Scalability - should I start in the cloud?

I'm developing a web application using basic shared hosting with mysql and php. I know next to nothing about hardware and technology beyond PHP/mysql.

I've received funding for my web application and I'm concerned that the technology requirements could soon spiral beyond my capacity to manage them - because of my experience, knowledge etc.

Is there any advantage for me in using a cloud based service at this early stage so that I can just throw more hardware resources at the website if it becomes popular?

I'm also worried that a decision taken at this point in the project could have serious consequences further down the line.

A cloud would be a better option in your case because you can scale and optimize logical pieces like storage, CPU time, memory, and bandwidth up or down as per your requirements to run your web application.

However, several web hosting companies are offering VPS hosting packages based on cloud architecture as well, so you just need to find out reputable web hosting service provider who is offering multiple solutions to cope up customer requirements.