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Comment by unusualmonkey | Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure this article has much insight, rather appears to be content for the sake of content.

"Right now, $300,000 is not enough to create a prototype and show traction on the global market. It’s a simple math. Let’s say you need three developers."

That's not simple math - that's faulty assumptions.

While there are always exceptions, you don't typically need to hire 3 developers to build a prototype!

The biggest thing missing from this article is customers - who are they, what do they want, and how much will they pay?

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$300000 is not enough. It depends. If you’re a dev and planning to build something with another dev, then that’s plenty. If you’re just a guy with no idea how software works, then it may be less. If you’re a dev and your startup has nothing to do with software then also, that money is less. If you’re hiring exclusively from Bay Area devs it is less, if you’re open to contracting people from elsewhere, it is sufficient. If you’re open to hiring students from Bay Area for internships, it is sufficient. If you immediately jump on the cloud, that may not be enough. If you know how to provision a server in your garage, it may be enough. There’s a lot that goes into how much money you need, and it really depends on you to manage it.

If you can’t code or find a co-founder to code it, you’re doing it wrong.

"If you’re just a guy with no idea how software works"

...then you shouldn't start a software-based business.

I note at no point did you mention customers, or revenue.

It's trivial to spending essentially unlimited sums of money building products no-one wants - I've seen it done with tends of dollars and millions of dollars.

However, that has very little do to with building a successful startup - where at the end of the day what matters is customers and revenue, not lines of code.

"While there are always exceptions, you typically don't need to hire three developers to build a prototype.”

However, prototypes often don't show any traction. In addition to developers, you need marketing, design, and other people. Thus, three developers is just a simplification.

My main point is that the current market is highly competitive, and products are becoming increasingly complex, so more money is needed to reach our first customers.

Especially as the app is failry simple looking. Probably buildable in React Native in a month. Pay a good developer and you can probably get a prototype out for $10-$20k?

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