Louis C.K. decided it’s finally time to promote his new web series, “Horace and Pete.” In an interview Monday on “The Howard Stern Show,” he told Stern he has no backers on the experimental project and spent $2 million of his own money to make the series through his own production company, leaving him millions of dollars in debt.

“Horace and Pete,” which stars him and Steve Buscemi as co-owners of an Irish bar, was released online in January without any promotion. Each episode costs between $2 and $5 to view and is available on C.K.s official website. Edie Falco, Alan Alda and Jessica Lange also star.

“It will hurt, and it will leave me with no cushion in life, but I’m willing to do that,” C.K. told Stern about his decision to self-finance the show. “I’ll go on the road, doing stand-up, afterwards, and I’ll make it back.”

As to why he didn’t initially promote the show? “I got so excited about having the show appear from nothing,” he said. “So I made the first four, and I didn’t tell nobody and it made a nice little amount of money.” But “when I got to episode four, I was like, ‘Hey gang, I don’t have any money.’ So I had to take out a line of credit.”

C.K. says sales did well after he appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel” and he also will be visiting “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and “Charlie Rose” to promo it as well. And he’s optimistic. He says he believes the show will have paid itself off by the end of the summer and he plans eventually to sell it to another outlet. C.K. says, “I believe it’s the best thing I’ve ever done.”