Our's wasn't in top 5 but we got 150 visits from HN the first day. So if you expecting your post to be in top 5 then maybe you should plan for maybe 10x more visitor than ours on first day.
Someone suggested me to use EC2 for first few days but our regular shared hosting did just fine without any crashes.
You can also check http://powtoon.com and make your own animated videos. Its not as flashy and cool as what you would get for 5K but they get the job done when you are just starting.
You should be fine, as long you are not using their property (hardware, software, phone etc) to work on your project. Also it should not be in competition with your company. Just to be on the safe side, you might want to tell your HR and see if they have any objections.
I worked with some really good .NET MVC developers on my last personal project. They worked USA Pacific time zone (9 to 5) and were available via skype and google chat. Let me know if you need their profile and I can shoot it to you in email.
If you are ok with Union City then I can connect you with someone who offers very cheap office space. Its a commercial building which houses insurance agents and stuff.
Great post Cing. It would be great to hear your market strategies on how you acquired your readers, before you get rich slowly was acquired by quinstreet?
Throwing everyone in a same pool could be a problem. One lottery cannot cross state-lines. Also, It would get complicated to claim the prize when 100's of people are involved.
Connor, actually your risk of loosing too much money is also reduced. Because In a group you will not be pooling as much money as you would if you play alone. For example, if you play alone you might buy $10 worth of lottery. But if you play in a group of 10, you can get away with playing with only $2 and still have double with chances of winning. I'll add this to the landing page and hopefully it will make sense?
Someone suggested me to use EC2 for first few days but our regular shared hosting did just fine without any crashes.