Getting started with AWS

Whether you’re an early-stage founder with a fresh idea or a technical lead building your next product, AWS provides comprehensive support, AI, automation, resources, and tools to help you innovate and grow, and much more.  

Trusted by more startups worldwide, AWS makes the power of cloud computing accessible for all by giving founders everywhere access to the same technology that powers the world’s largest companies. 

With nearly 20 years of experience supporting hundreds of thousands of startups that have come before, we help founders prove that their world-changing ideas are possible, at any growth or level of funding.

On this page, you’ll learn what to do after signing up, how to access different support options, and which AWS services you may want to explore first. Let's begin!

Who is this guide/page for?

AWS has helped thousands of innovators begin with a concept, then launch and scale their products. We see a wide range of maturity stages, for example:

• Some founders arrive without a cloud computing partner, bringing only an idea and a rough proof of concept.

• Others already have a team building on AWS and just need help with startup costs or best practices.

Wherever you fall in this spectrum or a different one, our goal is to empower you to focus on innovation rather than infrastructure alone.

What are you looking for?

A founder's journey can feel lonely, but with AWS, you don’t have to go it alone. 

The AWS Startups team comprises experts from across the global ecosystem, including former founders and CTOs, venture capitalists, angel investors, and mentors who upskill today's founders to navigate technical challenges and commercial opportunities as they build their business.

Technical support

Sometimes, you need immediate, expert help with AWS infrastructure, billing questions, or product configuration. AWS Premium Support offers various plans designed to fit your business and technical needs. AWS Activate Credits can be used with both the Developer Support Plan and the Business Support Plan. You can learn more about both here. https://aws.amazon.com/startups/learn/overview-aws-support-plans-and-activate-credits

Programs and resources

Are you looking for more than just technical troubleshooting? AWS provides several programs and resources to help founders plan, fund, and operate their startups successfully:

• AWS Activate: Qualifying startups can gain access to credits, training, and best practices to jump-start development. This includes architectural reviews, personalized tips, and discounts on partner solutions—all designed to accelerate your cloud journey.

• AWS Support Plans: AWS Support Plans offer tiered assistance if you want peace of mind that your infrastructure is backed by 24/7 technical guidance. Whether you need a place to submit tickets or a dedicated engineer who helps optimize your environment, there’s a plan that meets your startup’s needs.

• AWS Free Tier: If you’re just starting, the AWS Free Tier offers a wide range of no-cost services for building, testing, and learning—helping you explore AWS without significant upfront expenses.

No matter your stage, these services and programs help reduce operational burden, stretch your budget, and receive expert guidance as you innovate and scale on AWS.

What do I need to get started?

Since the beginning, AWS has continually innovated and expanded our solutions offering rapidly to help startups launch, build, and scale, empowering you with innovative tools to build today, and keep growing tomorrow. 

This includes emerging technologies like generative AI, with access to impactful AI models and services that startups are using to transform entire industries, enhance customer experiences, solve social issues, and prove what’s possible when you combine a big idea with the advanced tech tools and expert support to bring it to life. 

Below are standard AWS services that early-stage startups often explore. Each service has comprehensive AWS documentation to guide your setup.

Amazon S3 – Simple Storage Service

Store and retrieve any amount of data at any time. S3 is a flexible, scalable foundation for storing files, images, backups, and more, making it a go-to for startups of all sizes.

• Amazon S3 documentation

Amazon Bedrock – Build Generative AI Applications

If you’re exploring Generative AI, Amazon Bedrock provides a fully managed service for building, training, and deploying large language models securely on AWS.

• Amazon Bedrock documentation

Amazon EC2 – Elastic Compute Cloud

Get resizable computing capacity in the cloud. EC2 lets you launch virtual servers, customize your operating environment, and pay only for what you use.

• Amazon EC2 documentation

Amazon SageMaker – ML at Scale

For machine learning projects, SageMaker helps you build, train, and deploy models at any scale. It simplifies the ML workflow so that you can focus on insights instead of infrastructure.

• Amazon SageMaker documentation

AWS Elastic Beanstalk – Deploy & Manage Web Apps

Elastic Beanstalk is an easy way to deploy and manage web applications. You simply upload your code, and the service automatically handles deployment, capacity provisioning, and load balancing.

• AWS Elastic Beanstalk documentation

Amazon Amplify – Front-End Web & Mobile

Build scalable, full-stack web and mobile apps fast. With Amplify, you can integrate authentication, data storage, and analytics without managing a complete back end on your own.

• Amazon Amplify documentation

How can I learn more about AWS?

Whether your startup is just starting to ideate an MVP or is on track for an IPO, AWS offers a broad range of programs and resources to help you reach your next milestone. 

From the earliest stages, the AWS Activate program provides startups with cloud credits, technical support, business mentorship, and a global startup community that helps founders innovate together for a bolder, brighter future. 

Additional programs and resources to empower startup success:

• AWS Startups Learn: Discover guides, tutorials, and expert tips tailored to startup needs.

• AWS Skill Builder: Access free paid training modules to accelerate cloud proficiency.

• Training and certification: Validate your skills with AWS Certification programs that help you stand out in a competitive market.

Getting Started with AWS Documentation, User Guides & Code Samples

The broadest and deepest set of technology tools to invent and build  

No matter what you want to do, with AWS, founders can leverage the latest cloud technologies to experiment and innovate faster. Launch, build, and scale with the broadest and deepest set of services on the most secure cloud, enabling startups to accelerate time to market. 

Explore the AWS Documentation library for everything from quick-start guides to in-depth architecture references. You’ll find user guides, code samples, SDKs & toolkits, tutorials, API & CLI references, and more, including:

• Hands-on Tutorials: Step-by-step instructions for configuring AWS services

• AWS Architecture Center: Learn how to architect more effectively on AWS

• AWS Prescriptive Guidance: Resources to help you accelerate cloud adoption and modernization

• AWS Solutions Library: Find vetted solutions and guidance for business and technical use cases

Startup success with AWS

Discover how other customers are using AWS to realize success and drive further growth and innovation:

Noetik, an AI-native biotechnology company, is powering a new generation of precision cancer treatments. It’s using multiple AWS services—including Amazon EC2, Amazon Athena, and Amazon SageMaker HyperPod—for automated data processing and to scale training workloads more efficiently.

poolside partnered with AWS to make it easier and more affordable for enterprises to access its powerful AI tools. poolside is expanding access to its proprietary models in Amazon Bedrock and enabling cost-effective inferencing on AWS Trainium, empowering millions more developers to shape the future with code.

Miracle is working with AWS to help biopharmaceutical companies run clinical trials more efficiently, securely, and accurately. Using a range of AI-powered solutions from AWS, including Amazon Cognito and AWS CloudWatch, it’s innovating healthcare and improving patient outcomes.

Ready to get started?

Using these resources, you’ll have the core building blocks to start with AWS. From technical support to consultative guidance, from exploring fundamental services to diving into advanced tools, we’re here to guide you through every step of your startup’s cloud journey.

Whether you’re refining a prototype or gearing up for your first full-scale deployment, AWS stands ready to support your growth. 

Don’t forget: you may qualify for AWS Activate, which provides startups with credits, training, and more to jump-start your cloud development.

Join now and start building your future on AWS today!