It’s disheartening to see a program that once stood for a greater purpose suddenly shift toward investor-partnered backing, sidelining its original mission. At the very least, existing members deserve to be acknowledged and considered in this transition

Question

It’s disheartening to see a program that once stood for a greater purpose suddenly shift toward investor-partnered backing, sidelining its original mission. At the very least, existing members deserve to be acknowledged and considered in this transition

Answer 1

Dear Microsoft for Startups Team,

This is Lukáš Řezanina, co-founder of a startup currently building and scaling our platform on Microsoft Azure.

We’ve been actively engaged with the Microsoft for Startups program and were preparing to apply for the next milestone (Grow level, $25,000 in Azure credits). Our roadmap and technical architecture were designed with the assumption that we would continue scaling within the Azure ecosystem, as supported by the Founders Hub.

The announcement on June 27th fundamentally changes those expectations.

We’re now unsure how to proceed. It appears that despite being active participants, we are no longer eligible for continuation unless we have an affiliated investor referral code. This was neither communicated in advance nor aligned with the spirit in which many early-stage founders, including us, committed to building on Azure.

We still have credits available until January 2026, but:

• They will be consumed far before expiration due to upcoming AI model training and compute-heavy workloads.

Switching to a pay-as-you-go plan without transition support would dramatically shorten our runway.

We ask that Microsoft considers a path forward for startups like ours – already committed, already building, and not yet investor-backed – but fully aligned with Microsoft’s long-term cloud strategy.

Please let us know:

If there's any way we can still apply for the Grow tier or transition with support.

Whether affiliation via a future investor could retroactively allow us to access program benefits.

How Microsoft plans to support founders already deeply invested in Azure who are now excluded from future program benefits.

Thank you for your time and for the support so far. We hope this transition does not leave committed early-stage teams stranded.

Kind regards, Lukáš Řezanina Co-founderDear Microsoft for Startups Team,

This is Lukáš Řezanina, co-founder of a startup currently building and scaling our platform on Microsoft Azure.

We’ve been actively engaged with the Microsoft for Startups program and were preparing to apply for the next milestone (Grow level, $25,000 in Azure credits). Our roadmap and technical architecture were designed with the assumption that we would continue scaling within the Azure ecosystem, as supported by the Founders Hub.

The announcement on June 27th fundamentally changes those expectations.

We’re now unsure how to proceed. It appears that despite being active participants, we are no longer eligible for continuation unless we have an affiliated investor referral code. This was neither communicated in advance nor aligned with the spirit in which many early-stage founders, including us, committed to building on Azure.

We still have credits available until January 2026, but:

They will be consumed far before expiration due to upcoming AI model training and compute-heavy workloads.

Switching to a pay-as-you-go plan without transition support would dramatically shorten our runway.

We ask that Microsoft considers a path forward for startups like ours – already committed, already building, and not yet investor-backed – but fully aligned with Microsoft’s long-term cloud strategy.

Please let us know:

If there's any way we can still apply for the Grow tier or transition with support.

Whether affiliation via a future investor could retroactively allow us to access program benefits.

How Microsoft plans to support founders already deeply invested in Azure who are now excluded from future program benefits.

Thank you for your time and for the support so far. We hope this transition does not leave committed early-stage teams stranded.

Kind regards,
Lukáš Řezanina
CEO

Answer 2

Absolutely agree with this. Our company has been deeply reliant on Microsoft Azure—not just casually integrated, but heavily and structurally invested into its ecosystem. From compute infrastructure to critical Azure OpenAI services, our application architecture was built assuming long-term continuity and scaling through the Microsoft for Startups program.

We were already in the process of applying to unlock the next milestone tier, with all development plans centered around continued access. Now, this abrupt pivot toward investor-affiliated entry disqualifies us without warning, despite months of building in good faith within Microsoft’s framework.

While it's appreciated that Microsoft is allowing current members to retain their existing credits until expiry, this gesture is not actually useful for companies like ours whose:

• Credit expiration is imminent, or
• Usage rate is high enough that we’ll exhaust credits long before the expiry date.

This gives founders virtually no time to re-architect, migrate, or raise bridge capital, especially for early-stage ventures operating lean. And realistically, many of us will not be able to absorb the full cost of pay-as-you-go Azure billing, particularly for high-compute AI workloads that Microsoft itself encouraged through its OpenAI integrations.

This shift may benefit investor-backed startups with large networks, but for those who bootstrapped or funded through smaller investors, validated, and built deep technical foundations within the Azure ecosystem, the transition feels abrupt and exclusionary.

We urge Microsoft to acknowledge and accommodate these in-between cases who are already in and heavily reliant on the programme—those of us who are not new, not yet funded, but very much committed.

Answer 3

Dear Microsoft for Startups Team,

I hope this message finds you well.

As a founder deeply committed to building on the Microsoft ecosystem, I wanted to express my concern and disheartenment regarding the recent shift from the Founders Hub program to the new Investor Program model.

When I joined the Founders Hub, I was truly excited and grateful to be a part of it. As with Microsoft's support, we fully embraced the Azure platform, architecting our entire startup using a modern serverless architecture. The program gave us the stability and confidence we needed as an early-stage team — knowing that once we were on our feet, we would grow into being a proud, paying Microsoft partner.

But with this recent transition, we were left completely speechless.

Instead of building with long-term certainty, we are now filled with worry. Once our allocated credits run out, we understand we will be shifted to a Pay-As-You-Go model — a structure that severely limits our runway. If we cannot secure external funding in time, we may be forced to shut down or pause all services we’ve spent the last six months building from the ground up.

What’s most concerning is that we’re just entering one of our most critical phases: training and deploying AI models, which will consume the remainder of our resources at an accelerated rate. We had hoped to reach this stage with excitement and confidence, but instead, we’re doing so with fear and uncertainty.

This abrupt change has impacted not just our technical roadmap, but the morale and momentum of our entire team. What began as a deeply supportive and empowering experience has now left us feeling stranded during one of the most fragile stages of our growth.

I sincerely hope Microsoft will consider a path forward that continues to support early-stage founders — especially those who have already committed deeply to the Azure ecosystem and aligned our architectural choices with Microsoft’s cloud vision.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for the support you’ve given so far. We hope there’s still a future where startups like ours can continue to thrive under Microsoft’s umbrella.

Warm regards, Humayun Khan Founder & CEO, MediCureOn

Answer 4

It is indeed very disheartening for us, specially because we are at a stage where we were at the cusp of leaping to the next level of our testing our product in the market and seeking Microsoft's support for the next level of credits of $25,000. Our current credits expire on 16th August and we will be forced to move on to pay as you go! We have built our solution and architecture fully based on Microsoft Azure services and will be left hanging with this sudden decision of Microsoft - a lot of effort and investment has been put by our startup to come to this stage and are being left unsupported by Microsoft at this stage. Request Microsoft to reconsider and at least support the existing enrolled startups who have reached a certain stage of their plans.

Answer 5

We are facing similar issue. We have our complete roadmap and services deployed on Azzure. How can i contact Microsoft support team?