Artificial ignorance

Since we launched BizSpark last year, we’ve gotten a tremendous amount of interest from startups to join the program. As you may recall, we recently announced that 12,000 startups are now enrolled in the program worldwide.

We’ve heard from startups who exclusively use the Mac platform, but occasionally need access to Windows for development or test, having trouble downloading software in spite of being enrolled in BizSpark. While startups who are eligible to join BizSpark can access MSDN (our online software portal), the ability to download software from a browser that isn’t Internet Explorer hasn’t been an option unfortunately. Until now…

Now startups who are enrolled in BizSpark and use Macs (or non-Internet Explorer browsers in general) can get Windows through the ‘Top Downloads’ page on MSDN: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/securedownloads/bb608344.aspx (you’ll need an MSDN account to access the contents on that page) Continue reading

After a small hiatus, the popular event StartupSF is now back! I’m pleased to announce that BizSpark is now a proud sponsor of this event series. We’re all about supporting the startup ecosystem in the Silicon Valley, and through this event entrepreneurs will have a great opportunity to connect with and learn from other entrepreneurs.

StartupSF

StartupSF will debut at its new location in Microsoft SF on June 4, 2009 from 6-9pm. And our guest speaker for this opening event is Loic Le Meur, Founder and CEO of Seesmic. Loic’s presentation is titled “How to Launch a Product with your Community” – learn first hand how to use various community building techniques to build your product, service or brand from the ground up.

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I’ve been a fan of Joel Spolsky’s for a while. Even today, I tell potential Microsoft recruits stories from the article Spolsky wrote back in 2000 about his time at Microsoft (which was actually what convinced me to interview at Microsoft when I was still in school, and then join Microsoft years later):

At Microsoft, if you’re the Program Manager working on the Excel macro strategy, even if you’ve been at the company for less than six months, it doesn’t matter – you are the GOD of the Excel macro strategy, and nobody, not even employee number 6, is allowed to get in your way. Period.

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Today we are launching “new CloudApp()” a US-based developer challenge to promote applications running on the Azure Services Platform. This contest will have three categories of winners for applications running on the Azure Services Platform –

• a best .NET application,
• a top PHP application, and,
• a community winner.

What could a contestant win?

The winning submissions will:

• Be featured on www.azure.com as well as at major Microsoft events
• Be featured in a video interview on Channel 9 with the application author
• Winners will be announced at Structure 09
• Receive cash ($):
  • .NET Applications Category winner: $5,000 Visa gift card
  • PHP Applications Category winner: $5,000 Visa gift card
  • Community winner: $2,500 Visa gift card

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