BizSpark comes to Greece and Open Coffee

A guest post by Patrick Malone, Technology Director of Microsoft Hellas

A little over 2 months ago, I was attending Open Coffee Athens XVII with my 3-year-old daughter (she’s really interested in startups, so I brought her along) and George asked me to come on stage and talk about BizSpark.  I probably wasn’t very good at explaining what it is, because my talk raised even more questions…  So, I’ll try again – this time in writing – and see what happens!

photo by flickr and istor_prt

BizSpark is a way for entrepreneurs to get fast and easy access to current full-featured Microsoft development tools and production licenses of server products with no upfront costs (you only need to pay $100 at the end of the program – in 3 years time) and minimal requirements (see below).

You get a number of benefits when you enroll in BizSpark:

Software

• Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Suite (VSTS) with MSDN Premium  (this is our high-end offering for developers, in case you didn’t know) for the entire development team (you also get Expression Studio and a Team Foundation Server, but I don’t want to complicate things even more!)
• Windows Server, SQL Server, BizTalk Server, and Office SharePoint Server and Systems Center production licenses, if your application is a web-based/service application (you obviously don’t need all this if you plan to build the next version of notepad)
• Access to Windows the Microsoft Azure Services Platform (currently in CTP)

Hosting

• We have the “Hosting Partners” that offer very competitive (and sometimes free) hosting for BizSpark members!

Support

• You get professional support from Microsoft as well as community-driven support from Network Partners - active organizations in the entrepreneurial space, who can provide guidance, mentorship and resources to startups.  It also goes without saying that you’ll also get all the support you need from the Microsoft Innovation Center (and just to be clear – you don’t have to enroll in BizSpark in order to get help from the MIC).

Visibility

• Startups have the opportunity to achieve global visibility to an audience of potential investors, clients, and partners by profiling their company in the online Startup directory, BizSparkDB, on the Microsoft Startup Zone.  Startups also have the opportunity to be highlighted on the BizSparkDB as a featured company and be promoted as BizSpark Company of the Week on the Microsoft Startup Zone.

The eligibility requirements are more than simple.  A startup must be:

• Developing software (client, web, online services – whatever you like).  Note:  you can’t enroll in the program if you provide services to others (such as hosting, creating sites for others, doing system integration or outsourced development).
• Privately held (i.e. can’t be listed in the stock exchange).  You may join BizSpark even if you don’t have a formally established business but you’re planning to create a startup.
• In business for less than 3 years and have less than 400,000 EUR in annual revenue.
• To be eligible to use the production licenses, startups must be developing some sort of solution or service that will be delivered over the Internet.

That’s all!  Now all you need to do is find a Network Partner to sign you up and Open Coffee happens to be one!  So click here, select Greece, pick Open Coffee and ask for access!

Oh, and for those of you that want to read all the nitty-gritty details, check out this document (.pdf).

Thanks and enjoy!