I have an experience with one of those "Bad Incubators" the analysis is spot on.
- We all met weekly for presentations, half the advisors knew what was going on the other half did not. Right before demo day the other half of the advisors were shocked that we had pivoted and planned on selling our OLD idea. Those same people then pitched our OLD idea to the few investors as a possible pivot, which was a huge WTF.
- They brought more politicians then investors to the demo day presentation.
- The investors they did bring focused on healthcare companies and companies further along(profitable, paying customers, large user bases etc)
- The entire operation was paid for by a single guy, who subsequently was the only investor in most of the companies in their "Accelerator" round.
- Most of the companies accepted had non-technical founders/co-founders. Most of the companies could not even launch a product, yet alone MPV, in 3 months because of this, and some had trouble launching a product after 1 year.
Overall we turned down money from their "Accelerator" which ended up being a great decision. If you are going to use an incubator make sure to heed the advice this article gives.
- We all met weekly for presentations, half the advisors knew what was going on the other half did not. Right before demo day the other half of the advisors were shocked that we had pivoted and planned on selling our OLD idea. Those same people then pitched our OLD idea to the few investors as a possible pivot, which was a huge WTF.
- They brought more politicians then investors to the demo day presentation.
- The investors they did bring focused on healthcare companies and companies further along(profitable, paying customers, large user bases etc)
- The entire operation was paid for by a single guy, who subsequently was the only investor in most of the companies in their "Accelerator" round.
- Most of the companies accepted had non-technical founders/co-founders. Most of the companies could not even launch a product, yet alone MPV, in 3 months because of this, and some had trouble launching a product after 1 year.
Overall we turned down money from their "Accelerator" which ended up being a great decision. If you are going to use an incubator make sure to heed the advice this article gives.