I disagree - Bytemark have been in business nearly 12 years, thousands of interesting clients, no difficult ones that I've not turned around to my way of thinking :-)
We've just built our own data centre (http://blog.bytemark.co.uk/2013/06/04/bytemark-data-centre-w...), have launched our own IaaS product (http://bigv.io) and we get a lot of recommendations though as we're based in the UK we're not as big on most HN readers' radars. Not _just_ a plug, but as someone who wanted to go into video games and ended up running a hosting company, I've found it more interesting than I expected.
We still pick up business (and staff) from great hosting companies whose founders run out of steam. So seeing that happen over and over, our big challenge is to put a company structure in place where (one way or another) we don't have to make that awful "nothing will change - honest!" contractual obligation blog post. I've seen it happen over and over in the UK too - anyone remember DSVR? But also Melbourne last year, RapidSwitch, Redstation ... all beloved names with keen founders that got folded into a bigger company and gradually forgotten.
So I'm 1) trying to put in place products that will last at least another 10 years, and as we develop new ones, also have a transition plan to keep service going without ridiculous legacy maintenance 2) thinking about very long-term private ownership plans, turning it to an employee partnership, or anything else that will give new customers the assurance that we're here to stay even after Pete & me step away from it, as we will do one day. It'll be a few more years before anyone should believes us, but I think 12 years is already above average.
As someone who also ran a hosting company (2001-2007, when I sold it--the acquiring company is still in business and doing fine today), there are some people who are building hosting companies for the long term, and many others who will sell given the right $ amount and timing.
Some of the best hosting companies I've been with were run by "lifers" (which is what you sound like to me, too.) You've got a good team, a system, and you're profitable and growing your customer base. You're enjoying yourself, so there's no point in selling.
There are many others for whom the support gets to be too much, or they haven't charged enough to make a profit--in my case, it was both. If you can't make a profit, you can't put the systems in place you need to run a great business, so you kill yourself getting up at 3AM when a customer texts your "emergency support" line. Eventually, you burn out, sell it and move on.
Unfortunately, with hosting being as price-sensitive as it is (I like the comparison to airlines someone else made in this thread), there will always be companies that start up, have an owner that runs him/herself into the ground, and sell.
You "lifers" are in many ways smarter than the rest of us. I applaud you for not giving up and not giving in to the price war. Here's hoping other hosting company owners will read these comments and realize there is an alternative to full burnout mode.
It's good to hear from you Matt, I've had Bytemark/BigV recommended to me half a dozen times, as well as seeing you sponsoring conferences since ~2007.
I guess your life is made easier than many of the hosting companies by not offering shared hosting, and (from the impression I've got) generally working with larger clients. So none of those issues of upgrading PHP and finding clients' sites stop working, or having 1000 hacked and exploited Wordpress-hosting accounts to deal with each morning. If you encounter them, how do you mitigate those two scenarios?
DSVR brings back memories - I used them in 2002-2003? They had such a reputation... and then just disappeared off the radar!
Speaking as someone who is involved in a couple of charities, each of which has a single VM, Bytemark's not all about big clients. Their support has always been excellent.
I was thinking 'big' in terms of "Able to justify a VM plus sysadmin/management contract". Which is big in terms of most of the hosting industry's clients :)
I admit, my comment was biased towards the negative side of the industry in relation to the parent comment. While I agree there are many positive experiences and opportunities in the hosting field, I've found less interest in providing raw services and more focus in specialized publishing platforms.
I like the idea of providing a layer that floats on top of a solid network like yours, and solves some of the common problems in between that layer and the final website.
We still have very happy clients from 14 years ago, when we started, but the inventor in me has been inspired by new visions.
Can I suggest you have your front-page carousel altered to pause when a selection is made via the buttons. If you click a button to read the content the carousel timing can mean the slide changes before you have time to digest the content.
Love the depth of your outage notifications incidentally. One big problem for me - sadly stuck on shared hosting - is that the host never tell me a) when things go down and b) when they change things [that often seem to break sites].
We've just built our own data centre (http://blog.bytemark.co.uk/2013/06/04/bytemark-data-centre-w...), have launched our own IaaS product (http://bigv.io) and we get a lot of recommendations though as we're based in the UK we're not as big on most HN readers' radars. Not _just_ a plug, but as someone who wanted to go into video games and ended up running a hosting company, I've found it more interesting than I expected.
We still pick up business (and staff) from great hosting companies whose founders run out of steam. So seeing that happen over and over, our big challenge is to put a company structure in place where (one way or another) we don't have to make that awful "nothing will change - honest!" contractual obligation blog post. I've seen it happen over and over in the UK too - anyone remember DSVR? But also Melbourne last year, RapidSwitch, Redstation ... all beloved names with keen founders that got folded into a bigger company and gradually forgotten.
So I'm 1) trying to put in place products that will last at least another 10 years, and as we develop new ones, also have a transition plan to keep service going without ridiculous legacy maintenance 2) thinking about very long-term private ownership plans, turning it to an employee partnership, or anything else that will give new customers the assurance that we're here to stay even after Pete & me step away from it, as we will do one day. It'll be a few more years before anyone should believes us, but I think 12 years is already above average.