Tech MNCs don mentor hat, give start-ups low-cost tools

BANGALORE: It is not money alone that can kick-start a new venture. Access to the latest software tools, advice on how to pitch a business

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proposal and introduction to prospective customers are equally important pieces of the start-up puzzle, as scores of technology start-ups are finding out.

Until six months ago, Chennai-based information technology outfit OrangeScape would use 50-100 servers, managed round the clock by about 10 employees, to help build and host web applications for a roster of big-ticket clients. “It was a nightmare to manage over 50-100 servers, we couldn’t afford that,” said Suresh Sambandam, founder & CEO, OrangeScape, who then sought help from search giant Google to use their suite of free and open source tools. “We were able to get on Google’s cloud platform on the right time and now we don’t need any of the virtual servers,” Mr Sambandan added.

Elsewhere in Bangalore, Gradatim IT Ventures, a start-up that provides technology tools to clients in the financial sector, also received a welcome boost when they signed onto the Microsoft BizSpark network that allowed them to access licensed software free of cost. “Typically, such licensing would have cost us $200,000 that I can now instead use to build my business,” said CV Prakash, founder & CEO, Gradatim.