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BizSpark: Free Microsoft Software for your Startup

2010
April
1
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Microsoft BizSpark

Thanks to a comment by Wade on the article “A Businessperson’s Introduction to Servers”, I looked into the BizSpark program from Microsoft.

BizSpark is a program to help young startups get all the software they need to run their businesses.

These are the requirements for entry:

  • Actively engaged in development of a software-based product or service that will form a core piece of its current or intended business,
  • Privately held,
  • In business for less than 3 years, and
  • Less than US $1 million in annual revenue.

The enrollment process seems simple, and the only external requirement is that you get an approval code from a Network Partner. I would assume this is easy to acquire, and allows you to be involved with a local mentor that can assist you.

This reminds me of the Zend Small Business program I used back during my first startup.  It offered Zend’s prime software tools for PHP at a greatly reduced cost as long as revenues were less than $250,000.  Microsoft’s program is completely free and offers much more software for every aspect of your business.  I don’t think Zend’s program is around anymore.

Here’s a PDF that explains all the details.

The software provided is an amazing array of software that covers a startup’s needs completely: Windows, Office, Server, SQL Server, Expression Engine, Virtual PC, even Robotics Studio.  Just about any high-end Microsoft software you can think of.

One important point is that after 3 years you must leave the program.  Depending on your startup’s revenues after 3 years, you may have a problem supporting the software platform.  Over time you’ll need to pay for new versions/upgrades, and licensing for your server software.  It would be prudent to investigate these expenses before outfitting your startup.

An alternative recently announced by IBM is the Global Entrepreneur initiative.  Here’s a brief video.  This initiative offers free software from IBM to assist nascent startups that focus on the industries covered in IBM’s Smarter Planet program, including energy and utilities, health care, telecommunications, and government.

Updated April 6, 2010: See comment by Wade below.  On further reading, use of Office is only for testing applications built for Office, not general “office” use.  In such a case, using Remote Desktop to connect to Office for testing seems reasonable. Read the EULA in order to understand the limitations.  There have been mixed reviews of the program.

Next post: a real mailing address (not yours)

   

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 1st, 2010 at 8:56 am and is filed under Getting Started, Tools & Resources. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
  • Wade

    Okay, so we signed up. All the software, including Office, has to be run in a “terminal server” environment. This seems to me to mean that it is for development purposes only? Apparently you can't download office to run on your pc for standard business stuff. Am I right on that?

  • http://www.startupnextdoor.com/ John Washam

    Terminal server? It sounds like they want it installed on a single server that you have to use remote desktop to get to. But that sounds problematic. You sure it's not a virtual server? I'll do some checking and comment again.

  • http://www.startupnextdoor.com/ John Washam

    Note the update I just posted at the bottom of the post, and feel free to comment further.

  • Wade

    Yeah, like many things msft does, sounds good on paper, but the actual details don't live up to the hype.

  • http://impliedsolutions.com/ Tim

    just another FYI, at the end of the 3 year program, you owe $100 as an exit fee.

    the biggest way i have used this program is i bought a server from dell that i intended to put debian on, but i needed to flash the bios, which required a floppy drive (nowhere to be seen over here), or install it from their windows based software. luckily, i had just been excepted to the program several days before and now had access to server 2003.

  • http://www.startupnextdoor.com/ John Washam

    Recently spoke to someone who has used BizSpark on his large startup, and he reported that there are no restrictions on the software used. Office does not have to be used for testing. It is open to use for daily business use, outside a virtual environment.

    Hopefully the FUD around this is done for now. If in doubt, try it out.