I am near completion of a project that I think will do well, fixes a problem I have had as a developer several times
If you've worked on the project at least give it a shot!
I'm guessing this is that little slump of confidence just before completion; don't let it put you off. I've been there a few times and if you power through you'll start to reach a real high which peaks on "launch day"
There is no requirement to have a co-founder for things to work, "formal" business plans could well hinder you (in my experience anyway). As to funding... can you bootstrap? What are your costs likely to be?
As to the potential success of your project; add some details here and we might be able to comment on that :)
EDIT: wuh, huh? would the downvoter care to comment (so I can improve my response)? :)
On top of that, I want to do a couple advertisement campaigns on Google, as what I am providing surprisingly doesn't have a lot of adwords competitors, however the google tools show that its a highly searched service.
It will require a dedicated server to start, and $30 - $100 per month advertising. Subscriptions will likely be about $14.99/month though, I have been contemplating $9.99 as its more pleasing to my eyes.
Here's what you do: put up a web site describing the product, giving a demo, etc. Make a sign-up button (with the $9.99 price), but when people click on that, give them a message that sign-ups are currently unavailable, and take their email address to notify them when they are.
Now, spend a small amount (<$25) on Adwords. See how much you have to pay for the relevant keywords, and what your conversion rate is (considering clicks on the "sign up" button as a conversion.)
This will allow you to verify that a) there is a market for your product, b) you're able to reach this market via Adwords, and c) your pitch is compelling enough to convert.
Armed with this information, it should be easy to raise a few thousand bucks. In fact, e-mail me the results, and we can talk.
(my gut instinct is you could probably get by on cloud hosting that is a lot cheaper - and which scales with demand - at least initially; but you know your product)
The key takeaway: none of these are unsolvable problems. Startups have come to the market on shakier grounds and succeed.
I'm very skeptical that you need a piece of hardware; VPS' can be ordered up to almost any spec, nowadays.
Then, as your customers grow, you can crank up the specs (and cost) of your server. It also comes with root access, which is one of the main reasons people need a dedicated box.
A VPS may not support very many customers, but you can always migrate once you have a few and some money to help offset the cost.
As for Adwords, that's a whole different can of worms. I've heard stories of people throwing thousands of dollars down the drain, either because their idea wasn't validated or because they their site wasn't optimized for conversions or they didn't know how to select the right keywords, etc. There are lots of ways to do free advertising and let you hone your product and marketing message BEFORE you spend a time on paid traffic.
I recommend listening to the "Startups for the Rest of Us" podcast (all of the episodes).
Slap yourself right now. Hard.
Your prototype is basically done -- now you have the hard work of making it useful for other people and figuring out how to get a positive return-on-advertising. It's silly to give up any stake in your business at this point for someone willing to toss in petty cash. And it will take FAR more of your time to even try to attract the investment. And if you can't deal with this sort of small problem on your own, why should anyone trust you to give them a return on their investment anyway?
If the answer is just "Execute", well, go execute then.
Beyond that, releasing is only half of the job, you'll then have to get some people use it, then pay for it (if not free ).
Now finish and polish the product and release.
1. Plans are for investors, to keep teams on track, or documenting wild guesses. You're not taking on investors, you're flying solo, and you don't need to document your guesses (yet).
2. Founders are great for analog load balancing and as a support system. If your wife is supportive, keep moving. If she's not supportive enough, start a local HN meetup or tap into other existing groups.
3. I can only imagine trying to budget with 4 kids that $200/mo might be hard to come by. Plead your case on kickstarter, and be sure to tell HN.
In conclusion, GO FOR IT!
tl;dr First you build a product, then you build a business.
However one you will pass this fear, and slowly show it to the world, you will face another kind of problem - how to promote your solution and do a PR noise. So you will spend enormous time promoting, publishing talking about the product.
You have nothing to loose.
go for it.
you can get a dedicated server via amazon ec2 for less than $200/month to get started.
go for it!