[codingdave]

I did similar work between gigs a couple years back. There is absolutely a customer base for such things. But they don't have tech budgets - even pricing our services fairly cheaply, they would balk at the cost.

So there may be a business opportunity, but you need enough scale that each single customer is happy with the price.

[m_fayer]

Maybe it's particular to my local culture (Berlin), but many people I talked to said they would pay a premium to support a small business and to acquire independence and privacy. They're not technical, but they understand the ramifications of these things. Not sure if this culture is everywhere, but my gut feeling is that in Berlin it's big enough.

[sjy]

I have noticed the same tendency among people who follow politics and the media closely in Australia. Some political activists are organising talks designed to introduce non-technical people to doing their own cryptography. People would definitely pay a reasonable premium for a secure service where they get to meet everybody with the physical ability to snoop on their data.

[munificent]

My understanding is that German mass culture has a much better understanding of the value of privacy because of the relatively recent history around the SS and the Stasi. Many German citizens really feel the risk of not having personal privacy in a way that people in other countries don't.

[gpdpocketer]

Here in Vienna, there is a thriving small-business, local IT economy... but it is rapidly being countered with "cloud all the things" new-economy bollocks.

Also, I once saw a "Linux-friendly" PC shop, literally sign-posted "LINUX SHOP", out in farm-boy country, in the lower Austria sprawl, so.. pretty sure there is a mom 'n pop/cousin shop mentality for a lot of IT needs...

[m_fayer]

I've spent some time in Vienna and gotten a general vibe that the past lives on in this city in a way that's particular and charming and unaffected. This includes the cool-but-nerdy computer-geek of the mid 90s, running a bunch of servers out of a closet at home, participating in some sort of pirate-radio setup, maintaining a huge quasi-legal library of all sorts of media and sharing it with the in-the-know kids. I hope this can hold the "cloud all the things" people back.

[rolha-capoeira]

Yep. I wanted to do this with websites for mom & pop operations, but why would they pay me when they can get their nephew to set up Squarespace for them at $10/month?

I believe there is a niche to be served here, just not sure exactly how yet.

[mynegation]

Axé! I also think there is a niche but the key here is to make it as simple, low-friction, and support-free as possible. Supporting a very diverse range of small businesses might be more expensive than what they pay.