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Tag: FbStart

  • Facebook’s FbStart Program Helps Asia Pacific Developers

    Facebook’s FbStart Program Helps Asia Pacific Developers

    Facebook launched FbStart in April of 2014 to help startups take off by offering them developer tools and services for free. The company partnered with a number of third-party service providers to do so.

    Facebook has given periodic updates on the program in the meantime, and just gave the latest one talking up its impact on Asia Pacific developers.

    “FbStart, Facebook’s program for early stage mobile developers, has now distributed benefits worth more than $50 million to Asia Pacific startups, $20 million of which went to startups in India, Facebook’s largest developer community outside the U.S.,” a spokesperson for Facebook tells WebProNews.

    This year, Facebook launched its FbStart World Tour across 20 cities where it has been meeting with developers. Events have been held in London, New York, and Mexico City, and most recently in Hong Kong, Seoul, Taipei, Bangalore, and Gurgaon.

    There are over 1,000 FbStart members in Asia, which have apps like Coursell (a lifestyle marketplace app), Cardback (a card management/wallet app), and Samosa (a movie clip app), which the company highlights in a blog post.

    “Through FbStart, Carousell’s team was able to run and test marketing campaigns with their Facebook Mobile App Ad credit,” Facebook says. “The quality of users acquired and cost targets have exceeded expectations with the help of Lookalikes from Custom Audiences of their top buyers and sellers. They also used FbStart’s partner benefits, including Transifex to scale to multiple countries and languages and Mobile Action to improve their app store optimization. Additionally, Carousell uses Facebook Platform products such as Facebook Login, Social Plugins, and Facebook Analytics for Apps.”

    Cardback has also made great use of ad credit as well as Facebook Login and Facebook Analytics for Apps. Samosa was able to capitalize on Parse to power its backend to help it quickly iterate on its app.

    Image via Facebook

  • Facebook’s FbStart Expands To Pre-Launch Startups, Adds Benefits

    In April of last year, Facebook announced FbStart, a program to give satartups developer tools and services from Facebook and partner companies to help them get their businesses to take off. The company opened it up to startups the following month. On Thursday, the company provided an update on the program, and revealed that it has distributed $100 million in benefits to over 3,800 startups in its first year. Additionally, it’s adding new benefits and partners.

    Upon launch FbStart counted the following among its partners: dobe, Appurify, Asana, BlueJeans, Salesforce Desk, MailChimp, Parse, Proto.io, Quip, SurveyMonkey, User Testing, and Workable. Combined with Facebook’s own contributions, these partners offered services to startups worth up to $30,000.

    In July, the program added services from Braintree, Appmethod, and Get Satisfaction, and bringing the worth of services up to $40,000. As it kicked off an FbStart tour in October, it said tools and services were worth up to $63,000 for its “Accelerate” companies and $24,000 for “Bootstrap” companies. In November, it added benefits from Stripe.

    New partners include App Annie, Balsamiq, GitHub, Mobile Action, Namecheap, TransparentBusiness, Yandiki, and Zendesk. There are now over 20 partners in all.

    When FbStart began, it had two tracks – Accelerate and Bootstrap. The value of the former’s benefits is over $30,000 while the latter’s is $80,000. It’s now adding a third track for Pre-launch, which it describes as:

    Designed to provide partner benefits such as domain hosting, access to legal services, or wire-framing services, for example, that mostly help developers who are still building out ideas and haven’t launched their app.

    The program is also adding a games package and a social good package.

    “Offered in addition to standard FbStart tracks, the Games package includes mentorship from the Facebook Games team and benefits relevant to game developers,” explains Facebook’s Kevin Prior. “Offered in addition to standard FbStart tracks, the Social Good package includes mentorship opportunities with the Internet.org team, and exclusive partner benefits like growth and fundraising consulting from I.G. Advisors, social media consulting from Social Misfits, and access to services from Praekelt Foundation.”

    Finally, Facebook is about to start another FbStart tour. Dates are as follows:

    June – London, New York City
    July – Denver, Mexico City
    August – Chicago, Hong Kong, Montréal, Seoul, Toronto
    September – Singapore, Taipei
    October – Bogota, São Paulo, Seattle, Vancouver
    November – Boston, Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, Helsinki
    December – Austin

    Startups can apply for FbStart here.

    Image via Facebook

  • Facebook Adds Stripe Benefits To FbStart

    Facebook Adds Stripe Benefits To FbStart

    Facebook announced that it’s adding benefits provided by Stripe to FbStart, as well as launching a new site where members can manage their benefits and learn more about the program.

    Faceobook first announced FbStart at its f8 developer conference back in April. It’s basically a program that provides startups with tools and resources to help them grow. It includes thousands of dollars worth of tools and services to eligible companies with a growing partner list.

    Facebook’s Micahel Huang writes:

    This year, we’ve added new partners and their free benefits to the program, increased the value of those benefits, and launched an international tour to meet with startups in cities like New York, Boston, Austin, Seattle, Dublin, London, Sao Paulo, and San Francisco. By providing free benefits along with our partner companies, and meeting with thousands of startups in person, FbStart is helping developers build, grow and monetize their businesses.

    Today we are announcing that FbStart members (both Bootstrap and Accelerate) will now have access to up to $50,000 in payment processing from Stripe, which joins the 17 other partner companies providing FbStart benefits.

    Facebook says it will reach out to existing members with more details about how to log into the new site and redeem Stripe benefits

    Image via Facebook

  • Facebook Kicks Off FbStart Tour, Offers More To Startups

    At its f8 developer conference in April, Facebook launched FbStart, a program aimed at supporting startups by offering them thousands of dollars worth of tools and services to help them get their apps to take off. The company opened up the program in May.

    In July, Facebook announced that it added more partners, bringing the total to 17. At the time, the company said tools and services available to accepted startups were worth up to $40,000.

    Facebook provided an update on the program on Friday, saying that over 1,000 startups have joined, and that tools and services are now worth up to $63,000 for its “Accelerate” companies and $24,000 for “Bootstrap” companies.

    Still, it would appear that they’re really just getting things started as they announced a new tour across ten cities, which will see Facebook engineers and product managers covering best practices for all stages of app growth and development.

    “We’re excited to meet with promising mobile developers around the world to provide feedback and services,” Facebook said.

    Here are the dates:

    10/2 — New York
    10/6 — Boston
    10/8 — Berlin
    10/16 — Austin
    10/27 — Seattle
    11/4 — Dublin
    11/6 — London
    11/13 — Moscow
    11/18 — Helsinki
    11/20 — San Francisco Bay Area
    11/21 — Paris

    Image via Facebook

  • Facebook Gives Startups Access To More Partner Tools In FbStart

    Facebook announced on Tuesday that it has added Braintree, Appmethod, and Get Satisfaction as partners on its FbStart program. That brings the total number to 17.

    Facebook announced FbStart at f8 in April. It’s a program, which gives startups tools (for free) and services from Facebook itself and partner companies to help them get their apps to take off. The company opened the program to everyone in May.

    Facebook’s Kevin Prior explains what the new partners bring to the table: “Braintree offers a payments platform to help apps accept payments from people, while Appmethod makes it easy to build native cross-platform apps with a single codebase. With Get Satisfaction, you can build an online customer engagement community, helping you connect directly with your customers.”

    “Over the past month we’ve been reviewing applications for the program, selecting high quality mobile apps with the potential for continued growth that can immediately start taking advantage of the program and benefits,” he adds. “In just over a month’s time, we have already accepted more than 500 startups from 63 different countries. Over half of the accepted startups were from outside the United States.”

    Facebook says apps that it has accepted will hear from the company soon about the new partners and offerings. The company also says it will have events for startup members to announce in the near future.

    Free tools and services available to accepted startups are worth up to $40,000.

    Image via Facebook

  • Facebook Opens FbStart Startup Help Program To Everyone

    Facebook Opens FbStart Startup Help Program To Everyone

    At f8 a couple weeks ago, Facebook announced FbStart, a new program to help mobile startups grow. Upon announcement, only f8-attending developers were able to apply, but the company announced on Wednesday that registration is now open to all.

    “Any developer worldwide with a public iOS or Android app is eligible, and their app does not need to be integrated with Facebook in order to participate,” a spokesperson for Facebook tells WebProNews. “We’ve also added a couple new partners to the program, including Transifex to help with app localization, and HootSuite for social media monitoring.”

    The program gives developers free tools and services worth up to $30,000. Startups who are selected will also get credits for Facebook and Parse.

    The full list of partners contributing tools now consists of: Adobe (Creative Services), Appurify (mobile app testing), Asana (project management), Blue Jeans (cloud-based video collaboration services), Desk.com (customer support app), HootSuite (social media monitoring), MailChimp (email marketing), Proto.io (mobile app prototyping), Quip (mobile productivity suite), SurveyMonkey (online survey platform), Transifex (localization), UserTesting (usability testing), and Workable (recruitment).

    FbStart will also host events, and offer programs and best practices to developers. Developers will get year-round opportunities to engage with Facebook’s team.

    “By providing mobile app developers with the essential services you need to get your business up and running—or to take it to the next stage of growth—we’re hoping to help expand the overall app ecosystem,” says Facebook’s Vijay Shankar.

    More on FbStart here. You can apply here.

    Image via Facebook

  • Facebook Reveals FbStart Program To Help Startups Take Off

    Facebook product partnerships director Ime Archibong revealed FbStart at the company’s f8 conference. This is a program, which gives developers tools (for free) and services from Facebook itself as well as 11 other companies to “help startups take off”. These tools and services, Facebook says, are worth up to $30,000. Sounds like a pretty good deal.

    Partners include Adobe, Appurify, Asana, BlueJeans, Salesforce Desk, MailChimp, Parse, Proto.io, Quip, SurveyMonkey, User Testing, and Workable.

    There’s a Bootstrap track and an Accelerate track. The former gives you a package of tools and services (worth up to $5K, according to Facebook) including access to Facebook Start to Success Program, Parse credit, Adobe Creative Cloud, Appurify testing suite, Desk.com customer care tool, Proto.io prototyping tool, UserTesting UX research tool, and Workable recruitment tool. Also included is promotional Facebook ad credit for new spenders. More on this track here.

    The Accelerate Track (worth up to $30K) includes access to the Facebook Start to Success program, Parse credit, Priority access to Internet.org innovation lab, ad support from Facebook PMDs, Adobe Creative Cloud, Asana task tracking tool, Appurify testing suite, Bluejeans video collaboration service, Desk.com customer care tool, MailChimp email marketing support, Proto.io prototyping tool, SurveyMonkey account for research, UserTesting UX research tool, document sharing with Quip, and Workable recruitment tool. More on this track here.

    “FbStart aims to provide developers the essential services needed to either get their business up and running or take it to the next stage of growth,” the company says.

    Anyone with a public iOS or Android app is eligible for application. The app doesn’t even need to be integrated with Facebook. It will be opened up to all developers in the coming weeks.

    More on FB Start here.

    Image via Facebook