb, you should have at least 1.5 years of savings. If you have parents that lend 20k extra when things go sour, then 9-1yr would be good enough. In SF that would be at least 30k. add about 10k you will need for the business (servers and such, depends on what you are doing, then 40k is minimum. If you are working as an engineer, and are smart with money, you should be able to save at least 20k-30k a year.