Cloud & Technology Partnerships

AWS Activate

As an AWS Activate member, you get free tools, resources, content, and expert support to accelerate your startup at every stage. You’ll have access to more than 40 solution templates to build and deploy your product, AWS-expert curated tips for your business and technical needs, and best practices training from Learn on AWS.

Benefits Include:

• $200k in AWS Promotional Credit valid for 3 years. Generative AI startups might be eligible for more credits, pending AWS' review.
• 2 years of Business Support (up to $10k)

Eligibility Criteria:

• Startups up to and including Series A
• Founded within last 10 years
• Have a functioning website or public profile
• If the above eligibility criteria don't apply to your company, please email bizdev@lsvp.com for an introduction to Lightspeed’s Account Manager.

Application & FAQ:

• ‍Application: You can apply for the credits here: https://aws.amazon.com/activate/‍
• Lightspeed org ID: sBkD (case sensitive)‍
• FAQ: https://aws.amazon.com/activate/faq/

AWS Basecamp

Empower your startup with a secure, automated, native AWS foundation that will seamlessly scale with your business through all phases of growth.

Benefits Include:

• AWS co-funds the cost of the engagement 50/50 with the customer up to a total project cost of $100k (a $50k benefit)
• Technical partners are hand-picked by AWS and have extensive AWS experience and know how to work with startups
• SOWs are fairly flexible, allowing startups to move quickly and leverage Basecamp as “fractional devops” support to augment their team

Eligibility Criteria:

• Seed-Stage Startup
• Project cap of $100k ($50k funded by the startup / $50k funded by AWS)

Application & FAQ:

Email bizdev@lsvp.com for an introduction to Lightspeed’s Account Manager who can give a great overview of all the AWS resources available for your company.

AWS Sales Skills for Founders Program

The AWS Sales Skills for Founders Program (SSFF) invites seed-stage founders, CEOs/CTOs to join this new three-week program focused on founder-led sales. In this program, you’ll learn how to sell efficiently and effectively, build the early stages of a B2B sales motion, and gain access to startup and sales leaders for individual coaching.

‍Benefits Include:

• An exclusive cohort of peers from other high potential startups in weekly virtual, online sessions, supplemented by optional office hours and workshops.
• 1 hour per week of required session time
• 2 hours of optional coaching and office hours per week
• Post-program, you’ll gain access to an active alumni community for additional content and networking opportunities

‍Eligibility Criteria:

• Technical-leaning seed-stage founders, CEOs & CTOs in the B2B SaaS space. Founders should have little to no sales training or experience in a sales role. Founders are invited to participate regardless of Cloud provider preference.
• Only one person per startup.

‍Application & FAQ:

‍Email bizdev@lsvp.com to learn more about the program and next cohort.

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Google Cloud for Startups

Our mission begins with you. We’re invested in your startup’s success. Our commitment is to help you grow and scale over the long run, and to provide you with the financial, business and technology support to do so.

Why Work With Us:

Grow your business with GCP. Lightspeed portfolio companies have access to:

• Google Cloud credits: Google Cloud credits for early-stage startups to help you build and grow your startup.
• Migrate & grow with Google Cloud: We offer Google Cloud credits to offset the initial cost of migration while you’re running on parallel environments.
• Technical support & learning: Technical support, architecture workshops, and expert guidance from Google engineers.
• GTM benefits for B2B startups: Fuel your business growth through GTM opportunities for B2B startups.

Ready to apply? Provide additional details here. The GCP team will review your application and get back to you in within 2-business days on which benefits would be a great fit for your company.

➡️ Email bizdev@lsvp.com for an introduction to Lightspeed’s Account Manager who can give an overview of Google resources available for your company and the details of our differentiated Lightspeed x Google Cloud partnership program.

Offers:

Offer 1 | Google Cloud Credits

Google Cloud credits for early-stage startups to help you build and grow your startup

• Early stage startups, $200K over two years
• AI-first startups, $350K over two years‍
• Available to new / existing customers

Offer 2 | Migrate & Grow with Google Cloud

We offer Google Cloud credits to offset the initial cost of migration while you’re running on parallel environments. When you’re ready to migrate to Google Cloud, you’ll have a dedicated account manager to guide you with bespoke engagement and end-to-end migration management and access to technical experts.

• Google Cloud credits up to 50% to offset migration costs
• Partner Services Fund to support implementation and deployment
• Additional discounts, such as service level and committed use discounts

Offer 3 | Technical Support & Learning

Get the technical support and guidance you need, when you need it.

• Get up to $30K USD in Google Cloud Enhanced Support credits for 1 year. Fast response times with unlimited 24/7 support access in multiple channels and languages, designed for workloads in production (For Seed to Series A)
• Get up to $25K USD in GCP Learning Fund credits for team training, team certification, or participate in our Advanced Solutions Lab to build high-impact business solutions alongside Google machine learning experts
• Dedicated Workshops and Office Hours for onboarding and solution – tailored upon request.

Offer 4 | GTM Benefits for B2B Startups

Fuel your business growth through GTM opportunities for B2B startups.

• Marketplace: GCP credits to simplify and offset onboarding costs, working with our partners
• ISV Springboard: Preferred access for Lightspeed early stage ISV startups

Google Emerging Partner Springboard

Google’s Emerging Springboard program can help you innovate and accelerate your go-to-market motion.

Benefits Include:

• Go-to-market partnership: Google Cloud funded content development, co-marketing and joint PR opportunities
• Technical mentorship: Architectural design guidance, access to build with BigQuery and VertexAI programs, access to Springboard Customer Advisory Panels
• Fastpass access to Google Cloud Marketplace, ISV Solutions Connect and Google for Startups Cloud

Eligibility Criteria:

• Please email bizdev@lsvp.com to see if your company might be eligible.

Google Ads - Venture Acceleration Program

Google’s Venture Acceleration Program will provide Lightspeed portfolio companies exclusive insights, education, new customer onboarding support, and access to teams across Google to help profitably meet and exceed growth goals. We’ll cover how the full suite of Google’s tools – from Search to YouTube – can drive the responsible & effective growth startups and investors are both seeking.

Benefits Include:

• Insights & Advanced Solutions: Exclusive access to new Google Ads tools and insights (competitive insights + market data)
• Strategy Office Hours: For portfolio companies looking to up-level their marketing strategies on Google Ads
• Roundtables & workshops discussing best practices for portfolio companies at all stages

Eligibility Criteria:

• Program is open to all Lightspeed portfolio companies.

Application & FAQ:

• Email bizdev@lsvp.com for an introduction to Lightspeed’s Account Manager who can give an overview of Google resources available for your company.

Google Ads - New Business Sales & Onboarding

‍A new program for Lightspeed portfolio companies, to grow startups faster and more efficiently with Ads, helping them develop a digital strategy and achieve business goals with our dedicated team of Digital Strategists. This 6-month pilot program shortens the learning curve to develop your digital strategy on Google Ads. The program includes hands-on strategic support for long-term, sustainable growth with direct support from Google via a dedicated Account Manager. Exclusively for LSVP portfolio companies, our program helps achieve your business and marketing objectives at no additional cost.‍

Benefits Include:

• Pre-Launch
  - Competitive analysis & benchmarking
  - Access to betas
  - In-person events & customer strategy sessions
  - Creative brainstorming & storyboarding
• Launch & Post-Launch
  - Guaranteed high-touch support during first 6 months offering:
  - Campaign builds & optimizations
  - Performance & Analytics reviews
  - Ads product expansions
• 1:Many Sessions
  - Roundtables & workshops discussing best practices for portfolio companies’ digital growth

‍Eligibility Criteria:

• Program is open to all Lightspeed portfolio companies.
  - New Activations: Accounts that have never spent with Google before, that are building out a brand new account and marketing strategy for the first time.
  - Reactivations: Accounts that have previously advertised with Google but are at least 6 months paused since they last spent and have an ability to be upsold from prior strategies.
  - Expansions: Accounts that operate as a separate brand, division or entity from an existing advertiser and are launching in a separate Ads account.

Application & FAQ:

• Email bizdev@lsvp.com for an introduction to Lightspeed’s Account Manager who can give an overview of Google resources available for your company.

Google B2B Research: How to Move Upmarket

Lightspeed portfolio companies also benefit from access to Google's B2B research report, Moving Upmarket to Land Bigger Accounts. This report highlights similarities and differences between small business, mid-market, and enterprise-level buyers while offering insights to aid companies in effectively engaging with larger corporate clientele.

Google Startup School: Gen AI

You're invited to join Startup School: Gen AI to take your AI knowledge to the next level! Join Google Cloud for 4-weeks of live, hands-on classes led by Google Cloud and industry experts who will teach you how to leverage our gen AI products and solutions on Vertex AI and Gemini and master the basics. Classes kick off on Tuesday, October 29.

You’ll learn to use Google’s generative AI products and solutions on Vertex AI, including Gemini, across a number of focus areas:

• Week 1 – Building Your AI Foundation on Google Cloud: Startup Essentials
  
• Week 2 – Developing Generative AI Applications for Startups: Vertex AI & Gemini
  
• Week 3 – Unlocking Data-Driven Growth for Startups with BigQuery & Gemini
  
• Week 4 – Expanding Your Startup's AI Toolkit: Google Cloud’s Partner Ecosystem
  

Who Should Attend: Startup School: Gen AI is best suited for startup decision makers (founders, CxOs), product leaders, and practitioners (startups developers, data engineers).

GCP Learning Fund

$25k credits per year exclusive for Lightspeed. Instructor Led Team (ILT) training, team certification, and/or technical labs for rapid solution prototyping. Submit your interest to activate this benefit!

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Microsoft for Startups - Founders Hub

Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub is a digital platform that brings people, knowledge, and benefits together to help solve startup challenges.

Benefits Include:

• Build at your own pace with up to $150,000 in free Azure credits over 2 years
• Get free access to powerful development and productivity tools including:
  - GitHub (20 Enterprise seats/ 1 year)
  - Microsoft 365 Business Standard (10 seats/ 1 year)
  - PowerBI Pro (10 seats/ 1 year)
• Access startup-friendly offers from Microsoft partners including:
  - OpenAI (3 months free license and $1k of free credits)
  - Bubble ($3k in credits/ 6 months)
  - LinkedIn (LinkedIn Premium Business, Sales Navigator Core and Recruiter Lite - 1 seat/ 3 months)
• Receive mentorship guidance from business leaders and technical experts

Eligibility Criteria:

• Program is open to all Lightspeed portfolio companies.

Application & FAQ:

• ‍https://foundershub.startups.microsoft.com/signup‍
• Email bizdev@lsvp.com for an introduction to Lightspeed’s Account Manager who can give a great overview of all the Microsoft ecosystem resources available for your company.

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NVIDIA Inception Program

NVIDIA's Inception program offers startups exclusive access and discounts on cutting-edge hardware and software solutions.

Benefits Include:

• DGX Cloud discounts
  - Tailored for businesses engaged in large-scale, multi-node LLM and AI model training, DGX Cloud offers up to 3 times the utilization efficiency of traditional infrastructure. Inception members qualify for an exclusive 30% discount off the standard price of DGX Cloud (minimum four nodes for 1 month; $75k min. spend required).
  - Comprehensive software suite for seamless AI model development, including automated infrastructure management.
  - Hybrid-cloud support with purpose-built network fabric for efficient multi-node training.
  - Multi-node capability, each equipped with 8 NVIDIA A100 or H100 Tensor Core GPUs (640GB total).
  - Access to NVIDIA AI experts, 24/7 business-critical support, technical account manager, customer service success manager, and single-point-of-contact support.
• Hardware and software discounts
  - Exclusive discounts on a diverse range of NVIDIA enterprise hardware and software products.
  - Ready-to-run, optimized AI software to eliminate setup and testing hassles.
  - Full enterprise support on GPU software platforms.
  - Access to NVIDIA's partner network for efficient negotiation, procurement, and configuration of your infrastructure needs.

Explore these offerings and learn more about the program by reviewing the NVIDIA Inception benefits deck.

Application & FAQ:

• https://nvidia.my.site.com/Inception/s/NVIDIA-Inception-for-Startups
• For more information or to apply, contact bizdev@lsvp.com for an introduction to Lightspeed’s Account Manager who can provide an overview of available resources for your company.

The mission of the OpenAI Startups Team is to help startup sharness the power of OpenAI’s platform to build exciting new products and experiences using AI. We want to make sure you have all the resources you need to build and scale. Below are some helpful resources for getting started and tapping into the expertise of the OpenAI team. 

$15k in OpenAI API Credits

Apply for OpenAI credits by following the instructions below:

1.    Sign up for an OpenAI account here and enter your billing details (required) here

2.    Apply for credits here and enter the email associated with your OpenAI account

3.    Enter the unique referral code: lightspeed_2024

Note: Startups will need to meet the eligibility criteria listed on the form and not have raised SeriesB or later funding.Credits are processed weekly. If a company has received credits previously from OpenAI, we'll grant the difference between$15k and the previous amount. Credits are only applicable to API usage and cannot be applied to ChatGPT usage. 

Upgrade to UsageTier 5

Shoot us an email at the address below to have your OpenAI account upgraded to UsageTier 5, which unlocks our top rate limits and access to more models.

Dedicated OpenAI <>Lightspeed Slack channel

Join a dedicated Slack channel for Lightspeed portfolio companies to ask technical questions directly to the OpenAIEngineering, Product, and Startup teams. Use this link to join.

Dedicated Email Alias

Shoot us questions anytime at lightspeed@openai.com. 

Join OpenAI’s StartupCommunity

Gain access to monthly technical talks, upcoming events, and top AI resources that will help your startup scale faster. Sign up here.

Helpful Links

• ‍Developer Quickstart - Get up and running with the OpenAIAPI
• Build Hour Recordings - (pw: buildwithopenai)‍
• Build Hour Code Repos‍
• Technique Decks‍
• OpenAI Cookbook - Dozens of code examplesfor building with OpenAI’s API‍
• Credits Balance‍
• BAA - Healthcare company? Apply for a BAA‍
• Point of contact at OpenAI: Matt Vail, mattvail@openai.com