[bdcravens]

I may get down-voted for this, but how about WordPress? Not for a long-term product that needs to scale and support tons of customers, but as an MVP. There are some really slick plugins that can help you create some pretty advanced functionality. Here's a 2 part podcast on that very topic:

http://productpeople.tv/2012/12/05/episode-3-building-mvp-ap... http://productpeople.tv/2012/12/12/mvp-wordpress-part2/

As for design, WordPress has a rich market for themes: themeforest.net woothemes.com and many more

Between plugins and themes and hosting, you can easily accomplish in an afternoon and a couple hundreds bucks (or less, depending on your needs) what would take you weeks to build. Get it out there, validate it, and then build it in your favorite language and framework once you know it's golden.