For small firms, the internet was a great leveller. Small businesses, even the tiniest startups, could suddenly access wide markets they never could have penetrated before the World Wide Web. Geography and the need for deep pockets to build real-life distribution points retail or otherwise no longer presented barriers to market entry. Similarly, the cloud now offers another breakthrough for small businesses. Before the cloud, the expense of an in-house IT infrastructure hardware, software, upgrades and labor created a mashup of capital expenses and high fixed costs that just were out of reach of most small firms.