You know, I think you can do it for far less. The key is human assets and time. Legal copy you can acquire for free, or if a founder is a lawyer everyone wins.

You know, I think you can do it for far less. The key is human assets and time. Legal copy you can acquire for free, or if a founder is a lawyer everyone wins. Marketing is free, provided you're willing to do it. Hosting is really all you have to pay for, and that starts at a paltry $20/month at SliceHost or lower on shared hosting. What is it that costs so much? Sure, rent, food and everything isn't free but my day job covers that. I guess a good designer might cost you some cash, but even that doesn't amount to $5k if you do some leg work yourself (i.e. sketches, html breakdown).