Dropdown with a create new button

I have a dropdown that looks like this:

as you can see, I have a button that allows to create a new project, clicking this button will open a pop up (where you can create project). as soon as you are done, the list will have one more item (project).

The question: what happens at the first time that the user opens the app and there are no projects?

will he see something like this (once he opens the dropdown he can select the new project button):

or Will he see something like this (he can click the dropdown without entering it):

or, any other suggestions that you might have?