VPS have been around for longer than “cloud” computing. In layman’s terms, yes cloud means someone else’s computer, but here and in other tech focused circles it usually means some kind of software defined compute services. A VPS where you login and install your stack and patch it I wouldn’t consider as cloud.
The main point I was making was figure out hosting later after figuring out the product/market fit.
Others would define a cloud server as any server that someone else owns and you don't have physical access to it.