Since in general the barriers to entering the web hosting business are so low (14 yr olds with cable modems/reseller packages etc etc), at what point did your hosting biz 'break out', and oh-my-god become a full fledged business with employees and salaries and benefits and lawyers and accountants and a storefront and all the other trappings of corporate America (or Australia, or whatever)?

Was there a single event (first dedicated server sold?), or just a gradual realization that you and your co-founders couldn't answer 100 support mails a day?

I'm just interested to hear stories about growth patterns/pains of independently founded webhosting companies.

Well u mentioned the barriers being low, I am an 18 year old with a cable modem and reseller package.
I am about to make a move from one provider to another but lately my business seems to be picking up, I have had no customer complaints so far and although i am based in the UK i have some US customers, one from canada and one from Singapore so i guess i have not so much broken out but i am starting to pick up nicely, its been a month since i bought my main reseller and i have had problems so i am hoping this move will be the defining thing

Originally posted by magnafix
Was there a single event

On the standard hosting side - gradual growth. We set the pace though, and close down orders on different servers/services as necessary.

On the adult hosting side - when we received a call from a developer with "...there's a possible 3,500 domains in this..."

Cheers

Gary

Well, I do a lot of Paypal business and anytime my balance reached $300 I'd put in for a withdrawal to my bank account.

The defining moment was when business got so busy two things happened:

#1 my balance was over $500 (because I was too busy to do a withdrawal)
#2 and I had to do 2 withdrawals on the same day (more than once)

Now that I've begun using 2checkout where I can let people use something other than Paypal for monthly payments, I'm getting very little Paypal money now (less than $100 a day most days) but my 2checkout balance is all love!

Oh and a #3 over 1000 web sites on my servers, happened Thursday.

I'll have been in business for 4 months on Feb 24th.

You've averaged 10 signups a day since day 1? That's pretty amazing.

How many support emails do you get a day with 1000 customers?

You misunderstand, 1000 web sites is not 1000 customers :) I'm only at about 500 customers. People signup for multiples very very often, it's not uncommon for one person to host a half dozen sites.

Oh, probably 100-120 a day, most are really quick answers, some aren't.

Dixiesys

This probably belongs in another thread (MODS - please feel free to move) but do you mind sharing how you approached advertising in the beginning? I hear a lot (and believe) that word of mouth can be the single best advertisement, but somehow you have to establish that initial base of customers.

(I know this has been discussed before, but given that you have shared your success, I would like to be able to associate any tips directly to that.)

Hey Dixiesys,

500 Hundred customers is still pretty darn good for being in business as long as you have.