In 1997 Ohio University titled a study with its positive findings ‘Business Incubation Works’. According to the study, successful completion of a business incubation program increases the likelihood that a start-up company will stay in business for the long term, with a massive 87% of incubator graduates staying in business. With a reported 70% of start-ups failing within the first 10 years, the magic ‘87′ should give budding entrepreneurs pause as to the ‘right’ way to start their venture.
So in the spirit of success, Fuel Your Venture has created a list/directory of companies providing this unique type of funding and mentorship for the earliest stage start-ups.
Although populated with some amazing incubators, we see this directory as a work in progress. If you know of a company we are missing, submit it as a comment or email us directly at editor@fuelyourventure.com, and we will add it to the list.
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| Ycombinator |
| Location |
Mountain View, CA |
| Key People |
Paul Graham, Jessica Livingston, Trevor Blackwell, Robert Morris |
| Founded |
2005 |
| Focus |
Software and web services |
| Cash Investment |
$5,000 plus an additional $5,000 for each founder |
| Equity Stake |
2-10% |
| Website |
http://ycombinator.com/ |
| Contact |
info@ycombinator.com |
| Notes |
Ycombinator is one of the earliest of the seed-stage incubators. Based out of Mountain View, CA, Ycombinator hosts two classes of companies each year. Companies must relocate to Mountain View for the three month duration of the program. Ycombinator provides office space and mentorship to participants of the program. The program culminates in an investor and demo day. Graduates of Ycombinator include Reddit, Loopt, Justin.tv, Scribd and Dropbox. |
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| Techstars |
| Location |
Boulder, Colorado; Boston, Massachusetts; and Seattle, Washington |
| Key People |
David Cohen, Brad Feld, Jared Polis, David Brown, Shawn Broderick |
| Founded |
2006 |
| Focus |
Technology oriented companies (web based and software) |
| Cash Investment |
$6,000 per founder up to three founders |
| Equity Stake |
6% |
| Website |
http://techstars.org |
| Contact |
info@techstars.org |
| Notes |
TechStars was founded a year after Ycombinator. Companies must relocate to the Techstars location for the entire three month duration of the program. Past graduates include IntenseDebate, Socialthing, Brightkite, DailyBurn and ignighter. The program culminates in an investor and demo day. Over 70% of TechStars companies have had success outside of the program, either by raising outside funding or becoming profitable. |
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| DreamIt Ventures |
| Location |
Philadelphia, PA |
| Key People |
David Bookspan, Michael Levinson, Steven Welch |
| Founded |
2007 |
| Focus |
Any idea that can be developed into a product in three months |
| Cash Investment |
$30,000 |
| Equity Stake |
6% |
| Website |
http://www.dreamitventures.com/ |
| Contact |
info@dreamitventures.com |
| Notes |
At the end of the program, companies pitch to potential investors at a demo day. Although younger than Ycombinator and TechStars, DreamIt has funded successful companies, including SCVNGR, NoteHall, and SeatGeek. Read our recent article about DreamIt for more detailed information. |
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| Capital Factory |
| Location |
Austin, TX |
| Key People |
Josh Baer, Sam Decker, Bryan Menell |
| Founded |
2009 |
| Focus |
Technology |
| Cash Investment |
$20,000 in cash plus additional products and services valued at more than $20,000 |
| Equity Stake |
5% |
| Website |
http://capitalfactory.com |
| Contact |
http://twitter.com/capitalfactory |
| Notes |
The program ends with a demo day in which companies pitch to potential investors. Previous classes included five companies, including PetsMD.com, SpareFoot.com, and Cubit planning. |
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| Shotput Ventures |
| Location |
Atlanta, GA |
| Key People |
David Cummings, Sanjay Parekh, Allen Graber |
| Founded |
2009 |
| Focus |
Capital-light web companies |
| Cash Investment |
$6,000 per founder up to three founders |
| Equity Stake |
5-10% |
| Website |
http://www.shotputventures.com/ |
| Contact |
info@shotputventures.com |
| Notes |
Shotput also provides mentoring and a demo day at the end of the program but doesn’t provide any office space. Shotput requires companies to relocate to Atlanta for the duration of the three month program. |
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| LaunchBox Digital |
| Location |
Washington, D.C. |
| Key People |
Julius Genachowski, Sean Greene and John McKinley |
| Founded |
2007 |
| Focus |
Technology oriented companies |
| Cash Investment |
$15,000-20,000 |
| Equity Stake |
6% |
| Website |
http://www.launchboxdigital.com/ |
| Contact |
theteam@launchboxdigital.com |
| Notes |
LaunchBox provides office space, mentorship and a demo day at the end of the 12 week program. Participating companies are required to relocate to Washington, D.C. for the duration of the program. Previous graduates include JamLegend, TapMetrics and unblab. |
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| BoomStartup |
| Location |
Salt Lake City, UT |
| Key People |
John Richards, Robb Kunz and Josh James |
| Founded |
2010 |
| Focus |
Tech startups |
| Cash Investment |
$15,000 |
| Equity Stake |
Not stated |
| Website |
http://www.boomstartup.com/ |
| Contact |
http://www.boomstartup.com/?q=contact |
| Notes |
BoomStartup is mentorship-driven. It provides office space in Salt Lake City as well as services to help startups. The incubator hosts a demo day in September for member companies to pitch to potential investors. |
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| Springboard |
| Location |
Cambridge, UK |
| Key People |
Neil Davidson, Simon Galbraith and Amir Chaudhry |
| Founded |
2009 |
| Focus |
Business-to-business software |
| Cash Investment |
Varies |
| Equity Stake |
None |
| Website |
http://springboard.com/ |
| Contact |
amir.chaudhry@red-gate.com |
| Notes |
Springboard is an ‘accidental’ incubator founded by Red Gate. Springboard provides mentorship and office space in Red Gate’s offices. Springboard doesn’t take any equity in the companies they support. Past participating companies include PagerDuty, TidePowered and MetaAlternative. |
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| Excelerate |
| Location |
Chicago, IL |
| Key People |
Sam Yagan, Kapil Chaudhary, Kelli Rhee, Troy Henikoff |
| Founded |
2010 |
| Focus |
None stated |
| Cash Investment |
$15,000-20,000 |
| Equity Stake |
5% |
| Website |
http://www.exceleratelabs.com/ |
| Contact |
http://www.exceleratelabs.com/contact/ |
| Notes |
Excelerate is a ‘bootcamp’ for startups and provides mentorship, office space in downtown Chicago and access to potential investors. Companies are required to relocate to Chicago for the duration of the 13 week program. |
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| SproutBox |
| Location |
Bloomington, IL |
| Key People |
Marc Guyer, Mike Trotzke, Brad Wisler |
| Founded |
2008 |
| Focus |
Web based applications |
| Cash Investment |
$10,000-15,000 |
| Equity Stake |
25-40% |
| Website |
http://sproutbox.com/ |
| Contact |
Phone: 888.417.9341 |
| Notes |
SproutBox is a development focused incubator. Sproutbox selects four companies a year to be a part of a 10 month program. SproutBox provides office space and services worth between $200,000-250,000 in order to ‘mitigate initial distractions’. Participants must relocate to Bloomington for a minimum of three months during the development phase. SproutBox provides access to potential investors at the end of the program. |
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| NextStart |
| Location |
Greenville, SC |
| Key People |
Michael Mino, Kim Dawson, Kristie B. Byrum, Neil Grayson, Rick Heller, David Setzer, Peter Walschmidt, David Wyman, Robert Fletcher |
| Founded |
2009 |
| Focus |
None stated |
| Cash Investment |
$5,000 per team member ($10,000 maximum per company) |
| Equity Stake |
5-10% |
| Website |
http://www.nextstart.org/ |
| Contact |
Phone: 864.370.3038 |
| Notes |
NextStart is an incubator based in Greenville, South Carolina. The program provides mentorship and office space for the duration of the summer program. NextStart culminates in a demo day at which companies pitch to potential investors. The program takes between 5-10% equity. |
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| GoodCompany Ventures |
| Location |
Philadelphia, PA |
| Key People |
Garrett Melby, Chris Bentley |
| Founded |
2009 |
| Focus |
For-profit social enterprises |
| Cash Investment |
$0 |
| Equity Stake |
0% |
| Website |
http://www.goodcompanyventures.org/ |
| Contact |
http://www.goodcompanyventures.org/about/contact-us/ |
| Notes |
GoodCompany is an incubator that’s specifically focused on “socially conscious entrepreneurs who can make a difference.” GoodCompany doesn’t provide any money to participants and doesn’t take any equity, but it provides mentoring, support, and facilities. The incubator also facilitates a first investment round. Participants are required to attend weekly meetings at the GoodCompany offices in downtown Philadelphia. The program culminates in a demo day at which participating companies pitch to potential investors. |
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| Betaspring |
| Location |
Providence, RI |
| Key People |
Allan Tear, Jack Templin, Owen Johnson |
| Founded |
2009 |
| Focus |
Technology and design from web services to physical devices |
| Cash Investment |
Average of $20k per team |
| Equity Stake |
6-8% |
| Website |
http://betaspring.com |
| Contact |
info@betaspring.com |
| Notes |
Competitive entrepreneurial teams from around the world come to Providence, RI, for our intensive twelve week program. During these twelve weeks, we help teams transform themselves into functional, fundable companies by providing mentorship, kickoff funding, and immersion in an intense startup community of like-minded entrepreneurs. At the end of the program teams have the opportunity to present their company to investors from the Boston, New York corridor during our Demo Day event. |
Did we miss anyone?
We would like to make this a comprehensive resource for startup incubators everywhere. If you have one to add to the list, please submit it to editor@fuelyourventure.com
We are looking for feedback
Have you worked with any of these incubators? Have feedback? Share your experience below!
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