When we first started BidMyCleaning.com back in late 2007 there was only one viable option for us to choose as far as developing our own web-based application went... and that was to only make use of tools, frameworks, systems, software and languages that were either free or close to it. At that point we had no money or resources and only had a vision of how we wanted to change the service industry and web enable it - in much the same way that had been so effective for the retail industry.

I had previously become quite familiar with Microsoft's development products (not to mention their Office products), but due to the sizable price tags associated with them, they were not an option for BidMyCleaning.com. We started out using mainly open-source / free applications like Eclipse, MySQL GUI Tools, OpenOffice, FireFox and ThunderBird with great success. However, towards the end of 2008, when BidMyCleaning.com was selected as one of the three finalists in the San Diego Venture Group's "Pitch Fest" competition, I ran into some folks from Microsoft that told me about a new program they were launching called BizSpark. Essentially, BizSpark gave new software startups a leg up by providing them free access to Microsoft's software, as well as exposure and industry connections. Wow, this sounded too good to be true!

But it wasn't. Later that night when I got home, dejected after losing the Pitch Fest competition and the $20,000 prize money to another startup who admittedly rigged the voting (I'm not bitter, really), I filled in the application and by the next day I had full MSDN access. Full access that didn't just include the web development software - it actually included pretty much everything that Microsoft produced! From Windows to Office, SQL Server to Visio, Expression to Visual Studio. It was all there for the download. I was like a kid in a candy store.

However, after playing around with all of the new software for a few days I was then faced with some tough decisions... what elements of BidMyCleaning.com's business do I change or migrate over to the newly available Microsoft products? Core system technology? Development toolchain? Servers? Office software? We had already launched our product (the BidMyCleaning.com Online Marketplace) so switching servers and core technology at that point was just not an option. We just did not have the resources. I guess that $20,000 might have come in a little useful after all... (ok, maybe I am still bitter).

Changing out our development tools was a much easier decision. Visual Studio and even Expression Web are excellent and quickly replaced Eclipse and NetBeans. Office 2007 was an even more obvious choice for upgrading from OpenOffice, which although is quite functional, lacks a lot of the polish that Office has.

From that point onwards we functioned as a kind of hybrid Open Source / Microsoft based startup. Right now, I still have to make the final decision for the next iteration of our core system software and associated server platforms... Fully open source? Or fully Microsoft? Unfortunately it is still not cut and dry as there has been so much development in the Open Source space over the last year and there is just so much industry and community support for it.

My advice is this... If you are a software startup, you would be crazy not to sign up for Microsoft's BizSpark. Even if you have PHP tattooed across your back and have no intention of switching to anything ending in .NET, you should still sign up. Having access to Office, Visio, Outlook, Visual Studio, Expression, etc. is of immense benefit to any cash-strapped startup. Especially one that is interacting with VC's and corporate customers/partners that undoubtedly all use these products. And after playing around with it, you may actually get to really like .NET and find that it could be the best choice for your startup. After all, blindly believing one way or another is not a recipe for success.

Gavin Stone
Co-Founder and CTO
http://www.BidMyCleaning.com