Danny Gorog07 November 2008, 4:40 PM
Love or loathe Microsoft, you've gotta admit they're persistent and willing to try anything to get people hooked.
Whether you love or loathe Microsoft, you've got to at least at admit that as a business, they're persistent.
In a new spin on the old 'the first taste is free' marketing trick, where a business gets you hooked on their product or service for free, and then charges like a wounded bull after you're addicted, Microsoft has announced a new 'BizSpark' program designed to 'help accelerate the success of entrepreneurs and early stage startups.'
I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that BizSpark isn't about providing business consulting, or even startup funding, but rather about giving away 'quick and easy access to Microsoft platform technologies and production licenses of server products with no upfront costs and minimal requirements.'
According to Microsoft, the BizSpark 'no upfront costs' bit means that a program fee of $100 (U.S.) is payable on exit from the program rather than upfront when joining. That means everybody who joins pays the fee after three years.
Apart from paying the fee, what else happens after three years?
According to BizSpark, 'if Startups wish to continue to receive updates to development tools, Startups can renew their MSDN subscription at usual rates and terms. To continue to use the production licenses, Startups may choose to take advantage of a licensing program like Microsoft’s Services Provider License Agreement program (or other Microsoft licensing programs that may be available at the time), but are in no way obligated to do so.'
Let me translate that last part back into English for you; After you've had your first few years of getting hooked on the Microsoft platform, you'll start paying like every other business that's addicted to proprietary Microsoft technologies.
Participating in the BizSpark program also gives startups the opportunity to profile their company in the BizSparkDB, a startup directory maintained by Microsoft which will give the startup potential exposure to potential investors, partners and customers around the world.
To qualify for BizSpark your company needs to be a privately held startups building a software-based product or service, been in business less than three years and have less than $1 million (U.S.) in revenue. (So, if you're already a likely addict, no free taste for you.)
While the BizSpark program may look attractive on paper, and provide an easy and cost effective IT infrastructure, startup businesses that choose to build with Microsoft technologies, like Visual Studio and .NET need to understand that the costs to change after three years when Microsoft start charging full price may, in the long run be higher than choosing to use other open-source technologies, like PHP or JSP in the long run.
That Microsoft believes the notion that using their software might somehow, somewhere be THE reason for a startup business to succeed is frightening enough, but this kind of blatant campaigng to get business hooked for free, is in my mind reason enough for anyone contemplating getting involved with Microsoft technologies to stop and reconsider a solution based on its merits, not just its price.
I'm certainly no expert, but surely, if Microsoft's back-end technology is as good value as Microsoft claims, why does it really need to offer this carrot to startups in the first place?