The Squirrels Are Watching

Free Software for Startups

Microsoft, Adobe, and anyone else who insists on charging more than $50 for a program should actually offer Office, Photoshop, etc. for free to startups. Free, not as in freedom (although that would be nice too), but just free, as in me no pay money free. Actually, I’m of the mind that a lot of that stuff should be free, period, but it especially makes sense for start ups. Why?

1. They’re not going to buy your software anyway — Start-ups are frugal. Take Microsoft Word. Best-case scenario for Microsoft: Startups use the Microsoft Word XP Academic Version disc they had in college. Worst-case scenario: Google Docs.
2. Good marketing — Startup founders are those smart tech guys who tells everyone else what to use. You want them on your side.
3. Good acquisition strategy — You get to know and identify all the promising start ups before they get big. It lets you get into a position to influence the direction of their company (e.g. in a direction compatible with your company) and, if appropriate, buy them.

Seriously, Microsoft should have a StartupCon in Silicon Valley, let any halfway promising startup come in, and offer them free copies of Office, Visual Studio, and Windows Server. That’s not to say all the startups will use said software (in fact, most of them won’t I bet), but at least some of them will, if only because of those few aspiring business type guys with no programming experience foisting said software upon their developers (It normally costs money! It must be better!).

Tags: Adobe, free software, Microsoft, start up