AWS Summit ANZ 2022 - How smart startups use AWS programs to get ahead (START1)
AWS Summit ANZ 2022 - How smart startups use AWS programs to get ahead (START1)
The AWS Startups team has helped thousands of founders in Australia and New Zealand to start and scale their startups. From inception to IPO, we have created a suite of programs that provide credits, access to customers and connections to capital to help you get the right building blocks your startup needs to succeed. In this session we also demystify the ecosystem so you can connect with a community of peers and pros that will help you accelerate your journey. Come along and learn how the regions’ top startups have used these programs to get ahead.
Learn more about AWS webinar series in Australia and New Zealand at https://go.aws/3ChL0Y6.
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Content
14.6 -> Hi everyone, my name is Colette
Grgic and I am so excited to
18.2 -> welcome you today for a really
practical overview of how smart
21.8 -> startups use AWS programs to
get ahead. Today, I'm going to
26.24 -> cover the top 10 startup
programs and give you tips for
29.84 -> how to get loads of benefits and
support from our team. First
34.76 -> question. How do you know if
you're a smart startup? Well, if
38.16 -> you're here today, you're already
in good company. Unicorns across
42.24 -> the globe, including Airbnb,
Slack, Canva, and Atlassian have
46.4 -> built their businesses from
scratch on AWS. And today, more
50.84 -> startups choose to start and
scale with us than any other
53.6 -> platform. So a little bit about
me. So I started my journey in
58.28 -> the startup space about 10 years
ago, first as a founder of my
61.04 -> own company, and then leading a
startup inside a big corporate.
64.56 -> I then joined a startup
accelerator and ran about 12
68.28 -> programs before joining a
venture studio where we built
71.48 -> 150 startups from the ground up
with our bare hands. And I now
76.12 -> have the great privilege of
working across Australia and New
78.88 -> Zealand leading the Startup
Ecosystem team for AWS. And man,
83.96 -> what a team this is. We're a
group of experienced founders,
87.44 -> startup operators and investors
on a mission to help more
91.16 -> startups accelerate their
success. We live and breathe
94.24 -> startups every day. And there is
one thing we all agree about the
98.08 -> startup journey. That it's one
heck of a ride. And it most
102.32 -> often starts like this. You have
an idea. Not just any idea. The
106.48 -> best idea. Everyone tells you
it's the best idea. So you start
110.6 -> working on it, and you're
getting some success. Maybe you
113.44 -> even get an article and somebody
writes about it, and then nobody
117 -> cares. Reality sets in and you
find yourself in the trough of
120.44 -> sorrow. You realise it's harder
than you thought. But you're a
124.8 -> founder, you're determined. So
you persist, even though it's
128.32 -> awful. And you're questioning
every one of your life
130.88 -> decisions that got you here. So
you experiment a little bit.
134.24 -> Maybe you try and launch your
first product. You crash - that
137.64 -> crash of ineptitude. But you
learn. You think you're onto
141.08 -> something... not now... maybe... nope.
Try again. After months, or
146.68 -> maybe even years of anguish, you
hit product market fit, and
150.4 -> you're an overnight success! So
sorry for the spoiler alert
154.44 -> folks, but I've been there. The
whole startups team has been
158 -> there. We've walked a mile in
your shoes. And we walk this
161.44 -> journey with 1000s of startups
across Australia and New Zealand
164.88 -> every single year. We know
intimately that there are a few
168.92 -> critical periods in the journey,
where every founder just needs
172.24 -> someone in their corner, and a
little bit of extra AWS love. If
176.96 -> this experience had helped us
create a range of startup
179.96 -> programs to support you at
every step of the journey. So
183.96 -> let's get cracking and take a
look at the top 10 startup
186.2 -> programs and what you can get
from them. The first program
189.68 -> that every startup signs up for
is AWS Activate. Activate has
194.16 -> been our flagship program for
almost a decade, providing
197.24 -> hundreds of thousands of startups
with a host of benefits and
200.8 -> support. Now this makes a
massive impact at the early
204.04 -> stages in the startup's life. In
fact, the program annually
207.48 -> provides over a billion dollars
in AWS credits to help early
211.4 -> stage startups launch their
businesses and accelerate their
213.92 -> growth. But what does this mean
for you? Well, you can sign up
218.36 -> today, right now, if you like on
that link below for your first
222.16 -> $1,000 of credits. And as you
grow, you can apply for up to
226.04 -> $100,000 more. You can also get
technical help, anytime,
230.8 -> anywhere, with up to $10,000 of
support credits. We also curate
236.36 -> awesome startup deals with
partners like Atlassian, HubSpot,
239.72 -> and Stripe, just to name a few to
get you discounts and free trial
243.12 -> periods and credits and a whole
bunch of other perks so that you
246.28 -> can get started faster, and save
every dollar you can. Now once
250.56 -> you sign up for the Activate
program, you can find and
253.04 -> instantly redeem any of these
offers directly on the console.
257.32 -> We also give startups access to
the tech hub, which helps you
260.12 -> design, build and monitor your
environment, identify
263.68 -> optimisation opportunities,
discover new AWS services, and
267.8 -> more easily get connected with
technical support. Now when you
271.84 -> sign up for Activate, you
automatically get access to the
274.56 -> Activate console. And that's
where you can get your custom
277.12 -> credit summary, which gives you
real time visibility into your
280.24 -> credit, awards and balances, your
projected runway and even your
284.72 -> bills as well. And finally, and
this is a super helpful hack. We
289.52 -> give startups Build on AWS
templates. Now this is a
292.88 -> collection of infrastructure
templates and reference
295.28 -> architectures built by the
startup solution architects and
298.8 -> it covers a wide range of
solutions curated specifically
301.84 -> for startups. Now, every
template is tested and updated
306.24 -> and will help you build and
launch in record speed.
309.76 -> To give you an idea of how
helpful Activate is, I wanted to
312.04 -> tell you about the early days of
one of my favourite startups - VeVe.
315.08 -> So VeVe is a marketplace for
digital collectibles. Just like
319.28 -> in the past, you'd line up
outside the comic store and be
321.56 -> the first person to get the new
Spider-Man action figure, or get
324.52 -> your hands on the first Wonder
Woman comic book. People are now
327.6 -> lining up virtually to buy the
first digital versions on VeVe's
331.04 -> mobile app. VeVe is a true
trailblazer and now works with
335.48 -> Marvel and Disney and many other
major brands and their drops
339.04 -> literally sell out in seconds.
Today, they have close to a
342.56 -> million users. And in the past
year alone, people have bought
346.2 -> over $100 million in
collectibles through VeVe's
349.32 -> marketplace. But remember the
trough of sorrow on the startup
352.44 -> journey? Well, man, they were
knee deep in it. You can imagine
357 -> when you're experimenting with
things that haven't been done
359.12 -> before, that there are months
and months of stress and
363.08 -> experimentation, pretty big cash
flow crunches, and all of that
366.64 -> uncertainty that preceded the
stellar success. Now as the
370.84 -> founder, David Yu points out,
our team and the Activate
373.72 -> program were critical for
extending their runway with
376.44 -> Activate credits, and also
providing guidance and support
379.52 -> as they built and experimented
in the early days, and we have a
382.92 -> serious fan club over there as
at VeVe as a result. So we helped
387.24 -> David think through his
strategy, we connected him to a
389.64 -> community of founders and
technical experts to get support
392.44 -> from, we provided him tranches
of Activate credits that
395.68 -> literally made the difference to
the business surviving versus
398.16 -> shutting down. And when they
finally hit that product market
401.04 -> fit and exploded, our solution
architects jumped straight on a
403.84 -> call with David, to help them
manage the enormous scale they
407.04 -> suddenly had to deal with. And
we couldn't have done that if VeVe
410.48 -> didn't sign up to Activate. So
if you haven't already done
413.12 -> that, please make sure that you
sign up to Activate today. Okay,
417.72 -> it's time, it's time to talk
about the trough of sorrow. Now
422.04 -> I promise you that every founder
at the start of their journey,
425 -> believes that they are the
exception to the rule. And if
428.6 -> I'm the first person you hear
this from, I'm sorry, but at
432.2 -> some point, you'll make a rapid
descent from that high into the
435.72 -> trough of sorrow. Now, this is
messy. There are tears. But
440.04 -> there's also a lot of
experimentation and building -
442.92 -> and that's why we have designed
Skills Builder, the CTO
446.16 -> Fellowship, and Startboost to
help you. Skill Builder is our
450.36 -> online learning centre that
makes it easier for anyone from
453.6 -> beginners to experienced
professionals to build AWS cloud
457.44 -> skills. We offer more than 500
free digital courses that can
461.72 -> help you and your team build new
cloud skills and learn about the
465.2 -> latest services, when and where
it's convenient for you in up
469.08 -> to 16 languages. So if you're a
DIY queen or king, then this is
473.16 -> your playground and time to
learn and be curious. The
476.64 -> startups team also runs a CTO
fellowship designed to benefit
479.88 -> early stage startups regardless
of your cloud preference. We
483.92 -> offer four week immersions to
connect you with peers and pros
487.2 -> that you can learn from. And
then these are led by
490.24 -> experienced CTOs from successful
startups across the world. We
494.92 -> also cover leadership topics
here like hiring and managing,
497.92 -> influencing your product roadmap,
architecting for scale, it's all
501.72 -> the things that you don't
necessarily get anywhere else.
505.44 -> We also do deep dive sessions
for top-of-mind tech topics. And
509.12 -> as part of the program, we
offer technical office hours
511.68 -> with experienced solution
architects. Overall, you're
515.96 -> going to leave with a whole
bunch of extra knowledge, but
518.4 -> also the skills and a network of
peers that you can call on at a
521.4 -> later stage. Now, inevitably as
you experiment, you might kind
527.16 -> of bump up against the
boundaries of your capabilities
529.92 -> or capacity in a small team. And
you'll probably need to get a
533 -> couple of extra people to build
with you. But in the messy early
536.64 -> stages of your startup, you
might not be ready to commit to
539.16 -> hiring someone full time. And
that is where working with one
542.32 -> of our carefully selected
partners might be a faster and
545.4 -> more effective solution to get a
feature or functionality
548.12 -> launched.
549.4 -> The Startboost program was
created right here in Australia,
552.6 -> and it provides up to $6,000 in
funding support for you to work
556.6 -> with a partner to speed up your
product development and
559.24 -> experimentation. So we curated a
group of development agencies
563.76 -> and studios that specialise in
building startups. We then asked
567.24 -> them to develop affordable rapid
turnaround product packages for
570.8 -> some of the most common use
cases you'll face in the early
573.24 -> days. And that includes
websites, branding, chatbots,
577.12 -> prototype apps, or even the next
version of your app. CI/CD
580.52 -> pipelines and also very
importantly, getting your
583.36 -> security right from day one. So
if you're interested in Start-
586.88 -> boost, grab the link at the end
of the presentation to join us
589.76 -> for office hours in the Loft to
find out more. Now as you go
594 -> through the trough of sorrow, I
just want you to remember one
597.28 -> thing. You don't need to do it
alone, okay? The Activate
601.36 -> program works with over 300
startup organisations across
604.88 -> Australia and New Zealand. And
that's things like accelerators
607.6 -> and incubators, coworking
spaces, startup programs and
610.92 -> courses, as well as great
mentors and investors. So if you
614.96 -> connect to the startups team
through Activate, we can then
617.64 -> help you find the right people
in your community to connect
620.32 -> with, and learn with and grow
with. We run online and in
624.52 -> person events every month with
these partners. And we'd love
627.72 -> for you to join us next time.
You can also find out more about
631.32 -> what we're doing in the
ecosystem in the Startup Loft
633.8 -> length at the end of this
session. Alright guys, there's
638.04 -> light at the end of the tunnel.
After the crash, after the
641.8 -> rebuild, the failed first launch
that puts you in the crash of
645.12 -> ineptitude, comes the wiggles.
Now, this is where founding
649.44 -> teams realise that they probably
shouldn't be trying to do all of
652.56 -> the heavy lifting themselves.
They see that things can quickly
656.04 -> get out of hand if there are
multiple teams or individuals
658.56 -> working on different products
and feature releases. And as
661.72 -> they start looking to
consolidate their product
663.4 -> strategy, they start looking to
bring all their workloads
665.92 -> together seamlessly, and that is
why we created the AWS Migrate
669.48 -> program. The second shift that
happens during this phase is
672.96 -> that suddenly, finally, they
experience not being able to
676.96 -> keep up. And that's with
customers, competitors, and even
680.36 -> their own product requirements.
And that's what we have
682.68 -> Jumpstart for. So let's take a
look at what these two
685.2 -> programs can offer for you.
The AWS Migrate program is one
690.24 -> of our most popular startup
programs. It's here to provide
694.12 -> you with financial and technical
support so that you can migrate
697 -> some or all of your workloads
successfully onto AWS. Firstly,
702.16 -> it provides cloud credits for at
least three months to reduce
705.6 -> duplicative of costs while you're
migrating. We also make partner
709.8 -> credits available to offset any
agency cost if you want to work
712.84 -> with a partner to accelerate
your migration. And again, you
717 -> can get $5,000 in business
support credits if you need help
720.2 -> while you settle in. So
throughout this whole migration
723.24 -> process, you'll be working with
experienced account managers who
726.28 -> are 100% in your corner. And
we've had some iconic companies
730.32 -> rave about the above and beyond
love and support they get
733.28 -> flooded with when they walk into
our universe. Take Kayla
736.92 -> Itsines' SWEAT app for
example. Now from humble
740.28 -> beginnings as an ebook in 2015,
the app has now been downloaded
744.36 -> more than 30 million times and
has garnered a loyal following
748.92 -> all over the world. The SWEAT
team are extraordinarily tech
753.28 -> savvy, and understand the need
to constantly keep up with
756 -> cutting edge services to keep
delivering quality experiences
759.84 -> that SWEAT users expect. So a
few years into their journey,
763.52 -> the SWEAT team realised that
they needed to consolidate their
766.2 -> workloads into the Cloud into
one cloud platform that could
769.16 -> provide them the scalability and
reliability to cover their
772.44 -> expanding global user base. So
we connected the dots with one
776.32 -> of our local consulting partners,
Communet, we help them with all
779.88 -> of the heavy lifting to migrate
over onto AWS. They now use
783.96 -> CloudFront to deliver rich video
content seamlessly and instantly
788.28 -> to hundreds of thousands of users
every week. Now with their tech
793.52 -> neat and tidy and the ability to
service users around the globe,
797 -> Kayla and Toby sold SWEAT last
year for over $400 million.
802.32 -> Alright, let's take a look at
Jumpstart! Once all your
805.24 -> workloads are consolidated, the
experienced startup team then
808.24 -> start working strategically with
you on what your roadmap looks
811.24 -> like, and which strategies and
services you can leverage to get
814.48 -> a competitive advantage. We see
startups looking for advanced
818.76 -> services here across analytics
and IoT or machine learning, for
822.24 -> example. But during that growth
stage, they're still kind of
825.72 -> building out their technical
knowledge and their own talent.
828.96 -> So through the Amazon Partner
Network, or APN for short, we
832.84 -> offer startups hands on support
to implement these services
835.96 -> faster into their products and
transfer that knowledge into
839.04 -> their teams. Jumpstart provides
50% funding assistance for the
843.6 -> partner's consulting services,
and oftentimes guys, this can
846.72 -> stretch well into the tens of
thousands of dollars.
850.6 -> So take myDNA. MyDNA is a
health startup company that
854.52 -> developed a personalised
wellness test to discover how
856.92 -> your body is likely to respond
to things like food or exercise
860.08 -> and sleep, according to your
genome. They replatformed into
864.32 -> a microservices architecture on
AWS, and then the team needed
867.6 -> assistance to explore their data
analytics capabilities to
870.56 -> deliver meaningful insights to
the business. What they were
874.56 -> actually trying to understand is
how they could get a competitive
877.32 -> advantage by making better and
faster decisions, for which
880.96 -> growth opportunities or markets
to pursue next. Now, rather than
884.88 -> making assumptions, they wanted
to make data-backed decisions.
889.2 -> Through the Jumpstart program,
their account manager connected
891.72 -> them with a local partner DNX,
who implemented a modern data
895.64 -> strategy where myDNA is able to
deliver different business
898.84 -> insights based on live data with
just a click of a button. And
903.28 -> instead of spending months and
months trying to build a
905.88 -> solution themselves, the 50%
funding support through the
909.52 -> Jumpstart program allowed them
to work effectively with a
912.44 -> partner to get it done in just
one month. And the myDNA team
917.2 -> is now able to grow rapidly
because of this decision making
920.2 -> velocity and accuracy. Now, I
mentioned that our team has
923.64 -> startups in our DNA. And that
means looking out for opportunities
927.12 -> for all kinds of startups. The
seventh program, if you've
930.96 -> been keeping track, that I need
you to know about, is Launchpad.
934.36 -> So Prisca is the founder of
Baresop, which is a soap
937.28 -> alternative that reduces single
use plastic bottles, and helps
941 -> us to protect the environment.
Our team first started working
944.4 -> with Prisca when she was in the
Startmate accelerator program,
947.16 -> and honestly, her passion and
purpose is so contagious that we
950.44 -> just knew we had to help her
have an enormous impact by
953.76 -> getting that product in front of
as many people as possible. So
957.36 -> introduced her to the team at
Amazon Launchpad, which is an
960.36 -> exclusive program that
showcases innovative products to
963.44 -> millions of Amazon customers. We
used Amazon's world class
967.48 -> e-commerce experts, global
infrastructure and powerful
970.68 -> marketing tools to help Prisca
tell her story to the world. We
974.56 -> even supported her by shooting
an Instagram commercial and
977.36 -> promoting that across Amazon's
social network. Pretty cool. Not
981.2 -> only did it increase her
exposure and her sales, but it's
983.8 -> given her a fast track to
selling Baresop into other
986.4 -> markets around the world. Okay,
stay with me, folks. We're about
991.12 -> to hit the start of the
overnight success stretch of
993.6 -> your startup. Congratulations,
you've reached product market
997.2 -> fit. Now I bet you wouldn't expect
it from a cloud platform. But the
1001.52 -> number one request we get as
startups hit this stage is for
1004.88 -> go to market support. And that's
what we have the Connections
1007 -> program for. So let me talk
about how you can use the AWS
1010.52 -> team to turbocharge your growth
through the Startup Connections.
1014.76 -> So we focus on six key areas for
making connections for startup.
1018.8 -> The first is customers. So we do
a lot of work to introduce
1022.76 -> startups to warm leads at
corporate customers and are looking
1025.64 -> for innovation and for services
that come from startups. The
1029.24 -> second thing we do is
facilitating introductions to
1031.72 -> capital. And that's to the
angels and the VCs that are part
1034.64 -> of our Activate network. We also
participate in a number of
1038.72 -> initiatives to grow and match
talent together. And we build
1042.84 -> highly regarded peer groups
between startup leaders so that
1046.4 -> you can learn from and support
each other on your own journeys
1049.76 -> as well. Now, as you grow into
other regions, we can also make
1054.2 -> the leap easier by connecting
you to startup organisations
1057.08 -> across the globe. And if you're
doing something game changing,
1060.8 -> then our team would love nothing
more than to help you build a
1064.12 -> case study and promote you at
all of the various events that
1067 -> we support and run ourselves
throughout the year. Alright,
1070.4 -> let's
1070.64 -> take a look at the connections
program in action. I love
1074.24 -> FrankieOne. And it's one of
hundreds of stories like this
1076.76 -> where our team are working magic
behind the scenes to help
1079.44 -> startups grow. FrankieOne
helps banks, fintechs and other
1083.2 -> regulated entities manage their
compliance with a single API and
1087.56 -> dashboard, which connects to
hundreds of global identity and
1091.12 -> fraud monitoring providers
across the world on the back
1093.56 -> end. They started in 2017, they
joined the Activate program,
1098 -> survived the trough of sorrow,
and we got to work really deeply
1101.24 -> with him during the speed
wobbles. And Simon's endorsement
1104.2 -> really means the world to me. As
you can see highlights at AWS
1107.84 -> has been Frankie's largest lead
generator, bringing them 27
1111.28 -> excellent leads with three of
those being real game changers
1115.16 -> that can set them up on a path
to unicorn territory. You can
1118.8 -> also see how the Connections
program helped them land. High
1121.8 -> profile PR and speaking
opportunities, brought experts to
1125.08 -> advise them on how technology
will affect their roadmap, and
1128.16 -> by recommending candidates for
strategic roles. Now I'm going
1131.96 -> to touch on the proper scale
programs, just so that you can
1135.08 -> appreciate how far AWS is
willing to walk with startups.
1139 -> But with a caveat that these
scale programs are usually
1142.28 -> best suited to companies that
are a couple of years into their
1146.2 -> Series B and beyond.
The first one is AWS
1149.96 -> Marketplace. And this is where
enterprises go to look for tech
1153.44 -> solutions and plugins. Now, if
you're a B2B scale up, and
1157.08 -> you're getting frustrated with
the long sales cycles and
1159.44 -> documentations and approvals and
everything that's involved in
1161.96 -> enterprise procurement, then you
need to stop what you're doing
1165.24 -> and look up Marketplace right
now. Because after the first
1168.56 -> time when you're vetted onto the
AWS Marketplace, any enterprise
1173.04 -> can purchase your solution
directly on marketplace, and it
1176.32 -> gets billed to them directly on
their usual AWS bill, instead of
1180.68 -> you having to go through the
entire procurement process. It's
1183.92 -> a win-win on both sides, it
speeds things up, and it's well
1187.2 -> worth taking a look at today.
Going one step further, there
1191.48 -> may actually become a time in
your life when it becomes worth
1194.28 -> investing in a deep co-selling
relationship with AWS, as we
1198.2 -> have with Secure Code Warrior.
Now Secure Code Warrior is an
1201.96 -> Australian cybersecurity company
that has gone global with their
1205.12 -> training for developers and
DevOps people to find and fix
1208.4 -> security vulnerabilities, like
hands on in really fun
1211.52 -> tournament ways. So while AWS
provides security of the Cloud,
1216.8 -> Secure Code Warrior enable
security in the Cloud. And you
1220.44 -> can see how that's a match made
in heaven. So we started
1222.92 -> exploring a really tight co-
selling relationship with them
1225.92 -> in 2019. And through the APN
global startup program, we now
1230.36 -> have dedicated staff selling
Secure Code Warrior on their
1233.6 -> behalf into enterprises across
the globe. Alright, so what I've
1239.2 -> shown you today is that we've
got you covered. And that
1241.8 -> doesn't matter where you're at
in your journey, whether it's
1244.2 -> the highs of the highs, the lows
of the lows, lower than you
1247.28 -> thought you could ever go - that
you can count on us to be there
1250.44 -> with you. We have an incredible
team of startup experts who can
1253.88 -> help you identify the right
programs and partners and
1256.68 -> ecosystem activities to tap
into. And the best way to get in
1260.2 -> touch and find out more is by
visiting the AWS Startup Loft.
1265.04 -> You can connect with AWS startup
experts in Australia and New
1268.12 -> Zealand to get your questions
answered on one of those
1271.16 -> sessions. There will also be
technical and business startup
1274.72 -> events and workshops, and a lot
more that you can join
1277.76 -> virtually. But we're also going
to list all of the stuff that
1280.28 -> we're doing in person this year,
because it's very exciting to be
1282.72 -> out and about. And we would love
to see you there. I want to say
1286.56 -> thank you for joining me. Please
take a few clicks on the survey
1289.52 -> to let me know if this session
was valuable to you. And
1292.16 -> remember, the best way to get on
our radar from the get go so
1295.76 -> that we can help you along your
startup journey is to sign up on
1298.36 -> Activate. So if you haven't
already done it, do it today.
1302.36 -> Thank you so much. Enjoy the
rest of your Summit sessions and
1304.64 -> I look forward to seeing you out
in the wild!
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbleoD97bjk