Timing

Timing is critical for under funded companies. Typically there isn' t enough cash to wait many months building the perfect product or waiting for the market to arrive. Companies must be in the market with a good enough product during the window of time when a market is emerging and competition hasn't shown up yet. Success can only occur if there is a rising tide i.e. if the market quickly pulls the product. The right team must build the right product at the right time and be early in satisfying an emerging customer need.

Can it be done? Sun Microsystems did it with $250,000. Yahoo did it with $0 followed by $1,000,000.