Incubator Partnerships
The 1M/1M team has invested significant resources to engage with and understand the challenges of the Incubator industry around the globe. You can sign up for our opt-in mailing list to get this information via email on an ongoing basis.
In our Business Incubator series of interviews, we have invited many leaders from the industry to come share their best practices and challenges with us. We have also facilitated open discussions on Why Do Business Incubators Fail and Incubator Business Models which turned out to be animated, active and extremely constructive discussions. Last but not the least, my Forbes column, An Underused Tool For Job Recovery triggered further debate on the subject.
Based on this work, we have identified certain areas in the Incubator industry where we can add value by acting as a partner and filling in some of the gaps that exist in the eco-system.
Some of the gaps we have noted in our conversations with incubators are:
- Lack of a scalable model to do regional economic development: Often, incubators are chartered with the agenda of stimulating a city, a county, a state, or a country. They start soliciting entrepreneurs through PR and contests, and very soon, hundreds or even thousands of entrepreneurs start applying. The incubator, usually, only has capacity for 5-15 startups, either due to physical space limitations, and/or due to limitations in funding availability. Those hundreds or thousands of rejected entrepreneurs cannot be serviced except with a scalable, virtual incubation program. 1M/1M can groom hundreds and thousands of these entrepreneurs, and the physical incubators can focus on the cream of their deal flow. They can be exclusive, while we remain inclusive and simply augment their capacity to serve their community.
- Lack of a scalable model to do international incubation: We have had discussions with major corporations who are trying to do large scale incubation in distributed geographies, including various emerging markets. They are looking for a scalable virtual incubation program that can be adopted in multiple geographies. 1M/1M works in any geography you want to run a program in since we’re 100% virtual, and will always be. And we supplement your existing resources.
- Lack of a revenue model: Incubators are largely dependent on grants and have difficulty generating revenues to cover operating expenses. The 5-15 incubatees usually pay subsidized rent, and most of the time, incubators take equity for the other resources they provide. But operational cash flow is always an issue. We have created revenue models like Value Added Resellers (VARs) and Affiliates to plug this gap. Using those models, incubators can, if they wish to, monetize their entire deal flow, while simultaneously adding value to the entire community they serve.
- Lack of expertise in customer validation, positioning, and customer acquisition / go-to-market strategy: This, in our opinion, is the most crucial element of successful incubation. Subsidized real estate, accounting and legal services, often mistakenly assumed to be elemental to incubation, are not adequate. However, this crucial expertise is often missing in a vast number of incubators. We can plug this gap. This IS one of our greatest strengths.
- Lack of a methodology and a curriculum that focuses on capital-efficient entrepreneurship with an emphasis on technology and technology-enabled services: There are generic methodology and curriculums out there, but nothing of the calibre we have created in 1M/1M with 500+ case studies and video lectures, as well as associated business development, capital access, and PR services. 1M/1M encapsulates Silicon Valley’s tribal knowledge and makes it accessible for entrepreneurs around the world. We also offer deep ties and access to Silicon Valley’s inner circle for business development and investment purposes, alongside world class strategy consulting.
- Focus on the wrong metrics: Incubators often fail by pinning their success metric to financing. In our view, financing is an optional tool in the arsenal of an entrepreneur. Success, to us, equates to customers, revenue, and profit. Entrepreneurial success = building a sustainable business that doesn’t die in the vine. As such, we ensure that our methodology optimizes the strategy of a company to maximize the chances of survival and sustainability, rather than financing.
We have designed 1M/1M with keen attention to these issues that you have shared with us, and are ready to partner with you, supplement your efforts, and jointly help entrepreneurs succeed. Please feel free to email us. We look forward to hearing from you.
[Please note, we only address the needs of the technology and technology enabled services (Internet, Outsourcing, e-Commerce, etc.) entrepreneurs, and at least at this point, are not equipped to tackle laundromats, for example. Also, our methodology applies well to capital efficient ideas, and we don't focus as much on businesses that require very large amounts of startup capital, upfront.]
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