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  1. #1

    At what age did YOU start hosting?

    Hey guys,

    The last time I visited these forums was around 2007. It's interesting to see how much the business has changed since I left.

    I am embarrassed to say I started my webhosting company at the age of 14. The only reason I survived for the few years I did was because of the help I received from this forum (thank you!). I am only embarrassed because of my immaturity in running the business (both the business aspect and technical aspect). I can remember offering 24/7 support through AIM. I used AIM on my cellphone and would txt with customers for support issues. This means during school I would ask to use the restroom or visit the nurse so I could respond to support problems. Needless to say, I probably didn't provide the best support 24/7.

    I started looking through my old posts on here from around 05-06, when I was about 16 years old. I can barely read any of my posts without cringing. At times, I was unprofessional, defensive, and impatient. I also didn't have the capital to needed to successfully run the business so I was constantly using the cheapest resellers or dedicated server offers. I would deal with downtime and terrible support services. But, I put no blame on the providers. My business needed a much larger investment and more experienced employees.

    At my peak, I was making around $300/month off of paid hosting and $100/month off free hosting. I eventually told my parents about the website and they helped me execute a sale. I sold the websites for a little under $10,000.

    At least I can say I was honest with my customers about the packages they received and I always refunded if there were any support issues. Still, I can't help but look at my past mistakes and sigh. I was just a kid! I'm sure some of y'all were mature by that age or were experienced with webhosting, but I was not. I'm only glad I got out of the business and went to college instead.

    Anyways..how old were you when you started in the business? If you were young like me, did you feel you were an effective provider?
    Last edited by JohnGladen; 11-21-2013 at 11:58 PM.
    Former owner of 275mb, DKMHosting, and Easy-Upload

  2. #2
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    Not a bad story. Your the few that had the drive to do something. Other 14 year old's are busy being lazy. This "me" generation isn't interested in hard work. When I was 14, work for me was after school and weekends, and not related to my baud 2400 modem

    I started just after 30, but that was also during running a few other businesses. 10 years of not having a "boss"...can't look back.

  3. #3
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    ^^ I agree, nice story. I used a computer for the first time when I was 14 (late bloomer, what can I say ). Now I am 27, and just starting out. Hope it goes well

  4. #4
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    Wow. Hosting company in 14 .? Just 14 ..? I am amazed .. how your customers believed you ..?? You could be very smart and brainy ..
    I have started using computers only at 16 yrs(Jan-17-2010) .and I am 20 yrs now .. by the way I just want to reply you and not having any HOSTING company. May I know from which country you are ...?
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  5. #5
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    I started at the age of 28... I am amaze u start at 14!!

  6. #6
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    Hmm,

    Actually fun story.

    Officially, the company started 1st of january 2013, I'm 19, It's a one-man company, backed up by multiple people.

    My very first customer came to me 32 months ago, 22/04/2011 to be exact.
    Back at that time, I was using a friends server to host the website, I did have a reseller account, so I didn't really need to worry much, since they was taking care of it.

    In october 2011, I bought my very first dedicated server, the server was bought from a Reseller of LeaseWeb, which today is non-existing, the server went offline in April 2013, and I bought another at LeaseWeb, because I was happy with the service.

    December 31, 2012, I also bought another dedicated server, with lots more power, since the company was growing (even before starting).

    I don't provide 24/7 support, and I don't write anywhere I provide it, simply because it's impossible for me to do.
    I have a colleague of mine, that takes over when I'm off. For me this have been important, due to my age - and it helps me, running a business that works.

    With that said - I've had my failures, I've also succeeded.
    But I think that when running a business, you need to have failure in life, before you'll succeed, I've learned by my failures, and every day I'm able to provide better and better service.

    When talking about reliability and uptime, sure - I had once, resulting in a very long downtime, why?
    The reseller I used for dedicated servers, disappeared from one day to another. Same day as I was traveling from Beijing to Amsterdam.

    Even when taking that failure into account, we've still been able to being successful, we've also prevented these kinds of downtime from happening in the future.

    We don't make much profit, because we give a lot of resources (Like really really a lot), and due to higher pricing, it's hard to get customers.

    But for me, it's not about making a lot of profit, for me it is to give a good service.

    I'm 19, I have a business that have never ever been late on payments, that have never ever had a loan, or anything.
    So for me, it have been successful to start a business, it's maybe not big, but it's the best thing I've ever done in my life.

  7. #7
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    I started back in 2005 when I was 29 years old. But I admire those who are 20 (or less) years old and have already their hosting business no matter how big or small it is. We do provide real 24h support and a decent service. We didn't have any failures but faced lot of problems. But we are still strong and hoping.
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  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by JohnGladen View Post
    Anyways..how old were you when you started in the business? If you were young like me, did you feel you were an effective provider?
    Started old already ( 30 ). I am 11 years now in the hosting industry. Still consider myself young :-)

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  9. #9
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    I started the business on September 15th 2012 at age 24. I've been in the business for a year and a few months now.

    I'm currently 25 but will be turning 26 March 8th 2014.

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  10. #10
    I appreciate all the comments. I'm glad to hear you guys waited until you were young adults to start the business. I loved hosting and maybe would have stayed in the industry if I had a better understanding of reality at that time in my life. We all know how ignorant we really are at the age.

    Quote Originally Posted by Hosting4Real
    I've learned by my failures, and every day I'm able to provide better and better service.
    Awesome! Keep it up man. That was my biggest mistake. I wasn't honest enough with myself to properly learn from my failures. I would put band-aids on problems by finding help on here.

    You sound like you got a good head on your shoulders. I'm interested to know how profitable the hosting industry is now? I'm assuming way less because of technology becoming cheaper and cheaper.
    Quote Originally Posted by 1024GBofRAM View Post
    Wow. Hosting company in 14 .? Just 14 ..? I am amazed .. how your customers believed you ..?? You could be very smart and brainy ..
    I have started using computers only at 16 yrs(Jan-17-2010) .and I am 20 yrs now .. by the way I just want to reply you and not having any HOSTING company. May I know from which country you are ...?
    Born and raised in America.

    My customers believed me because of the site design and the free hosting. Most of my customers were upgrades from free hosting to premium. I purchased a professional design from a company I found on here. And I always used manages servers since I didn't understand how to manage them myself. But, after enough pop-ups and banners running on those free sites, you would always get a couple of upgrades.

    Free hosting is a mess though. I would have to delete 1000s of scam websites, fake paypal, fake ebay, etc. One time they even ripped of MY web hosting site. Using my services. Hah.

    I assure you I'm not "brainy". My friend owned an anime website and was making tons of money off banner ads. He also hosted a bunch of other anime websites that his internet friends had made. He only ran ads to cover the costs of his anime sites. If he made profit, he would just add videos and features to his website. He didn't wanna pocket money off anime. Integrity I guess, hah. But for me, not only did I love the idea of running a business, but the idea of making more money than other people my age seemed awesome.

    My generation grew up with computers so I did have an advantage. Personal computers were just becoming affordable when I was a young kid.
    Last edited by JohnGladen; 11-22-2013 at 01:28 PM.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Dr_Michael View Post
    I started back in 2005 when I was 29 years old. But I admire those who are 20 (or less) years old and have already their hosting business no matter how big or small it is. We do provide real 24h support and a decent service. We didn't have any failures but faced lot of problems. But we are still strong and hoping.
    Nice. Real 24/7 support is important. These days, customer service is becoming more and more automated. I think customers look for that when they are deciding which host to choose. I am curious, how much has the industry changed since I left? I look at free hosting websites now and it seems like they're giving away the services that I would have provided to the paid users! Is the industry still growing like it was back in 05? Most websites now have lots of features and plugins, and the internet is only growing so that means more bandwidth is needed. But still..everything is so much cheaper now.
    Last edited by JohnGladen; 11-22-2013 at 01:30 PM.
    Former owner of 275mb, DKMHosting, and Easy-Upload

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by 48-14 View Post
    I started just after 30, but that was also during running a few other businesses. 10 years of not having a "boss"...can't look back.
    Congrats man! 30 is still young too. I'm jealous. I'm a staff auditor at an accounting firm and it's not near as fun as hosting. I was a loner but I was never lonely. I looked forward to getting out of school to work on my site. I do hope to one day start my own business in a new industry.
    Former owner of 275mb, DKMHosting, and Easy-Upload

  13. #13
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    This is a great post topic! I started with a friend at 17 years old back in 2000. We've changed names and always remained only large enough for the business to kind of run itself. My current boss today gave me a reseller account 13 years ago. My friend is out of the business, but I still have enough clients to pay the bills with a little extra.
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  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by 48-14 View Post
    Not a bad story. Your the few that had the drive to do something. Other 14 year old's are busy being lazy. This "me" generation isn't interested in hard work. When I was 14, work for me was after school and weekends, and not related to my baud 2400 modem
    That is pretty cool doing something at 14!

    When I was 15 and when Summer came, my pop said "let's go somewhere" and we drove off. We ended up at the family restaurant which is my first job.

    I did hosting for a short time in my mid 40s for about a year, but ended when the local power company started testing BPL (Broadband Power Line) and wiped my internet out for almost a year. The BPL stopped after the local emergency agency complained and complained.

    It was fun though.
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  15. #15
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    I hosted my own sites at 12 (Now 23), initially with a very buggy DOS based webserver on Windows 98, then progressing onto Abyss Webserver, IIS and LAMP.

    Started my hosting business at 15 (Reseller account, then Dedi with DINIX & layeredtech) and the rest is history, now 2x full racks of kit and 6 members of staff

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by PCS-Chris View Post
    I hosted my own sites at 12 (Now 23), initially with a very buggy DOS based webserver on Windows 98, then progressing onto Abyss Webserver, IIS and LAMP.

    Started my hosting business at 15 (Reseller account, then Dedi with DINIX & layeredtech) and the rest is history, now 2x full racks of kit and 6 members of staff
    That's impressive. How much money did you initially invest at 15?
    Former owner of 275mb, DKMHosting, and Easy-Upload

  17. #17
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    None whatsoever. I was already hosting a few sites for friends and random people on a spare PC at home (Wouldn't dream of doing that today!) and we agreed it was worth paying a little money for something faster. I probably paid about £30 for a years worth of reseller hosting which we split and that's when I realized the opportunity to make some money from it.

    Of course there were downsides to being young and spending too much time with computers. A girl I had a crush on added me on MSN one day and whats the first thing I asked her "Hey what PC you got?" Oh man that was embarrassing.

    I know it comes up now and again but I dont see a problem with young(er) people starting their own business, as long as its done properly. Yeah I made some mistakes, but I never gave up and I knew my way around webservers, DNS etc before I started selling.

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by JohnGladen View Post
    Congrats man! 30 is still young too. I'm jealous. I'm a staff auditor at an accounting firm and it's not near as fun as hosting. I was a loner but I was never lonely. I looked forward to getting out of school to work on my site. I do hope to one day start my own business in a new industry.
    LOL. Thanks, but I'm 40 now...which to some, still a puppy compared to the stories I get to listen to everyday.

    I've had a bit of an adventure and depending on skills, it's never too late to try out other industries. Do the homework while you still have that guaranteed stability.

    When I was 30, music was my full time career, but that was after many years of working jobs to build myself....getting equipment, gigs, self-teaching, etc. I was also building sites and hosting a small handful of musicians sites from a reseller account. Only after leaving music some years ago did I focus on this industry...and even then, only hosting clients site....using those transferable skills....still doing work for clients, just a different industry.

    That's why when I see some posts of people asking how to start web hosting, I ask them if they have any of those skills you learn throughout life;

    - customer service skills
    - corporate skills
    - communication
    - customer expectation

    and so on, so forth.

  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by PCS-Chris View Post
    Of course there were downsides to being young and spending too much time with computers. A girl I had a crush on added me on MSN one day and whats the first thing I asked her "Hey what PC you got?" Oh man that was embarrassing.
    The passion of being a "nerd". I've been down that road many a time in the past with many topics. in this case I can see it going from what kind of computer do you have, to let me come over and upgrade and clean your system...while only focusing on the computer and not the girl.

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by JohnGladen View Post
    You sound like you got a good head on your shoulders. I'm interested to know how profitable the hosting industry is now? I'm assuming way less because of technology becoming cheaper and cheaper.
    It's profitable, I've never had any loss, but I can't make a living from it.. Far from actually, but that's not what I want to do anyway.

    I could maybe save money, by taking a cheaper host than I have now, e.g. the price difference between LeaseWeb and Hetzner is quite huge, when looking at hardware.
    But for me, I rather would love to stay with a company I really believe in.

    I've never had any bad experience with LeaseWeb, and it's a friendly company. And I like what they're doing.

    I could probably also store more clients on the servers, specially when looking at what other people might have of clients on a server. Memory usage is 20-40% used, CPU is insanely low.
    For me, it's all about being able to deliver fast hosting, where people can grow, it's not about profit.

    So honestly, my profit is there, but it's low. If I get more clients, the profit will raise a little.
    But hosting doesn't make me rich, - it might make other businesses rich, because their business plan may differ.

    Technology is getting cheaper indeed, that's a benefit, but service and reliability is important too.

  21. #21
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    I started my hosting business 10 years ago at the age of 14 with $50 - sold 4 years later. Made a lot of mistakes, learned a lot, and it got me where I am now. Best $50 I ever borrowed from my parents

  22. #22
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  23. #23
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    I started offering web hosting as a business around 22 or 23... back when I still had hair and my sanity.

    Keeping in mind though, I had many, many years of in-depth Linux and BSD knowledge leading up to that without the use of a control panel. A lot of people who start web hosting businesses these days, whether 14 or 34 lack the knowledge to do anything outside of the bare minimums when not using a control panel which is frankly, terrifying. Just browse the technical forums and see all of these web hosting providers asking such basic questions to get an idea on what I mean.
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    when i was at 19 , i was inspired by one of my brother and took at it as my serious business

  25. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by 48-14 View Post
    When I was 14, work for me was after school and weekends, and not related to my baud 2400 modem
    Same here.

    When I was 14, there really was no internet.

    Computers, yes. BBS, yes.
    But internet? Not really. It was just some colleges networked together.
    Also no camera phones. We had film.
    We had cell phones, but it was the one Zack Morris used.

    Sometimes I miss those days. It really was simpler back then.

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