You can apply for a Y-Combinator-like program in your area. But wouldn't it be a lot less risky to use the money from sales and subscription to pay for, say, on

You can apply for a Y-Combinator-like program in your area. But wouldn't it be a lot less risky to use the money from sales and subscription to pay for, say, one of Linode's heavy-iron (8-20GB) instances month to month? It seems to be a relatively small premium. And have you thought about letting your clients (or at least the desktop clients) do the transcoding for you?