Introducing the APN Global Startup Program

By Elio Narciso, Sr. Partner Developer Manager, APN Startups at AWS

Mid- to late-stage startups need to move at a fast pace in order to compete with much larger companies. To help businesses build, market, and sell faster with Amazon Web Services (AWS), we developed the APN Global Startup Program.

This program is invite-only and helps startups become enterprise-ready with prescriptive benefits, simplified paths to meeting foundational requirements for the AWS Partner Network (APN), and a robust set of resources to help startups significantly accelerate their growth.

The APN is the global partner program for technology and consulting businesses who leverage Amazon Web Services. Since 2012, we have helped tens of thousands of companies launch and scale their business on AWS. Any company can join the APN and get access to valuable business, technical, and marketing support that helps startups develop their AWS-based offerings.

One of the most pressing requests our AWS startup team hears from businesses is the need for speed in getting support from the APN. Additionally, since startups have smaller teams than their larger competitors, they often require more prescriptive guidance to identify the specific APN programs, resources, and campaigns that are best suited to their business. This is why we launched the APN Global Startup Program.

When companies join the APN Global Startup Program, they are assigned a Startup PDM (Partner Development Manager), who becomes their primary point of contact and guides each business in their personalized and simplified journey through the APN. These startups also receive support from assigned AWS Startup Partner Solution Architects.

This white glove support increases the speed at which startups can receive direct benefits from the APN in three key areas: technical validation, go-to-market (GTM) support, and sales enablement.

Learn more about the APN Global Startup Program >>

Benefits of the APN Global Startup Program

The APN Global Startup Program enables businesses to continue their push for innovation, while also preserving our joint enterprise customers’ need for security, compliance, and cloud best practices.

The program also provides startups with access to vast AWS marketing resources, previously available only to the largest independent software vendors (ISVs).

With the APN Global Startup Program, selected startups can:

• Validate and optimize their products and technology architecture.
• Gain visibility and exposure with enterprise end customers.
• Accelerate their GTM strategy to drive new business.

Technical Validation

APN Global Startups receive support from assigned AWS Startup Partner Solution Architects, who help businesses optimize products and technologies on AWS.

Whether a startup is expanding its geographies covered, looking to scale their organization, improve the security and depth of their products, or integrate and align with AWS services, the APN Global Startup Program helps companies reduce the investments necessary for new product launches.

The program also provides a platform to align product roadmaps, showcase deep technical and product expertise, and highlight world-class best practices.

Go-to-Market Support

Building a great product is only half the battle. Getting visibility with end customers is critical to the success of any startup.

The APN Global Startup Program provides businesses with access to AWS co-marketing resources, including webinars, press releases, blog posts, co-sponsored lead-generation campaigns, startup bootcamps, GTM workshops, customized AWS-led campaigns, events, and more.

More than 90 percent of Fortune 100 companies and the majority of Fortune 500 companies utilize APN Partner solutions and services. For enterprise-tech startups and their investors, exposure and connection to this large, high-quality customer base would normally require sizable investments in terms of time and resources.

The APN Global Startup Program facilitates this process, increases the profile and visibility of selected startups, and helps to accelerate their revenue growth.

Sales Enablement

The APN Global Startup Program helps businesses accelerate co-selling motions with AWS.

We sponsor proof of concepts (PoC) with enterprise customers, and provide each APN Global Startup with support from AWS account managers in their live sales opportunities. There are also opportunities to leverage AWS programs to build a joint pipeline of deals.

Each APN Global Startup is fast-tracked to launching solutions on AWS Marketplace, with credits to facilitate and support integration and discounted listing fees to encourage adoption.

How the APN is Powering Startups Built on AWS

AWS approaches partnering differently. We lead with the customer and design our strategies to enable APN Global Startups to deliver solutions and services built on AWS that end customers can trust.

To learn more about how we are supporting startups, check out the APN Startup Spotlight that showcases successes that startups and their investors have had with AWS enterprise customers.

Additionally, this APN Blog post discusses APN programs that help startups grow, and how we connect startups with AWS expertise to help them build, market, and sell their AWS-based offerings.

Check how AWS is helping startups scale with the APN Global Startup Program >>