Microsoft for Startups Blog

Pitching your Prototype

Thursday, May 23, 2019 By James Turnbull

You have a fantastic idea. You've taken the core concepts of that idea and turned them into a prototype, a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). The prototype is the first pass of your solution. It's not pretty, nor complete, and often not tested. Frank Robinson said when he coined the MVP term: "... think big for the long term but small for the short term. Think big enough that the first product is a sound launching pad for it and its next generation and the road map that follows, but not so small that you leave room for a competitor to get the jump on you." Once you have your prototype though, the question becomes how you get that "sound launching pad" in front of potential investors and customers and enable you to grow it into a fully-fledged product.

What I learned from Some of the Tech Industry’s Smartest Sales Pros

Monday, May 20, 2019 By Iskender Dirik

Sales startups

When people ask me about my role at Microsoft for Startups, they are often trying to understand the nature of our business and what exactly we do for startups. It’s easy to summarize with our slogan “You’re here to do great things. We’re here to help.” ... We aim to provide a host of resources, from technology to marketing support, and everything in between. At its core, Microsoft for Startups exists to alleviate the specific challenges and pain points that startups face. One of those critical pain points, especially for B2B startups, is building a sales team and strategy. We heard again and again from founders that “sales” is at the top of their list of things they need help with. So, I set out to build an in-depth strategy guide that can help founders build a team, create a sales strategy, and implement that strategy in short order. That’s how we created The Sales Operations Playbook, a 90 plus page primer that can help startups, or any professional, learn how to build and operate a sales organization.

Updated: Saturday, August 31, 2019

Choosing your first Cloud platform

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Ruth Yakubu

Cloud Early Stage Startup Planning Budget

When choosing their first Cloud platform, most startups think of their current state instead of their future state, and fail to consider what happens when they start gaining traction and scaling. Unfortunately, if they don't choose a platform wisely, there may an ugly task down the road called Cloud migration: the need to lift-and-shift your solution to another Cloud platform. This results in cost and time you can't afford, when you should be focusing on building and growing your product. In some cases, your solution may be so tightly coupled with the old Cloud platform that you need to rewrite some of your code to integrate with services in the new platform. As a startup, you cannot afford the cost and potential downtime involved in choosing the wrong Cloud platform. Knowing the right questions to ask and your business requirements and goals provide you with the ability to assess and choose the right platform for you. Here are the top 5 key questions that startups need to consider before they choose a Cloud platform.

Startup Spotlight: AI Startup is Helping Customers Streamline Support with Cognitive Virtual Agents

Monday, May 13, 2019 By Microsoft for Startups

Startup Spotlight

Actionable Science creates conversational cognitive agents that help enterprises support employee roles in customer service, human resources, and IT services and help desk.

Microsoft for Startups Joins FounderFuel to Propel Canadian AI Startups

Thursday, May 9, 2019 By Ted Roduner

FounderFuel Canada Startups Accelerator Real Ventures

Microsoft for Startups and FounderFuel, Montreal’s largest startup accelerator, announced today that they would be working together to accelerate the growth of Canadian AI startups.

CodeFresh Claims “Startups at Build: Attendee’s Choice Award”

Wednesday, May 8, 2019 By Ted Roduner

Build 2019 Jeana Jorgensen Microsoft for Startups

Earlier this evening, we announced the winner of the first annual “Startups at Build: Attendee’s Choice Award.” By a close margin, CodeFresh was awarded the grand prize of $1M in comarketing benefits.…

Microsoft for Startups Ecosystem Update: April 2019

Friday, May 3, 2019 By Jeana Jorgensen

Ecosystem Update Microsoft for Startups

The following is part of our ongoing series celebrating startups around the world. You will find success stories, updates on our collaborations, technical and business content tailored for founders.

Updated: Tuesday, May 7, 2019

Microsoft for Startups and MaRS Team to Help Canadian Startups Reach New Heights

Tuesday, April 30, 2019 By Jeana Jorgensen

MaRS Tech Hub Microsoft for Startups Canada

Today in Toronto, Microsoft for Startups and MaRS unveiled plans to support the Canadian startup ecosystem with a dedicated space where startups can experience tailored business and technical programming in the flagship MaRS Discovery District building.

Decide Which Startup Deserves Best Pitch Honors and Top Prize Worth $1M at Microsoft Build 2019

Tuesday, April 23, 2019 By Microsoft for Startups

Build 2019 Startups Pitch

Microsoft Build 2019 (May 6-8th ) is right around the corner. Over the course of three days, developers from around the world will descend upon Seattle to experience the latest technologies and…

Updated: Thursday, April 25, 2019

From "Technical debt" to "Technical decision"

Thursday, April 18, 2019 By Penina Weiss

startups technical debt

Technical debt is a term that reflects the: "implied cost of additional rework caused by choosing an easy solution now instead of using a better approach that would take longer" [Definition of the term "technical debt" (plus, some background information and an "explanation"). Techopedia. Retrieved August 11, 2016.] I would like to present a different approach or point of view on "technical debt": There is no such thing as "technical debt". At every stage, we (development managers, leads and developers) decide (or should decide!) what and how to develop based on return-on-investment (ROI) considerations. I would even go further and say it is reckless and not professional if we decide to "overdevelop" when not needed. Following that, I would change the question: "How do we deal with technical debt?" to: "How do we make the right decision on what to develop?"