I'm an EngineYard customer with no VC. We've also had to increase our resources and storage several times since launching.

If your startup actually grows and makes money, you can pay for high-quality hosting and growth ...

funny how that works ...

My startup has grown and is profitable, and I would never pay that. We pay about the same amount for a 16 core beast from Softlayer as you get there for one slice, which is weaker than a $300 Dell I bought two years ago.

What makes you go that route over any normal hosting solution?

For the specific Rails app we run at EngineYard, the fully-managed aspect is very attractive. I've got multiple apps and even multiple business ventures–so I can't be hands-on at the server level for everything.

Their staff is very pro-active and always available. I could go on, but my point was simply that EngineYard isn't just for vc-backed companies who need to burn some cash.

And, for the record, I also am a Slicehost and Joyent customer.

So essentially you're buying consulting? I guess that makes sense.

I'm not sure that managed hosting == consulting, but I suppose that's a fair way to look at it.

Both Rackspace and Engine Yard have called me on the phone to alert me of potential problems. I'm not sure that's something a consultant would do.

Just a bit second thumbs up for Softlayer here. Used them for a few years and they've been persistently excellent. I also use Linode too now though for smaller stuff.