>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

>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. overall, sound advice, I think. Note: if you move to silicon valley rather than SF, you can get a room in the lower-end but perfectly safe areas of Santa Clara or Sunnyvale for $600/month or so. $800-$1000 will get you a nice room that's near to the y combinator offices. If you are renting a room, you often can get away with first and deposit, especially for lower end stuff. Look around. As for savings, well, that depends on your risk tolerance. A year and a half seems pretty excessive to me, but then I personally co-sign business loans and leases, so if the company craters, any personal money I had is gone anyhow. If you are in a capital intensive space (e.g. you have to buy lots of servers like I do) contracting while you are starting up (if you can talk people into going corp to corp) can have some tax advantages, too.