Patrick Foley (one of my teammates) helps Software Vendors get the most out of our Microsoft programs. And he’s let me know of a program we have going right now to get some marketing funds for your company if you’re using Azure in your product or solution. Find the details at http://patrickfoley.com/2011/06/02/an-easy-way-to-get-250/.
Archive for category Software/Tech
Coming out of South By SouthWest Interactive and bouncing between the community events and our Incubator program, one thing that struck me was how many Startups know about BizSpark, but aren’t taking full advantage of it. Many (most?) of the startups I talked with are loving the program, but generally only have their primary technologist registered. The thing to remember with BizSpark, is that the tools and platform benefits are for ALL your developers and designers! Not to mention the full company benefits like Azure hours or hosted online meetings, Exchange, and SharePoint. EACH of your developers and designers can have their own MSDN subscriptions – all you have to do is add them to your company’s BizSpark account. I’ve heard a couple of people question – why do I want to take the trouble? I’m covered with what I’ve got now! Two big reasons. First – we hope you’re using the software we give you. We hope you’re using it a LOT. So we want to make sure you get all the activations that are coming to you – I’ve had several startups come to me and ask “how do I get more keys?” Well, they had all their devs just using one account. After we got everyone set up on their BizSpark account, they were both thrilled with the additional options they could explore, and there were no more delays in finding additional keys – everyone had PLENTY! Second – Startups are fluid. People join and leave much more rapidly than with larger companies. So getting each person their own MSDN subscription means that if someone leaves and “leaks” their keys – well just those keys gets deactivated and no one else is bothered.
So take a second to review your BizSpark enrollment – don’t leave $20K+ of software per developer/designer sitting on the table. We WANT you to have it and I’ll bet your guys would be thrilled to get their personal access – I expect it’ll be worth the 10 minutes or so to get everyone their own account.
(And if you’re a startup and not signed up to BizSpark, jump on that right away, or just use “Contact Me” on this blog (or leave a comment here) and I’ll make sure we get you fast-tracked!)
BizSpark
Mar 2
With all the startups I talk with these days, I’m still running into some that aren’t aware of BizSpark. Most of the conversations start with “So why should I join?” The answer is simple – as a startup, you get the same level of access to our platforms and development tools as the largest companies – but you get them for free (as in beer.) The only requirements are that your startup be less than 3 years old, have less than $1M in annual revenue, and be privately held, though it helps a LOT if you’ve already registered your domain and sign up with an email on that domain. When you do that you get an MSDN subscription for each of your developers, production licenses for select servers, Azure hours to help develop your cloud based solution, BPOS (hosted Exchange, SharePoint, Communicator, and Live Meeting), support incidents, and the chance to be spotlighted on sites such as TechCrunch and Mashable.
After we go over that, the next question tends to be “OK, so what’s the catch? There’s got to be some fine print somewhere in that.” And the answer is nope. Zip. Nada. When you sign up, the software is yours. The only bill you would ever get is if you choose to buy additional resources on Azure. Your software doesn’t expire – and when you graduate from the BizSpark program, either through growth or time, we give you some great deals on keeping the benefits even then.
So why are we doing this? We want you to have no barriers to evaluate the platforms. When you’re running a startup, you’re always short on two things, time and money. We remove the time problem of finding the right licensing configuration and path and we remove the money problem by opening up the vault of software for you to ensure that you’ve got access to whatever components you need to get started.
To join BizSpark, you can sign up at http://bit.ly/BizSparkSignup or send me a message through the “Contact me” here on my blog.
If you’re using the FEZ or USBizi boards like I do, you’ll be interested to see a new SDK went online yesterday. Details can be found at http://tinyclr.com/forum/12/2491 and there are some really great new features included.
Students to Business
Feb 8
One of the things that I’ve been doing lately (lack of blogging probably indicates how much) is talking with students and non-traditional developers about how to get into the software business – by creating their own startups or finding small companies that are doing amazing things. Well, I’m not the only one and there’s a new site up now from Microsoft to help connect Students with Internships, training, and jobs in the industry – basically a great place to get up to speed on what’s going on in the tech industry and get some support for getting that first, all important job. If you’re a Student and you’re getting ready to step into the job market (yes, you Freshmen should be part of that statement) then take a minute and head over to http://s2b.experience.com/, you might find some help and good information!
I had several people ask me about our Windows Phone 7 Developer Bootcamp series – well, we have one coming up in Dallas and I promised to post the registration. Well here it is! Dallas, TX I’ll have the information for the rest of the local boot camps as they get a bit closer
Generation Gap
Jul 23
OK, been quiet for just TOO long. Wanted to post a quick observation to break the silence. I’m an old Geek. (If you’ve met me you know I can’t lie about that.) But I do try to keep up with ideas (and hopefully get ahead of a few.) But something’s been bothering me and it’s a very SOCIAL not Technical thing.
I’m still used to having my username assigned.
Gen Today is used to generating their own username.
THIS IS KEY.
If you’re a corporation – you’re used to on-boarding people (Spellchecker wanted the hyphen, I’ve never seen it in real life) and part of that process is generating a user ID that more than likely permeates through the organization. Sometimes two or three or a dozen. You expect people to have this as their primary, most of their waking life identity. Their identity is key to their day job, and anything they do outside of that MUST be separate.
If you’re an independent you expect to have control over your ID and anything that may be pre-generated becomes a task and something that you’re just going to have to deal with, but like waste disposal, do it as quickly and efficiently as you can to get back to the real stuff. If you don’t have this – unfortunately you don’t really succeed as an independent, you end up on someone’s staff.
If you’re of my generation – your “True Name” may be something supplemented an alias you don’t hang your hat on in public. It’s your RPG/Shadow/Ghost name. “Mr Slippery” isn’t a name for someone that has an office address. Something you say what you think with (hopefully) little hope of reprisal. If you don’t have one then traditionally you may have been a “Lurker.” Someone that hears much, says little and stays in the wings of the theater.
But that’s changing. More startup companies and business are identifying either both online and offline as the same thing, or identifying with their online identity first. You can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your given name, so to some extent that’s not as surprising as it might be.
I find this VERY interesting.
Got the word from Brandon Satrom that IASA Austin is having an OpenSpace event June 17-19. All you going to TechEd will be back in time, and Doc List will be organizing. Set your calendars and alarm clocks and don’t be shy about signing up, from my experiences during the last event here in Austin, it’s going to be a great chance to learn and network!
If you’ve been following the path of the Microsoft Micro Framework (and maybe talked with us at the ‘08 Austin Maker Faire) then you know that things have moved forward and open sourced a LOT. Well, today we just announced that the beta for .Net Micro Framework 4.1 has opened up on http://connect.microsoft.com. Take a look! Some very cutting edge stuff going on there!
This past week, for me the big news in consumer electronics wasn’t what you probably thought. The big names all were all talking mobility of one fashion or another, but one of the companies that can make a claim to bringing printers into the home is now applying that same talent to 3d Printers. Yep, that’s right HP is now working with Stratasys to bring 3d printing to a much wider array of people. This has huge potential for localsourcing manufacturing and changing how economics work in quite a number of markets.
http://www.shapeways.com/blog/archives/357-Stratasys-and-HP-join-forces-to-make-3D-printers.html
