The expanded Claude Startups offer went live October 6: a free year of Claude Team for up to five premium seats, $1,000 in API credits, and partner discounts Anthropic values at up to $45,000. By October 9 the Claude account said hundreds of thousands of people had applied and admitted the acceptance criteria let in many applicants that were not startups. Founders who already claimed the perks keep them. Approved applicants who had not redeemed are being re-verified, and some will lose access; several reported the offers disappearing from their dashboards. The Startup Stack discounts and Applied AI office hours stay open. For early teams, the takeaway is to redeem lab credits as soon as approval arrives and not plan runway around them. For anyone running a credit program, the episode shows eligibility checks have to be ready before the announcement, not after.