Startup Pack is back. After giving away 1,000 bundles of free web tools to newly established startups last October, the entrepreneur who set up the giveaway has gone ahead with a second, developer-focused Pack — with fewer packs up for grabs but a larger range of freebies on board, including from Github, Zencoder and Amazon Web Services.
The appetite for the first edition of Startup Pack — which saw more than 2,000 applications from more than 50 countries — convinced founder Matthieu Vaxelaire to do a follow up. “Bigger, better and crazier, for this second edition we teamed up with 15 best-in-class partners to offer a unique bundle of free software especially for developers,” he says.
Giving away a quarter of the quantity of packs in the second run has allowed them to include “better offers from all partners”, says Vaxelaire, and also to have “smaller” partners onboard — who may not have been able to afford to offer their service for free to 1,000 winners.
To be eligible to apply for a chance to win one of the 250 packs, startups must be incorporated, have been formed less than two years ago and have raised no more than $250,000. There is no restriction on startup location.
Here’s the full list of free booty which eligible startups are in with a chance of winning:
- Github: to build software better, together — 12 months for free
- Zencoder: Cloud video encoding — $250 for free
- Amazon Web Services: Cloud computing infrastructure services — $1,000 for free
- New Relic: Application performance — 6 months for free
- Mailjet: to send transactional emails — 12 months for free
- Engine Yard: to host your website — $1,000 for free
- oDesk: to hire freelance talent — $350 for free
- Code Climate: Automated ruby code review — $500 for free
- Transifex: To localize your app — $495 for free
- Geckoboard: All your key metrics in one place — 12 months for free
- Code School: Learn by doing — 12 months for free
- TextMaster: to translate all your documents — $450 for free
- MongoHQ: to host and manage MongoDB — $1,000 for free
- Pivotal Tracker: Build better software, faster — 12 months for free
- Twilio: to bring voice and messaging to your web — $500 for free
The application process for Startup Pack 2.0 has been made slightly more involving than last year’s run. Applicants will first have to prove they are human, and then prove they can code.
“We built a unique ‘geek-friendly’ applications process,” says Vaxelaire. “Instead of ‘simply’ fill-in a form with your info, you need to prove us that you are a human (with a funny test) and then you have to submit your application via an API call.”
Startup Pack’s rules for the giveaway are as follows:
- Everyone has 10 days to submit its application.
- We will manually review all applicants.
- We will randomly select 250 lucky startups that will receive the Pack.
- Every applicant will be notified via email.
The winners will be selected from applicants that meet the entry criteria using “a simple random selection functionality”, according to Vaxelaire.
He says all data gathered in the application process will be deleted once the giveaway is completed, with the exception of email addresses (which are retained). “Of course we don’t sell their emails and we don’t spam,” he confirms.
To apply for a pack, visit the Startup Pack website.