How to Grow Your Startup on the Cloud with AWS Credits

Startup founders face countless challenges. As you begin to scale, you’ll have to spend more of your capital on the technology that meets your business demands. It really can be a damned if you do and demand if you don’t situation. If you invest too much in IT, you risk jeopardizing financial stability. Invest too little and you risk falling behind your competitors. In such circumstances, it is crucial to find a way to meet business needs without investing much capital upfront. This is where AWS credits for startups come in handy.

In this article, we will guide you through how these credits work, with a focus on a key aspect—how to create maximum value from your resources on the cloud. Whether you are already using AWS credits and looking for ways to spend them effectively or want to learn how to apply for the funds, this article is for you.

What are AWS Credits?

Simply put, AWS credits are a type of digital currency used to pay for services on the AWS cloud. They are available through the AWS Activate program, which, in addition to investment, includes technical support for qualified startups. Many development startups have used AWS to launch and build digital products, relying on a broad range of services from computing, storage, and database services to artificial intelligence, machine learning, analytics, and other advanced services. Among them are 80% of the world’s renowned unicorn companies, including global names like AirBnb, Slack, Stripe, and Perplexity.

How to Choose AWS Credits Your Startup?

Before answering the question of how to apply for AWS credits, let’s remind ourselves that there is no such thing as a free lunch, even in the cloud world. The credits are free, but their approval is based on the criteria that startups must meet. Two key criteria are the stage of funding for your startup and the association with Active Providers – accelerators, angel investors, venture capital firms, and other similar organizations.

A startup not affiliated with an Activate Provider can apply for the Activate Founders credit package if it meets certain criteria while those already working with Activate Providers are eligible for the Activate Portfolio package, with specified conditions.

How to Apply for AWS Credits

To apply for AWS credits, you’ll need to join the AWS Activate startup program and complete several steps, some of which are highlighted below.

Your Free Credits Have Been Approved —What’s Next?

Based on our experience, allocating your cloud credits wisely and planning usage are some of the most important steps in the development of a tech startup. To get the most out of your funds, we advise you to follow proven strategies and practices:

• Prioritize critical workloads, i.e., key areas of business development, such as application development, hosting, etc.
• Track and optimize costs using available AWS tools.
• Use the AWS Free Tier to launch services for free.

After your credits expire, you can reduce AWS costs by optimizing your infrastructure. For example, our startup client Blockade Labs achieved a 30% saving on overall AWS utilization thanks to Mainstream experts who optimized the access to S3 objects.

Grow Your Startup on the Cloud and Save

For startup companies seeking support to maximize and allocate AWS credits, control costs, and optimize AWS cloud infrastructure, we offer a full range of managed services. In addition to opening and migrating existing subscriptions, our experts can help you take advantage of advanced AWS services and tools, implement CI/CD processes, ensure continuous infrastructure monitoring, and provide support for ad-hoc problem-solving.

For more information about our cloud services for startups and any questions about AWS credits and cost optimization, feel free to contact us.