The Amazon Web Services (AWS) Global Startup
The Amazon Web Services (AWS) Global Startup program is an invite-only, go-to-market program supporting early to mid-stage startups that have raised institutional funding, achieved product-market fit, and are ready to scale.
This program offers your startup unique support by assigning Partner Development Managers (PDMs) and Partner Solution Architects (PSAs) with deep AWS knowledge and startup or business development experience. Get support for your business in three key areas: product development, go-to-market, and co-sell.
Benefits
Product development
Become enterprise-ready by adopting Well-Architected best practices to reduce workload risks.
Accelerate product development through architecture reviews, immersive workshops, and integration with AWS products and services.
Differentiate your solutions by working with AWS Partner Solutions Architects to optimize your solutions for customer use cases.
Go-to-market
Increase visibility through case studies, win wires, blogs, and the AWS Startup Partner Solutions webpage.
Generate leads by participating in seminars, events, and webinars, and receive invites to AWS-led events.
Access Marketing Development Funding (MDF) to accelerate outreach, offset the cost of campaigns and content development, list your solutions in AWS Marketplace or AWS Data Exchange (ADX), and more.
Co-sell
Receive dedicated support from co-sell specialists to drive engagement with the AWS sales and field teams.
Reduce sales cycles and accelerate existing deals with assistance from AWS sellers. Generate new opportunities through customer introductions and fund your proof-of-concepts.
Looking to deploy cutting-edge solutions?
Explore AWS Startup Partner solutionsSuccess Stories
Reltio
Hear from Curt Pearlman, VP of Customer Experience at Reltio, about how they use AWS to help organizations break down information silos to effectively manage master data and gain a complete view of customers.
Cazena
Hear from Prat Moghe Cazena, CEO and Founder at Cazena, a data lakes as a service company. Prat shares his thoughts on the value and benefits of being an AWS Startup Partner.
Cloudinary
Hear from Bob Miyahara, Director of Business Development at Cloudinary, a cloud-based image and media platform. Bob provides his insights into working with the APN and the benefits the company has seen and delivered to customers as part of the relationship.
Ambra Health
Hear from Morris Panner, CEO at Ambra Health, an AWS Startup Partner and digital healthcare company. Morris shares his thoughts on the value of being an AWS Partner and why the industry experience of the AWS teams he's worked with has been so helpful.
MachineMetrics
Hear from Jacob Lauzier, Co-Founder and CTO at MachineMetrics, a predictive analytics company for discrete manufacturing. Jacob shares his thoughts on why working with the AWS Startups Team has helped MachineMetrics grow faster and serve customers even better.
Get Started
The AWS Global Startups Program is designed for early to mid-stage VC-backed startups (generally Series A through Series C) that have differentiated products for AWS customers.
Step 1
If you are an early to mid-stage VC-backed startup, follow the outlined steps to participate in the program.Step 2: Join the AWS Partner Network (APN)
Step 2
- Join the APN at no cost by creating your AWS Partner Central account.
- Enroll in the Software Path, specifically designed for organizations that develop software that runs on or is integrated with AWS.
- Upon completing the registration process, your Startup will receive a welcome email with prescriptive guidance on information required to be submitted to the AWS Global Startup team for evaluation.
- Start working with our team to get qualified and build your ‘Better Together’ story form and Qualification form upon receiving the welcome email and follow the instructions in the welcome email to submit the forms.
Step 3
- Watch Grow Your Business with the AWS Customer Engagement Program (ACE) to become eligible for co-selling.
- Share 10 qualified partner opportunities (over a rolling 12-month period) with AWS through the ACE Pipeline Manager in AWS Partner Central.
- Upload 2 Public References to AWS Partner Central. You can submit these references under the “Market” tab in Partner Central.
Step 4
- Determine if your product is ready for FTR. Watch Leveraging the AWS Foundational Technical Review (FTR) to learn how to validate your product.
- Evaluate your software architecture leveraging the validation checklist and complete the FTR.
Step 5
- Create a listing in the AWS Marketplace to qualify for the AWS Global Startup Program.
- Watch Get Started as a Seller in AWS Marketplace video to determine if listing in AWS Marketplace aligns with your product delivery model and business goals.
Step 6
Once you’ve completed steps 1-5, apply for the ISV Accelerate Program. Upon acceptance into this program, reach out to startuppartners@amazon.com to apply for the Global Startup Program.
"The AWS Global Startup Program has been a fantastic resource for Prognos Health the past 4 months, assisting with the complex AWS landscape, aligning co-sell introductions, suggesting marketing opportunities and networking throughout the AWS organization. Having a single point of contact to pave a path and provide recommendations on how to maximize opportunities, has been invaluable."
- Chris Hayes, SVP Sales and Strategic Partnerships at Prognos Health
- Chris Hayes, SVP Sales and Strategic Partnerships at Prognos Health
"The AWS Global Startup Program has transformed Pepperdata's go-to-market path with AWS in the past six months. The GSP team offered targeted co-marketing opportunities, provided key resources to identify and align new co-sell opportunities, and enabled strategic level discussions with core technical and business leaders to propel our business forward. The level of support has been extraordinary in helping us build our business on AWS."
- Ash Munshi, CEO at Pepperdata
- Ash Munshi, CEO at Pepperdata
"The AWS Global Startup Program has enabled our startup to raise visibility for our solutions within AWS, the AWS Partner Community, and among customers. With their support, we have identified and executed on highly effective initiatives that drove a 500% YoY growth in AWS Marketplace subscriptions to our products and jump started ISVA co-sell motions with dozens of AWS selling teams."
- John Tonini, VP of Alliances at Cloud Storage Security
- John Tonini, VP of Alliances at Cloud Storage Security
"From the very beginning through our growth phase, AWS has been an invaluable partner, offering us unwavering support. With flexible pricing models and access to architects, we seamlessly scaled our platform on AWS. Additionally, the AWS startup support team proved indispensable in guiding us through AWS market teams, ensuring successful go-to-market endeavors."
- CEO Hannigan
- CEO Hannigan
"Drata's rapid growth as a company has been accelerated even more so since joining the AWS Global Startup Program. For founders and leaders of rising startups, the AWS Global Startup Program is essential to company scalability by providing a wide variety of resources to help organizations with product development, GTM efforts, and co-sell initiatives."
- Daniel Marashlian, CTO
- Daniel Marashlian, CTO
"The AWS Global Startup program has enabled our global sales teams to more effectively expand our go-to-market reach. We have a strong collaboration with the global AWS team which has been our strategic partner for growth and go-to-market initiatives. Since our partnership, we have seen an acceleration of deal velocity, expanded reach into customer accounts, and increased demand through co-marketing initiatives."
- Pieter Danhieux, Co-founder & CEO
- Pieter Danhieux, Co-founder & CEO