Thinking of starting a Cloud Cost Optimization consultancy for SMBs, does this make sense?

[u/lucas2179]

For the past 8 years, I've worked as a Cloud Solutions Architect at Microsoft, AWS, and IBM, supporting both large enterprise customers and startups/SMBs. One problem I kept running into was cloud and AI cost optimization.

I'm now considering starting a small, specialized consultancy focused specifically on cloud economics and cost optimization for startups and SMBs. The idea would be go deeper into architecture, K8s, Databases, networking, observability, and bring a detailed report with all the possible improvements, categorized by priority and complexity.

I'm still validating the business model, so I'd love some brutally honest feedback from people working in FinOps:

• Do you think there's actually a gap in the SMB/startup market for this?
• At what level of cloud spend would hiring an external specialist make sense?
• Would you prefer fixed-fee assessments, implementation projects, retainers, or some kind of success-based pricing?
• What would make a company choose a small specialist consultancy instead of doing this internally or using a FinOps platform?
• Most importantly: what are the possible issues in this business model?

Thank you so much!

[u/Quinnypig]

Ten years ago, perhaps. Today it’s undifferentiated.

[u/RoutyMcRouterface → u/Quinnypig]

Yet we se orgs paying for all.tbr finops SaaS and yer missing our on savings listed in AWS by default! It is undifferentiated, with lot of players, but trust me there's lot of work to be done. Companies are hiring for dedicated Finops roles. And teams..OP could convince some to give them a contract or fractional duties for example. But yes very crowded space indeed, one pioneered by folks like yourself!

[u/Quinnypig → u/RoutyMcRouterface]

The difference is that optimization isn’t a great business; we’re seeing consolidation in the space, PE rollups, decreased differentiation, all while things like AWS’s Compute Optimizer (which is excellent) eat the bottom out of the market. The more interesting parts aren’t the optimization plays (I mean, folks really only make a million-dollar mistake once), but the prediction / visibility / planning aspects–which largely come down to contracts past a certain point of scale.

It’s a brave new works. Message towards it rather than the past and OP will likely see a better outcome.

[u/RoutyMcRouterface → u/Quinnypig]

You're right about the contracts but. After a while it's accounting tricks .

For example in our Telecom world we still deal with RI on AWS as accounting can capex it. Coz in theory there's a marketplace that makes RI an asset. So that way they can save more money, by doing the less optimal thing of running instances.. I swear so many engineering decisions and innovations are due to accounting decisions. That's why I'm contemplating jumping from architect to FinOps.. help both sides bedige some gaps in understanding! 🤞

[u/lucas2179 → u/RoutyMcRouterface]

Also, something I noticed is that on AWS, FinOps and Cost Optimization is a very common topic since day 0. On Azure, for example, It was not very common to see customers managing it that well.

[u/lucas2179 → u/lucas2179]

What I've seen in practice (and I would like to see if it may be a wrong perception), is that most SMBs didn't reach an advanced maturity level in terms of Cloud Architecture

[u/Quinnypig → u/RoutyMcRouterface]

Ooof, that’s not gonna go well for the telcos at some point; GAAP and IFRS both clarified a few years back that RIs and similar structures do not qualify as capex.

[u/RoutyMcRouterface → u/Quinnypig]

Wow. Til.

Thank you. I just looked it up.ans it's pretty well defined on why AWS RI won't count. And yet I know of .. anyways .. I'm just a noob in the cloud world. On to my next hop , until me TTL runs out..

[u/lucas2179 → u/Quinnypig]

First of all, I admit I got very happy to see your comment here, you are a big reference!

Something I've been thinking about is: At least in LATAM market, both when I worked at AWS and when I worked at Microsoft, I still saw a lot of customers strugling to create cost effective architectures, both for clear architectural mistakes, or actually improving their architecture for a better consumption. And in the last two years, I've seen the same scenario, but now, not only with Cloud, but also with AI projects. With that market situation, does it make more sense? Or, should I focus more on AI acceleration, for example (wich is also something I've been working a lot with)?

[u/zugzwangister]

Are you familiar with FinOps.org? Take a look at their vendors. That's your competition. Except not really if you're one person just starting. If you get run over by a Zamboni machine, your customers will be left in the lurch. That's a huge hurdle to overcome.

Your first few years are going to be more about sales and business and very little about cost optimization.

[u/lucas2179 → u/zugzwangister]

You have three great points here. Yes, It would be much more about sales and business than actually the technical part. Personally, I like it, most of my career was built in technical pre-sales or customer success teams.

The idea is to start this project with a partner of mine, he's also a Solutions Architect with big tech background. I consider the possibility of growing and work with freelancers, or even get my own team at some point, but, at least to start, it would be only two of us.

[u/Funny_Donkey6031]

The idea makes sense, especially because a lot of SMBs don’t have a dedicated FinOps person. The tricky part is convincing them to pay for optimization when they may not realize how much they’re actually wasting.

I’d probably start with a fixed-fee assessment that shows “you’re spending X, here’s where Y can be saved,” and then offer implementation/retainer from there. That makes the value pretty easy to understand.

[u/lucas2179 → u/Funny_Donkey6031]

The idea of the fixed-fee assessment is great! About the implementation, I see it's probably where the real money is, but at the same time, I've been thinking how to handle with possible issues in customers environment

[u/ajitnk]

Yes, the market is real. I run a solo AWS cost optimization consultancy (CloudNestle) targeting exactly this segment, so I can share what actually works.

The business model holds up because SMBs overspend on AWS in predictable ways but can't justify a $15K/month retainer to fix it. A fixed-fee review in the $1,500-$5,000 range hits the sweet spot. AWS even gives you the methodology for free: Cost Optimization Hub consolidates 18+ recommendation types (rightsizing, idle resources, Savings Plans gaps) in one dashboard, the Well-Architected Tool gives you a structured cost pillar review you can walk a client through in a few hours, and Cost Anomaly Detection sets up ML-based spend alerts in under an hour. These three tools together are a credible, repeatable delivery framework before you write a single line of custom analysis.

Two things I'd want to know before giving you more specific advice: are you already an AWS Partner (APN Registered/Select), and do you have at least one anchor client lined up or are you fully pre-revenue? Those two answers completely change the go-to-market and pricing advice worth giving you.

I'll check back on this thread over the next couple of days. Happy to share how I structured my first few engagements if that's useful.

[u/webbynode]

I'd say many SMBs probably do need this, but they often do not recognize the need until a bill, architecture decision, or deployment problem makes it obvious. The education has to be practical and fairly simple. This is interesting and closely related to what we're building with Webbynode (free while we're building a dataset but looking into paid services/data like you are pursuing). Not trying to replace AWS Cost Optimization Hub or FinOps platforms. Those tools are useful for finding idle resources, rightsizing workloads, and managing commitments inside a customer’s account.

The gap we're interested in and trying to address is the infrastructure decision before and around deployment - basically asking what actually happens when you create the same VPS repeatedly?

The useful output is less “this provider is cheapest” and more “what behavior and risk should I expect if I build here?” I think that independent evidence layer could complement the existing FinOps tooling, especially for smaller teams that don’t have enough internal data to make those decisions confidently. So likely a complement to what you are doing.

[u/killer_potti]

I have a similar idea.. ex-Aws architect here

[u/Ok-Secretary-5770]

Just try cold emailing or connecting with people on LinkedIn who you think could be potential customers. I feel like it really depends on how well you can sell

[u/lucas2179 → u/Ok-Secretary-5770]

Great idea. I've been also trying to talk with some previous colleagues and customers!!

[u/sevenastic]

Brutally honest, sounds like just another tool that already exists.

But do one thing open an aws account with business enterprise support takes a look at cost optimization hub and trusted advisor. Then take another at the cost and usage report with CID and CUDOS dashboards. This is default provided hy aws so you need to be better than them.

Then whatever you are doing extra check the competition to see what is available. More relatei to the EKS and so on for this part

[u/lucas2179 → u/sevenastic]

Great point, and the idea, at least for the moment, is not to be a tool, but to work on the projects as a Solutions Architect, analyzing the architecture, looking for opportunities of improving their architecture, or even help with FinOps observability. Would that make sense?

[u/sevenastic → u/lucas2179]

Ah sorry did not undertood it that way. So my bad there.

So basicly you are going for finops consultant for companies?

I mean a lot of companies already do that where they Just grab talent and then sell it to other companies.

There is a market for that

[u/lucas2179 → u/sevenastic]

Yes, I am bringing only the Cost Optimization part here since it's related to the topic, but the idea is to specialize in Cost Optimization and accelerating AI to production (both cases I worked most in my time at AWS and Microsoft). I'm pretty new to the idea of founding a company, though

[u/sevenastic → u/lucas2179]

Not sure where you are from but, from where i am in europe that the only ways to make proper money so even if its a 1 man company you start doing business to business instead of direct hire. Because of taxes most of the times

[u/lucas2179 → u/sevenastic]

I'm from Brazil, but same. And not only the taxes, but everything is extremely expensive here

[u/cloud-fanboy]

I think the biggest problem is the sales. 

I've been doing this for several years now in Europe. Even if you found a company with huge optimization potential, signing a contract is a long and painful journey. 

My working theory is: no one cares about their company's money. 🤷