14 DAY TRIAL // A Microsoft program aimed at supplying startups with the necessary technology investments at no upfront costs, to help young businesses survive through the initial, critical phases after debut, has evolved to the next stage. At the Professional Developers Conference 2009 in Los Angeles, the Redmond company announced that it was kicking up a notch its BizSpark program. In this regard, startups in select markets around the world will be able to start taking advantage of BizSpark One, the latest expansion to the BizSpark program.
According to statistics offered by the software giant, startups in over 100 countries worldwide have already tapped the resources made available by Microsoft for free. Specifically, BizSpark offers startups focused on the software market not only the necessary software solutions from the Redmond giant, but also support and visibility. Now Microsoft is taking BizSpark to a new level, in an attempt to build on the program’s momentum one year after its launch, as the company explained. The focus with BizSpark One is not only to expand the reach of the initiative, but also to optimize and fine-tune the offerings available for startups.
“The idea behind BizSpark One is to cast a finer net using Silicon Valley best practices, and then lift the net up to find the startups that are most likely to succeed in the market and shape the industry’s future,” noted Dan’l Lewin, corporate vice president for Strategic and Emerging Business Development at Microsoft. “Following the filtering process, our local subsidiaries in 10 countries will partner with the corporate team to help these startups to become the ‘ones to watch’ within the BizSpark program.”
With BizSpark One, Microsoft will focus on young software businesses kick-starting their operations on just 10 markets. Startups in Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Israel, Russia, the UK, and the US will be able to tap Microsoft, along with its network of advisors, investors, and peers, in order to jump-start growth. According to the software giant, BizSpark one will only be opened to selected startups in the countries enumerated above.
But the promise from Lewin is that BizSpark will continue to grow. Lewin actually underlined the necessity for Microsoft and BizSpark to evolve in conjunction with the needs of startups around the globe. “We are confident about the future of the BizSpark program and the entrepreneurial community’s ability to leverage our tools and platform assets,” he added. “The goal is to help mature as many startups as we can and learn how the market responds to each one of them. Our job is to pay attention to innovative ideas, provide support, and do our best to help these new companies succeed.”