The answer appears to be: yes you must be a privately held company.
The FAQs for Microsoft for Startups [1] list the following requirements:
- You must be engaged in development of a software-based product or service that will form a core piece of you current or intended business - this software must be owned, not licensed.
- You cannot have received more than $10,000 of free Azure in the past.
- Your headquarters must reside in the countries covered by our Azure global infrastructure.
- You must be a privately held company.
- You must operate a public website on your own domain.
- Your contact email address domain must match your public website.
- Your funding information must be verifiable.
The FAQs also add that:
> The qualified offer is designed to help companies that are focused on growth, so it’s less applicable for consultancies and small businesses. If you are a small business or consultancy you can get started with a free trial.
Note also that Microsoft’s new offer is for GitHub Enterprise Cloud, not self-hosted GitHub Enterprise. GitLab is probably your best bet for a self-hosted GitHub alternative. [2]
You'd need to buy their self-hosted Enterprise version, which is certainly more expensive than Gitlab and Bitbucket offerings for self-hosted small team versions.
This offering is specifically for Enterprise Cloud, which they host.
The FAQs for Microsoft for Startups [1] list the following requirements:
- You must be engaged in development of a software-based product or service that will form a core piece of you current or intended business - this software must be owned, not licensed.
- You cannot have received more than $10,000 of free Azure in the past.
- Your headquarters must reside in the countries covered by our Azure global infrastructure.
- You must be a privately held company.
- You must operate a public website on your own domain.
- Your contact email address domain must match your public website.
- Your funding information must be verifiable.
The FAQs also add that:
> The qualified offer is designed to help companies that are focused on growth, so it’s less applicable for consultancies and small businesses. If you are a small business or consultancy you can get started with a free trial.
[1]: https://startups.microsoft.com/en-us/benefits/#faq
Note also that Microsoft’s new offer is for GitHub Enterprise Cloud, not self-hosted GitHub Enterprise. GitLab is probably your best bet for a self-hosted GitHub alternative. [2]
[2]: https://about.gitlab.com/install/