Business Idea - Event organizing website

StepIn

All, I have this idea of creating a some kind of hybrid of MeetUp.com and EventBrite.com in Russia. The concept is similar - the portal will help people to find and organize activities they are interested in their town/community but it will have it's own specifics and features. Most of the people in Russia now use vkontakte.com (a russian analog of facebook) to organize things but it's not very convenient to do a search of any particular events in your area. My concern is that I've never been involved in developing any internet projects and my background has nothing to do with internet/computer industry. Therefore I need an advice from someone who is experienced in this area. These are the questions to start with:
 
- How many members need to be on my team to start the project? I guess I will need at least a programmer, designer and a person who has an experience of managing such kind of projects
 
- Should I hire hourly freelancers, full-time salary employees or find a team and offer a share of a future company? Last option seems to be more attractive for creative people and the ones who wants to be a part of something bigger other than working for a salary. It will also motivate them in everyday work and help them going through the tough times. However there definitely professionals who would like to get paid here and now and will prefer stability.
 
- What is a startup cost for such kind of project? I understand it's a very general question but I just have no idea to be honest. I've done some savings through my career life and I would like to know if that amount would be enough to start with or I need to look for investors.  
 
ANY Feedback is very valuable and interesting to me. Please leave your comments.
 
Thank you in advance !!

Kimpreneur

Those are a lot of big questions that are personal to each individual company. You should absolutely speak with a business coach before making any major decisions. Obviously as a startup you don't have a ton of money to spend on coaching sessions, but mosaicHUB's Marketplace has an awesome deal right now on one-on-one coaching sessions that are 50% off. The coach, Mike Van Horn, is incredibly talented and he has a lot of great reviews from former clients. I'd go check it out to make sure you're starting your business off in the right direction!: http://www.mosaichub.com/marketplace/view/small-business-growth-coaching