Friday, May 27, 2005

Business incubator directors explain best practices

Hi, I just found an interview with some top innovation experts. It is a kind of list of best practices on what works in business incubators.
Some keywords:
  • Startups need believable and achievable strategies to attract funding, validate markets, acquire reference customers, build their technical and business teams and keep their infrastructure costs low.
  • Compelling customer solution first of all
  • Not necessarily the best technology
  • Drive and intuition of the team is crucial
  • They may be young, inexperienced scientists but still you can sense whether they are bringing value to the table
  • Objective factors
  • Subjective factors
  • Three-step selection process: screen out, screen in, validate
  • Government support or private money? Why?
  • Lean period of prototype and product development?
  • Impressed by detailed planning, consideration of alternatives and options, and an ability to consult with and listen to the other stakeholders
  • Extremely market-oriented from the start
  • Signs a company or project will succeed or is doomed