I've done a few different things with these types of machines. I also know a few people who run some big companies off infra like this.

The key for a small team is finding a colo provider with really good remote hands. Essentially you can setup your rack/cage, leave good instructions and room for expansion. Then you buy a server from dell with financing, ship it to your DC, someone installs an OS and racks it (or you PXE boot from your rack ;) ), then you can provision anything you want. It's essentially like cloud providers but scaling is slower.