I get you. I'm talking about the difference between calling something a company and building a sustainable company from zero. $250K is arbitrary because any number would be arbitrary, as you note, but it's also a good minimum baseline to shoot for.
Any one of the caveats I discuss in the article could change the number or how that money is aggregated or how long it takes to spend it.
Past tense implies that you did it (and it's awesome that you did)...
More to the point, if "$250k is arbitrary because any number would be arbitrary" then it's not a good minimum baseline to shoot for, it's just a random number. Better to actually think through how the business will work, what resources you can draw upon, what your expenses will be, how your revenues will come in, etc. And then estimate your financing requirements based on the specifics of the business.
- legal fees
- an accountant
- setting up a domain with a WordPress landing page and an email provider.
- computer equipment (which you probably already have)?
Landing page alone will get you nowhere real quick.
You might get a lucky client or a few by posting samples. Maybe. But would that even be sustainable? It would you just end up hired and not really a consultant?
Network effects are also unreliable on a small scale. Plus networks need a bit of care that takes time and work.
If you have no network and only $250k and skills you think that are marketable, you'll have a good chance of that 250k being gone and you having done nothing but talking with 'potential clients' which end up in your pipeline at 30-60%. With your runway gone, you have no time to close these prospects and no money coming in. I see it happen so often...
In the US or countries like it. We grew (a few times I might add with different companies) to a substantial size (millions euros of profit / year) without any lawyer interaction at all.
And you can easily (again, I speak for where I am from, so YMMV) grow to millions of revenue without an accountant. You probably wouldn't because it's cheap until you get to many employees and larger amounts of rev or unknown business territory, but you can and people do.