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up vote 4 down vote favorite

Once the BizSpark program ends for me is there a low cost solution for getting access to tools like Visual Studio?

I've seen before people talk about $300 or $400 annual subscriptions but I wasn't sure what that was for exactly.

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I suspect that the $300 or $400 option that you heard of is the Empower program, another Microsoft program that provides some MSDN benefits (fewer than BizSpark, though) but doesn't have the 3-year startup time frame. – Brandon King Dec 30 '10 at 1:07

5 Answers

up vote 3 down vote

If that entity can't get profitable in 3 years (enough to pay for msdn licenses) then it is probably a goner anyway. Time to start a new venture...

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up vote 1 down vote

You can become an MVP

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1  
Hi there; thanks for contributing an answer! :-) Does MVP confer production licenses to the company the MVP works for -- I would not think so? – Jesper Mortensen♦ Apr 11 '10 at 21:09
How difficult is it to become an MVP? – jpartogi Apr 12 '10 at 5:44
I have seen cases where an MVP donated his license to another person for commercial development, so I think it's possible. A to the difficulty... it depends, as far as I know MVPs are nominated by people inside in MS, so your forum/community contribution needs to be noticed by an MS person, and it's always better to get working relation ship with some field expert that is also community contributor. – WooYek Apr 12 '10 at 6:53
up vote 1 down vote

What is it that you are using the BizSpak program for? Is it to build your product/solution? If this is the case, then you are being too slow bringing your product to life... as Tim mentioned, this might indicate that this venture is already dead!

Can you explain a little more what is it that you're doing and what are the longer term plans?

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up vote 0 down vote

You get to keep your Visual Studio licenses, and you must buy SPLA licenses (or the similar at that time) for your production servers. SPLA is not low cost, but then again, BizSpark is intended for startups wanting to become successful companies, not hobby projects.

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up vote 0 down vote

Establish a new entity, transfer IP to new entity, outsource development to new entity, sign up for BizSpark with new entity, then repeat in 3 years.

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Not sure why the downvotes. Maybe the IP transfer is a no-no for bizspark. – TimJ♦ Apr 12 '10 at 21:26
1  
Eh, whatever. It's a viable option that's neither illegal nor against their license agreement. It's just obnoxious to do. – Alex Papadimoulis Apr 13 '10 at 4:05

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