Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn, AmEx And Others Offer Over $400M In Value To Startup America

Unveiled at the end of January, the Startup America Partnership has just announced a slew of new company commitments, in conjunction with President Obama’s Town Hall meeting at Facebook today.

For those uninitiated, Startup America is a White House partnership with AOL co-founder Steve Case and the Kauffman and the Case Foundations, with the aim to increase “the number of new, high-growth firms that are creating economic growth, innovation, and quality jobs; celebrate and honor entrepreneurship as a core American value and source of competitive advantage; and inspire and empower an ever-greater diversity of communities and individuals to build great American companies.”

15 companies are upping the ante on their Startup America commitments today, delivering over $400 million in value over the original Startup America commitment, derived from partnerships with companies like IBM and Intel. Startup America is also rolling a membership program in which companies in various stages (like “Startup,””Rampup” and “Speedup”) can apply for these resources.

And the resources are impressive. Here’s a run down of the specific companies: Google is donating over $100 million worth of Google Ads to the cause and HP is offering an estimated $100 million in discounts on printers and other products. Facebook will be hosting startup specific events (Startup Days) in May, with “Mobile Startup Day” on May 4th in Palo Alto and “StartUp Day: Platform” on May 18th.

American Express has devoted over $125 million in value to member companies by giving preferred pricing to Startup America startups. Cisco has committed to provide training to around 6,000 entrepreneurs in 50 cities by January 2014, valued at $3 million. Ernst and Young has pledged more than $7.5 million’s worth of its finance services for SA companies. And Electronic commerce and payment processing site First Data is giving discounts on processing services.

LinkedIn will be contributing services, training and products to partner companies, and Microsoft will be offering qualified Startup America participants entry into its BizSpark program. Silicon Valley Bank will be holding an event for the specific purpose of helping entrepreneurs succeed and Salesforce will be providing its products and services free or at a discount as well, such as its CRM platform and workflow engine, to all participants.

Global funding platform IndieGoGo is giving Startup America members the ability to raise $30 million at a 50% campaign fee discount, and will feature their campaigns on its partner pages. Intuit will be investing $37 million in services and products including QuickBooks and Intuit Payroll services.

From the non-profit sector come contributions from The National Center for Women & Information Technology NCWIT, which will be providing companies with the tools they need to retain women in their organizations.

Palindrome Advisors will be connecting 1,000 Startup America entrepreneurs with key advisors in the industry who will commit to mentor and engage with the individual startups. Advisors such as Chris Kelly, Former Chief Privacy Officer of Facebook, Adam Bain, Chief Revenue Officer at Twitter, Neal Mohan, VP of Product at Google and Brett Brewer, Founder of MySpace will all be participating.

“Young businesses have created 40 million jobs over the past 25 years, and the need to create a strong ecosystem for startups in our country is more paramount than ever,” said Startup America’s Scott Case. The roster is indeed impressive and companies seem to be jumping behind this thing, so if anything it’s a good bandwagon to be on.