I'd say 10k would help, a lot. If you have this quanta of money in the bank, you can cover all initial expenses via debit cards, and not using credit cards will immensely speed up your reimbursements.
Great point. I initially thought I would float everything on my credit card until I got reimbursed. I found out it doesn't work like that unfortunately. You have to show that the credit card has been paid off for the transactions you are submitting.