It’s not at all uncommon that when something is successful, other companies attempt to mirror that success by following some of the same methods. From the first cars to the recent deluge of daily deals sites, the behavior is far from surprising.
It stands to reason then that we’d start seeing a number of startup incubators and accelerators popping up across the world, given the success of some of the bigger names within this vein. While the track records of accelerators such as Y Combinator and TechStars are subject to your definition of success, the fact that these companies have spawned some of the names that are now huge within the technology industry will continue to lead more people down a similar path.
But there are inherent dangers to follow-on behavior. Because of that fact, it’s time to look at what’s going on right now with accelerators across the world, for better or for worse.You can read the whole article here.
My conclusions mirror Brad's. While the number of incubator programmes out there will likely reach its threshold in the next few years, it is important to keep the goal of these initiatives in mind. These programmes seek to build great businesses, and do little else. When things get popular, aversions tends to develop. To combat these naysayers, I think that it's paramount that we keep the motives of these programmes in mind when critiquing their value.
Of interest is the notion that the most successful incubators leverage their influential networks, a key ingredient in their recipe for success. The author suggests that poorer quality networks of some of the smaller incubators may lead to their demise; however, I would contend that there is room here for vertical integration. Why not be part of an early-early-stage incubator and then graduate to a middle-early-stage incubator such as YC or Techstars? Surely the demand is out there. In fact, this was our thinking behind the Nucleus. It was developed as a sort of pre-incubator idea-stage programme in which members would graduate to more formal accelerator programmes.
