Microsoft Ventures, the startup accelerator arm of Microsoft have today announced launch of “JumpStart” in India, a hotline that provides entrepreneurs and startups with a resource to ask business and technical questions.
The JumpStart hotline will be available during business hours Monday to Friday and team of dedicated professionals will be available to answer question. The hotline will be available on 1 (800) 200-2114, a toll free number across India.
This, no doubt, is a great initiative by Microsoft Ventures and definitely a much needed resource for entrepreneurs who constantly find themselves faced with questions of which they have little knowledge.
The good thing is that professionals answering the questions on the JumpStart hotline have been trained by Microsoft to answer Entrepreneurs’ business and technical queries.
Microsoft also plans to apply the learnings from these calls to fine tune the Microsoft Ventures program, including the India Accelerator, to make it more impactful for its recipients.
Explaining the importance of this service, Kattayil Rajinish Menon, Director, Microsoft Ventures in India, said: “Sometimes answering even simple questions about how to get started or which service provider to contact can really help startups avoid delays and cost overruns. While JumpStart cannot promise the success of a startup’s business, it can definitely help by educating entrepreneurs how to get started quickly by providing information on the vast resources available today.”
Who & How Will It Help?
This is a win-win initiative for Microsoft Ventures as well as entrepreneurs who are in need of advice. Many first time entrepreneurs will find this useful because they can get all their questions answered. Till now they had to chase experienced entrepreneurs or take an advisor on board (by parting equity as well) to answer their questions. But with JumpStart hotline, more often than not they can atleast get some amount of help.
At the same time Microsoft Venture stands to benefit a lot as well. They will understand what exactly are the problems and questions faced by real entrepreneurs. The learnings of these will obviously become a base for their accelerator program. Additionally, the hotline will help them get introduced to startups, which they would not have normally not known.
Kudos to Microsoft Ventures for coming up with this!
