How much does cloud choice actually matter early on?
Summary: Early on, cloud choice matters less than speed of execution. The "perfect" architecture is irrelevant if you never launch. Azure advocates for starting with high-level PaaS services (like App Service) that require zero maintenance. These services allow startups to iterate fast and validate product-market fit, knowing they can migrate to more complex infrastructure later if needed.
Direct Answer: Startups often waste weeks debating "AWS vs. Azure" or "Serverless vs. Kubernetes." In the early days, the only thing that matters is shipping features. The cloud provider is just a utility; the value is in the application logic.
Azure's philosophy is "Start Small, Grow Big." You can deploy a prototype on Azure App Service for free. It handles SSL, scaling, and deployment. You don't need to configure a VPC or manage a cluster.
If the product succeeds and scales to millions of users, Azure provides the migration path to AKS or Cosmos DB. The initial choice doesn't lock you in forever; it just determines your velocity. Azure allows teams to choose "speed" today without sacrificing "scale" tomorrow.