Microsoft playing Santa for Startups

Nothing like a giving away stuff to make friends fast. Works for Santa, and even Oprah, right?

My firm was just selected to join the Microsoft BizSpark program as a “Network Partner”. This means if you run a startup with under 1M in revenues and less than 3yrs in business, we give you bunch of free stuff to support the technology side of your venture.

I believe this to be a great deal and expect there will be many sign-ups based on the value of the licenses alone. The program provides free access to:

• Software. Access to current, full-featured development tools, including Visual Studio Team System, plus production licensing to develop and bring your solution to market.
• Support. Professional technical support from Microsoft and a global community of business experts.
• Visibility. Opportunity to achieve global visibility to an audience of potential investors, clients and partners.

Most technology entrepreneurs know that, when done right, an association with Microsoft can present real client and partner opportunities. The BizSpark is no different and allows smaller companies to gain visibility to potential clients, investors, and partners.

To enter the program, all you need to do is join online and when you do you get near-instant access to the software, and your only obligation is to pay Microsoft a small fee (USD$100) due at the end of the three years (or end of participation in the program)

You’ll need sponsorship from a Network Partner (that would be me). Feel free to contact me with questions.

So, you may ask, what’s in it for Microsoft?They have decided that their future is tied to supporting the next generation of successful companies and by introducing them to their technology stack early in their development. FYI I receive no compensation, just a chance to meet cool new companies and learn what they’re doing.

The New Entrepreneurs don’t need no stinkin venture money

In my role as a Bootstrap-Austin subgroup leader I am consistently immersed in entrepreneurial issues at the grassroots level. I love it. I am always fascinated by the journey nearly all start-ups go through. The soul-searching,  the freedom, the riches! …Er, ok… the freedom!

Entrepreneurs look a bit different these days. They are more practical. And typically more creative than they are technical. 10 years ago, for instance, it wasn’t uncommon for two engineers to hit on an idea and build a new system, then go try to find venture money to scale it, hoping to eventually take the company public and of course, become gazillionaires. 

But it didn’t quite work out that way for most of us start-up guys back then. Assuming you could build a solid product, land institutional funding multiple times, with few mistakes, there was still that prickly revenue problem. Even if you brought in a few customers, chances were by the time any exit ever happened your equity had dwindled sharply. Not exactly a yellow brick road to Richistan…

Take a look at all the Austin venture-funded companies for the last 10 years –you will find few relatively few founders who became extremely wealthy by selling their company in the end. Yet a sale is what generally happens to the more successful venture-funded companies, if they’re lucky.

It seems that the shakeout that followed those times has created a new and improved entrepreneur, one who understands the market limits of cool technology, the perils (and scarcity) of venture funding, and the idea that not all companies must go public to achieve sustained success.

A common characteristic among these entrepreneurs is humility – they see a business need, figure out how to tackle it, build a demo, get a few customers to take a chance on them, and grow organically. Venture money, even if it were available, would likely corrupt the journey and actually become a journey in itself, always focusing on the next round rather than on customers and products. These are cornerstones of the Bootstrap ethos, which I encourage any budding entrepreneur to check out. 

With technology as easily accessed as it is now, the costs of developing products has declined, which means creative, non-technical entrepreneurs can look past technology, and funding, and zero in on customer pain.