How to get up to $350,000 for your startup for free

Right, I know. It sounds like click-bait… hold on!

What if I told you I did it myself and secured $5,000 worth of funding in just under an hour’s work.

This is a guide describing how I did it, and how you can secure some juicy funding for yourself.

What’s Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub?

Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub is Microsoft’s startup accelerator program.

They offer startups thousands of dollars of credits worth of their products, including OpenAI (ChatGPT) and Azure.

The best part: all you need is an idea.

It’s how I got

• $2,500 OpenAI credits

• $1,000 Azure credits

• Many other benefits

All for my startup Indiedex.

1. Check you’re eligible

First thing’s first, as per the terms, the funding is only available to you if you’re:

• Building a software-based product or service

• Privately held and for-profit

• Have not received Series D or later funding

• Have not previously received more than $10,000 in Azure credits

If you’re in the clear, let’s carry on.

2. Make a landing page

Look, if you have a super killer startup idea you might be fine.

Otherwise, you’re going to need a landing page to be taken seriously.

Here’s the landing page I submitted:

If you’re looking for inspiration Marc Lou has a great article all about creating a landing page that sells.

For startup ideas, you can use an ideas generator like this one (shameless plug).

3. Describe your founder journey

As Microsoft asks, you need to

“Explain why you're uniquely suited to lead your startup by sharing more about your personal and professional background”.

You’re limited to the length of about a single tweet.

So, keep it short and sweet.

Focus on the important milestones in your life:

• Your past projects

• Your career path (college, uni, jobs…)

But importantly, describe your qualities. Such as what makes you driven, motivated, and disciplined.

3. Know your idea inside-out

The final text submission requires you to

“Provide a description of your software solution. Include your value proposition, target market, and product differentiation”.

Again, you’re limited to just a few words. So keep it simple.

If you’re looking to improve your value proposition, here are some great templates that helped me.

4. The demo video!

This is the fun part.

You’ve got 1 minute to convince Microsoft that you’re the right fit for their $.

So don’t throw the opportunity away by uploading some random ad campaign, or old marketing video.

First off, here’s mine:

This 1-minute clip turned out to be worth almost $5,000.

It can be broken down simply into 2 parts.

a. The overview

First off, you need to ground your audience with a one-sentence product summary.

Here’s an example from Microsoft themselves of what to say here:

"Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub helps all tech entrepreneurs hit their next milestone through access to technology, guidance, and support"

To write this, you can re-use your value proposition from earlier.

In the video, you need to ensure you’re showing your landing page while you read out this sentence.

b. The demonstration

Whether you pre-record your demonstration and talk over it, or multitask and do the demoing and talking at the same time (like I did), you need to show off your product.

Specifically, you need to:

• Show how your product solves your target customers' needs

• Not go into every feature (just focus on the big idea)

• Show the corresponding product features, if you have them

After all, you’ve only got 1 minute.

Keep it simple!

With all that, you should be able to submit your application!

It took 3 days for me to hear back, so don’t expect an immediate response.

If you’re interested in building little internet startups and traveling the world, subscribe to my newsletter for a new edition every Saturday.

And start connecting with other likeminds on Indiedex. It’s free to claim your profile :)