4 ms·

Incubators, Incubators, every where - Is there an incubator bubble?

27 points by davidcrow 15y ago

lichichen 15y ago
I don't see how title of the article is relevant to the content. And on the issue of the bubble it's the natural flow of the market, based on supply, demand and competition. There are so many flavors of pop, do we have a "pop" bubble? Should be retitled, "Do you need an incubator?" or "On selecting an incubator"
lukelockhart 15y ago
Yes. I predict a high number of start-ups left hanging in the wind without follow-on funding after completing incubators.
- minalecs 15y ago
  if you decide to quit your pursuit of building a startup after the 3 months in an incubator, then you probably wouldn't of succeeded even within a big incubator.
  - lukelockhart 15y ago
    Totally agree. I just question whether the channels for follow-on at the post-incubator stage are growing in proportion to the number of incubators popping up.
jagtesh 15y ago
Yes. But they're all missing the point. It's the quality of advisors and the nature of their advice that shapes a great startup. Just throwing some cash at them is akin to giving fish to a poor man. The poor man will eat the fish and ask for more. But teach him to fish and he may become a millionaire fisherman.
- dy 15y ago
  I'm predicting a bubble in fisherman analogies.
- jagtesh 15y ago
  Any particular reason for the down-vote? I don't think Y Combinator can be replicated. PG's experience and his contribution to this community is unparalleled. I'm NOT against other incubators coming up - but just saying its highly unlikely they'll achieve the level of success Y Combinator has.
jerf 15y ago
Is there a "first to declare a bubble" bubble? Bubbles aren't just "lots of people are trying the same thing" or "lots of people are trying to copy a new idea" or "people discover a new market", you know. The value of the term "bubble" has been frittered away to nearly nothing by people rushing to slap the label on everything showing the slightest bit of growth. Sure, a lot of these guys will end up failing or acquiring each other, but that's not a bubble, that's just how the rush into a new market always works.
- davidcrow 15y ago
  “trade in high volumes at prices that are considerably at variance with intrinsic values” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_bubble http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_bubble So while flippant, the goal was to point out the disparity in the perceived value generated by incubators and the investment to build them. And wholeheartedly it was flippant and designed to garner attention, but not out of context. Sorry.
dy 15y ago
Just as there are A-grade startups and the B-startups, there are now A-grade incubators and a growing list of B-ones. Founders thinking that he value of participation in New Incubator X will be similar to participating in YCombinator are in for an unpleasant surprise. Long term, I don't think that this will look like the college market since it will be much easier to measure the quality of an incubator's outputs than of a college's outputs and we'll see the lower quality ones fade away.
pchristensen 15y ago
What is the worst case scenario of lots of YC clones? Zero successful startups, zero investor exits, a bunch of people who have tried at least one startup, and slightly fewer programmers working in industry? Is this really that much worse than the alternative, that all these founders work for BigCo?
franze 15y ago
i think it time to start an incubator incubator or is such an incubator already incubated?
- davidcrow 15y ago
  It's more of a meta incubator. You can buy my e-book: Lean Incubator - Get Incubators to Market Faster to Get Startups to Get Products to Market Faster - Local Mobile Social Cloud Edition
FrancescoRizzi 15y ago
I'll repeat myself: "How to detect a #bubble? There's more Hubs than spokes" http://twitter.com/#!/FrancescoRizzi/status/71297794480148480 http://twitter.com/#!/FrancescoRizzi/status/7129779448014848...

27 points by davidcrow 15y ago

I don't see how title of the article is relevant to the content. And on the issue of the bubble it's the natural flow of the market, based on supply, demand and competition. There are so many flavors of pop, do we have a "pop" bubble? Should be retitled, "Do you need an incubator?" or "On selecting an incubator"

lukelockhart 15y ago

Yes. I predict a high number of start-ups left hanging in the wind without follow-on funding after completing incubators.

minalecs 15y ago
if you decide to quit your pursuit of building a startup after the 3 months in an incubator, then you probably wouldn't of succeeded even within a big incubator.
- lukelockhart 15y ago
  Totally agree. I just question whether the channels for follow-on at the post-incubator stage are growing in proportion to the number of incubators popping up.

jagtesh 15y ago

Yes. But they're all missing the point. It's the quality of advisors and the nature of their advice that shapes a great startup. Just throwing some cash at them is akin to giving fish to a poor man. The poor man will eat the fish and ask for more. But teach him to fish and he may become a millionaire fisherman.

dy 15y ago
I'm predicting a bubble in fisherman analogies.
jagtesh 15y ago
Any particular reason for the down-vote? I don't think Y Combinator can be replicated. PG's experience and his contribution to this community is unparalleled. I'm NOT against other incubators coming up - but just saying its highly unlikely they'll achieve the level of success Y Combinator has.

jerf 15y ago

Is there a "first to declare a bubble" bubble? Bubbles aren't just "lots of people are trying the same thing" or "lots of people are trying to copy a new idea" or "people discover a new market", you know. The value of the term "bubble" has been frittered away to nearly nothing by people rushing to slap the label on everything showing the slightest bit of growth. Sure, a lot of these guys will end up failing or acquiring each other, but that's not a bubble, that's just how the rush into a new market always works.

davidcrow 15y ago
“trade in high volumes at prices that are considerably at variance with intrinsic values” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_bubble http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_bubble So while flippant, the goal was to point out the disparity in the perceived value generated by incubators and the investment to build them. And wholeheartedly it was flippant and designed to garner attention, but not out of context. Sorry.

dy 15y ago

Just as there are A-grade startups and the B-startups, there are now A-grade incubators and a growing list of B-ones. Founders thinking that he value of participation in New Incubator X will be similar to participating in YCombinator are in for an unpleasant surprise. Long term, I don't think that this will look like the college market since it will be much easier to measure the quality of an incubator's outputs than of a college's outputs and we'll see the lower quality ones fade away.

pchristensen 15y ago

What is the worst case scenario of lots of YC clones? Zero successful startups, zero investor exits, a bunch of people who have tried at least one startup, and slightly fewer programmers working in industry? Is this really that much worse than the alternative, that all these founders work for BigCo?

franze 15y ago

i think it time to start an incubator incubator or is such an incubator already incubated?

davidcrow 15y ago
It's more of a meta incubator. You can buy my e-book: Lean Incubator - Get Incubators to Market Faster to Get Startups to Get Products to Market Faster - Local Mobile Social Cloud Edition

FrancescoRizzi 15y ago

I'll repeat myself: "How to detect a #bubble? There's more Hubs than spokes" http://twitter.com/#!/FrancescoRizzi/status/71297794480148480 http://twitter.com/#!/FrancescoRizzi/status/7129779448014848...