Microsoft Helping Digital Native Businesses to Shine
According to Wikipedia the term Digital Native describes a person who has grown up in the information age. But in business, the term takes on a different meaning. IDC describes Digital Native Businesses (DNBs)as having a digital-first approach and tech-driven operating models. These companies that are born in the cloud – aggressively leverage new and emerging technologies, platform services, and marketplaces. DNBs grow and scale fast, disrupting industries and creating new markets.
Digital native brands have two things in common: a digitally savvy founder (or founding team) and a problem they are passionate about solving.
Did you know that there are 305 million startups are created annually? A percentage of those startups are Digital Native Businesses or DNBs
McKinsey research finds that DNBs make up an increasing share of disruptive players in the market, comprising 15 percent of the new unicorns funded in 2020, up from 10 percent in 2019 and 5 percent in 2018
Additionally, DNBs are growing, on average, at triple the rate of overall e-commerce, while the fastest-growing among them have scaled from $50 million in revenues to $1 billion in four to eight years.
Investments into these types of companies go a long way to help guide them along their path, but investment isn’t everything. In fact, it’s only part of the equation. DNBs need guidance and a white-glove approach that will shepherd them from a cool idea launched out of someone’s studio apartment to a global player.
Enter Microsoft and the program they have built to provide that white-glove approach around Startups and Digital Natives.
I had the opportunity to chat with Mack Ratcliffe. Mack is helping software companies reshape the world using Microsoft Cloud. He’s been at Microsoft in a variety of roles for the past 7 years, and currently works with Startups and Digital Natives as an Account Director
In case you’re not familiar, Microsoft for Startups https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/startups is a $500 million project that helps early-stage companies developing cloud-based software solutions get their companies off the ground. The program has launched dozens of companies in a few short years, creating tens of millions of dollars in value.
Over 650 companies are alumni of the program, raising approximately $3 billion in venture capital cash
The program has grown to support not just cloud-based software solutions but many other born in the cloud – Digital Native Businesses or DNBs.
Microsoft recognizes the importance of Digital Native companies and has built up a complete ecosystem to support them. That ecosystem includes a marketplace for the DNB to showcase its goods and services.
The Azure Marketplace https://azuremarketplace.microsoft.com/en-us/sell is a global storefront for these DNBs that may not yet be aware of their product or service.
The commercial marketplace is available in 141 regions. According to a report from Tackle.io, 44% of sellers expect to transact more than 10% of their revenue through a Cloud Marketplace in the next year. In fact, the Tackle.io research indicates that as much as $15B will through cloud marketplaces by the end of 2023 and $50B by the end of 2025.
Having a seat at the Azure Marketplace table could be financially game-changing for a nascent DNB.
The marketplace is just one aspect of the support that Microsoft brings to bear.
On the technical and business side of the equation, Microsoft provides technical enablement processes and resources. They treat a DNB as if it were an enterprise client, assigning a dedicated sales representative and dedicated engineering support for Azure. The intrinsic value that these sales and engineering teams share with the client is their experience in the space. The tribal knowledge in the DNB space that Microsoft brings can positively influence new company’s trajectory across departments like marketing, sales, operations, and IT. DNBs operate across many different segments, like tech itself, B2B, and B2C. The common thread across all segments is tech remains a crucial part of their business model
Microsoft has listened to Digital Natives and developed an entire playbook around the Digital Native cloud journey and the Digital Native Experience.
For more information, double click here: Microsoft for Startups: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/startups and Azure Marketplace: https://azuremarketplace.microsoft.com/en-us/sell
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References:
https://tackle.io/resources/reports/state-of-cloud-marketplaces/