Cannot access business verification flow — portal broken during May 29 migration, 90-day window expiring

Josh Hoffman 0 Reputation points
2026-06-24T21:34:05.8433333+00:00

I signed up for Azure startup credits (self-service path, no investor code) approximately 83 days ago and received my initial $1,000 in credits on an Azure Sponsorship subscription. My 90-day business verification window to unlock the additional $4,000 closes within the next week.

Founders Hub portal (portal.startups.microsoft.com): Redirects to azure portal.

Azure portal home: Shows a "Build your startup" page with an "Unlock $1,000 in Azure credits — Verify with LinkedIn" prompt. This is the initial $1,000 onboarding step, which I already completed months ago. The portal does not recognize that I am already enrolled. Clicking "Verify with LinkedIn" returns a {"error":{"code":"BadRequest","message":"BadRequest (Conflict)"}} response from startupsweb.production.portalrp.azure.com/api/auth/linkedin/callback.

Azure support ticket: Filed a ticket under Benefits - Offers / Entitlement check (ticket #2606240010000362). The T1 agent is not reading the content of my messages and keeps directing me back to the Founders Hub portal and the same broken links. He is attempting to close the ticket without resolution.

startups@microsoft.com: Received an auto-reply that this is an unmonitored inbox directing me to submit a ticket through the Founders Hub portal — which redirects to the aforementioned dead end workflow.

I believe this is related to the program experience migration that went live May 29, 2026. My account was created before this date, so per Microsoft's own documentation I should be on the pre-migration portal experience, but neither the old nor new experience is functional for my account.

Requesting: Escalation to the Microsoft for Startups program team or Concierge team to either process business verification manually or extend the 90-day verification window given that the portal is non-functional on Microsoft's end.

Azure | Azure Startups
Azure | Azure Startups

Startups: Companies that are in their initial stages of business and typically developing a business model and seeking financing.

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