

Did the Cloud create the Start up Boom? - lhawthorn
http://blog.appfog.com/appfog-entrepreneur-enabler-2/

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eddy_chan
This is a very well articulated post on why there are so many startups today.
Even my previous boss, an (exited) founder who started in the bad old days
when you HAD to build out your own hardware made a particularly memorable
quote last time we met up: 'every dude and his dog is a founder now'.

I know myself that I wouldn't have taken the leap if I had to put serious
money on the table for hardware investment 1990s/early 2000s style. Being able
to build a proof-of-concept on a free Amazon Micro instance knowing that you
can scale up to larger sizes as needed later and also split out into multiple
instances on demand only when you have the customers means that 2 or 3
founders can literally code in a bedroom surviving on ramen with no other
costs except for a few domains and pycharm licenses.

The thought of the only real investment being founders' time (and the
opportunity cost of using said time) is much more palatable than having to put
cash on the table upfront for hardware.

The cloud has literally turned hardware provisioning into a problem that you
tackle as a cost optimization when you've got decent revenue coming already
rather than an upfront investment that you're not sure you can get a return
on.

