Does a good way of finding these place exist? I would guess word of mouth and your network are best. As someone not super plugged into the VC world, and who is

Does a good way of finding these place exist? I would guess word of mouth and your network are best. As someone not super plugged into the VC world, and who is mostly interest in good sold work and interesting problems, and not the hype around “being a startup” I would be interested in knowing.