I do one of two things with sites running apps.. Either.

1. I get a cheap host with no support- that gives me the most access to the box (ssh, etc).
2. I have root to a server.

It sounds to me like you have an idea that dabbles in an inbetween. No root access but it seems like you would pay extra attention on friendliness to apps, perl ruby whatnot.

Yes I might consider something like this- to use it.

Now, I think I *am* your target audience. I have a piddly little html website- but I manage various client sites. Some are heavy backend stuff- so we get their own server. Some are not.. and we set them up on a shared hosting account. I am in a position to for example, create ten to 20 accounts with something more friendly.

I gotta tell ya- I don't give a h00t about price. My clients will pay it. And they *will* pay it. It can go up to $50 / $70 a month and it would be alright. Beyond that I would have some explaining to do, Lucy.
That's not the issue.

Money is not what will dictate if I will host web(sites/apps) with you. It's convenience.

What will you offer me that will make it more convenient for me to host a web app with you?

Let me list the things that most irk me about shared hosting and why I tend to just get my own damn server for a client...

• Missing dependencies
• Lack of access to system/error logs
• Funny system security hacks that isolate what system commands I have access to (like find, ls, imagemagick)
• Missing dependencies
• Missing perl modules
• Missing cpan shell access : missing dependencies and missing perl modules and missing perl modules

So- what can you offer? Here's what I want.

• Easy access to something like yum for installing stuff on my ~/bin
• Totally preconfigured cpan shell access, with the ability to have 5 accounts use the same libs
• vim
• X forwarding (hahaha... just kidding.. if you would i would smack you for trying to destroy your business.. gosh.. what would the bandwidth be???? Maybe in a few years as connections and cpus improve.. sigh... .)

So, there. I think there are other IT people like me out there who could send you a ton of clients- and I really don't think money is the issue. People like me are not interested in making a buck off hosting.

I want people like you to take the *expletive* when your server coughs up some blood because some cricket got inside the fan and your cpu's bricked.

I want people like you to make sure there's no funy business going on on some 'left open' port.

I hope you pursue this, it seems you will. For me, for one.. I would like to see you sum up your 'angle' a little bit better- down to one or two sentences.

You know, your angle- what it is you can offer that is not already being done- or you can do better etc.

I think what you'll do could be of service to some of the industry- as well as make you a buck.