It isn’t a new thing that big companies such as Microsoft, Google and Facebook buy successful startups. But there is one more thing about these mentioned companies and startups: all of them help startups. Yes, if you have a startup this article will be helpful for you. The number of startups in India and globally are growing at a pace never before. While startups are creating innovative products, these bigger corporations have gone for platform play. Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon – everyone wants you to be on their platform.  Walking on startup path is extremely adventurous but not at all safe. We must look for the external support provided by companies and government. There are many support systems to boost entrepreneurship. It can be in form of money, network access or perks like credits to use development & marketing tools.

I am really happy to announce that, recently our startup Hungrymenot got selected in the FbStart and Microsoft Bizspark program. I found that most of the people out here are not aware about the amazing opportunities provided by such big companies. This blog post is for them.

Most of them have lucrative offers for startups and using them will help you keep your costs low in the early days, even for free. Yes! its as i said it  “FOR FREE”.  Yes! they want you to be in their platform. Lets explore the opportunities.

 

Microsoft

Platform: Bizspark

Website: https://www.microsoft.com/bizspark

Bizspark have2 kinds of packages for startups:
1) For the beginners, BizSpark package is available. It includes $750 monthly credit and three years of free access to Azure platform (cloud systems).

2) BizSpark Plus offers a lower term of using Azure, but the credit is much bigger at $60,000. At this stage the startup gets access to online support and gains the advice of consultants’ experiences in their sphere.

As part of the BizSpark Plus program, Microsoft will offer $120,000 a year of free Azure Cloud services to each of the qualified start-ups. Besides, the start-ups can use  $10,000 worth of credits monthly to invest in Microsoft services to power their business. The program, in addition to open source-friendly Azure, provides free software, developer tools, and technical support to help start-ups be successful. You will also get a MSDN subscription that you and your colleagues will get almost of the Microsoft products for free. It includes genuine license of visual studio, Windows 7,8,10, Microsoft office 2015 Pro etc. The best benefit from BizSpark is that you get up to $750 per month of FREE Azure cloud services for 3 years; that’s $150 per month each for up to 5 developers.

For peoples who are not aware about Microsoft Azure: Microsoft Azure is a growing collection of integrated cloud services—analytics, computing, database, mobile, networking, storage and web—for moving faster, achieving more and saving money. You can use Azure to host your websites. It can also serve as a backend for your applications.

 

Facebook

Platform: FbStart

Website: https://fbstart.com/

This program can help iOS and Android startups that have products in the App or Google Play stores for more than 30 days. They offer credits on good conditions and free usage of services for FbStart partners.

FbStart offers three kinds of packages for startups.
1) For the beginning business that needs to take it to the next level, Facebook proposes Bootstrap Track digital services (its not a cash or clean seeding—a startup can spend this money on digital services only); unlimited support on Facebook; and $500 to be spent on advertisement, credits and sales at more than 20 partners.

2) The Accelerate Track program is created specially for an already existing business. Here the startup gets $ 80,000 (to be spent on digital services); $ 2,500 for advertisement on Facebook; and big credits and sales at partners.

3) The Pre-Launch Track was created to help startups guide their apps to release. Here the benefits are lower, but it is still nice for the beginning business. $ 15,000 credit and no more than 6 sales at partners (including Adobe).

The most amazing thing that i found on this program is the FREE Facebook advertising credits. You can use it to market your app. You can even get more app installs with that credits. You will also get a number of tools and subscriptions including parse and mailchimp. By going through the offers by the program i found that the most useful one is a FREE “yourcompany.co” domain and FREE SSL certificate. By using this offer you can host a website for your company without spending a penny. Sounds great isn’t it? 🙂

 

Google

Platform:  launchpad acclerator

Website: https://developers.google.com/startups/

Nowadays a lot of things in our life starts with Googling. I would like to begin this post also with Google. It is important to mention that Google Launchpad supports technology-focused startups from all over the world.  After applying, Google’s team reviews each application individually and in context of country, industry, technology, growth trajectory, and business model .There are two kinds of packages that startups could choose from: Start and Scale.

1) The start package can be chosen if you have already tested your prototype. Google will help by using its own resources. Google Cloud Platform will give some money (as a credit) and AdWords will let you test monetization and positioning strategies. Also, you’ll get a user testing trial offer and invitations to local events that connect you with devs.

2) The scale package is for already existing products. Google Cloud Platform credits $100,000 to build a product. It will be reviewed by Google design experts. Online support and user testing will also be possible.

Participants who chose both packages are invited for Launchpad Week—a weeklong training bootcamp in select cities nearest to them. Getting selected for this program is harder while comparing to other programs.

 

Amazon

Platform:  AWS Activate

Website: http://aws.amazon.com/activate/

AWS Activate is a program designed to provide startups with the resources needed to get started on AWS.  You get AWS Free Usage Tier, 1 month AWS Support at Business level, AWS Technical Essentials Web-Based Training ($600 value), AWS Business Essentials Web-Based Training ($600 value), 80 credits for Self-paced labs ($80 value), 1:1 Office Hours with AWS Solutions Architects. Amazon can provide the most efficient cloud server for your application.

 

Personally what I found the most helpful in the above programs is Microsoft azure’s 3 year subscription. As you are a startup you are always free to apply to any of the above program or all of them 😉

By summing up all this we can also conclude that setting up your company’s online presence will not cost you anything if you use FbStart’s .co domain with Microsoft Azure or Amazon cloud. You can get your products to the maximum number of users, using  FbStart’s advertising credits. You can even build cloud based apps with Amazon cloud or MS azure.

Yes! these programs  has almost everything to Jumpstart your startup. So what are you waiting for ??! Just dive in… 😀

 

If i  missed anything please let me know in the comments. Please use the comment box below.