Determine all actual and potential funding partners of your site and inform/engage/involve them in the startup process.  Funders include the potential consumers of the DSS products.  (See Consumers)

Prepare for the period after the startup funding expires through developing sustainable funding strategies e.g. diversifying the number of DSS products and users for routine DSS output, and developing a strategy of having research projects hosted on the site contributing a share such as at least 20% to the core DSS running costs.  Careful analysis of the chart of accounts will reveal the annualized running cost of the DSS which needs to be sustained.

See also Sustaining the DSS in Section 5.