I see many people starting new hosting companies but they only have a few staff members to help them and don't offer 24/7 support. With 24/7 support being popular within most of the large hosts, how do these new start-ups compete with the larger hosting companies? What would you do if it was you?
Start-up hosting companies will usually contain one administrator. They usually handle all ticket requests and most likely don't offer live chat at that point in time. If the admin is experienced, they will just answer the ticket themselves. If they are learning, they will probably forward the ticket to their provider and get them to answer it.
Start-up hosts will eventually try to get some people to help with certain tasks, and a lot of the times will be their "friends" that do it on their spare time.
I know a small company called Myvirtualserver here in germany which only have about 4 people i believe at the moment, it all started with 2 people and Freelancers with a Tower Colocation somewhere in a datacenter.
Now theyre are on 12 Rack servers with Emergency Power in a new datacenter with 800 GBit Anti-DDoS, Backup Server, VNC and 10 GBit Ethernet. They have Domains available soon with DNSSEC Support, Firewall is in development at the moment theres a OpenStack Moveover planned for Q1 2017 too 🙂
I personally wouldn't host with a startup/very new hosting company myself, not just for lack of support but due to the fact they'll have more growing pains, issues and such compared to a well known, established host. I always look for 24/7 support in a host whether it be by email, phone, live chat, etc.
I tend to have a wait and see attitude with new hosts as the vast majority of them twnd to either give up or they have an unrealistic promises they soon realise they cannot sustain with their unrealustic model suddenly getting a much higher influx than anticipated or no influx at all.
I think a lot of them are loners with their own vision. It'd be nice if some if them teamed up instead of being rivals, maybe they'd have a better chance that way.
I wouldn't look at using a new host just to try and avoid any teething problems they may have with downtime, support, etc. I know there are a lot of other well-established hosts out there and would use them. Now, I might save the URLs and check the company out at a later date, I always like giving new business'es a try but at a later date!
I just avoid new hosts until they get established a bit. Currently, I'm using a company out of Missouri for my dedicated server that's been around since 1998, which seems trustworthy enough.
Plus some new hosts are ran by total novices (including kids who just happened to get a cPanel reseller account).
Small and new haven't always got the right gear going since it's probably cost a bit to get off the ground and most of the funds go into the advertisement and people for the support team.
I wouldn't bother with reseller hosting. An affiliate program is better. You don't have to deal with the hassle of proving credibility. Nonetheless, I'd admire those doing the reseller thing. However, often such a thing leads the owner to the selling cheap or free hosting of which it's difficult for the owner to keep his head above water.
The biggest thing about a start up is you have to know your competition and what your goal is. Just because the host is a new host doesn't mean you shouldn't trust them, but I do agree taking a chance on most new hosts can be a bit of a gamble. In fact, some new web hosts are almost 10x better than those with a bigger reputation. They treat you like a human, they actually care about you. Hosts that are too big often forget about the tiny clients. They stop looking at clients as something personal and turn out more to be about "show me the money" - I speak from experience of working with various web hosts. Companies that continue to have a small host mindset more often than no are the ones that survive, which is why I am with the company I am with. I can only speak from my own experiences from working various companies, but some owners I've seen interact with the customers almost on a daily basis. Not just overseeing the operations but actually being an active member. Here we are, since 1998 and still going strong.
So don't ever be discouraged from being a start up. Plenty of start ups out there that make it through the throne bushes. The biggest things before starting a hosting company, some of the basic questions you need to ask yourself and figure out:
What is your competition offering?
What is your business plan to counter the competition?
If you have experience in the web hosting industry, including server managing etc, chances are you are probably interested in starting a business because you have discrepancies with your current provider and you know you can provide something to people with better service. Or maybe you just want to start one because you have a real interest in the industry.
Reputation does play a big part, but so do many other things. Start off with small promotions and build your reputation. The best advertising I've seen is word of mouth.
Offering around the clock support can be tricky, but it's defiantly became the "norm" in the hosting industry. You pretty much won't get anyone to sign up if you don't offer real around the clock support. Some web hosts offer "end user support" to the reseller packages, in which they will provide support to you, under your brand name to your clients. Right here this puts you in with the competition. Now you just need to figure out what you want to offer to the public.
Another thing I'd like to mention, in which you or many others may know.
Take a look into Tesla Motors history. They haven't spend 1 cent on advertising. Not a cent. Look at how popular they have become. Almost everyone knows what a Tesla is, or at least have seen one in the streets. Tell me where you've seen a bulletin posted about Tesla.
I can't stress this enough from the previous posts. Don't ever be discouraged from starting up. It might be the best choice you've ever made and you never know what might happen. Just have a strong business plan and always stick to that plan.
I wish you the best of luck to the OP or anyone else reading who's in the same boat.
How long has the host been around, it’s beneficial if they have been established for some time, but this doesn’t mean rule out the really new ones but if you are going to choose a newish hoster, ask your self how are you going to feel if your site just disappears and you have no chance of getting it back?
