The idea behind Sun Microsystems’ StartUp Essentials program is to help startups get companies off the ground without breaking the bank. The programme started on 2 Nov 06 on an exprimental basis, and currently limited to US companies only. According to Sanjay Sharma, Director of Sun Startup Essentials programme:
“A lot of these companies have expertise in their specific area where they are building an application, but they may have all kinds of technical questions. They could be about specific products or technologies, something as simple as ‘Which server should I buy?’ or as complicated as ‘How do I architect my solution today so that tomorrow my architecture and infrastructure will scale to the growth of my company’“
In a nutshell, Sun does not want to miss out on the current wave of startups entering into the market place. Infact, you could almost argue, Sun is looking for the next Google, the next YouTube and so on. This is what Juan Carlos Soto, Sun’s Vice President of Market Development had to say:
“Sun is better positioned than any other big company to tap into a new wave of Internet entrepreneurship. All of this software is available free for both development and deployment, and that together with our best-in-class hardware that we have for these kinds of applications makes Sun a natural partner for startup”
I have been working with the Sun Team for a while and is very keen on getting the programme launched in the UK. You might be interested to know that Sanjay Sharma and Stewart Townsend will be at OpenCoffee London on 28th July to assess the demand for the programme in the UK. The date is firmly on my diary. Make sure it is in yours as well.
Tags: Startup Essentials, Sun Microsystems, Stewart Townsend,Juan Carlos Soto, Juan Carlos Soto, Open Coffee, Open Coffee London