When startup founders, investors, and technology leaders gather to share bold ideas and learn from each other, momentum builds. That was the theme of Microsoft Bay Area’s Accelerate Together event in September, a day to explore how AI and cloud technology, combined with strategic partnerships, is powering the next generation of startups. Microsoft is picking up the pace, quickly shipping the products on its roadmap, said Jay Parikh, Microsoft’s executive vice president of CoreAI. He emphasized that Microsoft wants to hear from founders and investors as it develops future versions of its AI tools and platform. “The Microsoft team is looking forward to your feedback, figuring out what we can tackle with your portfolio teams, with your startups,” he said. “Hopefully there are some really exciting things that emerge in the coming weeks and months.” Parikh joined Microsoft in 2024 in part because he wanted to focus on how Microsoft could better support startups and investors. “Microsoft has the most complete story in terms of what we can offer the startup ecosystem,” said Parikh. “When you think about tech, the platform, the experience, go to market, and marketing, we have all of these and we’re very strong in all of these.” The excitement of the day was palpable as attendees shared learnings on what it takes to innovate in this new era of AI. “The models are getting so much better, so quickly,” said David Morse, vice president of enterprise for Cognition. [caption id="attachment_38562" align="alignleft" width="300"]

From left, Accelerate Together panelists include moderator Mike Gaal of Microsoft, Jeff Burke of Replit, David Morse of Cognition, Simon Suo of LlamaIndex, Matti Suokko of Icertis and Nitin Mittal of Microsoft.[/caption] The San Francisco-based startup in 2024 launched Devin, an autonomous AI software engineer powered by Microsoft Azure that functions like a teammate working alongside individual developers. While AI-generated code is still in its infancy, Cognition’s vision to build teams of autonomous agents supporting developers is just one example of how AI is reshaping the tech industry by transforming the products created—and how companies innovate, operate and compete. Morse joined leaders from digital-native startups Replit, Icertis, and LlamaIndex for a panel session to share how the power of AI is accelerating their ability to solve problems, scale quickly, and create measurable business impact. Icertis, with headquarters in Bellevue, Wash., is a contract intelligence platform that empowers customers to realize the full potential of every business relationship. Microsoft was their first customer and helped envision the solution that is now trusted by the world’s most iconic brands, said Matti Suokko, vice president, Microsoft Global Alliance, at Icertis. The two companies have continued to strengthen their partnership. Microsoft and Icertis sell their services together on Microsoft Marketplace, and a customer’s purchase counts toward their Microsoft Azure commitment. [caption id="attachment_38610" align="alignleft" width="300"]

Microsoft's Tim Bozarth, left, and Matti Suokko of Icertis chat at the Accelerate Together event.[/caption] "Icertis and Microsoft are helping customers achieve more than they ever thought possible, and we're honored to help the Microsoft startup community achieve the same,” said Suokko. In this new era of AI, investors are paying attention. Lakshmi Shankar, a general partner at Together Fund, an India-based venture capital fund that backs software-as-service startups, believes we’re coming to the end of the first sprint of AI, we're about to start the next, and we’ve developed the platforms upon which the next “unicorns” will be built. "We're moving very much past experimental budgets to now actual enterprise budgets,” said Shankar. “I think there's going to be more deployment of AI in real-world use cases, going further up the stack into workflows, and really making a change to business outcomes." Investors see value in learning about adoption of AI technology by early-stage startups and return on investment, said Michelle Gonzalez, corporate vice president and global head of M12, Microsoft’s Venture Fund. Her team is looking at “what's happening in the ecosystem, and how startups are thinking about tackling new problems – from new monetization models to redefining success metrics for the future – in innovative ways, and at unprecedented speed,” said Gonzalez. Microsoft for St artu ps provides founders with access to cutting-edge AI models and developer tools to build faster on Azure. Its Pegasus Program is akin to a matchmaking service for startups, pairing subject matter experts across key industries such as healthcare, life sciences, retail, and cybersecurity with venture capitalists to identify high-potential startups that are enterprise-ready and are solving real customer problems. Some of the largest global organizations run on Microsoft’s trusted cloud, said Annie Pearl, corporate vice president and general manager, Azure Experiences and Ecosystems at Microsoft. “Enterprise is really in our DNA,” said Pearl. “That gives us the ability to be this trusted bridge and connect high-potential startups with the enterprise customers that exist within our network.” Visit Microsoft for Startups to learn more about how to get started building with Azure. [caption id="attachment_38576" align="aligncenter" width="1802"]

Michelle Gonzalez is corporate vice president and global head of M12, Microsoft’s Venture Fund.[/caption]