We have a low burn rate, so a $100K should be enough to allow the two of us to continue working on it for another year, including a small marketing budget, and occasionally bringing in a consultant for the things we need help with (graphics, marketing consultations, legal, ..etc).

I'd also shoot for more than a year's expenses. I've found investors like to hear you're aiming for 18-24 months. Consider that you have to essentially start seeking funding 6 months before running dry. If you aim for 1 year's expenses you work 6 months, then start on fundraising. Raise 18 months' expenses and you work for 12 before fundraising again, so you get double the progress for only 50% more money.

And if you can raise $100k, you can almost certainly raise 150.

$100K is not enough to sustain two employees for an year. $50K is less than the annual average living expenses for a person. (Just do the Math, housing, insurance, etc.). I would strongggggggggly recommend to try raising something between 0.75M an 1M. I have noticed a lot of fellow hackers seriously undervaluing the time they spend building a product. Two strong hackers, working for 6 months is eaily $140K expenses(and I am including just the salary an employer would pay). Please, please do not undervalue your time and expertise.

With the oncoming recession and all, you do want to have enough in the bank for at least 1 to 2 years, if you are serious about your startup.

$100k is more than enough to sustain two founders for a year. Especially if the founders happen to be young and unmarried. If they were living together they could probably make it on expenses of $50k for a year while still living relatively comfortably (even at Silicon Valley prices).

Also, I'm not sure what to make of your comment "Two strong hackers, working for 6 months is eaily $140K expenses" How good the hackers is hardly related to the expenses they require. Perhaps 140k is the opportunity cost?

Having enough in the bank for 1-2 years is probably a good idea, but it sounds like they could do that on $250k-$350k.

Also, I agree with matt, focus on the percentage you are giving away rather than the amount you want to take.

At $50K your taxes are going to be pretty low, but just the same try and have the company pay for things instead of buying them with your salary.

If you look around you may find a business partner who could give you some money as part of some kind of deal. Traditional software companies can do this by pre-selling licenses at a discount and web companies looking for ways to get more users may pay you if you find a way to help your users get signed up with them. However I'd caution against spending too much time on this sort of thing yourself as it can easily become a distraction.

It's not easy, but it's doable. Asking for the numbers you're suggesting forces us to seek VC funding (which we might do later), but we're not ready for it yet.

Grad students routinely live on less than $20K/year...

they get insurance through school.

you can get insurance for as low as $100/month...

Maybe this is a stupid questions, but aren't there taxes to pay as well? If they use the money to pay a wage to themselves (to use to pay for food and rent and insurance), then they pay income tax on that wage, right? Or does that "$50k" number include income tax?

YC tends to gives about $6K-10K per founder, which needs to last for at least 3 months or until they get more funding, unless they have other funds... and the funded companies seem to make it work...

I would go one step further.

If you need 100k, why are you looking for VC funding? They will give a horrible valuation and take a large part of your company. First phase funding in the ~100k range I would look for angel investors or get the people involved to contribute the money. Either raise 500k from a VC and have a much more aggressive growth strategy if that is the route you want to go, or raise 50k from friends/angels/yourselves and minimize costs as much as possible.

I'm not looking for VC funding. He's an angel investor.

Well then. Good move.

(friday night, beer and a looming all nighter...and other excuses, read the YC as VC...)