Unless you can easily afford the more expensive gear right away, I would start out on the cheap if I were you.
For example, I took this content image in a small hotel room:
camera: Sony a330 ($270 refurbished from Sony Direct)
lens: Minolta 35-70mm ($45 ebay)
lights: Cowboy Studio 110 watt strobes x2 ($55 each)
light modification: Cowboy Studio brolly boxes x2 ($25 each)
light stands: Cowboy Studio 7feet x2 ($15 each)
Total for all equipment: $505
The lights never failed to flash for the entire 3 hour shoot, constant regular firing. And I was using a sync cable too. I'm cheap like that lol. Now I know this image doesn't blow anyone away...but its not meant to, its just typical mass content production quality IMHO.
So basically I would start out with a two light system, then buy more lights as you progress. As you buy more lights of increasing quality (Alien Bees, Profoto etc), the current cheapo Cowboy Studio lights can serve as backup lights or positioned in other areas so you don't always have to move the lights around when shooting different scenes. Also, as for the camera/lens investment, even if you go with Canon or Nikon down the road (like I plan to do), the Sony can still serve as a backup camera.
Hope that helps
But like I said, if the more expensive gear is easily within your budget, you might as well buy it right away. I just feel that if you are just starting out in content production, some of the "pro gear" is a bit overkill.