How about this idea, a 'friends of HN server' ?
ankeshk: I used to give free hosting to Indian bloggers and startups.  (More bloggers took me up on the offer than startups though.)  Tips from my experience:* I kept it as a first-come-first-serve thing.  I didn't want to become the judge out there.* But I kept a rule from the beginning: people had to move once they became ramen profitable.* There was no other rule except the obvious: don't abuse the resource.  It worked well.* The only problem I faced is: quite a lot of people who took me up on the free hosting offer didn't do anything with it for months.  Didn't put up a single web page online.  And only used email.  It was free.  So they procrastinated.  And weren't as aggressive as they would be if they had to pay for hosting.* So if I were to repeat my offer, I would add Rule # 2: their website or beta has to be up within 2 weeks.(Also to weed out people who wouldn't use the free hosting after getting it - I started relying on how good they were with follow up.  I usually asked a question on their first request.  Once they answered that, I asked another question.  And only then did I gave the hosting.  Its amazing how many non-serious people drop out by that stage.  These questions were basic ones: who is going to be your target audience?  How many people in your team?  Anything to just see their response reaction.)