Letter to Myself in Late 2008 (2020)

I have little doubt that many companies, including startups could reduce their cloud expense by 50%. I run tech for a big company and we've cut cloud costs extensively over the past few years. That said, I doubt it will mostly come from negotiation. Usually it comes by eliminating and reducing usage of services. Does your test region really need to be 1:1 with production? Do you really need that server that you use twice a week to be running 24/7 etc.

Startups, especially, rarely have the clout or buying power to negotiate meaningfully at a unit-price level.

For sure. AWS and any other cloud provider will negotiate with you. Obviously the bigger your spend the better leverage you're going to have. What they may ask for though is something like a commitment of 12 months, co-marketing, or something like that. But they would rather keep you on as a customer with a smaller margin and your company survives and grows rather than go to another cloud provider or go under.