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Tech Giant Taking Small Businesses Under Its Wing
Written by Jenna Weiner
Published: 7/5/2011
Hewlett-Packard is cultivating small business partners in Silicon Valley.
Hewlett-Packard is reaching out to partner with small businesses in the Silicon Valley tech sector, the Santa Cruz Sentinel recently reported.
Though HP famously began in a garage in Palo Alto, California, the company is now the world's largest maker of personal computers and employs more than 300,000 workers, according to the Santa Cruz newspaper. Aware that its large size makes it more difficult to quickly adapt its software development initiatives in response to the rapidly changing technology marketplace, the company created Startup Central last fall to facilitate partnerships with smaller tech companies.
Over the next three years, HP plans to invest $100 million in Startup Central, mostly in the form of product discounts given to software developers and other entrepreneurs. Speaking to The Santa Cruz Sentinel, Justin Moore, CEO of a data security company, characterized the program as good news for small business owners, praising HP's commitment to start-ups like his own.
Startup Central might be especially crucial as a source for developers who will create applications for the recently released HP TouchPad, a tablet PC the company is positioning as a competitor to Apple's iPad.
Of Inc. Magazine's 2011 30 Under 30 list of hot start-up companies founded by young entrepreneurs, six were tech companies that developed mobile apps, including Instagram and Foodspotting.
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