By Timothy Prickett Morgan
Hewlett-Packard Co is stepping up its search for the next Amazon.coms and eBays of the world, and plans to use innovative financing to give pre-IPO internet start-ups up to $1m in financing on HP 9000 servers, HP systems software and Oracle database and development tools. The new deal, called the Dot.Com Development Solution, is an extension of existing financing options from HP’s Technology Finance unit and an outgrowth of its recent alliance with Oracle. Under the deal, internet start-ups with early venture funding that prove they have a sound business plan, experienced managers and the prospects for revenues within the first year of their deal with HP can get the $1m in financing. Start-ups can pay off that financing with stock, convertible debt, warrants, revenue sharing or cash, depending on their choices. HP says that it is targeting start-ups in the hot spots around the globe – Silicon Valley, Silicon Alley, Route 128, Austin, Seattle, London, Paris and Hannover – and that it expects to be able to drop in new computers at start-ups located in these areas in a few weeks after they contact HP.
HP is trumpeting the fact that it is the original Silicon Valley start-up founded in a garage, and knows full well what it is like to not have the capital to get a good business going. HP’s Patrick Rogers, who is in charge of worldwide marketing for the HP 9000 line, says that he has been motivated by another bit of history. He said that his father had an office next to some guys who do something with computers in Seattle. They were working with a handful of PCs stacked up on boards and sawhorses, and that little company was none other than Amazon.com.
