> "startup founder" lifestyle and provide cushy jobs for your friends I have yet to see a startup for which that is the case, like at all. Idk if it's a SV thi

> "startup founder" lifestyle and provide cushy jobs for your friends I have yet to see a startup for which that is the case, like at all. Idk if it's a SV thing but in most of the world this won't fly. Most important you are missing the most important reason why startup go with the cloud. Flexibility. Startups often pivot multiple times in various aspects before they find a way approach substainability. Like common are changes in monetization model and changes in target audience. This often also comes with major changes in requirements for compute/hardware. This isn't just about amount of resources but also kind of them. Furthermore it also often comes with changes in architecture where services provides by AWS and similar can make such changes much faster/easier. This means that for startups setting up their own hardware is a form of self-locking which startups can not always afford, and can even lead to a startup failing. Naturally once a company has found a promising way to reach profitability the cloud vs. non cloud decision needs to be reconsidered.