Design Thinking Digest: Something new: BizSpark

Design Thinking Digest has been a bit of a ghost town lately and that’s largely due to two big efforts I’ve been focused on. One is the return of the PhizzPop Design Challenge Tour in the US (which I’ll talk about later) and a new program we announced today called BizSpark.

Some background. It’s sometimes easy to forget the roots and heritage of a company like Microsoft. Like many great businesses of yore it wasn’t sketched on the back of napkin but formulated in a dorm room. It was started by folks with a sense of curiosity—an itch that needed to be scratched. Sure there was ambition, there was also risk, but the founders of Microsoft had something that every great company also had that is seldom discussed. Someone that believed in them and enabled them.

In the case of Microsoft this occurred after Bill Gates called the creators of a new microcomputer called the Altair 8800. Bill and team demonstrated an implementation of the BASIC programming language for the system and afterward the computer maker agreed to distribute Altair BASIC. This enabled (or encouraged depending how you think about this) Bill Gates to leave Harvard and move to Albuquerque, where the computer manufacturer, MITS was located. It was there that Microsoft was founded.

So, how does Microsoft pay this forward as it were? One way we do this is through programs focused at higher education.

One of these programs is called DreamSpark. DreamSpark enables any eligible post-secondary student to download professional design and development tools from Microsoft at no charge during their education. This program is supported by active communities and a global innovation challenge that is called Imagine Cup.

But today Microosft is announcing that we are taking the principles of DreamSpark to a new level and a new audience. That audience is entrepreneurs and the program is called BizSpark.

BizSpark is a global program that will help startups grow into successful businesses through software support and a vibrant ecosystem that will allow new startups to deliver superior business advantage.

We’ll do this in three ways.

1. We’ll help startups receive fast and easy access to Microsoft’s current full-featured development tools, platform technologies, and production licenses of server products for immediate use in developing and bringing to market innovative and interoperable solutions with no upfront costs and minimal requirements.

2. We’ll also help startups receive professional support from Microsoft and BizSpark Network Partners around the world who provide a wide range of support resources for software startups. Network Partners are incubators, investors, advisors, government agencies and hosters who are vested in software-fueled innovation and entrepreneurship.

3. Finally, we’ll help startups get visibility. A dedicated Website, the BizSparkDB, will highlight promising companies from around the world every day. Through their relationship with Microsoft and BizSpark Network Partners, startups will achieve global visibility to an audience of potential investors, clients and partners.

Every great idea needs a little push to be successful.

BizSpark will support startups with a global community of peers, entrepreneurial resources and experts who can help address the unique technical and business development challenges that startups face.

If you happen to be in Chicago on Thursday you can join me for an event where we’ll discuss what BizSpark means for Chicago.

Please RSVP here or drop me or, if you have questions, drop me an email.