v3rt3x

I had a business that used AWS which shutdown over two years ago. I am NOT a developer. I've tried repeatedly to shutdown services on AWS and stop the bleeding. I've contacted support and they give me the run-around. One of the key issues is that there is a sub-organization linked to my account which has some invalid user email addresses linked to it. However, AWS policy is that I must migrate these accounts and provide a valid credit card for them! This is impossible because they aren't real addresses. AWS under no circumstances will shut down my account on my behalf, but it is impossible to satisfy the conditions of cancelability... I asked the support rep then if I must pay monthly charges forever and got the standard BS response. This seems like a criminal racket... Anyway, I canceled my credit card and am wiping my hands of it. The monthly bill is down to $30 or so. Will they come after me for this? Somebody should start a class-action lawsuit to end this crazy practice. They literally make it impossible to cancel an account under some circumstances.

Three years ago my partners and I founded a data science consultancy (see www.vertexintelligence.com), which has grown organically through our networks in the local tech scene in Indianapolis. We're hoping to expand beyond the midwest and want to avoid spamming/cold calling. I've found that paid search is not very effective, and content marketing only goes so far. Does anyone have any tips that have worked well for growing similar highly technical consulting businesses?