The Founder Program: Free Hosting for Unfunded Startups
The Founder Program: Free Hosting for Unfunded Startups
Infrastructure costs are a real barrier for early-stage founders. Before you have revenue, before you have investors, you're still paying for servers, domains, email, and the rest of the stack that keeps your product running. We created the Entexion Founder Program to remove hosting from that list.
What is it?
Qualifying startups and solo founders get free managed hosting on Entexion — the same infrastructure and support our paying customers receive. Not a stripped-down trial, not a sandbox with artificial limits. Real hosting, free, for as long as you remain pre-revenue or unfunded.
Who qualifies?
The program is for builders who are genuinely pre-revenue and unfunded. Specifically:
- Solo founders or small founding teams (typically 1–3 people)
- Pre-revenue — you haven't started charging customers yet, or your MRR is nominal
- Unfunded — you haven't taken institutional investment (angel checks, accelerator funding, VC rounds)
- Building something real — a product, service, or platform, not a personal project
We're deliberately broad about what "building something" means. SaaS products, e-commerce, community platforms, tooling, non-profits, social enterprises — all welcome. We evaluate applications individually and err toward saying yes.
What's included?
Founder Program participants get a hosting environment appropriate for their project, including:
- Managed server administration and monitoring
- Daily backups
- SSL certificates
- Email hosting
- Human support (yes, the same support paying customers get)
- Migration assistance if you're moving from another host
What happens when you raise or start generating revenue?
We'll have a conversation. The transition to a paid plan is designed to be smooth and we work with founders to time it sensibly. You're not going to get a bill the day you close a seed round. The point is to support you while the support actually matters.
Why do we do this?
Practically: many of our best long-term customers started on the Founder Program. Building a relationship with a company early — before they have budget — means they think of us first when they do. It's not purely altruistic, but it's also genuinely how we want to run a business.
More simply: good hosting shouldn't be a barrier to building. Servers and uptime are infrastructure, and infrastructure should be accessible. We have the capacity, and supporting founders is a good use of it.
How to apply
The application is short. Tell us what you're building, where you are in the journey, and what hosting you need. We review applications within two business days and aim to get you set up within a week of approval.