Where startups grow: Q&A with Mixpanel for Startups’ program lead

Our program for startups is better than ever! Eligible companies receive their first year of Mixpanel free on the Startup plan—a new plan designed exclusively for participants in the program. The Startup plan includes all of Mixpanel’s features, reports, and add-ons. This means startups have the ability to try everything Mixpanel has to offer without worrying about prohibitive costs or feature gates. 

What else—no more credits! Instead of granting credits for startups to put towards a Growth plan and usage for 12 months, we’ve eliminated credits altogether. We’ve found credits to be confusing for customers as they often wonder what’s covered, if they can be used after the program, and what Mixpanel will cost after the first year. We don’t want startups worrying about depleting credits, but instead focus on building great products. So we’ve decided to give away all of Mixpanel for free! 

Mixpanel for Startups now has a 90-day implementation requirement. Once eligibility is confirmed and a startup is enrolled in the program, they must start sending data to Mixpanel within the first 90 days to maintain eligibility. If a participating startup doesn’t meet the implementation requirement within the time frame, they’ll be removed from the program and prohibited from rejoining. This isn’t to deter anyone from signing up, but rather encourage startups to only apply once truly ready. By waiting to join the program, this allows startups to make the most out of the free year. 

Finally, no credit card is required upon signup. We want to make it very clear: Your first year is on us, and there's no commitment to continue once you graduate from the program.

In May 2020, we launched the Mixpanel for Startups program which provided early-stage companies with $50k in credits to use towards Mixpanel for one year. This program was open to companies who were new to Mixpanel, founded less than two years prior, and raised less than $5M USD. Mixpanel has always had a generous Free plan tier, but we wanted to provide our startups with more—the ability to try paid features for free. Through the startup program, participants were able to use their $50k in credits towards the Mixpanel Growth plan and add-on packages. 

Our work never stops as we're always speaking to users and looking for ways in which we can make Mixpanel more accessible. In July 2022, we made the decision to expand the eligibility criteria and set a new standard for startup programs on the market. This increased the funding cap to $8M, as well as the age of qualifying startups from two years to five years old. As such, we made the program accessible to more startups, gave them more runway, extended their cash burn, and provided a powerful platform to help find product-market fit when most needed. 

We’ve always offered the most generous startup program and promise to continue that going forward. With this most recent update, we’ve migrated away from traditional program credits to make it simpler and offer startups even more. To show them how special they are to us, we’ve created a new plan with all the bells and whistles—one just for startups. 

The Startup plan, exclusively available to users while in the program, has been designed to provide startups with full access to Mixpanel. This means participants can track up to 1B annual events without any feature gates, which includes all our core reports and features, advanced reports, and add-on packages such as Session Replay (up to 500k recordings), Warehouse Connectors, and more!

In addition to having access to the full power of Mixpanel’s analytics platform, startups also receive online technical support from our world-class support team. In total, the Mixpanel for Startups program offer is valued over $150k! 

We have a motto at Mixpanel, "always do right by the customer," which guides all the decisions we make. The startup program is no exception, and our top priority is ensuring participants are getting real value from Mixpanel. Founders should know we're truly listening to feedback, noting requests, addressing bugs, and thinking about how we can ship the next thing that will help them. It's not just about having the best offer on the market—we have a team of real people committed to the cause. 

If we get into the nuts and bolts, Mixpanel for Startups still outperforms the competition. To sum it up:

Any way you look at it, the Mixpanel for Startups program is superior.

Yes! As part of the new startup program, the Startup plan includes all of Mixpanel’s core reports as well as advanced reporting such as Signal and Experiments. Additionally, all of our add-on packages are automatically provisioned, such as:

Startups are only able to participate in the Mixpanel for Startups program once, so if they were in the credit-based program, they’re ineligible from joining now and will continue as-is and graduate once credits expire. Participants who were eligible to migrate to the new program were contacted in Fall 2024 and have transitioned to the new Startup plan. If you have specific questions, please contact our startup program team.

Eligible participants can join the Mixpanel for Startups program by visiting mixpanel.com/startups. To be eligible, startups must meet the following:

Once startups confirm eligibility, their 12 months in the program begins, and they can start utilizing Mixpanel’s comprehensive analytics platform.

Join the Mixpanel for Startups program today, get better insights, find product-market fit faster, and accelerate your growth.

*Note: Participants in the Mixpanel for Startups program are not eligible for BAAs or MSAs