by Joe Procopio — June 1, 2021 . Editor’s note: Joe Procopio is the founder of teachingstartup.com and the COO of IoT/Beer startup Precision Fermentation. Teaching Startup is published on Tuesdays. Joe is taking a break from the series, This post was published in January. He has a long entrepreneurial history in the Triangle that includes Spiffy, Automated Insights, and ExitEvent. More info at joeprocopio.com. DURHAM – The harsh economics of startup are often easily overlooked. So let’s talk about what it really costs an entrepreneur to get a startup off the ground. It’s about 250 grand. Now, I know what the first response to that is going to be — because it was my own first response. Not every company needs $250,000 to get started. Hell, I can start a company for $10 right now. Dude. Hand it over and watch me.