In most instances, startup founders will embark on building their company from the ground up with a bare-bones budget and a dream. To ensure success, these founders will need to develop core business processes that meet the computing needs of today’s modern workplace without crashing the budget. It is to this end that Microsoft launched the Startups Founders Hub. This program is designed to offer technology, guidance, and support to startups that have an idea that could provide solutions to some of the problems businesses face today. Qualified founders get up to $150,000 in credit on Microsoft’s flexible, enterprise-grade cloud computing platform - Azure. Regardless of your starting point, the platform should sufficiently help you to execute business strategies effectively and efficiently as you have cloud resources, mentoring, and personal training available to you.
Microsoft’s motivation for starting this program is likely the recognition that startups play an integral role in a thriving business ecosystem. Despite being quite instrumental in innovation, barely 10% of these startups make it past their first year. Microsoft is dedicated to changing these staggering numbers.
Offerings of Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub
First off, the Startups Founders Hub platform is open to all. The idea is to create an enabling environment that would help founders bring their best foot forward during interactions with clients and partners. Microsoft aims at promoting the longevity of these businesses, thus contributing to the continuity of innovation. As it pertains to the offerings, Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub revolves around three key areas:
Unlocking Innovation for All
When starting out, founders have had to deal with traditional barriers. This includes venture capital requirements and the need for third-party validation. The platforms eliminate such barriers. Thus, ensuring that all founders, regardless of their background, location, or access, have access to leading technologies and innovations.
Technology Benefits That Grow
The scalability of technological solutions is of great concern for most startup founders. The ideal would be to have solutions that are able to grow as your business grows. Microsoft caters to this need by ensuring that the platform is able to keep pace with the startup’s lifecycle. For instance, if you are at the development stage, the platform helps you speed up the process as you have free access to GitHub.
In anticipation of the unique needs of startups, Microsoft has partnered with OpenAI, a global pacesetter in AI research and deployment, which should enable founders and their teams to develop AI systems that come with exclusive benefits.
Access to Mentorship and Guidance
When starting out, you want to siphon as much information as you can from industry veterans and experts. The platform delivers on this need as the founder gets access to tailored startup-centric training. What’s more, founders can leverage expert technical guidance directly from the different experts on board.
These three highlighted areas are the foundation upon which the platform was created. When you become a member of Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub, you receive benefits that help your startup grow. These include:
Building Your Product With Azure Credits
As highlighted, when you are an entrepreneur and startup founder, you have to consistently wrestle with limited resources. You’ve got to make the tough decision on what to focus on with the tight budget you have. Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub alleviates some of this worry.
As a Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub member, you get access to all the resources you need to build your product in the cloud. These tools also accelerate your efforts towards finding products fit for the market. As there are no restrictive timelines, a founder can use the Azure cloud credits they receive to build their product at their own pace. Besides, there’s the possibility of receiving customized credit offers that grow at your pace.
Increased Developer Velocity and Automated Workflows With GitHub Enterprise
As a member of Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub, you receive up to 20 seats for an entire year’s subscription to GitHub Enterprise. A significant advantage of this offering is that startup teams can collaborate from anywhere in the world. Thus, increasing developer velocity. This advantage working in tandem with the many features available to the team makes automation of workflows relatively more straightforward.
Cost Saving and Boosted Team Productivity on Startups Founders Hub
Once you are a member of the platform, you get free access to Microsoft 365 which means you no longer need to rely on disparate productivity and collaborative tools. With the one-year subscription to Microsoft 365 Business Standard, you get up to ten-seat access to Teams, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, and more.
Startup-Friendly Offers From Trusted Partners
Microsoft has gone a step further by teaming up with trusted partners that offer best-in-class solutions. As highlighted, you get access to offers from OpenAI. What’s more, you should expect additional offers from among others Ansarada and Drata.
Free Business Insights Software
On the platform, you have access to Microsoft Power Platform, where you can analyze data, build your solutions, automate processes and create virtual agents using Power BI. For an entire year, you have a total of 10 seats. Additionally, you have access to Dynamic 365, which helps you connect your data, processes, and teams with the suite’s intelligent business applications. For this tool, you get a total of five seats for a year.
The last is access to Visual Studio Enterprise. This should enable the founder and his team to design, build, and deploy complex enterprise applications with Video Studio. Similar to the Dynamic 365 tool, you get up to five seats for one year.
Azure Technical Advisory on the Startups Founders Hub
As your business grows, Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub provides you with access to technical advisory sessions. These sessions will include personalized build recommendations as well as pointers. This comes in especially handy during Azure Migrations or when migrating SaaS apps to Azure.
Learn More About Startups Founders Hub
Agile IT is a Microsoft Managed Partner with the expertise to help move your workloads to the cloud and to migrate from AWS and GCP into Azure. To find out how you can leverage Azure to accelerate your startup, schedule a call with a cloud advisor today!
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