„In the end of the 90s, every good startup had Sun servers, but throughout the years Sun lost touch with startups and was said to be proprietary, slow and expensive“, says Christian Mueller, Community Manager Startups of the Sun Startup Essentials Program. In order to get back in contact with startups, relearn their needs and target the market better, Sun Microsystems set up the Startup Essentials Program: „The program started in the US about two years ago and has now been rolled out in 26 countries worldwide“, explains Christian, who attracted 140 members in Germany in 2008. The Start Up Camp Cologne, co-organized by Sun Microsystems, boosted the program's membership in Germany up to 230. Christian is positive that they’ll have around 400 German members by the end of 2009.

Members of the Sun Startup Essential Program get free IT consulting - not only with regard to Sun technology ;) On top of that, Sun offers funding for marketing activities, good hardware discount as well as flexible hosting partners with good service. The program is for free, but you have to meet some conditions: Your company has to be younger than six years with less than 150 employees. You also need to have a real address or a website for „a short sanity check“. For more details, visit Sun’s website at http://de.sun.com/startupessentials/ there’s even a twitter account with additional information http://twitter.com/Sun4Startups Free members sweater are offered for the next 100 registrations, so go for it!

More interviews from Start Up Camp Cologne will follow in the days to come @ www.tiburon-tv.com Categories: english stuff | portraits | startupcamp cologne

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