Amazon only offers horizontal platform services. There's still huge opportunity in the verticals.

Well you could start with a SaaS-first business model. People are obsessing about Amazon, but the fact is if you publish open source software and don't build an outstanding SaaS for it, somebody else will do it for you. It can't be an afterthought.

Second, add IP on top that makes the service easy to develop applications for, secure, easy to integrate with other SaaS services, etc. Amazon gives you a service but for the most part they don't build ecosystems.

Third, make it work on multiple platforms, not just AWS.

Fourth, integrate with AWS Marketplace and get their reps working for you.