When Facebook launched FbStart during its recent F8 developer conference, the bootstrapping program was only open to developers who attended the conference. On Wednesday the social media giant announced FbStart has shed its exclusivity and is now open to any developer with public iOS or Android apps.
FbStart provides developers with up to $5,000 worth of developer tools for bootstrapping apps and up to $30,000 to accelerate existing apps. Developers are admitted on an application basis, but once accepted they are granted access to tools from the bevy of partner companies working with the program, as well as credits for Facebook ads and Parse services.
Transifex and HootSuite were added to the partner list Wednesday, making the eclectic mix look like this:
- Adobe – creative services
- Appurify – mobile app testing
- Asana – project management
- Blue Jeans – cloud-based video collaboration service
- Desk.com – customer support
- HootSuite – social media monitoring
- MailChimp – email marketing
- Proto.io – mobile app prototyping
- Quip – mobile productivity tools
- SurveyMonkey – online survey platform
- Transifex – localization
- UserTesting – usability testing
- Workable – recruitment
The FBStart program is just a fraction the efforts Facebook is putting toward growing its app business. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced his plans to strengthen the site’s app development platform, modeled around three core pillars: build, grow and monetize.
It seems FbStart falls into the ‘grow’ pillar, along with a new mobile Like button, also rolled out during the one-day F8 event.