Buying Internet hosting from an academic institution
Within the United States, universities help startups in many different ways. This includes "internal" startups that are created by students and faculty as well as "external" startups that are created by university outsiders but receive support from a University. 


Google initially had an "exclusive licensing partnership" with Stanford. As noted in a Wall Street Journal Article, this deal paid off well for Stanford. 
Academic researchers and students can be encouraged to do technology transfers and "commercialization" of research. This can be within the University or outside of the University. For example the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation got started because the University did not want to help support a professor's efforts to sell his research. As another example, Texas Tech has an Office of Research Commercialization to help within the university.
Universities can also have incubators such as Univeristy Research Park in Madison, WI. Incubators such as these can help startups overcome the hurdles you mention.