Referral fees would be an easy explanation. Another reason is that SaaS companies, particularly in the enterprise space, need to reassure their customers about the quality of their infrastructure, reliability and redundancy. So if the servers are hosted in Equinix instead of under a developer's desk, it conveys a level of security and competence that the company's brand should benefit from. I have never seen a Rackspace facility, so I don't actually know what they are like, but the Equinix datacenters I have been to are better than any major corporate setup I've seen.

I agree with the trust aspect, even if most consumers wouldn't recognize the RackSpace brand.

Another explanation could be: it's an easy way to fill up some whitespace in the footer.

We http://www.forty.to as part of winning a place in the Rackspace startup program, receive $2000 dollars of Rackspace services per month for a year. But, as part of the deal, we display the Rackspace logo on our home page. From our point of view, it's a great deal.

How do you enter/win that? I did a quick google and found some cursory information about it, but nothing about entering or applying.

Open the page...

http://www.rackspacestartups.com/

Click on any one of the links, say "500 Startups". Fill out the application form, and you're off to the races.

Good luck!

Awesome.

I'm not sure I'm quite understanding the process. All these links appear to be seed funds, VCs, etc. Am I applying for investment capital when I fill out these forms, or just for the $24k of hosting? Do these people take equity, or what do they get out of it?

There seems to be so little information provided!

You are applying for $24k of hosting nothing else. They take no equity. In return you place a Rackspace logo on your home page. It's a very good deal.

What Rackspace gets is exposure, good karma, and nothing more.

The good karma, however, goes some way in ensuring you stay with Rackspace when the year is up.

PS: Yeah, there's little info provided. I heard out about it through word-of-mouth, Will Perkins at ezeep, and applied right away.

Gotcha! I'll be applying for this then!

Just one last question: why are the details sent to a seed fund or VC? The thing that's really confusing me is the affiliation with these funds.

The details are not sent to a seed fund or VC.

The various links 21212, 3 Day Startup... confuse me too. AFAIK they are only groups Rackspace has a relation with. The links 21212, 3 Day Startup... all go to the same application form, save the image about the form.

What a strange system!

Thanks for letting me know about this. I really, really appreciate it!

I once heard that some of them get a discount on hosting if they display the Rackspace logo.

I emailed FreshBooks and asked why they do it. I got the following reply:

Hey Matt,

I can't really speak to why everyone does it, but Rackspace has provided us with amazing service so I think its something of a hat tip in recognition.

Have a great day Matt,

- John

In some cases, because everyone is doing it.

Otherwise I am pretty sure they have some kind of partnership that are built on foundation of hosting for advertising.