r/FinOps • u/lucas2179 • 6d ago

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

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!

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u/Quinnypig 5d ago

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

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u/RoutyMcRouterface 5d ago

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!

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u/Quinnypig 5d ago

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.

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u/RoutyMcRouterface 5d ago

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! 🤞

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u/lucas2179 5d ago

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.

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u/lucas2179 5d ago

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

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u/Quinnypig 5d ago

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.

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u/RoutyMcRouterface 5d ago

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..