Entering the enterprise market can be a significant challenge for most startups due to long sales cycles, regulatory compliance requirements, and meeting the scale and reliability demands of enterprise buyers. Microsoft for Startups Pegasus Program provides a solution for this by connecting growth-stage startups to thousands of Microsoft’s top customers.
This program, which is an extension of Microsoft’s Founders Hub platform, provides additional support for startups that have already achieved product-market fit in various industries such as AI, health and life sciences, cybersecurity, and retail.
By acting as a matchmaker, the program identifies enterprise customers with business challenges and connects them with the appropriate startup solutions, while also driving top-line revenue for the startups.
The program is currently exclusive and open only to chosen startups from Microsoft’s Founders Hub community who are developing their business with Microsoft technology.
The Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub offers resources to help founders solve startup challenges. It provides access to business experts, mentors, and technical advisors. It also includes free access to tools such as GitHub Enterprise, Azure OpenAI Service, and Microsoft 365. Additionally, it offers access to startup-friendly benefits from partners like OpenAI and Bubble.
Benefits of Microsoft for Startups Pegasus Program
Microsoft’s Pegasus Program provides:
Opportunity generation: The program provides industry experts’ support to all selected startups, to assist in generating sales opportunities in their respective sectors and act as a trusted advisor.
Go-to-market support: Selected startups will collaborate with Microsoft’s go-to-market experts to ensure they have access to the best resources for generating and developing deals.
Access to Microsoft technology: Startups will have access to a dedicated Cloud Solution Architect (CSA) who will support their technical success and provide preferred access to Azure’s AI offerings. Moreover, they will receive technology credits of up to $350,000 spanning Azure, GitHub, and LinkedIn. CSAs will serve as a primary contact point for startups to ensure their technical readiness to engage with enterprise customers, facilitate compliance and security checks, and provide architecture advice.
Collaborating with Microsoft for Startups has enabled emerging businesses to gain insights into how enterprise customers evaluate and buy new innovative products. The introduction of the Pegasus Program is expected to provide significant advantages to entrepreneurs with innovative ideas who may not have the necessary resources to implement them immediately. Additionally, the program helps in securing the best customers for their products or services.
During the pilot phase, the program has assisted more than a hundred startups in securing enterprise customers, with an average deal size of $350,000.
As startups progress towards product-market fit, the Pegasus Program provides additional support to identify opportunities, boost sales, and expedite growth. Startups can sign up for Founders Hub to start benefiting from the program.
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