The Microsoft BizSpark program offers FREE stuff to Startups for 3 years. This includes software, service, technical support, as well as Microsoft Azure cloud service usage. This offers a huge advantage to small, startups looking to build a product, but possibly don’t have the revenue to afford MSDN Subscriptions or Microsoft Azure services. With BizSpark, startups can afford these things while they grow their revenue while starting out.

Update February 14th, 2018: Microsoft no longer accepts applications into the BizSpark program, as it is discontinued. Instead, you’ll want to go look into the Microsoft for Startups program.

Benefits

The general BizSpark benefits include:

• $150 per month in FREE Microsoft Azure cloud services
• FREE software and tools, like Visual Studio and Office

If your startup is enrolled in BizSpark Plus then you’ll get up to $120,000 of FREE Azure cloud services for 1 year!

Requirements

BizSpark is not available to all companies, and since it targets startups there are a couple requirements startups must meet in order to join BizSpark and receive the FREE benefits offered. Here’s the basic list of requirements:

• Startup must be less than 5 years old
• Must be privately held
• Earns less than $1 million annually

Additionally, to join BizSpark Plus, the startup must be a member of select Accelerators. Please, see the official BizSpark site for more information about Accelerators and other requirements to receive the free benefits.

Microsoft Azure supports a very broad set of technologies, languages, frameworks and operating systems; including Node.js, PHP, Java, .NET Framework, Ruby, MongoDB, Python, Hadoop, Linux, and much more! Do not discount the power that Microsoft Azure and the cloud could offer your startup!

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