Hi there all,

I am thinking of starting up my hosting company again, but I need someone to "partner" with me who has more technical experience than me because overall I am not all that technical when it comes down to server management, programming etc...

I currently have a server with only one real website hosted on it (http://ionplex.com) and I will also beable to provide a top class website design (we normally charge $1500-$2000 for one.)

I also have a really good hosting domain so basically quite a lot of things that are needed in order to get started are in place.

I am looking for someone who knows what they are doing when it comes to hosting much more than I do. I would prefer someone with a good reputation on these forums as I do not want any "fly-by-the-night" people. Basically I am looking for a serious, honest and trust-worthy person who knows what they are doing when it comes down to hosting.

I know the hosting market can be said to be over-saturated, but I think long term it has quite a lot of potential if you supply a good service and hopefully that is what I will be aiming to do.

If you're intrested or have any questions please feel free to contact me through the following:

email: zubair@ionplex.com
aol: zubairahmed1984
msn: zubairahmed1984@hotmail.com

Thanks and take care

I am in the same quandary myself so I would be most interested in seeing the comments from people with established hosting experience. In my case, I got more of the technical skills but less of the design artistics.

My own sentiment is that there is usually must be an element of trust involved at the beginning or else it would not work. Sure you can ask someone with good reputation and experience if they want to become partners in a new venture. But what prevents that reputable and experienced person to go solo in the first place? I wouldn't think any non-compete clause would be applicable nor enforceable, since that person is already in the hosting business and doing good at that. Unless, of course, the new venture is way bigger and better that what he/she is capable of doing solo right now.

So, IMHO, to attract a partner (with hosting experience) for a new hosting business, you must have a very good business plan that is better than what anyone else is doing at the moment. Otherwise, a full-fledged partnership would not be very attractive to an experienced host.

Perhaps you may want to look at client-referral arrangements with established hosts if you really need to have someone with proven experience in getting customers and maintaining the hosting part of it. But that is not what you are asking for in this thread though. So unless you receive offers pouring in from experienced hosts, you may want to widen the pool of potential partners by considering those with excellent technical skills but have not made it yet in the hosting world.

And if you read this far and have not rolled your eyes nor started laughing maniacally yet, here comes that self-plug part ;): Perhaps we can talk further on the new hosting business idea, if you are serious and ready to proceed. And yes, I am serious.

Your site and work are very well made. Good luck on finding a partner.

Why do you need partners? Why not get a reseller account and work your way towards a managed server?

Nice website indeed. I would be interested but, as per your request to as you want someone that's been in the business and is reputable and well I am neither but, do have a good aspect on the overall things. If you would be interested in talking to me about things just out of spite, you can contact me with the below information.

Email: tcorvin@earthlink.net
AIM: "juggalos" or "fatalities"

Regards,
Tim

Hi there guys,

Firstly I'd like to thank everyone who got in touch and over the next few days I will be contacting/emailing everyone. Please remind me if you have not heard back from me as I have been talking to so many people regarding this.

Affordable Host (Tina, is that your name?) I already have a server which has nothing on it, so I can utilize this instead of a reseller account. I actually had a hosting company about 1-2 years ago, but I stopped it because of a few reasons, primarily because my web design business got much more successfull and I concentrated more of my energies on that. I'm not some "fly-by-the-night kid" but know a fair deal about the hosting market and whatnot (probably because I've been an avid reader of this forum for about 3 years.) The only thing is that like I said on my post I am not very technical with things such as apache, control panels and the like.

I have everything that would be needed to set up a new hosting company (apart from the webdesign currently) so if any of you guys are still intrested,please feel free to contact me on the above contact methods.

Thanks for the kind words Tim, we are working on some new projects which should blow our past projects completely out the water. I'll make sure to post them in the reviews forum when they're completed:)

Thanks and take care

I might be willing to colo/manage the server at no charge...if you have a decent business plan and offer me something in return. :)

--Tina

Hi there,

Thanks for the offer AffordableHost, however I am looking for someone a bit more "hands on" rather than just getting someone to manage the server etc...

Thanks and take care

We have partnered with several marketing and design firms. We generally offer a significant discount and can workout whatever billing terms needed. We are open to all sorts of working arrangements.

Check out www.cera.net for our sample plans & call me or email jharris*nosmap*@cera.net (take out the *nospam*) for more info.

We generally work with businesses, therefore our prices are a bit higher (especially than what you find around here). We offer top notch service, 24/7, via email, phone, etc.