[xyzzy123]

It's also, what kind of startup are you? What kind of workload do you have?

If you are bootstrapping a crud app business then 1 beefy hetzner box (or something slightly more reliable) with postgresql is probably fine until you reach scale where you sell the business. You care about burn rate above all.

If you are VC backed go all in on gcp or aws because thats what you're expected to do and and what the expensive people you hire are going to know.

[infecto]

I agree but would slightly modify it in that if you have taken VC money, growth probably matters above all else. Don't waste time on activities not related to the product being sold.

[heisenbit]

I really wonder whether a VC would rather invest into a startup with an architect focusing on KISS or one where the architect goes all in on cloud.