SOLIDWORKS for Startups
What is the SOLIDWORKS for Startups Programme?
We'll show you how you can get SOLIDWORKS for free to help launch your designs and products with the SOLIDWORKS for Startups Programme.
Solid Solutions provides free SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD software, world leading support and training to start-ups and entrepreneurs across the UK and Ireland.
Since its inception, we have supported hundreds of companies to launch their products and scale up their businesses.
We also have a fast going network of partner organisations, known as hardware labs, studios, incubators and accelerators, who benefit from exclusive licensing and support.
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The SOLIDWORKS Entrepreneur program exists because a lot of the time students come out of university where they use SOLIDWORKS. And then they leave sometimes they decide to start up their own business venture and they can't afford the software and they no longer have access to it. Well, from a solid solutions perspective, we want to work with disruptive technology and potentially industry leaders of the future that will turn into customers of ours. I do struggle to imagine a world where we could have advanced so quickly without CAD software, you know, particularly your SOLIDWORKS system. You get access to the 3D experience platform and along with that, you get the 3D experience SOLIDWORKS. So that's the connected version of SolidWorks, which is launched through the 3DEXPERIENCE Dashboard. You can work on cloud based apps, say if you're out and about and you just wanted to access some cloud based SOLIDWORKS you can do that through 3D Creator and 3D sculpt, which is included within the program. You get access to Visualize, which is a rendering software and Simulation Designer, which has a bunch of simulation tools as well. To be honest with you, we probably could have afforded to have the basic SOLIDWORKS package, but then we wouldn't have had access to all these extra tools, and so we would never have known about them. And so now that we're in a position as we growing as a company, we know how useful these are. To a hardware start up, you know, typically you would need access to 3D design tools. And the great thing is there's no cost and there's no risk. If you're doing a cool, young, new project, a new company, that’s potentially going to be really cool. They just set you up with all the high end features, everything you can imagine. For free, for a year and that meant we could just crack straight on, which was an incredible deal I don't know why everyone doesn’t do it. You know, why would we give you all this software if you don't know how to use it? You know, you do require some support from us. We do offer a range of support. We offer the support desk, which is open from Monday to Friday from 8:30am till 5:30pm (GMT) in the evening, and you can call them at any point. I mean, I call up anyone from the team, and say I'm struggling with this add can you give me a hand? And they do it there and then, that's pretty that's pretty amazing, that kind of support. As your team grows, the chances are that you haven't got full resource in-house. So whether it's using our recruitment team to help you grow the team, but before you've got team members in place, we would take on consultancy work for Simulation, for 3D CAD work, Visualization. We really want to help make sure that you can get your products to market faster, and if we can alleviate that burden, we certainly will. There's loads of training and they know a lot of stuff and they're really generous with it as well. That's a big benefit. So SOLIDWORKS is one of the world's class leading software companies. It's used in almost every industry around the world. SOLIDSOLUTIONS ourselves. We are the best reseller in Euro North, we have over 80 engineers from a range of different sectors that we work with. You know, we are aware there are a lot of different CAD providers out there. You know, why would you choose SOLIDOWRKS over another? Well, the great thing is it's the industry standard. We've been around since 1995. It's proven technology, we've got a great pedigree in terms of the companies we've worked with, and it really is best in class. We also have interns who come in and work with us and having an industry standard software that everyone is familiar with just helps to speed things up, a lot. So the application process is pretty simple, a lot of people think it's quite complicated, but it's not. What you do is we will send you an application link that will then send you directly to our application site. It's a pretty simple form, so you just want to fill that out and then once you submit it, it goes back to DASSAULT systems and they will approve it. We will then give you a call and I would just make sure that, you know, we are getting the software that matches your criteria and what you guys require and introduce myself. It should take about 24 hours to hear back from us, whether you've been accepted or not. To get up and running, it can take 48 hours. Once we've been introduced to the program, the application, was literally a couple of forms. We apply for grants and things all the time, and it was definitely one of the easiest ones we've applied for. It is up to us to show you a return on investment in the 12 months that you've got access to the software, and the great thing is you're working with proven technology that’s industry standard. We've also got industry experts within SOLIDSOLUTIONS. We've got people with a lot of experience in all of these modules since they were launched. So, you know that you're going to be working with the right people. We've been looking for manufacturing partners to work with who specialize in other areas that we don’t, and it's been incredibly useful to have a CAD partner that was able to introduce us to several of the companies that provide those services. Having that network there to support you is really quite excellent. You are completely given this software for free. I mean, provided that it match that criteria. You know, our aim here is to support businesses as much as possible within their first year and ultimately get them using a trusted software and be on our side with SOLIDOWORKS. So yeah, there's no catch.