Azure: Building an online company - Part 1

In 2009 at the beginning of cloud computing boom, I attempted to see how far I could get building an online company for free - on the understanding that my leisure time working on the project was considered "free" and that numerous organisations were offering database access, storage and hosting for for free, certainly for developer or low-volume skus.

The project was a success and I had some interest from some small local companies at the time, so job done, but I wasn't satisfied with the experience or the product, however, this exercise in turn prompted me to use Azure for a successful mobile gateway project in my full time job as an Architect.

So, 5 years later I am looking to do this again and I plan to record what I have been up to.
A lot has changed and I believe that now, more then ever, the options available should mean that start-up costs are close to zero and that enterprise products and tooling are also available with no initial start-up costs.

In the main I will use Azure hosting and Microsoft development tools. This is what I know and if this is going to be successful this isn't the time to stall the process with new technology.

My measures of success are:-

1. That the product is used by someone that I don't know.
2. That my monthly outlay is less than £50 during the "bootstrap" phase
3. That the product is used by someone that I don't know
4. That the low-cost approach does not result in a compromise in features or quality

Wish me luck.