You could wait for the problems to get worse to launch it, or you could offer a working platform now [if you had it] and switch to a totally-free model. As long as you have capital, burn through it to pay for everything until you have enough users. Then, after a year or two, introduce ads, or a subscription fee, or sell product placement or something.

I still don't get why product placement isn't used in place of ads. It could bring in tons of money, possibly more than ads, for the most popular youtube channels.