If you are a developer you don't even need $5k - you just need the price of a domain, and personal funding to be able to take as much time off paid work as possible.
You can host for free on appengine, PR and marketing is just putting the work in, and you might need a little to spend on design but even then $100 gets you a long way on sites like 99designs.
The most expensive part is supporting yourself and/or a co-founder, and that varies a lot depending on where you are based. You could get away with $1k a month in some places (SF and the valley are probably the most expensive place to be - and you don't need to be).
Thinking that funding, or entry into YC or a similar program, is a blocker is a mistake. All that stands between you and a successful product is a lot of hard work.
You can host for free on appengine, PR and marketing is just putting the work in, and you might need a little to spend on design but even then $100 gets you a long way on sites like 99designs.
The most expensive part is supporting yourself and/or a co-founder, and that varies a lot depending on where you are based. You could get away with $1k a month in some places (SF and the valley are probably the most expensive place to be - and you don't need to be).
Thinking that funding, or entry into YC or a similar program, is a blocker is a mistake. All that stands between you and a successful product is a lot of hard work.